The electron spin is a promising qubit candidate for quantum computation and quantum information. Here we propose and analyze a mechanically induced single electron spin resonance, which amounts to a rotation of the spin about the $x$ axis in a suspended carbon nanotube. The effect is based on the coupling between the spin and the mechanical degree of freedom due to the intrinsic curvature-induced spin-orbit coupling. A rotation about the $z$ axis is obtained by the off-resonant external electric driving field. Arbitrary-angle rotations of the single-electron spin about any axis in the $x$-$z$ plane can be obtained with a single operation by varying the frequency and the strength of the external electric driving field. With multiple steps combining the rotations about the $x$ and $z$ axes, arbitrary-angle rotations about arbitrary axes can be constructed, which implies that any single-qubit gate of the electron-spin qubit can be performed. We simulate the system numerically by using a master equation with realistic parameters.

We show that the electron spin polarization generated by an electrical current may have its direction controlled and magnitude amplified by periodic optical excitation. The electrical and optical spin control methods were combined and implemented in a two-dimensional electron gas. By Kerr rotation in an external transverse magnetic field, we demonstrate unexpected long-lived coherent spin oscillations of the current-induced signal in a system with large spin-orbit interaction. Using a single linearly polarized pulse for spin manipulation and detection, we found a strong dependence on the pulse optical power and sample temperature indicating the relevance of the hole spin in the electron spin initialization. The signal was mapped in a Hall bar as function of the position relative to the injection contact. Finally, the presence of an in-plane spin polarization was directly verified by rotating the experimental geometry.

The phase picked up by a graphene plasmon upon scattering by an abrupt edge is commonly assumed to be $-\pi$. Here, it is demonstrated that for high plasmon momenta this reflection phase is $\approx$$-3\pi /4$, virtually independent on either chemical potential, wavelength, or dielectric substrate. This nontrivial phase arises from a complex excitation of highly evanescent modes close to the edge, which are required to satisfy the continuity of electric and magnetic fields. A similar result for the reflection phase is expected for other two-dimensional systems supporting highly confined plasmons (very thin metal films, topological insulators, transition polaritonic layers, etc.). The knowledge of the reflection phase, combined with the phase picked up by the plasmon upon propagation, allows for the estimation of resonator properties from the dispersion relation of plasmons in the infinite monolayer.

The magnetic ground-state properties of the periodic Anderson model with a regular depletion of the correlated sites are analyzed within different theoretical approaches. We consider the model on the one-dimensional chain and on the two-dimensional square lattice with hopping between nearest neighbors. At half-filling and with correlated impurities present at every second site, the depleted Anderson lattice is the most simple system where the indirect magnetic coupling mediated by the conduction electrons is ferromagnetic. We discuss the underlying electronic structure and the possible mechanisms that result in ferromagnetic long-range order. To this end, different numerical and analytical concepts are applied to the depleted Anderson and also to the related depleted Kondo lattice and are contrasted with each other. This includes numerical approaches, i.e., Hartree-Fock theory, density-matrix renormalization and dynamical mean-field theory, as well as analytical concepts, namely a variant of the Lieb-Mattis theorem and the concept of flat-band ferromagnetism, and, finally, perturbative approaches, i.e., the effective RKKY exchange in the limit of weak coupling and the “inverse indirect magnetic exchange” in the limit of strong coupling between the conduction band and the impurities.

We report on an extensive study of the excitonic properties of GaN and ZnO bulk samples with an accurate determination of excitonic parameters by linear and nonlinear spectroscopies. The in-depth comparative study is carried out between these two competitive wide band gap semiconductors for a better understanding of damping processes. In GaN, it is shown that due to microscopic disorder, such as lattice strain fluctuations, inhomogeneous broadening prevails over homogeneous broadening at low temperature. The opposite situation occurs in ZnO, where the homogeneous broadening dominates due to resonant Rayleigh scattering of exciton polaritons and their interaction with acoustic phonons. This comparative study also allows us to highlight the influence of oscillator strengths on spectrally resolved four-wave mixing and time-integrated four-wave mixing.

We present pulse sequences for two-qubit gates acting on encoded qubits for exchange-only quantum computation. Previous work finding such sequences has always required numerical methods due to the large search space of unitary operators acting on the space of the encoded qubits. By contrast, our construction can be understood entirely in terms of three-dimensional rotations of effective spin-$\frac{1}{2}$ pseudospins which allows us to use geometric intuition to determine the required sequence of operations analytically. The price we pay for this simplification is that, at 39 pulses, our sequences are significantly longer than the best numerically obtained sequences.

Iron phthalocyanine adsorbed on an oxygen covered Fe(110) surface shows a complex coverage-dependent spin polarization during growth of a molecular monolayer. Spin polarization is modified at low submonolayer coverages, absent at intermediate submonolayer coverages, and reappears in modified form for a complete monolayer. This is attributed to coverage-dependent adsorption configurations from a random adsorption system to a packed monolayer with a well-defined interfacial spin polarization. In addition, we report on the observation of a rotation of the spin direction of photoelectrons in the presence of molecules which is attributed to molecular modifications of surface magnetic anisotropy.

