Sanjoy Datta

In this work, we investigate the combined effects of Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) and non-Hermiticity on topological phase transitions in spinful p-wave Kitaev chains. While previous studies have separately examined non-Hermitian (NH) extensions of Kitaev chains and the effects of RSOC in Hermitian systems, the interplay between these two mechanisms remains largely unexplored. We analyze this interplay by considering two distinct types of complex on-site potentials: (i) a uniform gain/loss term and (ii) a complex quasiperiodic one. We demonstrate that the impact of RSOC is highly model-dependent. In particular, RSOC does not affect the topological phase boundary in the Hermitian limit of the uniform gain/loss model (provided the spin-flip hopping is weaker than the pairing strength), but significantly alters the topological landscape in the NH regime. In contrast, for the quasiperiodic model, RSOC modifies the phase boundaries in both the Hermitian and non-Hermitian cases. Notably, we find that the combined interplay of non-Hermiticity and RSOC drives topological transitions at significantly lower potential strengths compared to the Hermitian limit. We derive analytical expressions for the topological phase transitions in both cases and validate our predictions through numerical calculations of energy spectra and real-space winding numbers. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of how non-Hermiticity and RSOC cooperatively reshape topological phase diagrams in one-dimensional superconducting systems.

In this work, we investigate the combined effects of Rashba spin-orbit coupling (RSOC) and non-Hermiticity on topological phase transitions in spinful p-wave Kitaev chains. While previous studies have separately examined non-Hermitian (NH) extensions of Kitaev chains and the effects of RSOC in Hermitian systems, the interplay between these two mechanisms remains largely unexplored. We analyze this interplay by considering two distinct types of complex on-site potentials: (i) a uniform gain/loss term and (ii) a complex quasiperiodic potential. We demonstrate that the impact of RSOC is highly model-dependent. In particular, RSOC does not affect the topological phase boundary in the Hermitian limit of the uniform gain/loss model (provided the spin-flip hopping is weaker than the pairing strength), but significantly alters the topological landscape in the NH regime. In contrast, for the quasiperiodic model, RSOC modifies the phase boundaries in both the Hermitian and non-Hermitian cases. Notably, we find that the combined interplay of non-Hermiticity and RSOC drives topological transitions at significantly lower potential strengths compared to the Hermitian limit. We derive analytical expressions for the topological phase transitions in both cases and validate our predictions through numerical calculations of energy spectra and real-space winding numbers. This work provides a comprehensive understanding of how non-Hermiticity and RSOC cooperatively reshape topological phase diagrams in one-dimensional superconducting systems.

In the last few years, several works have identified the concurrence of the spectral, delocalization-localization and topological phase transitions in non-Hermitian quasiperiodic systems in the presence of time-reversal symmetry (TRS), with or without interaction. In this work, we investigate one-dimensional interacting non-Hermitian quasiperiodic lattices with asymmetric power-law hopping and unveil that although the Hamiltonian respects the TRS, the reality of the eigenspectrum does not necessarily indicate a topologically trivial non-Hermitian many-body localization (NHMBL) regime. In fact, we reveal the emergence of a topologically trivial intermediate regime, where the states that are primarily multifractal in nature can also possess a fully real spectrum, thereby restoring the TRS before crossing over to the NHMBL phase. Moreover, in the entire intermediate regime, the interaction completely destroys the multifractal and mobility edges observed in the non-interacting counterpart. Besides, we unveil that due to the long-range nature of the hopping, the entire topologically non-trivial ergodic regime under the periodic boundary condition does not always give rise to boundary localized skin modes under the open boundary condition. Our findings thus advances and deepens the understanding about the emergence of non-trivial phases due to the interplay of interaction and long-range hopping in non-Hermitian quasiperiodic systems.

