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Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator
Engineering and manipulation of unidirectional channels has been achieved in quantum Hall systems, leading to the construction of electron interferometers and proposals for low-power electronics and quantum information science applications. However, to fully control the mixing and interference of ed...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Nature Publishing Group UK
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238970/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183668 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24276-5 |
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author | Varnava, Nicodemos Wilson, Justin H. Pixley, J. H. Vanderbilt, David |
author_facet | Varnava, Nicodemos Wilson, Justin H. Pixley, J. H. Vanderbilt, David |
author_sort | Varnava, Nicodemos |
collection | PubMed |
description | Engineering and manipulation of unidirectional channels has been achieved in quantum Hall systems, leading to the construction of electron interferometers and proposals for low-power electronics and quantum information science applications. However, to fully control the mixing and interference of edge-state wave functions, one needs stable and tunable junctions. Encouraged by recent material candidates, here we propose to achieve this using an antiferromagnetic topological insulator that supports two distinct types of gapless unidirectional channels, one from antiferromagnetic domain walls and the other from single-height steps. Their distinct geometric nature allows them to intersect robustly to form quantum point junctions, which then enables their control by magnetic and electrostatic local probes. We show how the existence of stable and tunable junctions, the intrinsic magnetism and the potential for higher-temperature performance make antiferromagnetic topological insulators a promising platform for electron quantum optics and microelectronic applications. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8238970 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Nature Publishing Group UK |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-82389702021-07-20 Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator Varnava, Nicodemos Wilson, Justin H. Pixley, J. H. Vanderbilt, David Nat Commun Article Engineering and manipulation of unidirectional channels has been achieved in quantum Hall systems, leading to the construction of electron interferometers and proposals for low-power electronics and quantum information science applications. However, to fully control the mixing and interference of edge-state wave functions, one needs stable and tunable junctions. Encouraged by recent material candidates, here we propose to achieve this using an antiferromagnetic topological insulator that supports two distinct types of gapless unidirectional channels, one from antiferromagnetic domain walls and the other from single-height steps. Their distinct geometric nature allows them to intersect robustly to form quantum point junctions, which then enables their control by magnetic and electrostatic local probes. We show how the existence of stable and tunable junctions, the intrinsic magnetism and the potential for higher-temperature performance make antiferromagnetic topological insulators a promising platform for electron quantum optics and microelectronic applications. Nature Publishing Group UK 2021-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC8238970/ /pubmed/34183668 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24276-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2021 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . |
spellingShingle | Article Varnava, Nicodemos Wilson, Justin H. Pixley, J. H. Vanderbilt, David Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
title | Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
title_full | Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
title_fullStr | Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
title_full_unstemmed | Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
title_short | Controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
title_sort | controllable quantum point junction on the surface of an antiferromagnetic topological insulator |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8238970/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34183668 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-24276-5 |
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