On theoretical grounds, we show that orbital domain walls (ODWs), which are known to exist in the charge and orbital ordered layered manganite ${\mathrm{LaSr}}_2{\mathrm{Mn}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_7$, should be partially charged as a result of competition between orbital-induced strain and Coulomb repulsion. This unexpected result provides the necessary condition for the known thermodynamic stability of these ODWs, which are unlike the more typical domain walls that arise only from an external field. We offer experimental data consistent with this theoretical framework through a combined transport and x-ray-diffraction study. In particular, our transport data on this charge and orbital ordered manganite exhibit abrupt transformations to higher conductance at a threshold electric field. As transport phenomena closely resemble effects found for sliding charge-density waves (SCDWs) in pseudo-one-dimensional (1D) materials, a SCDW along such pseudo-1D ODWs provides a natural explanation of our data. Importantly, x-ray-diffraction data eliminate heating and melting of charge order as tenable alternative explanations of our data.

Driving a quantum system periodically in time can profoundly alter its long-time dynamics and trigger topological order. Such schemes are particularly promising for generating nontrivial energy bands and gauge structures in quantum-matter systems. Here, we develop a general formalism that captures the essential features ruling the dynamics: the effective Hamiltonian, but also the effects related to the initial phase of the modulation and the micromotion. This framework allows for the identification of driving schemes, based on general $N$-step modulations, which lead to configurations relevant for quantum simulation. In particular, we explore methods to generate synthetic spin-orbit couplings and magnetic fields in cold-atom setups.

Borromean rings and Borromean binding, a class of intriguing phenomena as three objects are linked (bound) together while any two of them are unlinked (unbound), widely exist in nature and have been found in systems of biology, chemistry, and physics. Previous studies have suggested that the occurrence of such a binding in physical systems typically relies on the microscopic details of pairwise interaction potentials at short range and is, therefore, nonuniversal. Here, we report a new type of Borromean binding in ultracold Fermi gases with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which is universal against short-range interaction details, with its binding energy only dependent on the $s$-wave scattering length and the spin-orbit-coupling strength. We show that the occurrence of this universal Borromean binding is facilitated by the symmetry of the single-particle dispersion under spin-orbit coupling and is, therefore, symmetry selective rather than interaction selective. The state is robust over a wide range of mass ratios between composing fermions, which are accessible by Li-Li, K-K, and K-Li mixtures in cold-atom experiments. Our results reveal the importance of single- particle spectral symmetry in few-body physics and shed light on the emergence of new quantum phases in a many-body system with exotic few-body correlations.

We describe photonic crystal microcavities with very strong light-matter interaction to realize room-temperature, equilibrium, exciton-polariton Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC). This goal is achieved through a careful balance between strong light trapping in a photonic band gap (PBG) and large exciton density enabled by a multiple quantum-well (QW) structure with a moderate dielectric constant. This approach enables the formation of a long-lived, dense $10-\mu \mathrm{m}-1-\mathrm{cm}$- scale cloud of exciton polaritons with vacuum Rabi splitting that is roughly 7% of the bare exciton-recombination energy. We introduce a woodpile photonic crystal made of ${\mathrm{Cd}}_{0.6}{\mathrm{Mg}}_{0.4}\mathrm{Te}$ with a 3D PBG of 9.2% (gap-to-central-frequency ratio) that strongly focuses a planar guided optical field on CdTe QWs in the cavity. For 3-nm QWs with 5-nm barrier width, the exciton-photon coupling can be as large as $\hslash \mathrm{\Omega }=55\mathrm{meV}$ (i.e., a vacuum Rabi splitting of $2\hslash \mathrm{\Omega }=110\mathrm{meV}$). The exciton-recombination energy of 1.65 eV corresponds to an optical wavelength of 750 nm. For $N=106$ QWs embedded in the cavity, the collective exciton-photon coupling per QW ($\hslash \mathrm{\Omega }/\sqrt{N}=5.4\mathrm{meV}$) is much larger than the state-of-the-art value of 3.3 meV, for the CdTe Fabry-Pérot microcavity. The maximum BEC temperature is limited by the depth of the dispersion minimum for the lower polariton branch, over which the polariton has a small effective mass of approximately $10^{-5}{m}_0$, where $m_0$ is the electron mass in vacuum. By detuning the bare exciton-recombination energy above the planar guided optical mode, a larger dispersion depth is achieved, enabling room-temperature BEC. The BEC transition temperature ranges as high as 500 K when the polariton density per QW is increased to $(11a_B{)}^{-2}$, where $a_B\simeq 3.5\mathrm{nm}$ is the exciton Bohr radius and the exciton-cavity detuning is increased to 30 meV. A high-quality PBG can suppress exciton radiative decay and enhance the polariton lifetime to beyond 150 ps at room temperature, sufficient for thermal equilibrium BEC.

