Abstract: The densities of phonon states of thin Sn films on InSb substrates are determined during different stages of the alpha-Sn to beta-Sn phase transition using nuclear inelastic x-ray scattering. The vibrational entropy and internal energy per atom as a function of temperature are obtained by numerical integration of the phonon density of states. The free energy as a function of temperature for the nanoscale samples is compared to the free energy obtained from ab initio calculations of bulk tin in the alpha-Sn and beta-Sn phase. In thin films this phase transition is governed by the interplay between the vibrational behavior of the film (the phase transition is driven by the vibrational entropy) and the stabilizing influence of the substrate (which depends on the film thickness). This brings a deeper understanding of the role of lattice vibrations in the phase transition of nanoscale Sn.

Abstract: The dependence of the excitonic photoluminescence (PL) spectrum of monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) on the tilt angle of an applied magnetic field is studied. Starting from a four-band Hamiltonian we construct a theory which quantitatively reproduces the available experimental PL spectra for perpendicular and in-plane magnetic fields. In the presence of a tilted magnetic field, we demonstrate that the dark exciton PL peaks brighten due to the in-plane component of the magnetic field and split for light with different circular polarizations as a consequence of the perpendicular component of the magnetic field. This splitting is more than twice as large as the splitting of the bright exciton peaks in tungsten-based TMDs. We propose an experimental setup that will allow for accessing the predicted splitting of the dark exciton peaks in the PL spectrum.

Abstract: The dielectric properties of confined water is of fundamental interest and is still controversial. For water confined in channels with height smaller than h = 8 angstrom, we found a commensurability effect and an extraordinary decrease in the out-of-plane dielectric constant down to the limit of the dielectric constant of optical water. Spatial resolved polarization density data obtained from molecular dynamics simulations are found to be antisymmetric across the channel and are used as input in a mean-field model for the dielectric constant as a function of the height of the channel for h > 15 angstrom. Our results are in excellent agreement with a recent experiment [L. Fumagalli et al., Science 360, 1339 (2018)].

Abstract: The diffusion of charged particles interacting through a repulsive Yukawa potential, exp(-r/lambda)/r, confined by a parabolic potential in the y direction and subjected to a periodic substrate potential in the x direction is investigated. Langevin dynamic simulations are used to investigate the effect of the particle density, the amplitude of the periodic substrate, and the range of the interparticle interaction potential on the diffusive behavior of the particles. We found that in general the diffusion is suppressed with increasing the amplitude of the periodic potential, but for specific values of the strength of the substrate potential a remarkable increase of the diffusion is found with increasing the periodic potential amplitude. In addition, we found a strong dependence of the diffusion on the specific arrangement of the particles, e. g., single-chain versus multichain configuration. For certain particle configurations, a reentrant behavior of the diffusion is found as a function of the substrate strength due to structural transitions in the ordering of the particles.

Abstract: The Dirac equation is solved for triangular and hexagonal graphene quantum dots for different boundary conditions in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We analyze the influence of the dot size and its geometry on their energy spectrum. A comparison between the results obtained for graphene dots with zigzag and armchair edges, as well as for infinite-mass boundary condition, is presented and our results show that the type of graphene dot edge and the choice of the appropriate boundary conditions have a very important influence on the energy spectrum. The single-particle energy levels are calculated as a function of an external perpendicular magnetic field that lifts degeneracies. Comparing the energy spectra obtained from the tight-binding approximation to those obtained from the continuum Dirac equation approach, we verify that the behavior of the energies as a function of the dot size or the applied magnetic field are qualitatively similar, but in some cases quantitative differences can exist.

Abstract: The discrete shell structure of vortex matter strongly influences the flux dynamics in mesoscopic superconducting Corbino disks. While the dynamical behavior is well understood in large and in very small disks, in the intermediate-size regime it occurs to be much more complex and unusual, due to (in)commensurability between the vortex shells. We demonstrate unconventional vortex dynamics (inversion of shell velocities with respect to the gradient driving force) and angular melting (propagating from the boundary where the shear stress is minimum, towards the center) in mesoscopic Corbino disks.

Abstract: The distribution of the electric charge density in mesoscopic superconducting disks and cylinders is studied within the phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau approach. We found that, even in the Meissner state the mesoscopic sample exhibits a non-uniform charge distribution such that a region near the sample edge becomes negatively charged. When vortices are inside the sample there is a superposition of the negative charge located at the vortex core and this Meissner charge, and, as a result, the charge at the sample edge changes sign as a function of the applied magnetic field.

Abstract: The dynamics of driven pancake vortices in layered superconductors is studied using molecular-dynamics simulations. We found that, with increasing driving force, for strong interlayer coupling, the preexisted vortex lines either directly depin or first transform to two-dimensional (2D) pinned states before they are depinned, depending on the pinning strength. In a narrow region of pinning strengths, we found an interesting repinning process, which results in a negative differential resistance. For weak interlayer coupling, individually pinned pancake vortices first form disordered 2D flow and then transform to ordered three-dimensional (3D) flow with increasing driving force. However, for extremely strong pinning, the random pinning-induced thermal-like Langevin forces melt 3D vortex lines, which results in a persistent 2D flow in the fast-sliding regime. In the intermediate regime, the peak effect is found: With increasing driving force, the moving pancake vortices first crystallize to moving 3D vortex lines, and then these 3D vortex lines are melted, leading to the appearance of a reentrant 2D flow state. Our results are summarized in a dynamical phase diagram.

