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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Solution‐Processed Spin‐Polarized Light‐Emitting Diodes of Colloidal Quantum Wells and Magnetic Nanoparticles

Electrical injection of spin-polarized carriers into semiconductors enables circularly-polarized emission from spin-polarized light-emitting diodes (spin-LEDs). The incredible level of tunability of magnetic and electronic properties in colloidal nanocrystals offers unprecedented opportunities for the modulation of polarization of light in solution-processed spin-LEDs based on magnetic nanoparticles unlike epitaxially grown spin-LEDs restricted by a very limited range of materials for their exploitation, and solution-processed spin-LEDs based on chiral molecules, which do not allow the modulation of polarization in general. Here, it is shown that electrical injection of spin-polarized electrons from magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles into CdSe/CdZnS core/shell colloidal quantum wells (CQWs) in solution-processed LEDs that allows for polarization modulation of electroluminescence. In this structure, a monolayer of face-down oriented CQWs is deposited as an active layer to avoid polarization losses due to the hopping of the electrons between the CQWs before the radiative recombination process. In this solution-processed spin-LED, the circular polarization reaches 4.5% at 3 K and survives up to 100 K. A net circular polarization is observed at zero magnetic field up to 100 K because of the remnant magnetization of the Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles. This new colloidal spin-LED architecture presents significant prospects for future solution-processed advanced opto-spintronic devices.

circularly polarized electroluminescence↗
DOE OSTI2021

Chiral-induced spin selectivity enables a room-temperature spin light-emitting diode

In traditional optoelectronic approaches, control over spin, charge, and light requires the use of both electrical and magnetic fields. In a spin-polarized light-emitting diode (spin-LED), charges are injected, and circularly polarized light is emitted from spin-polarized carrier pairs. Typically, the injection of carriers occurs with the application of an electric field, whereas spin polarization can be achieved using an applied magnetic field or polarized ferromagnetic contacts. We used chiral-induced spin selectivity (CISS) to produce spin-polarized carriers and demonstrate a spin-LED that operates at room temperature without magnetic fields or ferromagnetic contacts. The CISS layer consists of oriented, self-assembled small chiral molecules within a layered organic-inorganic metal-halide hybrid semiconductor framework. The spin-LED achieves ±2.6% circularly polarized electroluminescence at room temperature.

77 NANOSCIENCE AND NANOTECHNOLOGY↗
DOE OSTI2021

Observation of large Rashba spin–orbit coupling at room temperature in compositionally engineered perovskite single crystals and application in high performance photodetectors

Indirect absorption extended below the direct transition edge and increase in carrier lifetime derived from Rashba spin–orbit coupling may advance the optoelectronic applications of metal halide perovskites. Spin-orbit coupling in halide perovskites is due to the presence of heavy elements in their structure. However, when these materials lack an inversion symmetry, for example by the application of strain, spin–orbit coupling becomes odd in the electron’s momentum giving rise to a splitting in the electronic energy bands. Here we report on the observation of a large Rashba splitting of 117 meV at room temperature, as predicted by relativistic first-principles calculations, in halide perovskite single crystals through a facile compositional engineering approach. Partial substitution of organic cations by rubidium in single crystals induces significant indirect absorption and dual peak photoluminescence as a result of a large Rashba splitting. We measured circularly polarized photoluminescence and magneto-photoluminescence in perovskite films printed by single crystals as well as magneto-electroluminescence and magneto-photocurrent in spin-LEDs based on perovskite single crystals. They indicated significant spin-momentum locking due to the large Rashba effect. A hybrid perovskite single crystal photodetector achieved record figures of merit, including detectivity of more than 1.3 × 10 18 Jones which represents a three orders of magnitude improvement compared to the to date record. Furthermore, these findings show that facile compositional engineering of perovskite single crystals holds great promise for further advancing the optoelectronic properties of existing materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2022

Resolution of zigzag magnetic correlations in Na-deficient Na x IrO 3 without long-range ordering