We introduce and theoretically investigate here a novel analytical method that we have called focal molography, in which molecular interactions are made visible through scattering of coherent light by a coherent pattern of molecules. The scattered light quantifies the presence of molecules at molecular interaction sites. It is separated from noncoherent background scatter by a combination of local dark-field illumination, interference enhancement, and spatial filtering. The latter is achieved by holographic focusing of the wave field generated by the coherently assembled molecules onto an Airy disk and by subtraction of the noncoherent irradiance in the focal plane outside the disk from the irradiance in the disk. This new microscopic method allows distinct detection of low-refractive-index contrast in the nanoenvironment of biomolecules from which information on the interaction of the coherently assembled molecules with molecules in a liquid or gaseous sample may be deduced. The noncoherent surroundings of the coherently assembled molecules consist of freely diffusing solvent and solute molecules. The surroundings, as well as changes in temperature, do not contribute to the coherent signal in the diffraction focus. Interference lithography or high-resolution-imaging lithography can be used to synthesize the coherent pattern of molecules on a monolithic substrate. The coherent pattern of molecules constitutes a synthetic phase hologram that creates a diffraction-limited light wave. We suggest the term “mologram” for the coherent assembly of functional nanostructures and the term “focal molography” for label-free or labeled analysis of molecular interactions through the measurement of the properties of light in the focus of the mologram. We derive analytical formulas that express the detection signal and the sensitivity of focal molography on the surface of a high-refractive-index thin-film optical waveguide in terms of known parameters. We discuss the implementation of a readout system for molograms on a thin-film optical waveguide by adapting a confocal laser-scanning microscope to a bifocal laser-scanning microscope.

Inspired by the recent demonstration that ${\mathrm{Ca}}_2\mathrm{N}$ is a two-dimensional electride in which electrons near the Fermi level float between ionic layers, we have conducted a systematic search for 2D electrides by an approach combining crystal structure databases and ab initio electronic structure calculations. Starting from a set of working hypotheses, we have identified six 2D metallic electrides, of which one is nonmagnetic and five are nearly ferromagnetic ferrimagnets with a distinct spin texture. The latter five materials are the first magnetic electrides reported at ambient pressure.

Physics and information are intimately connected, and the ultimate information processing devices will be those that harness the principles of quantum mechanics. Many physical systems have been identified as candidates for quantum information processing, but none of them are immune from errors. The challenge remains to find a path from the experiments of today to a reliable and scalable quantum computer. Here, we develop an architecture based on a simple module comprising an optical cavity containing a single negatively charged nitrogen vacancy center in diamond. Modules are connected by photons propagating in a fiber-optical network and collectively used to generate a topological cluster state, a robust substrate for quantum information processing. In principle, all processes in the architecture can be deterministic, but current limitations lead to processes that are probabilistic but heralded. We find that the architecture enables large-scale quantum information processing with existing technology.

Radiationless electromagnetic interference (REI) has been used to achieve focusing below Abbe’s diffraction limit. Here, we demonstrate an approach to REI that uses the Fano resonance of subwavelength slits to achieve subdiffraction focusing. Two main features of the Fano resonance are critical: (1) The Fano resonance suppresses radiation by destructive interference, thereby allowing for REI, and (2) the Fano resonance creates a resonant field enhancement allowing one to overcome evanescent decay, which is different from past approaches to REI. An analytic theory is introduced to explain these results. While the analytic theory is formulated for a perfect electric conductor, comprehensive numerical simulations show the applicability in the visible regime, where losses and plasmonic effects play a role.

The dimensionality of a system can fundamentally impact the behavior of interacting quantum particles. Classic examples range from the fractional quantum Hall effect to high-temperature superconductivity. As a general rule, one expects confinement to favor the binding of particles. However, attractively interacting bosons apparently defy this expectation: While three identical bosons in three dimensions can support an infinite tower of Efimov trimers, only two universal trimers exist in the two-dimensional case. Here, we reveal how these two limits are connected by investigating the problem of three identical bosons confined by a harmonic potential along one direction. We show that the confinement breaks the discrete Efimov scaling symmetry and successively destroys the weakest bound trimers. However, the deepest bound trimers persist even under strong confinement. In particular, the ground-state Efimov trimer hybridizes with the two-dimensional trimers, yielding a superposition of trimer configurations that effectively involves tunneling through a short-range repulsive barrier. Our results suggest a way to use strong confinement to engineer more stable Efimov-like trimers, which have so far proved elusive.

