Hidden order and finite temperature topological phase transition in graphene samples in the presence of adatoms

László Oroszlány

Department of Physics of Complex Systems, Eötvös Loránd University

and MTA-BME Lendület Topology and Correlation Research Group

Duncan and Kekulé

Duncan, Charlie, Gene  and Kekulé

Competing personalities

A colourful mess!

Individual adatoms

  • adatoms distort the lattice, alter hopping around a hexagon

     
  • adatoms introduce Kane-Mele type SOC on a plaquette

     
  • adatoms DO NOT distort onsite of carbon atoms

     
  • adatoms DO NOT have impurity level

Hidden order of adatoms via RKKY

V.V.Cheianov et al. Solid State Commun. 149, 1499 (2009)

"Ferro"

"Para"

\hat{H}=v\hat{\boldsymbol{p}}\cdot\boldsymbol{\sigma}\otimes\tau_{z}
V^{\mathrm{RKKY}}_{ij}=\int_{-\infty}^{\infty}\text{d}\omega\text{Tr}\left[\hat{V}_{i}\hat{G}(\omega)\hat{V}_{j}\hat{G}(-\omega)\right]
\hat{V}_{i}=\delta(\boldsymbol{r}-\boldsymbol{r}_i)\left( \Delta_{\text{Kek}}\sigma_{0}\otimes\boldsymbol{u}_{i}\cdot\boldsymbol{\tau}+ \Delta_{\text{KM}}\sigma_{z}\otimes\tau_{0} \right )
V^{\mathrm{RKKY}}_{ij}=-\frac{\Delta_{\text{Kek}}^{2}\boldsymbol{u}_{i}\cdot\boldsymbol{u}_{j}+\Delta_{\text{KM}}^{2}}{8\pi r_{ij}^{3}v}
\boldsymbol{u}_{i}=\left( \begin{array}{c} \cos\left(\frac{2\pi}{3}\nu_{i}\right) \\ \sin\left(\frac{2\pi}{3}\nu_{i}\right) \end{array}\right),\,\nu_i\in[-1,0,1]

Large adatom \( \Rightarrow \) strong SOC

Disorder?

KPM!

Weiße et al. Rev. Mod. Phys. 78, 275 (2006)

 
m =\frac{\sqrt{3}}{3}|t' -t|

"Ferro"

"Para"

T

I to TI transition at finite temperature!

C. W. Groth, et al. Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 196805 (2009)

FM vs PM \(E_{Tot}\) for higher concentrations

50 x 50 cell 10% coverage

\displaystyle E_{Tot}=\int_{-\infty}^{E_F} E\varrho(E) \mathrm{d}E

Are there such adatoms ???

What could go wrong?

Adatoms might not like to sit @ hollow

Are there such adatoms ???

What could go wrong?

Adatoms might develop magnetism instead of strong SOC

Os @ 4x4 graphene

Jun Hu, Jason Alicea, Ruqian Wu, and Marcel Franz

Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 266801(2012)

Are there such adatoms ???

What could go wrong?

Adatoms might aggregate leading to phase separation

Promising candidates: Hg

Promising candidates: Th and dimers

Phys. Rev. X 1, 021001 (2011)

Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 266801 (2012)

E[eV]

E[eV]

Copy of Competition of trivial and topological phases in graphene based hybrid systems

By László Oroszlány

Copy of Competition of trivial and topological phases in graphene based hybrid systems

  • 582