The materials search for Kitaev quantum spin liquids led to the discovery of many honeycomb lattice materials. Much attention has been paid to materials without magnetic order down to the lowest temperatures. The newly synthesized Na-deficient Na x IrO 3 has been found to bear no sign of long-range magnetic order above 1 K from physical property measurements. In this paper, we report momentum-and energy-resolved excitation spectra in Na-deficient Na x IrO 3 measured using a resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectrometer. Orbital excitation spectra show that the octahedral and trigonal crystal field splittings are larger in Na x IrO 3 than in Na 2 IrO 3 . On the other hand, the low-energy spectrum at low temperature shows a wave-vector dispersion and a spectral weight distribution that are similar to those of Na 2 IrO 3 , revealing that the two-dimensional zigzag magnetic correlations in Na x IrO 3 are similar to those in Na 2 IrO 3 in terms of the ordered magnetic moment direction and three dynamically fluctuating zigzag orders. The azimuth angle dependence of the low-energy spectrum corroborates these results. The two-dimensional zigzag magnetic correlations rapidly weaken until 50 K. At high temperatures, the spectral weight distribution of the low-energy excitation resembles that of the pure Kitaev model, indicating that the Kitaev interaction dominates the dynamic magnetic response at high temperature. Here we suggest that the larger crystal field and distortion and the weakened longer-range Heisenberg exchange interactions due to the Na deficiency in Na x IrO 3 contribute to bring Na x IrO 3 away from the zigzag long-range magnetic order phase.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2025

Sensitized Near-Infrared Emission of SiGe Nanocrystals via Heterostructuring with Quasi Two-Dimensional Perovskite

The near-infrared (NIR) emission of silicon–germanium alloy nanocrystals (SiGe NCs) was sensitized by heterostructuring with a quasi two-dimensional (Q-2D) perovskite (CsPbBr 3 blended with butylammonium bromide (BABr)). Colloidal SiGe NCs were synthesized by using a nonthermal plasma method with chloride precursors. As-synthesized SiGe NCs showed no detectable photoluminescence (PL). Embedding the SiGe NCs within the perovskite matrix via spin coating led to a heterostructure exhibiting dual emissions: green emission at 520 nm from the perovskite and NIR emission at 1035 nm from the SiGe NCs. Time-integrated and resolved PL measurements and transient absorption spectroscopy revealed energy transfer from the perovskite to the SiGe NCs, which sensitized the NIR emission from the SiGe NCs and quenched the green PL for the perovskite. These results demonstrate that Ge alloying can effectively tune the bandgap of Si NCs and highlight the feasibility of heterostructuring perovskites and photoluminescent NCs to enhance or activate their PL. In conclusion, this approach broadens their potential applications in the NIR region.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Materials for Chiral Light Control

Solution-processable semiconductors based on small molecules, polymers or halide perovskites combine sustainable manufacturing with exceptional optoelectronic properties that can be chemically tailored to achieve flexible and highly efficient optoelectronic and photonic devices. A new exciting research direction is the study of the influence of chirality on light-matter interactions in these soft materials and its exploitation for the simultaneous control of charge, spin and light. In this Viewpoint, researchers working on different types of chiral semiconductors discuss the most interesting directions in this rapidly expanding field.

chiral↗
DOE OSTI2025

A resonant valence bond spin liquid in the dilute limit of doped frustrated Mott insulators

Abstract Ideas about resonant valence bond liquids and spin–charge separation have led to key concepts in physics such as quantum spin liquids, emergent gauge symmetries, topological order and fractionalization. Despite extensive efforts to demonstrate the existence of a resonant valence bond phase in the Hubbard model that originally motivated the concept, a definitive realization has yet to be achieved. Here we present a solution to this long-standing problem by uncovering a resonant valence bond phase exhibiting spin–charge separation in realistic Hamiltonians. We show analytically that this ground state emerges in the dilute-doping limit of a half-filled Mott insulator on corner-sharing tetrahedral lattices with frustrated hopping, in the absence of exchange interactions. We confirm numerically that the results extend to finite exchange interactions, finite-sized systems and finite dopant density. Although much attention has been devoted to the emergence of unconventional states from geometrically frustrated interactions, our work demonstrates that kinetic energy frustration in doped Mott insulators may be essential for stabilizing robust, topologically ordered states in real materials.