This work is concerned with thermal quantum states of Hamiltonians on spin- and fermionic-lattice systems with short-range interactions. We provide results leading to a local definition of temperature, thereby extending the notion of “intensivity of temperature” to interacting quantum models. More precisely, we derive a perturbation formula for thermal states. The influence of the perturbation is exactly given in terms of a generalized covariance. For this covariance, we prove exponential clustering of correlations above a universal critical temperature that upper bounds physical critical temperatures such as the Curie temperature. As a corollary, we obtain that above the critical temperature, thermal states are stable against distant Hamiltonian perturbations. Moreover, our results imply that above the critical temperature, local expectation values can be approximated efficiently in the error and the system size.

The normal-state in-plane resistivity below the zero-field superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ and the upper critical field ${\mu }_0{H}_{c2}(T)$ was measured by suppressing superconductivity in pulsed magnetic fields for ${\mathrm{K}}_{0.70}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{1.46}{\mathrm{Se}}_{1.85}{\mathrm{Te}}_{0.15}$. The normal-state resistivity ${\rho }_{ab}$ is found to increase logarithmically with decreasing temperature as $(T/T_c)\to 0$. Similar to granular metals, our results suggest that a superconductor–insulator transition below zero-field $T_c$ may be induced in high magnetic fields. This is related to the intrinsic real-space phase-separated states common to all inhomogeneous superconductors.

The enigmatic pseudogap phase in underdoped cuprate high-$T_c$ superconductors has long been recognized as a central puzzle of the $T_c$ problem. Recent data show that the pseudogap is likely a distinct phase, characterized by a medium range and quasistatic charge ordering. However, the origin of the ordering wave vector and the mechanism of the charge order is unknown. At the same time, earlier data show that precursive superconducting fluctuations are also associated with this phase. We propose that the pseudogap phase is a novel pairing state where electrons on the same side of the Fermi surface are paired, in strong contrast with conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer theory which pairs electrons on opposite sides of the Fermi surface. In this state the Cooper pair carries a net momentum and belongs to a general class called pair density wave. The microscopic pairing mechanism comes from a gauge theory formulation of the resonating valence bond (RVB) picture, where spinons traveling in the same direction feel an attractive force in analogy with Ampere’s effects in electromagnetism. We call this Amperean pairing. Charge order automatically appears as a subsidiary order parameter even when long-range pair order is destroyed by phase fluctuations. Our theory gives a prediction of the ordering wave vector which is in good agreement with experiment. Furthermore, the quasiparticle spectrum from our model explains many of the unusual features reported in photoemission experiments. The Fermi arc, the unusual way the tip of the arc terminates, and the relation of the spanning vector of the arc tips to the charge ordering wave vector also come out naturally. Finally, we propose an experiment that can directly test the notion of Amperean pairing.

Graphene on metal substrates often shows different electronic properties from isolated graphene because of graphene-substrate interactions. One needs to remove the metals with acids and then to transfer graphene to weakly interacting substrates to recover electrical properties inherent in graphene. This process is not easy and besides causes undesirable tears, defects, and impurities in graphene. Here, we report a method to recover the electronic structure of graphene from a strongly interacting Ni substrate by spontaneous Na intercalation. In order to characterize the intercalation process, the density-functional-theory calculations and angle-resolved photoemission-spectroscopy (ARPES) and scanning-tunneling-microscopy (STM) measurements are carried out. From the density-functional-theory calculations, Na atoms energetically prefer interface intercalation to surface adsorption for the graphene/Ni(111) surface. Unlike most intercalants, Na atoms intercalate spontaneously at room temperature due to a tiny diffusion barrier, which is consistent with our temperature-dependent ARPES and core-level photoemission spectroscopy, and with our submonolayer ARPES and STM results at room temperature. As a result of the spontaneous intercalation, the electronic structure of graphene is almost recovered, as confirmed by the Dirac cone with a negligible band gap in ARPES and the sixfold symmetry in STM.

We provide a unified thermodynamic formalism describing information transfers in autonomous as well as nonautonomous systems described by stochastic thermodynamics. We demonstrate how information is continuously generated in an auxiliary system and then transferred to a relevant system that can utilize it to fuel otherwise impossible processes. Indeed, while the joint system satisfies the second law, the entropy balance for the relevant system is modified by an information term related to the mutual information rate between the two systems. We show that many important results previously derived for nonautonomous Maxwell demons can be recovered from our formalism and use a cycle decomposition to analyze the continuous information flow in autonomous systems operating at a steady state. A model system is used to illustrate our findings.