We extend the recently developed causal superfermion approach to the real-time diagrammatic transport theory to time-dependent decay problems. Its usefulness is illustrated for the Anderson model of a quantum dot with tunneling rates depending on spin due to ferromagnetic electrodes and/or spin polarization of the tunnel junction. This approach naturally leads to an exact result for one of the time-dependent decay modes for any value of the Coulomb interaction compatible with the wideband limit. We generalize these results to multilevel Anderson models and indicate constraints they impose on renormalization-group schemes in order to recover the exact noninteracting limit.(i) We first set up a second quantization scheme in the space of density operators constructing “causal” field superoperators using the fundamental physical principles of causality/probability conservation and fermion-parity superselection (univalence). The time-dependent perturbation series for the time evolution is renormalized by explicitly performing the wideband limit on the superoperator level. As a result, the occurrence of destruction and creation superoperators are shown to be tightly linked to the physical short- and long-time reservoir correlations, respectively. This effective theory takes as a reference a damped local system, which may also provide an interesting starting point for numerical calculations of memory kernels in real time. (ii) A remarkable feature of this approach is the natural appearance of a fermion-parity protected decay mode which can be measured using a setup proposed earlier [Phys. Rev. B 85, 075301 (2012)]. This mode can be calculated exactly in the fully Markovian, infinite-temperature limit by leading-order perturbation theory, but surprisingly persists unaltered for finite temperature, for any interaction and tunneling spin polarization. (iii) Finally, we show how a Liouville-space analog of the Pauli principle directly leads to an exact expression in the noninteracting limit for the time evolution, extending previous works by starting from an arbitrary initial mixed state including spin and pairing coherences and two-particle correlations stored on the quantum dot. This exact result is obtained already in finite-order renormalized perturbation theory, which surprisingly is not quadratic but quartic in the field superoperators, despite the absence of Coulomb interaction. The latter fact we relate to the time evolution of the two-particle component of the mixed state, which is just the fermion-parity operator, a cornerstone of the formalism. We illustrate how the super-Pauli-principle also simplifies problems with nonzero Coulomb interaction.

The surface states of a topological insulator in a fine-tuned magnetic field are ideal candidates for realizing a topological metal which is protected against disorder. Its signatures are (i) a conductance plateau in long wires in a finely tuned longitudinal magnetic field and (ii) a conductivity which always increases with sample size, and both are independent of disorder strength. We numerically study how these experimental transport signatures are affected by bulk physics in the interior of the topological insulator sample. We show that both signatures of the topological metal are robust against bulk effects. However the bulk does substantially accelerate the metal's decay in a magnetic field and alter its response to surface disorder. When the disorder strength is tuned to resonance with the bulk band the conductivity follows the predictions of scaling theory, indicating that conduction is diffusive. At other disorder strengths the bulk reduces the effects of surface disorder and scaling theory is systematically violated, signaling that conduction is not fully diffusive. These effects will change the magnitude of the surface conductivity and the magnetoconductivity.

The production of energy through nuclear fusion poses serious challenges related to the stability and performance of materials in extreme conditions. In particular, the constant bombardment of the walls of the reactor with high doses of He ions is known to lead to deleterious changes in their microstructures. These changes follow from the aggregation of He into bubbles that can grow and blister, potentially leading to the contamination of the plasma, or to the degradation of their mechanical properties. We computationally study the behavior of small clusters of He atoms in W in conditions relevant to fusion energy production. Using a wide range of techniques, we investigate the thermodynamics of the clusters and their kinetics in terms of diffusivity, growth, and breakup, as well as mutation into nanobubbles. Our study provides the essential ingredients to model the early stages of He exposure leading up to the nucleation of He bubbles.

A low-temperature method is developed, suited for the two-dimensional two-component classical helical magnet. Four phases on the phase diagram as functions of the temperature and the helicity parameter of the Hamiltonian are found. Among the three ordered phases two show magnetic order: the usual algebraic correlations of the magnetization and the algebraic correlations of the magnetization in the frame rotating according with the helical order. A chiral spin liquid phase emerges directly from the paramagnetic phase and has a scalar parity-breaking pitch of the magnetization as the order parameter. The chiral phase transition is found to be of a continuous second-order type with a modified by the long-range interaction Ising universality class. All the critical exponents are calculated in the second and the third order of an $\epsilon$ expansion. A new scaling relationship replacing the Josephson's one is found.

Based on the solution of the stochastic Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equation discretized for a ferromagnetic chain subject to a uniform temperature gradient, we present a detailed numerical study of the spin dynamics with a particular focus on finite-size effects. We calculate and analyze the net longitudinal spin current for various temperature gradients, chain lengths, and external static magnetic fields. In addition, we model an interface formed by a nonuniformly magnetized finite-size ferromagnetic insulator and a normal metal and inspect the effects of enhanced Gilbert damping on the formation of the space-dependent spin current within the chain. One aim of this study is the inspection of the spin-Seebeck effect beyond the linear response regime. We find that within our model the microscopic mechanism of the spin-Seebeck current is the magnon accumulation effect quantified in terms of the exchange spin torque. According to our results, this effect drives the spin-Seebeck current even in the absence of a deviation between the magnon and phonon temperature profiles. The influence of the dipole-dipole interaction and domain formation on the spin current is exposed and discussed. Our theoretical findings are in line with the recently observed experimental results by Agrawal et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 107204 (2012)].