Physics↗
DOE OSTI2024

Room-temperature spin injection across a chiral perovskite/III–V interface

Spin accumulation in semiconductor structures at room temperature and without magnetic fields is key to enable a broader range of optoelectronic functionality. Current efforts are limited owing to inherent inefficiencies associated with spin injection across semiconductor interfaces. Here we demonstrate spin injection across chiral halide perovskite/III-V interfaces achieving spin accumulation in a standard semiconductor III-V (Al x Ga 1-x ) 0.5 In 0.5 P multiple quantum well light-emitting diode. The spin accumulation in the multiple quantum well is detected through emission of circularly polarized light with a degree of polarization of up to 15 ± 4%. The chiral perovskite/III-V interface was characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, cross-sectional scanning Kelvin probe force microscopy and cross-sectional transmission electron microscopy imaging, showing a clean semiconductor/semiconductor interface at which the Fermi level can equilibrate. Finally, these findings demonstrate that chiral perovskite semiconductors can transform well-developed semiconductor platforms into ones that can also control spin.

14 SOLAR ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Analysis of spin frustration in an Fe III 7 cluster using a combination of computational, experimental, and magnetostructural correlation methods

The synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties are reported for [Fe 7 O 3 (O 2 C t Bu) 9 (mda) 3 (H 2 O) 3 ] ( 1 ), where mdaH 2 is N -methyldiethanolamine. 1 was prepared from the reaction of [Fe 3 O(O 2 C t Bu) 6 (H 2 O) 3 ](NO 3 ) with mdaH 2 in a 1:~3 ratio in MeCN. The core of 1 consists of a central octahedral Fe III ion held within a non-planar Fe 6 loop by three μ 3 -O 2- and three μ 2 -RO - arms from the three mda 2- chelates. Variable-temperature dc and ac magnetic susceptibility studies revealed dominant antiferromagnetic coupling, leading to a ground state spin of S = 5 / 2 . The ground state was confirmed by a fit of magnetization data collected in the 0.1–7.0 T and 1.8–10.0 K ranges. The four Fe 2 pairwise exchange parameters ( J 1 - J 4 ) were estimated by independent methods: theoretical calculations using either broken symmetry energy differences (-46.3, -16.2, -3.9, and - 28.1 cm -1 , respectively) or Green’s function approximation methods (-41.4, -14.8, -13.2, and - 24.7 cm -1 ), and a magnetostructural correlation (MSC) previously developed for high nuclearity Fe III /O complexes (-39.5, -13.8, -6.7, and - 23.5 cm -1 ). Additionally, the J 1 - J 4 obtained from the MSC and theoretical methods were used with the program PHI to both simulate χ M T vs T as well as to serve as reasonable input values to fit the experimental data (-41.0, -11.4, -5.0, and - 27.3 cm -1 ). Analysis of the J ij led to identification of the spin frustration effects operative and the resultant spin vector alignments at each Fe III ion, thus allowing for the rationalization of the experimental ground state.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
DOE OSTI2024

Materials for Ultra‐Coherent, Mobile, Electron‐Spin Qubits

This research project has had the goal of gaining a better understanding of the physics of electrons bound to the surface of superfluid helium from both experimental and theoretical perspectives. It has particularly been aimed at two areas which had not been well studied: the relaxation and decoherence of the spin of the electrons on the helium surface and how the properties of underlying metallic layers affect the behavior of the electrons when the helium covering the metal is thin. This work is motivated in part by interest in using the spin of these electrons as a quantum bit, or qubit. Low levels of decoherence are advantageous for qubits, and moving the electrons, as one might do in a quantum processor, will be easiest if thin helium films can be employed. It had been suggested that spin decoherence should be very weak for electrons bound to superfluid He, but before this work there have been no quantitative studies of spin relaxation and decoherence. It is especially important to know how moving the electrons across the helium surface would affect their spin coherence. Calculations performed as part of this project show that the Rashba effective magnetic field, the mechanism which limits the spin coherence of mobile electrons in silicon-based devices (an actively pursued qubit technology), is exceptionally weak for electrons bound to helium. This project has identified other decoherence mechanisms which are stronger, but still weak compared to analogous silicon-based structures. Calculated spin coherence times for mobile electrons approach one day, as compared to microseconds in silicon. With coherence times of this magnitude, the spin qubit errors on helium will be completely dominated by errors in the quantum gates. In related work, the possibility of using an artificial spin-orbit interaction (a gradient magnetic field) for quantum operations on the electrons spins was considered. The calculations show that a moderate gradient field, small enough to be generated by a narrow superconducting wire, will enable high-fidelity quantum operations on electrons held in lithographically-defined quantum dots by driving them with a microwave electric field. The spin and motional coherence of the electrons is sufficient to allow high-fidelity 2-qubit quantum operations between electrons in neighboring quantum dots. As an outgrowth of experiments aiming to measure electron spin coherence it was discovered that very high densities of electrons can be stably supported on thin helium films coating ultra-smooth amorphous metallic layers. The measured densities are high enough that the electron system has almost certainly transitioned from an ordered array of electrons, known as a Wigner crystal (ordered by the electrons’ mutual repulsion), to a quantum fluid known as a Fermi liquid. This transition has been a subject of intense interest for over 40 years, since the electron Wigner crystal was first observed with electrons bound to superfluid helium, but it has never been unambiguously observed. Experiments are still underway in these new structures to definitively determine whether true quantum melting of the Wigner crystal has been demonstrated. This work has also catalyzed the development of a new approach for measuring the transport of electrons across very thin helium films, as will be needed for some of the quantum computing applications. The high electron density experiments as well as experiments with electrons bound in quantum dots have led to new techniques which may enable spin coherence measurements.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Unveiling the Emergent Traits of Chiral Spin Textures in Magnetic Multilayers

