Magnetic skyrmions are topologically nontrivial spin textures of potential interest for future information storage applications, and for such purposes, the control and understanding of single skyrmion creation is required. A scheme is analyzed to create single Néel-type and Bloch-type skyrmions in helimagnetic thin films utilizing the dynamical excitations induced by the Oersted field and the spin transfer torque given by a vertically injected spin-polarized current. A topological charge analysis using a lattice version of the topological charge provides insight into the locally triggered transition from a trivial to a nontrivial topological spin texture of the Néel or Bloch type skyrmion. The topological protection of the magnetic skyrmion is determined by the symmetric Heisenberg exchange energy. The critical switching current density is $\sim {10}^7{\mathrm{A}/\mathrm{cm}}^2$, which decreases with the easy-plane type uniaxial anisotropy and thermal fluctuations. The in-plane spin polarization of the injected current performs better than out-of-plane polarization, and it provides ultrafast switching times (within 100 ps) and reliable switching outcomes.

We demonstrate that the melting points and other thermodynamic quantities of the alkali metals can be calculated based on static crystalline properties. To do this we derive analytic interatomic potentials for the alkali metals fitted precisely to cohesive and vacancy energies, elastic moduli, the lattice parameter, and crystal stability. These potentials are then used to calculate melting points by simulating the equilibration of solid and liquid samples in thermal contact at ambient pressure. With the exception of lithium, remarkably good agreement is found with experimental values. The instability of the bcc structure in Li and Na at low temperatures is also reproduced and, unusually, is not due to a soft T1N phonon mode. No forces or finite-temperature properties are included in the fit, so this demonstrates a surprisingly high level of intrinsic transferability in the simple potentials. Currently, there are few potentials available for the alkali metals, so in addition to demonstrating trends in behavior, we expect that the potentials will be of broad general use.

We study the scaling behavior of the relaxation dynamics to thermal equilibrium when a quantum system is near the quantum critical point. In particular, we investigate systems whose relaxation dynamics is described by a Lindblad master equation. We find that the universal scaling behavior not only appears in the equilibrium stage at the long-time limit but also manifests in the nonequilibrium relaxation process. While the critical behavior is dictated by the low-lying energy levels of the Hamiltonian, the dissipative part in the Lindblad equation also plays important roles in two aspects: First, the dissipative part makes the high-energy levels decay fast, after which the universal behavior controlled by the low-lying modes emerges. Second, the dissipation rate gives rise to a time scale that affects the scaling behavior. We confirm our theory by solving the Lindblad equation for the one-dimensional transverse-field Ising model.

We present measurements of spin pumping detected by the inverse spin Hall effect voltage and ferromagnetic resonance spectroscopy in a series of metallic ferromagnet/normal metal thin film stacks. We compare heterostructures grown in situ to those where either a magnetic or nonmagnetic oxide is introduced between the two metals. The heterostructures, either nickel with a platinum overlayer (Ni/Pt) or the nickel-iron alloy permalloy (Py) with a gold overlayer (Py/Au), were also characterized in detail using grazing-incidence x-ray reflectivity, Auger electron spectroscopy, and both SQUID and alternating-gradient magnetometry. We verify the presence of oxide layers, characterize layer thickness, composition, and roughness, and probe saturation magnetization, coercivity, and anisotropy. The results show that while the presence of a nonmagnetic oxide at the interface suppresses spin transport from the ferromagnet to the nonmagnetic metal, a thin magnetic oxide (here the native oxide formed on both Py and Ni) somewhat enhances the product of the spin-mixing conductance and the spin Hall angle. We also observe clear evidence of an out-of-plane component of magnetic anisotropy in Ni/Pt samples that is enhanced in the presence of the native oxide, resulting in perpendicular exchange bias. Finally, the dc inverse spin Hall voltages generated at ferromagnetic resonance in our Py/Au samples are large, and suggest values for the spin Hall angle in gold of $0.04<{\alpha }_{\mathrm{SH}}<0.22$, in line with the highest values reported for Au. This is interpreted as resulting from Fe impurities. We present indirect evidence that the Au films described here indeed have significant impurity levels.

