A Chirality-Based Quantum Leap

There is increasing interest in the study of chiral degrees of freedom occurring in matter and in electromagnetic fields. Opportunities in quantum sciences will likely exploit two main areas that are the focus of this Review: (1) recent observations of the chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) effect in chiral molecules and engineered nanomaterials and (2) rapidly evolving nanophotonic strategies designed to amplify chiral light-matter interactions. On the one hand, the CISS effect underpins the observation that charge transport through nanoscopic chiral structures favors a particular electronic spin orientation, resulting in large room-temperature spin polarizations. Observations of the CISS effect suggest opportunities for spin control and for the design and fabrication of room-temperature quantum devices from the bottom up, with atomic-scale precision and molecular modularity. On the other hand, chiral-optical effects that depend on both spin- and orbital-angular momentum of photons could offer key advantages in all-optical and quantum information technologies. In particular, amplification of these chiral light-matter interactions using rationally designed plasmonic and dielectric nanomaterials provide approaches to manipulate light intensity, polarization, and phase in confined nanoscale geometries. Any technology that relies on optimal charge transport, or optical control and readout, including quantum devices for logic, sensing, and storage, may benefit from chiral quantum properties. These properties can be theoretically and experimentally investigated from a quantum information perspective, which has not yet been fully developed. There are uncharted implications for the quantum sciences once chiral couplings can be engineered to control the storage, transduction, and manipulation of quantum information. This forward-looking Review provides a survey of the experimental and theoretical fundamentals of chiral-influenced quantum effects and presents a vision for their possible future roles in enabling room-temperature quantum technologies.

Spin current generation and control in carbon nanotubes by combining rotation and magnetic field

We study the quantum dynamics of ballistic electrons in rotating carbon nanotubes in the presence of a uniform magnetic field. When the field is parallel to the nanotube axis, the rotation-induced electric field brings about the spin-orbit interaction which, together with the kinetic, inertial, and Zeeman terms, compose the Schrödinger-Pauli Hamiltonian of the system. Full diagonalization of this Hamiltonian yields the eigenstates and eigenenergies leading to the calculation of the charge and spin currents. Our main result is the demonstration that, by suitably combining the applied magnetic field intensity and rotation speed, one can tune one of the currents to zero while keeping the other one finite, giving rise to a spin current generator.

Photoinduced polarization enhancement on biased bilayer graphene in the Landau level regime

We investigate the charge carrier dynamics in bilayer graphene subject to monochromatic laser irradiation within the Landau level quantization regime. Even though the radiation field does not lift the energy degeneracy of the lowest Landau levels (LLs), it nevertheless has a strong effect on the photoinduced pseudospin polarization response for higher LLs ([Formula: see text]). Our results show that the photoinduced bandgaps lead to a finite response of the averaged pseudospin polarization with nontrivial oscillating behavior. It is shown that the contribution from these higher LL transitions turns out to be crucial to achieve an enhanced photoinduced polarization in radiated bilayer graphene. The experimental feasibility of our findings is also discussed.

Intrinsic Rashba coupling due to hydrogen bonding in DNA

We present an analytical model for the role of hydrogen bonding on the spin-orbit coupling of a model DNA molecule. Here, we analyze in detail the electric fields due to the polarization of the hydrogen bond on the DNA base pairs and derive, within a tight binding analytical band folding approach, an intrinsic Rashba coupling which should dictate the order of the spin active effects in the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect. The coupling found is ten times larger than the intrinsic coupling estimated previously and points out to the predominant role of hydrogen bonding in addition to chirality in the case of biological molecules. We expect similar dominant effects in oligopeptides, where the chiral structure is supported by hydrogen-bonding and bears on orbital carrying transport electrons.

Geometric effects in the electronic transport of deformed nanotubes

Quasi-two-dimensional systems may exibit curvature, which adds three-dimensional influence to their internal properties. As shown by da Costa (1981 Phys. Rev. A 23 1982-7), charged particles moving on a curved surface experience a curvature-dependent potential which greatly influence their dynamics. In this paper, we study the electronic ballistic transport in deformed nanotubes. The one-electron Schrödinger equation with open boundary conditions is solved numerically with a flexible MAPLE code made available as supplementary data. We find that the curvature of the deformations indeed has strong effects on the electron dynamics, suggesting its use in the design of nanotube-based electronic devices.

Role of Fourier Modes in Finite-Size Scaling above the Upper Critical Dimension

Renormalization-group theory has stood, for over 40 years, as one of the pillars of modern physics. As such, there should be no remaining doubt regarding its validity. However, finite-size scaling, which derives from it, has long been poorly understood above the upper critical dimension d_{c} in models with free boundary conditions. In addition to its fundamental significance for scaling theories, the issue is important at a practical level because finite-size, statistical-physics systems with free boundaries and above d_{c} are experimentally relevant for long-range interactions. Here, we address the roles played by Fourier modes for such systems and show that the current phenomenological picture is not supported for all thermodynamic observables with either free or periodic boundaries. In particular, the expectation that dangerous irrelevant variables cause Gaussian-fixed-point scaling indices to be replaced by Landau mean-field exponents for all Fourier modes is incorrect. Instead, the Gaussian-fixed-point exponents have a direct physical manifestation for some modes above the upper critical dimension.