Abstract Magnetic skyrmions are topologically wound nanoscale textures of spins whose ambient stability and electrical manipulation in multilayer films have led to an explosion of research activities. While past efforts focused predominantly on isolated skyrmions, recently ensembles of chiral spin textures, consisting of skyrmions and magnetic stripes, are shown to possess rich interactions with potential for device applications. However, several fundamental aspects of chiral spin texture phenomenology remain to be elucidated, including their domain wall (DW) structure, thermodynamic stability, and morphological transitions. Here the evolution of these textural characteristics are unveiled on a tunable multilayer platform—wherein chiral interactions governing spin texture energetics can be widely varied—using a combination of full‐field electron and soft X‐ray microscopies with numerical simulations. With increasing chiral interactions, the emergence of Néel helicity, followed by a marked reduction in domain compressibility, and finally a transformation in the skyrmion formation mechanism are demonstrated. Together with an analytical model, these experiments establish a comprehensive microscopic framework for investigating and tailoring chiral spin texture character in multilayer films.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Electrical control of magnetism by electric field and current-induced torques

The remanent magnetization of ferromagnets has long been studied and used to store binary information. While early magnetic memory designs relied on magnetization switching by locally generated magnetic fields, key insights in condensed matter physics later suggested the possibility of doing it by electrical means instead. In the 1990s, Slonczewski and Berger formulated the concept of current-induced spin torques in magnetic multilayers through which a spin-polarized current generated by a first ferromagnet may be used to switch the magnetization of a second one. This discovery drove the development of spin-transfer-torque magnetic random-access memories (MRAMs). More recent fundamental research revealed other types of current-induced torques named spin-orbit torques (SOTs) and will lead to a new generation of devices including SOT MRAMs and skyrmion-based devices. Parallel to these advances, multiferroics and their magnetoelectric coupling, first investigated experimentally in the 1960s, experienced a renaissance. Dozens of multiferroic compounds with new magnetoelectric coupling mechanisms were discovered and high-quality multiferroic films were synthesized (notably of BiFeO 3 ), also leading to novel device concepts for information and communication technology such as the magnetoelectric spin-orbit (MESO) transistor. The story of the electrical switching of magnetization, which is discussed in this review, is that of a dance between fundamental research (in spintronics, condensed matter physics, and materials science) and technology (MRAMs, MESO transistors, microwave emitters, spin diodes, skyrmion-based devices, components for neuromorphics, etc.). This pas de deux has led to major scientific and technological breakthroughs in recent decades (such as the conceptualization of pure spin currents, the observation of magnetic skyrmions, and the discovery of spin-charge interconversion effects). As a result, this field has not only propelled MRAMs into consumer electronics products but also fueled discoveries in adjacent research areas such as ferroelectrics or magnonics. Here, in this review, recent advances in the control of magnetism by electric fields and by current-induced torques are covered. Fundamental concepts in these two directions are reviewed first, their combination is then discussed, and finally current various families of devices harnessing the electrical control of magnetic properties for various application fields are addressed. The review concludes by giving perspectives in terms of both emerging fundamental physics concepts and new directions in materials science.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2024