${\mathrm{MnAu}}_2$ is a spin-spiral material with in-plane ferromagnetic Mn layers that form a screw-type pattern around a tetragonal $c$ axis. The spiral angle $\theta$ was shown using neutron diffraction experiments to decrease with pressure, and in later studies it was found to suffer a collapse to a ferromagnetic state above a critical pressure, although the two separate experiments did not agree on whether this phase transition is first or second order. To resolve this contradiction, we use density functional theory calculations to investigate the spiral state as a function of pressure, charge doping, and also electronic correlations via a Hubbard-like $U$. We fit the results to the one-dimensional $J_1-J_2-J_3-J_4$ Heisenberg model, which predicts either a first- or second-order spiral-to-ferromagnetic phase transition for different regions of parameter space. At ambient pressure, ${\mathrm{MnAu}}_2$ sits close in parameter space to a dividing line separating first- and second-order transitions, and a combination of pressure and electron doping shifts the system from the first-order region into the second-order region. Our findings demonstrate that the contradiction in pressure experiments regarding the kind of phase transition are likely due to variations in sample quality. Our results also suggest that ${\mathrm{MnAu}}_2$ is amenable to engineering via chemical doping and to controlling $\theta$ using pressure and gate voltages, which holds potential for integration in spintronic devices.

We investigated the upper critical magnetic field $H_c$ of a superconductor-ferromagnet (S/F) bilayer of Nb/${\mathrm{Cu}}_{41}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{59}$ and a Nb film (as reference). We obtained the dependence of $H_{c\perp }$ and $H_{c\parallel }$ (perpendicular and parallel to the film plane, respectively) on the temperature $T$ by measurements of the resistive transitions and the dependence on the inclination angle $\theta$ of the applied field to the film plane, by nonresonant microwave absorption. Over a wide range, $H_{c\perp }$ and $H_{c\parallel }$ show the temperature dependence predicted by the Ginzburg-Landau theory. At low temperatures and close to the critical temperature, deviations are observed. While $H_c\left(\theta \right)$ of the Nb film follows the Tinkham prediction for thin superconducting films, the Nb/${\mathrm{Cu}}_{41}{\mathrm{Ni}}_{59}$-bilayer data exhibit deviations when $\theta$ approaches zero. We attribute this finding to the additional anisotropy induced by the quasi-one-dimensional Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO)-like state and propose a new vortex structure in S/F bilayers, adopting the segmentation approach from high-temperature superconductors.

The metallic helimagnet MnSi has been found to exhibit skyrmionic spin textures when subjected to magnetic fields at low temperatures. The Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction plays a key role in stabilizing the skyrmion state. With the help of first-principles calculations, crystal field theory, and a tight-binding model we study the electronic structure and the origin of the DM interaction in the B20 phase of MnSi. The strength of the $\vec{D}$ parameter is determined by the magnitude of the spin-orbit interaction and the degree of orbital mixing, induced by the symmetry-breaking distortions in the B20 phase. Our calculations suggest strong coupling between Mn-$d$ and Si-$p$ states, which is consistent with a mixed valence ground state $|d^{7-x}{p}^{2+x}\rangle$ configuration. Consistent with previous calculations, we find that DFT+U leads to the experimental magnetic moment of $0.4{\mu }_B$, which redistributes electrons between the majority and minority spin channels. We derive the magnetic interaction parameters $J$ and $\vec{D}$ for Mn-Si-Mn superexchange paths using Moriya's theory assuming the interaction to be mediated by $e_g$ electrons near the Fermi level. Using parameters from our calculations, we get reasonable agreement with the observations.

We address the electron transport characteristics in bulk half-Heusler alloys with their compositions tuned to the borderline between topologically nontrivial semimetallic and trivial semiconducting phases. Accurate first-principles calculations based on the coherent potential approximation (CPA) reveal that all the studied systems exhibit sets of dispersionless impurity-like resonant levels, with one of them being located at the Dirac point. By means of the Kubo-Bastin formalism we reveal that the residual conductivity of these alloys is strongly suppressed by impurity scattering, whereas the spin Hall conductivity exhibits a rather complex behavior induced by the resonant states. In particular for ${\mathrm{LaPt}}_{0.5}{\mathrm{Pd}}_{0.5}\mathrm{Bi}$ we find that the total spin Hall conductivity is strongly suppressed by two large and opposite contributions: the negative Fermi-surface contribution produced by the resonant impurity and the positive Fermi-sea term stemming from the occupied states. At the same time, we identify no conductivity contributions from the conical states.

We study the electric and thermal transport of the Dirac carriers in monolayer graphene using the Boltzmann-equation approach. Motivated by recent thermopower measurements [F. Ghahari, H.-Y. Xie, T. Taniguchi, K. Watanabe, M. S. Foster, and P. Kim, Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 136802 (2016)], we consider the effects of quenched disorder, Coulomb interactions, and electron–optical-phonon scattering. Via an unbiased numerical solution to the Boltzmann equation we calculate the electrical conductivity, thermopower, and electronic component of the thermal conductivity, and discuss the validity of Mott's formula and of the Wiedemann-Franz law. An analytical solution for the disorder-only case shows that screened Coulomb impurity scattering, although elastic, violates the Wiedemann-Franz law even at low temperature. For the combination of carrier-carrier Coulomb and short-ranged impurity scattering, we observe the crossover from the interaction-limited (hydrodynamic) regime to the disorder-limited (Fermi-liquid) regime. In the former, the thermopower and the thermal conductivity follow the results anticipated by the relativistic hydrodynamic theory. On the other hand, we find that optical phonons become non-negligible at relatively low temperatures and that the induced electron thermopower violates Mott's formula. Combining all of these scattering mechanisms, we obtain the thermopower that quantitatively coincides with the experimental data.