Abstract: The dynamics of vortex matter in mesoscopic superconducting Corbino disk is strongly influenced by the discrete vortex structure arranged in shells. While in previous works the vortex dynamics has been studied in large (macroscopic) and in very small mesoscopic disks (containing only few shells), in the intermediate-size regime it is much more complex and unusual, due to: (i) the competition between the vortexvortex interaction and confinement and (ii) (in)commensurability among the vortex shells. We found that the interplay between these effects can result in a very unusual vortex dynamical behavior: (i) unconventional angular melting (i.e., propagating from the boundary, where the shear stress is minimum, towards the center) and (ii) unconventional dynamics of shells (i.e., the inversion of shell velocities with respect to the gradient driving force). This unusual behavior is found for different number of shells.

Abstract: The effect of a parallel magnetic field on the orbital motion of electrons in high-quality superconducting nanowires resulting in a superconductor-to-normal transition which occurs through a cascade of jumps in the order parameter as a function of the magnetic field. Such cascades originate from the transverse size quantization that splits the conduction band into a series of subbands. Here, based on a numerical solution of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for a hollow nanocylinder, we investigate how the quantum-size cascades depend on the confining geometry, i.e., by changing the cylinder radius R and its thickness d we cover the range from the nanowire-like to the nanofilm-like regime. The cascades are shown to become much less pronounced when increasing R/d, i.e., when the nanofilm-like regime is approached. When the temperature is non-zero they are thermally smoothed. This includes the spin-magnetic-field interaction which reduces the critical (depairing) parallel magnetic field H-c,H-parallel to but does not have any qualitative effect on the quantum cascades. From our calculations it is seen that the paramagnetic limiting field H-par significantly exceeds H-c,H-parallel to even in extremely narrow nanocylinders, i.e., when R, d are down to a few nanometers, and H-c,H-parallel to is only about 10% larger when switching-off the spin-magnetic-field interaction in this case. Both characteristic fields, H-c,H-parallel to and H-par, exhibit pronounced quantum-size oscillations. We demonstrate that the quantum cascades and the quantum-size oscillations survive in the presence of surface roughness.

Abstract: The effect of an electron-hole puddle on the electrical transport when governed by snake states in a bipolar graphene structure is investigated. Using numerical simulations we show that information on the size and position of the electron-hole puddle can be obtained using the dependence of the conductance on magnetic field and electron density of the gated region. The presence of the scatterer disrupts snake state transport which alters the conduction pattern. We obtain a simple analytical formula that connects the position of the electron-hole puddle with features observed in the conductance. The size of the electron-hole puddle is estimated from the magnetic field and gate potential that maximizes the effect of the puddle on the electrical transport.

Abstract: The effect of B and P dopants on the band structure of Si nanowires is studied using electronic structure calculations based on density functional theory. At low concentrations a dispersionless band is formed, clearly distinguishable from the valence and conduction bands. Although this band is evidently induced by the dopant impurity, it turns out to have purely Si character. These results can be rigorously analyzed in the framework of effective mass theory. In the process we resolve some common misconceptions about the physics of hydrogenic shallow impurities, which can be more clearly elucidated in the case of nanowires than would be possible for bulk Si. We also show the importance of correctly describing the effect of dielectric confinement, which is not included in traditional electronic structure calculations, by comparing the obtained results with those of G(0)W(0) calculations.

Abstract: The effect of electron-impurity and electron-electron interactions on the energy spectrum of electrons moving in graphene is investigated in the presence of a high magnetic field. We find that the width of the broadened Landau levels exhibits an approximate 1/B dependence near half filling for charged impurity scattering. The Landau-level width, the density of states, and the Fermi energy exhibit an oscillatory behavior as a function of magnetic field. Comparison with experiment shows that scattering with charged impurities cannot be the main scattering mechanism that determines the width of the Landau levels.

Abstract: The effect of strain in graphene is usually modeled by a pseudomagnetic vector potential which is, however, derived in the limit of small strain. In realistic cases deviations are expected in view of graphene's very high strain tolerance, which can be up to 25%. Here we investigate the pseudomagnetic field generated by a Gaussian bump and we show that it exhibits significant differences with numerical tight-binding results. Furthermore, we calculate the electronic states in the strained region for a hexagon shaped flake with armchair edges. We find that the sixfold symmetry of the wave functions inside the Gaussian bump is directly related to the different effects of strain along the fundamental directions of graphene: zigzag and armchair. Low energy electrons are strongly confined in the armchair directions and are localized on the carbon atoms of a single sublattice.

Abstract: The effect of the Coulomb interaction on the energy spectrum and anisotropic distribution of two electron states in a quantum ring in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (RSOI) and Dresselhaus SOI (DSOI) is investigated in the presence of a perpendicular magnetic field. We find that the interplay between the RSOI and DSOI makes the single quantum ring behaves like a laterally coupled quantum dot and the interdot coupling can be tuned by changing the strengths of the SOIs. The interplay can lead to singlet-triplet state mixing and anticrossing behavior when the singlet and triplet states meet with increasing magnetic field. The two electron ground state displays a bar-bell-like spatial anisotropic distribution in a quantum ring at a specific crystallographic direction, i.e., [110] or [11̅ 0], which can be switched by reversing the direction of the perpendicular electric field. The ground state exhibits a singlet-triplet state transition with increasing magnetic field and strengths of RSOI and DSOI. An anisotropic electron distribution is predicted which can be detected through the measurement of its optical properties.