We present polarized-neutron diffraction measurements of the Ising-type spin-chain compound ${\mathrm{Ca}}_3{\mathrm{Co}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_6$ above and below the magnetic ordering temperature $T_{\mathrm{N}}$. Below $T_{\mathrm{N}}$, a clear evolution from a pure spin-density wave (SDW) structure to a mixture of SDW and commensurate antiferromagnet (CAFM) structures is observed on cooling. For a rapidly cooled sample, the majority phase at low temperature is the SDW, while if the cooling is performed sufficiently slowly, then the SDW and the CAFM structure coexist between 1.5 and 10 K. Above $T_{\mathrm{N}}$, we use Monte Carlo methods to analyze the magnetic diffuse scattering data. We show that both intrachain and interchain correlations persist above $T_{\mathrm{N}}$, but are essentially decoupled. Intrachain correlations resemble the one-dimensional ferromagnetic Ising model, while interchain correlations resemble the frustrated triangular-lattice antiferromagnet. Using previously published bulk property measurements and our neutron diffraction data, we obtain values of the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic exchange interactions and the single-ion anisotropy.

We investigate the equilibration dynamics of string order in one-dimensional quantum systems. After initializing a spin-1 chain in the Haldane phase, the time evolution of nonlocal correlations following a sudden quench is studied by means of matrix-product-state-based algorithms. Thermalization occurs only for scales up to a horizon growing at a well defined speed, due to the finite maximal velocity at which string correlations can propagate, related to a Lieb-Robinson bound. The persistence of string ordering at finite times is nontrivially related to symmetries of the quenched Hamiltonian. A qualitatively similar behavior is found for the string order of the Mott insulating phase in the Bose-Hubbard chain. This paves the way towards an experimental testing of our results in present cold-atom setups.

We calculate the correction to the conductivity of a disordered ferromagnetic metal due to spin-wave-mediated electron-electron interactions. This correction is the generalization of the Altshuler-Aronov correction to spin-wave-mediated interactions. We derive a general expression for the conductivity correction to lowest order in the spin-wave-mediated interaction and for the limit that the exchange splitting $\Delta$ is much smaller than the Fermi energy. For a “clean” ferromagnet with $\Delta {\tau }_{\mathrm{el}}/\hslash \gg 1$, with ${\tau }_{\mathrm{el}}$ being the mean time for impurity scattering, we find a correction $\delta \sigma \propto -T^{5/2}$ at temperatures $T$ above the spin-wave gap. In the opposite, “dirty” limit, $\Delta {\tau }_{\mathrm{el}}/\hslash \ll 1$, the correction is a nonmonotonous function of temperature.

High-temperature superconductivity in iron pnictides occurs when electrons are doped into their antiferromagnetic (AF) parent compounds. In addition to inducing superconductivity, electron doping also changes the static commensurate AF order in the undoped parent compounds into short-range incommensurate AF order near optimal superconductivity. Here we use neutron scattering to demonstrate that the incommensurate AF order in $\mathrm{Ba}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{2-x}{\mathrm{Ni}}_x{\mathrm{As}}_2$ is not a spin-density wave arising from the itinerant electrons in nested Fermi surfaces, but is consistent with a cluster spin glass in the matrix of the superconducting phase. Therefore, optimal superconductivity in iron pnictides coexists and competes with a mesoscopically separated cluster spin glass phase, much different from the homogeneous coexisting AF and superconducting phases in the underdoped regime.

We theoretically consider the upper critical magnetic field, perpendicular to a conducting axis, in a triplet quasi-one-dimensional superconductor. In particular, we demonstrate that, at high magnetic fields, the orbital effects against superconductivity in a magnetic field are reversible and, therefore, superconductivity can be restored. It is important that the above mentioned quantum limit can be achieved in a presumably triplet quasi-one-dimensional superconductor ${\mathrm{Li}}_{0.9}$${\mathrm{Mo}}_6$${\mathrm{O}}_{17}$ [J.-F. Mercure et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 187003 (2012).] at laboratory available pulsed magnetic fields of the order of $H=500–700\text{T}$.

The density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method allows an efficient computation of the properties of interacting 1D quantum systems. Two-dimensional (2D) systems, capable of displaying much richer quantum behavior, generally lie beyond its reach except for very small system sizes. Many of the physical properties of 2D systems carry into the quasi-1D case, for which, unfortunately, the standard 2D DMRG algorithm fares little better. By finding the form of the entanglement entropy in quasi-1D systems, we directly identify the reason for this failure. Using this understanding, we explain why a modified algorithm, capable of cleverly exploiting this behavior of the entanglement entropy, can accurately reach much larger system sizes. We demonstrate the power of this method by accurately finding quantum critical points in frustration induced magnetic transitions, which remain inaccessible using the standard DMRG or the Monte Carlo methods. We contrast half-integer and integer spin cases.