We study the electromagnetic properties of Weyl semimetals with strong interactions. Aiming for a large-$N$ expansion, we induce strong interactions by coupling a Weyl fermion with a tunable coupling constant $g_f$ to a quantum critical system with a large number of order $O\left(N\right)$ fermionic and bosonic degrees of freedom. The critical fluctuations are described by a conformal field theory containing also fermionic composite operators with scaling dimension $\mathrm{\Delta }$. Employing the methods of the holographic correspondence, we then derive the effective theory of the Weyl fermions in the presence of external electric and magnetic fields in the large-$N$ limit. In particular, we determine their frequency and momentum-dependent anomalous magnetic moment. We also determine the conductivity of the Weyl semimetal including the vertex corrections consistent with the Ward identity. Finally, we connect our construction to the case of Coulomb interactions in Weyl semimetals by tuning the parameters $\mathrm{\Delta }\to 5/2$ and $g_f^2\to e/\sqrt{\hslash c{\epsilon }_0}$.

We derive an analytical expression for the local two-particle vertex of the Falicov-Kimball model, including its dependence on all three frequencies, the full vertex, and all reducible vertices. This allows us to calculate the self-energy in diagrammatic extensions of dynamical mean field theory, specifically in the dual fermion and the one-particle irreducible approach. Nonlocal correlations are thence included and originate here from charge-density wave fluctuations. At low temperatures and in two dimensions, they lead to a larger self-energy contribution at low frequencies and a more insulating spectrum.

The exact solution of the linearized, steady-state transport equation for three-carrier systems, such as can occur for semiconductors and ionic conductors, is constructed starting from the near-equilibrium entropy-production requirements of irreversible thermodynamics. Three characteristic modes are found, one associated with electrostatic screening (which is often neglected), and two modes associated with diffusion and “reactions.” For a spintronics model with up and down electrons and unpolarized holes, the “reactions” are spin-flip and electron-hole recombination. We discuss how the variations in carrier density, diffusivity, recombination rate, and spin relaxation time affect the characteristic lengths. We apply these modes to study spin-polarized surface photoabsorption.

Three-dimensional topological insulators are characterized by Dirac-like conducting surface states, the existence of which has been confirmed in relatively clean metallic samples by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, as well as by anomalous Aharonov-Bohm oscillations in the magnetoresistance of nanoribbons. However, a fundamental aspect of these surface states, namely, their robustness to time-reversal-invariant disorder, has remained relatively untested. In this work, we have synthesized thin nanotubes of $\mathrm{B}{\mathrm{i}}_2\mathrm{T}{\mathrm{e}}_3$ with extremely insulating bulk at low temperatures due to disorder. Nonetheless, the magnetoresistance exhibits quantum oscillations as a function of the magnetic field along the axis of the nanotubes, with a period determined by the cross-sectional area of the outer surface. Detailed numerical simulations based on a recursive Green function method support that the resistance oscillations are arising from the topological surface states which have substantially longer localization length than that of other nontopological states. This observation demonstrates coherent transport at the surface even for highly disordered samples, thus providing a direct confirmation of the inherently topological character of surface states. The result also demonstrates a viable route for revealing the properties of topological states by suppressing the bulk conduction using disorder.

The manipulation of a molecular spin state in low-dimensional materials is central to molecular spintronics. The designs of hybrid devices incorporating magnetic metallocenes are very promising in this regard, but are hampered by the lack of data regarding their interaction with a metal. Here, we combine low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory calculations to investigate a magnetic metallocene at the single-molecule level—nickelocene. We demonstrate that the chemical and electronic structures of nickelocene are preserved upon adsorption on a copper surface. Several bonding configurations to the surface are identified, ranging from the isolated molecule to molecular layers governed by van der Waals interactions.

We consider the optical conductivity in the one-dimensional Hubbard model in the metallic phase close to half-filling. In this regime, most of the spectral weight is located at frequencies above an energy scale $E_{\mathrm{opt}}$ that tends towards the optical gap in the Mott insulating phase for vanishing doping. Using the Bethe ansatz, we relate $E_{\mathrm{opt}}$ to thresholds of particular kinds of excitations in the Hubbard model. We then employ a mobile impurity model to analyze the optical conductivity for frequencies slightly above these thresholds. This entails generalizing mobile impurity models to excited states that are not the highest weight with regards to the SU(2) symmetries of the Hubbard chain, and that occur at a maximum of the impurity dispersion.