Enhancing detection of topological order by local error correction

The exploration of topologically-ordered states of matter is a long-standing goal at the interface of several subfields of the physical sciences. Such states feature intriguing physical properties such as long-range entanglement, emergent gauge fields and non-local correlations, and can aid in realization of scalable fault-tolerant quantum computation. However, these same features also make creation, detection, and characterization of topologically-ordered states particularly challenging. Motivated by recent experimental demonstrations, we introduce a paradigm for quantifying topological states—locally error-corrected decoration (LED)—by combining methods of error correction with ideas of renormalization-group flow. Our approach allows for efficient and robust identification of topological order, and is applicable in the presence of incoherent noise sources, making it particularly suitable for realistic experiments. We demonstrate the power of LED using numerical simulations of the toric code under a variety of perturbations. We subsequently apply it to an experimental realization, providing new insights into a quantum spin liquid created on a Rydberg-atom simulator. Finally, we extend LED to generic topological phases, including those with non-abelian order.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Photoredox Catalysis with Spin Magnetic Field Effects: A Scheme for Chiral Resolution

Quantities that break both mirror symmetry and time-reversal symmetry, such as the orbital angular momentum, are known to connect molecular chirality with an applied magnetic field. This concept has led to observations such as magneto-chiral dichroism and chirality-induced spin selectivity (CISS). However, being small, these effects often require additional amplification procedures such as flow chemistry to achieve bulk enantioseparation. In this work, we demonstrate how the magnetic field effect on photogenerated radical pairs, which also breaks time-reversal symmetry, can be harnessed for enantiopurification. Fundamental to this process is the collective decay of the singlet and triplet radical-pair states made possible by an applied magnetic field. Because opposite enantiomers exhibit spin-orbit coupling matrix elements of opposite signs, the singlet and triplet decay channels interfere constructively in one enantiomer. Meanwhile, molecules of the other enantiomer are funnelled into the first enantiomer through excited-state chirality inversion, achieving (dynamic kinetic) chiral resolution. Using an axially chiral binaphthyl derivative and a borane photosensitizer as prototype, we predict an appreciable enantiomeric excess (e.e.) of 90% to be possible at steady state, attained within hundreds of milliseconds when irradiated by a laser. Importantly, our analytical results showcase regimes of perfect enantioselectivity (100% e.e.), accessible by further chemical optimization of the photosensitizer for which general strategies are discussed. Altogether, this work illustrates a so-far untapped but powerful control knob for photoredox catalysis based on spin chemistry principles.

Magnetic properties↗
DOE OSTI2022

Topological Superconductivity Based on Antisymmetric Spin–Orbit Coupling

Topological superconductivity (TSC) has drawn much attention for its fundamental interest and application in quantum computation. An outstanding challenge is the lack of intrinsic TSC materials with a p-wave pairing gap, which has led to the development of an effective p-wave theory of coupling s-wave gap with Rashba spin–orbit coupling (RSOC). However, the RSOC-strict mechanism and materials pose still both fundamental and practical limitations. Here, we generalize this theory to antisymmetric SOC (ASOC). Using k·p perturbation theory, we demonstrate that 2D crystals, with point groups of C 2 , C 4 , C 6 , C 2v , C 4v , C 6v , D 2 , D 4 , D 6 , S 4 , or D 2d , can all facilitate the desired ASOC. Remarkably, this enables us to discover 314 TSC candidates by screening 2D material databases, which are further confirmed by first-principles calculations of Majorana boundary modes and the topological invariant of the superconducting gap. As a result, our work fundamentally enriches TSC theory and greatly expands the classes of TSC materials for experimental exploration.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2022

Thickness-dependent spin bistable transitions in single-crystalline molecular 2D material