The paradigmatic Hatano-Nelson (HN) Hamiltonian induces a delocalization-localization (DL) transition in a one-dimensional (1D) lattice with random disorder, in striking contrast to its Hermitian counterpart. The DL transition also persists in the presence of a quasiperiodic potential separating completely delocalized and localized eigenstates. In this study, we reveal that coupling two 1D quasiperiodic Hatano-Nelson (QHN) lattices significantly alters the nature of the DL transition and identify two critical points, V_{c1} < V_{c2} V c 1 < V c 2 , when the nearest neighbors of the two 1D QHN lattices are cross-coupled with strong hopping amplitudes under periodic boundary conditions (PBC). Complete delocalization occurs below V_{c1} V c 1 and the states are completely localized above V_{c2} V c 2 , while two mobility edges symmetrically emerge about Re[E] = 0 between V_{c1} V c 1 and V_{c2} V c 2 . Notably, under specific asymmetric cross-hopping amplitudes, V_{c1} V c 1 approaches zero, resulting in localized states even for an infinitesimally weak potential. Remarkably, we also find that the mobility edges precisely divide the delocalized and localized states in equal proportions. We demonstrate a possible implementation of these findings in a coupled waveguided array which can be exploited to control and manipulate the light localization depending upon the hopping amplitude in the two QHN chains.

The eigenstates of one-dimensional Hermitian and non-Hermitian tight-binding systems (in the presence/absence of quasiperiodic potential) and an external electric field undergo complete localization with equally spaced eigenenergies, known as the Wannier-Stark (WS) localization. In this work, we demonstrate that when the electric field is slowly modulated with time, new non-trivial phases with multiple mobility edges emerge in place of WS localized phase, which persists up to a certain strength of the non-Hermiticity. On the other hand, for a large driving frequency, we retrieve the usual sharp delocalization-localization transition to the usual (no WS) localized phase, similar to the static non-Hermitian Aubry-André-Harper type without any electric field. This vanishing of WS localization can be attributed solely to the time-periodic drive and occurs irrespective of the non-Hermiticity. Interestingly, under the open boundary condition (OBC), we find that contrary to the undriven systems where an external electric field destroys the SE completely, the SE appears in certain regime of the parameter space when the electric field is temporally driven. This appearance of SE is closely related to the absence of extended unitarity. In addition, in the presence of the drive, the skin states are found to be multifractal, contrary to its usual nature in such non-Hermitian systems. An in-depth understanding about the behavior of the states in the driven system is established from the long-time dynamics of an initial excitation.

One of the most striking features of non-Hermitian quasiperiodic systems with arbitrarily small asymmetry in the hopping amplitudes and open boundaries is the accumulation of all the bulk eigenstates at one of the edges of the system, termed in the literature as the skin effect (SE), below a critical strength of the potential. In this work, we uncover that a time-periodic drive in such systems can eliminate the SE up to a finite strength of this asymmetry. Remarkably, the critical value for the onset of SE is independent of the driving frequency and approaches to the static behavior in the thermodynamic limit. We find that the absence of SE is intricately linked to the emergence of extended unitarity in the delocalized phase, providing dynamical stability to the system. Interestingly, under periodic boundary condition, our non-Hermitian system can be mapped to a Hermitian analog in the large driving frequency limit that leads to the extended unitarity, irrespective of the hopping asymmetry and the strength of the quasiperiodic potential, in stark contrast to the static limit. Additionally, we numerically verify that this behavior persists at all frequencies of the drive. Based on our findings, we propose a possible experimental realization of our driven system, which could be used as a switch to control the light-funneling mechanism.

In this study, we employ density functional theory based first-principles calculations to investigate the spin-orbit effects in the electronic structure of a polar-nonpolar sandwich heterostructure namely LaAlO 3 / SrTiO 3 / LaAlO 3 . Our focus on the Ti-3d bands reveals an inverted ordering of the SrTiO 3 - t 2 g orbital near the n-type interface, which is consistent with earlier experimental work. In contrast, toward the p-type interface, the orbital ordering aligns with the natural ordering of SrTiO 3 orbitals, influenced by crystal field splitting. In the presence of SOC, a notable inter-orbital coupling between t 2 g and e g orbitals is observed within the tetragonal slab, a phenomenon not reported before in the SrTiO 3 -based 2D systems. Additionally, our observations highlight that the cubic Rashba splitting in this system surpasses the linear Rashba splitting, contrary to experimental findings. This comprehensive analysis contributes to a refined understanding of the role of orbital mixing in Rashba splitting in the sandwich oxide heterostructures.