We report on the pressure evolution of the Fermi surface topology of the Weyl semimetal NbP, probed by Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations in the magnetoresistance combined with ab initio calculations of the band structure. Although we observe a drastic effect on the amplitudes of the quantum oscillations, the frequencies only exhibit a weak pressure dependence up to 2.8 GPa. The pressure-induced variations in the oscillation frequencies are consistent with our band-structure calculations. Furthermore, we can relate the changes in the amplitudes to small modifications in the shape of the Fermi surface. Our findings show evidence of the stability of the electronic band structure of NbP and demonstrate the power of combining quantum-oscillation studies and band-structure calculations to investigate pressure effects on the Fermi surface topology in Weyl semimetals.

The 10 GHz microwave conductivity, $\sigma \left(T\right)$ and high field, 222 GHz electron spin resonance (HF-ESR) of ${\mathrm{Li}}_4{\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ fulleride is measured in a wide temperature range. We suggest that the majority of ESR active sites and at least some of the charge carriers for $\sigma \left(T\right)$ are electrons bound to a small concentration of surplus or vacancy ions in the polymer phase. Both $\sigma \left(T\right)$ and the ESR line shape depend on ionic motion. A change of the activation energy of $\sigma \left(T\right)$ at 125 K coincides with the onset of the ionic DC conductivity. The ESR line shape is determined mainly by Li ionic motion within octahedral voids below 150 K. At higher temperatures, fluctuations due to ionic diffusion change the environment of defects from axial to effectively isotropic on the ESR time scale. $\sigma \left(T\right)$ data up to 700 K through the depolymerization transition confirm that the monomeric phase of ${\mathrm{Li}}_4{\mathrm{C}}_{60}$ is a metal.

We present a theory of the isotropic-nematic quantum phase transition in the composite Fermi liquid arising in half-filled Landau levels. We show that the quantum phase transition between the isotropic and the nematic phase is triggered by an attractive quadrupolar interaction between electrons, as in the case of conventional Fermi liquids. We derive the theory of the nematic state and of the phase transition. This theory is based on the flux attachment procedure, which maps an electron liquid in half-filled Landau levels into the composite Fermi liquid close to a nematic transition. We show that the local fluctuations of the nematic order parameters act as an effective dynamical metric interplaying with the underlying Chern-Simons gauge fields associated with the flux attachment. Both the fluctuations of the Chern-Simons gauge field and the nematic order parameter can destroy the composite fermion quasiparticles and drive the system into a non-Fermi liquid state. The effective-field theory for the isotropic-nematic phase transition is shown to have $z=3$ dynamical exponent due to the Landau damping of the dense Fermi system. We show that there is a Berry-phase-type term that governs the effective dynamics of the nematic order parameter fluctuations, which can be interpreted as a nonuniversal “Hall viscosity” of the dynamical metric. We also show that the effective-field theory of this compressible fluid has a Wen-Zee-type term. Both terms originate from the time-reversal breaking fluctuation of the Chern-Simons gauge fields. We present a perturbative (one-loop) computation of the Hall viscosity and also show that this term is also obtained by a Ward identity. We show that the topological excitation of the nematic fluid, the disclination, carries an electric charge. We show that a resonance observed in radio-frequency conductivity experiments can be interpreted as a Goldstone nematic mode gapped by lattice effects.

We show that proper control of magnetization textures can be achieved in noncollinear antiferromagnets. This opens the versatile toolbox of domain-wall manipulation in the context of a different family of materials. In this way, we show that noncollinear antiferromagnets are a good prospect for applications in the context of antiferromagnetic spintronics. As in many noncollinear antiferromagnets, the order parameter field takes values in SO(3). By performing a gradient expansion in the energy functional we derive an effective theory that accounts for the physics of the magnetization of long-wavelength excitations. We apply our formalism to static and dynamic textures such as domain walls and localized oscillations, and identify topologically protected textures that are spatially localized. Our results are applicable to the exchange-bias materials ${\text{Mn}}_{3}X$, with $X=\text{Ir},\text{Rh},\text{Pt}$.

Precessional switching allows subnanosecond and deterministic reversal of magnetic data bits. It relies on triggering a large-angle, highly nonlinear precession of magnetic moments around a bias field. Here we demonstrate that a surface acoustic wave (SAW) propagating on a magnetostrictive semiconducting material produces an efficient torque that induces precessional switching. This is evidenced by Kerr microscopy and acoustic behavior analysis in a (Ga,Mn)(As,P) thin film. Using SAWs should therefore allow remote and wave control of individual magnetic bits at potentially GHz frequencies.