Abstract The advent of two-dimensional (2D) crystals has led to numerous scientific breakthroughs. Conventional 2D systems have in-plane covalent bonds and a weak out-of-plane van-der-Waals bond. Here we report a new type of 2D material composed of discrete magnetic molecules, where anisotropic van-der-Waals interactions bond the molecules into a 2D packing. Through mechanical exfoliation, we can obtain single-crystalline molecular monolayers, which can be readily integrated into other 2D systems. Optical spectroscopy suggests the few-layered molecules preserve the temperature-induced spin-crossover switching observed in the bulk form but show a drastic increase in thermal hysteresis unique to these thin 2D molecule assemblies. The trapping of spin bistability with decreasing layer number can arise from domain wall dynamics in reduced dimensions. Our results establish molecular solids with strong anisotropy of intermolecular interactions as precursors to a new class of 2D materials, affording possibilities to control molecular functionalities through substrate and interlayer interactions.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2020

False metals, real insulators, and degenerate gapped metals

This paper deals with a significant family of compounds predicted by simplistic electronic structure theory to be metals but are, in fact, insulators. This false metallic state has been traditionally attributed in the literature to reflect the absence of proper treatment of electron-electron correlation (“Mott insulators”) whereas, in fact, even mean-field like density functional theory describes the insulating phase correctly if the restrictions posed on the simplistic theory are avoided. Such unwarranted restrictions included different forms of disallowing symmetry breaking described in this article. As the science and technology of conductors have transitioned from studying simple elemental metals such as Al or Cu to compound conductors such as binary or ternary oxides and pnictides, a special class of degenerate but gapped metals has been noticed. Their presumed electronic configurations show the Fermi level inside the conduction band or valence band, yet there is an “internal band gap” between the principal band edges. The significance of this electronic configuration is that it might be unstable toward the formation of states inside the internal band gap when the formation of such states costs less energy than the energy gained by transferring carriers from the conduction band to these lower energy acceptor states, changing the original (false) metal to an insulator. The analogous process also exists for degenerate but gapped metals with the Fermi level inside the valence band, where the energy gain is defined by transfer of electrons from the donor level to the unoccupied part of the valence band. We focus here on the fact that numerous electronic structure methodologies have overlooked some physical factors that could stabilize the insulating alternative, predicting instead false metals that do not really exist (note that this is in general not a physical phase transition, but a correction of a previous error in theory that led to a false prediction of a metal). Such errors include: (i) ignoring spin symmetry breaking, such as disallowing magnetic spin ordering in CuBi2O4 or disallowing the formation of polymorphous spin networks in paramagnetic LaTiO 3 and YTiO 3 ; (ii) ignoring structural symmetry breaking, e.g., not enabling energy-lowering bond disproportionation (Li-doped TiO 2 , SrBiO 3 , and rare-earth nickelates), or not exploring pseudo-Jahn–Teller-like distortions in LaMnO 3 , or disallowing spontaneous formation of ordered vacancy compounds in Ba 4 As 3 and Ag 3 Al 22 O 34 ; and (iii) ignoring spin–orbit coupling forcing false metallic states in CaIrO 3 and Sr 2 IrO 4 . The distinction between false metals vs real insulators is important because (a) predicting theoretically that a given compound is metal even though it is found to be an insulator often creates the temptation to invoke high order novel physical effects (such as correlation in d-electron Mott insulators) to explain what was in effect caused by a more mundane artifact in a lower-level mean-field band theory, (b) recent prediction of exotic physical effects such as topological semimetals were unfortunately based on the above compounds that were misconstrued by theory to be metal, but are now recognized to be stable insulators not hosting exotic effects, and (c) practical technological applications based on stable degenerate but gapped metals such as transparent conductors or electrides for catalysis must rely on the systematically correct and reliable theoretical classification of metals vs insulators.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2021

Emergent Ergodicity at the Transition between Many-Body Localized Phases

Strongly disordered systems in the many-body localized (MBL) phase can exhibit ground state order in highly excited eigenstates. The interplay between localization, symmetry, and topology has led to the characterization of a broad landscape of MBL phases ranging from spin glasses and time crystals to symmetry protected topological phases. Understanding the nature of phase transitions between these different forms of eigenstate order remains an essential open question. In this work, we conjecture that no direct transition between distinct MBL orders can occur in one dimension; rather, an ergodic phase always intervenes. Motivated by recent advances in Rydberg-atom-based quantum simulation, we propose an experimental protocol where the intervening ergodic phase can be diagnosed via the dynamics of local observables.

1-dimensional spin chains↗