By considering the low-frequency vibrational modes of amorphous solids, Manning and Liu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 108302 (2011)] showed that a population of “soft spots” can be identified that are intimately related to plasticity at zero temperature under quasistatic shear. In this work, we track individual soft spots with time in a two-dimensional sheared thermal Lennard Jones glass at temperatures ranging from deep in the glassy regime to above the glass transition temperature. We show that the lifetimes of individual soft spots are correlated with the time scale for structural relaxation. We additionally calculate the number of rearrangements required to destroy soft spots and show that most soft spots can survive many rearrangements. Finally, we show that soft spots are robust predictors of rearrangements at temperatures well into the supercooled regime. Altogether, these results pave the way for mesoscopic theories of plasticity of amorphous solids based on dynamical behavior of individual soft spots.

One of the most extraordinary manifestations of the coupling of the electromagnetic field and matter is the emission of light by charged particles passing through a dielectric medium: the Vavilov-Cherenkov effect. Here, we theoretically predict that a related phenomenon may be observed when neutral fast polarizable particles travel near a metal surface supporting surface plasmon polaritons. Based on a classical formalism, we find that at some critical velocity, even if the initial optical field is vanishingly small, the system may become unstable and may start spontaneously emitting light such that in some initial time window the electromagnetic field grows exponentially with time.

Topological insulators are materials characterized by dissipationless, spin-polarized surface states resulting from nontrivial band topologies. Recent theoretical models and experiments suggest that ${\mathrm{SmB}}_6$ is the first topological Kondo insulator, in which the topologically nontrivial band structure results from electron-electron interactions via Kondo hybridization. Here, we report that the surface conductivity of ${\mathrm{SmB}}_6$ increases systematically with bulk carbon content. Further, addition of carbon is linked to an increase in $n$-type carriers, larger low-temperature electronic contributions to the specific heat with a characteristic temperature scale of $T^{*}=17\mathrm{K}$, and a broadening of the crossover to the insulating state. Additionally, x-ray absorption spectroscopy shows a change in Sm valence at the surface. Our results highlight the importance of phonon dynamics in producing a Kondo insulating state and demonstrate a correlation between the bulk thermodynamic state and the low-temperature resistance of ${\mathrm{SmB}}_6$.

We consider the role of degeneracy in parity-time ($\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$) symmetry breaking for non-Hermitian wave equations beyond one dimension. We show that if the spectrum is degenerate in the absence of $\mathcal{T}$ breaking, and $\mathcal{T}$ is broken in a generic manner (without preserving other discrete symmetries), then the standard $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ symmetry-breaking transition does not occur, meaning that the spectrum is complex even for infinitesimal strength of gain and loss. However, the realness of the entire spectrum can be preserved over a finite interval if additional discrete symmetries $\chi$ are imposed when $\mathcal{T}$ is broken, if $\chi$ decouples all degenerate modes. When the decoupling holds only for a subset of the degenerate spectrum, there can be a partial $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$ transition in which this subset remains real over a finite interval of $\mathcal{T}$ breaking. If the spectrum has odd degeneracy, a fraction of the degenerate spectrum can remain in the symmetric phase even without imposing additional discrete symmetries, and they are analogous to dark states in atomic physics. These results are illustrated by the example of different $\mathcal{T}$-breaking perturbations of a uniform dielectric disk and sphere, and a group-theoretical analysis is given in the disk case. Finally, we show that multimode coupling is capable of restoring the $\mathcal{P}\mathcal{T}$-symmetric phase at finite $\mathcal{T}$ breaking. We also analyze these questions when the parity operator is replaced by another spatial symmetry operator and find that the behavior can be qualitatively different.

Landau theory (LT) is an indispensable cornerstone in the thermodynamic description of phase transitions. As with structural transitions, most applications require one to consistently take into account the role of strain. If temperature drives the transition, the relevant strains are, as a rule, small enough to be treated as infinitesimal, and therefore one can get away with linearized elasticity theory. However, for transitions driven by high pressure, strains may become so large that it is absolutely mandatory to treat them as finite and deal with the nonlinear nature of the accompanying elastic energy. In this paper, we explain how to set up and apply what is, in fact, the only possible consistent Landau theory of high-pressure phase transitions that systematically allows us to take these geometrical and physical nonlinearities into account. We also show how to incorporate available information on the pressure dependence of elastic constants taken from experiment or simulation. We apply our new theory to the example of the high-pressure cubic-tetragonal phase transition in strontium titanate, a model perovskite that has played a central role in the development of the theory of structural phase transitions. Armed with pressure-dependent elastic constants calculated by density-functional theory, we give an accurate description of recent high-precision experimental data and predict a number of elastic transition anomalies accessible to experiments.