Monte Carlo study of anisotropic scaling generated by disorder

We analyze the critical properties of the three-dimensional Ising model with linear parallel extended defects. Such a form of disorder produces two distinct correlation lengths, a parallel correlation length ξ(∥) in the direction along defects and a perpendicular correlation length ξ(⊥) in the direction perpendicular to the lines. Both ξ(∥) and ξ(⊥) diverge algebraically in the vicinity of the critical point, but the corresponding critical exponents ν(∥) and ν(⊥) take different values. This property is specific for anisotropic scaling and the ratio ν(∥)/ν(⊥) defines the anisotropy exponent θ. Until now, estimates of quantitative characteristics of the critical behavior for such systems have been obtained only within the renormalization group approach. We report a study of the anisotropic scaling in this system via Monte Carlo simulation of the three-dimensional system with Ising spins and nonmagnetic impurities arranged into randomly distributed parallel lines. Several independent estimates for the anisotropy exponent θ of the system are obtained, as well as an estimate of the susceptibility exponent γ. Our results corroborate the renormalization group predictions obtained earlier.

A perfect spin filtering device through Mach-Zehnder interferometry in a GaAs/AlGaAs electron gas

A spin filtering device based on quantum spin interference is addressed, for use with a two-dimensional GaAs/AlGaAs electron gas that has both Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit (SO) couplings and an applied external magnetic field. We propose an experimentally feasible electronic Mach-Zehnder interferometer and derive a map, in parameter space, that determines perfect spin filtering conditions. We find two broad spin filtering regimes: one where filtering is achieved in the original incoming quantization basis, that takes advantage of the purely non-Abelian nature of the spin rotations; and another where one needs a tilted preferential axis in order to observe the polarized output spinor. Both solutions apply for arbitrary incoming electron polarization and energy, and are only limited in output amplitude by the randomness of the incoming spinor state. Including a full account of the beam splitter and mirror effects on spin yields solutions only for the tilted basis, but encompasses a broad range of filtering conditions.

Topological transition in a two-dimensional model of liquid crystal

Simulations of nematic-isotropic transition of liquid crystals in two dimensions are performed using an O2 vector model characterized by nonlinear nearest neighbor spin interaction governed by the fourth Legendre polynomial P4. The system is studied through standard finite-size scaling and conformal rescaling of density profiles of correlation functions. A topological transition between a paramagnetic phase at high temperature and a critical phase at low temperature is observed. The low temperature limit is discussed in the spin wave approximation and confirms the numerical results.

Softening of first-order transition in three-dimensions by quenched disorder

We study by extensive Monte Carlo simulations the effect of random bond dilution on the phase transition of the three-dimensional four-state Potts model that is known to exhibit a strong first-order transition in the pure case. The phase diagram in the dilution-temperature plane is determined from the peaks of the susceptibility for sufficiently large system sizes. In the strongly disordered regime, numerical evidence for softening to a second-order transition induced by randomness is given. Here a large-scale finite-size scaling analysis, made difficult due to strong crossover effects presumably caused by the percolation fixed point, is performed.

Size effect on magnetism of Fe thin films in Fe/Ir superlattices

In ferromagnetic thin films, the Curie temperature variation with the thickness is always considered as continuous when the thickness is varied from n to n+1 atomic planes. We show that it is not the case for Fe in Fe/Ir superlattices. For an integer number of atomic planes, a unique magnetic transition is observed by susceptibility measurements, whereas two magnetic transitions are observed for fractional numbers of planes. This behavior is attributed to successive transitions of areas with n and n+1 atomic planes, for which the T(c)'s are not the same. Indeed, the magnetic correlation length is presumably shorter than the average size of the terraces. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to support this explanation.

Magnetic critical behavior of two-dimensional random-bond Potts ferromagnets in confined geometries

We present a numerical study of two-dimensional random-bond Potts ferromagnets. The model is studied both below and above the critical value Qc=4, which discriminates between second- and first-order transitions in the pure system. Two geometries are considered, namely cylinders and square-shaped systems, and the critical behavior is investigated through conformal invariance techniques that were recently shown to be valid, even in the randomness-induced second-order phase transition regime Q>4. In the cylinder geometry, connectivity transfer matrix calculations provide a simple test to find the range of disorder amplitudes that is characteristic of the disordered fixed point. The scaling dimensions then follow from the exponential decay of correlations along the strip. Monte Carlo simulations of spin systems on the other hand are generally performed on systems of rectangular shape on the square lattice, but the data are then perturbed by strong surface effects. The conformal mapping of a semi-infinite system inside a square enables us to take into account boundary effects explicitly and leads to an accurate determination of the scaling dimensions. The techniques are applied to different values of Q in the range 3-64.