Topological transitions and fractional charges induced by strain and magnetic field in carbon nanotubes

Abstract

We show that carbon nanotubes (CNT) can be driven through a topological phase transition using either strain or a magnetic field. This can naturally lead to Jackiw-Rebbi soliton states carrying fractionalized charges, similar to those found in a domain wall in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model, in a setup with a spatially inhomogeneous strain and an axial field. Two types of fractionalized states can be formed at the interface between regions with different strain: a spin-charge separated state with integer charge and spin zero (or zero charge and spin $\pm \hslash /2$), and a state with charge $\pm e/2$ and spin $\pm \hslash /4$. The latter state requires spin-orbit coupling in the CNT. We show that in our setup, the precise quantization of the fractionalized interface charges is a consequence of the symmetry of the CNT under a combination of a spatial rotation by $\pi$ and time reversal. Finally, we comment on the effects of many-body interaction on this phenomena.

10 pages, 8 figures

References in corpus (11)

• Electronic States of Graphene Nanoribbons
• Spin-orbit coupling in curved graphene, fullerenes, nanotubes, and nanotube caps
• Coupling of Spin and Orbital Motion of Electrons in Carbon Nanotubes
• Observation of the topological soliton state in the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model
• Large spin-orbit coupling in carbon nanotubes
• Electron Attraction Mediated by Coulomb Repulsion
• Probing the charge of a quantum dot with a nanomechanical resonator
• Spin-orbit interaction in chiral carbon nanotubes probed in pulsed magnetic fields
• Angular momentum and topology in semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes
• Controlling edge states of zigzag carbon nanotubes by the Aharonov-Bohm flux
• Anomalous magnetization of a carbon nanotube as an excitonic insulator

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Topological superconductivity in carbon nanotubes with a small magnetic flux
• Topologically protected, correlated end spin formation in carbon nanotubes
• Rational boundary charge in one-dimensional systems with interaction and disorder
• Enhanced Magnetism & Time - Stable Remanence at the Interface of Hematite and Carbon Nanotubes
• Universality of Abelian and non-Abelian Wannier functions in one dimension
• Quantum Transport Straintronics and Mechanical Aharonov-Bohm Effect in Quasi-metallic SWCNTs
• Sagnac Electron Interference as a Probe of Electronic Structure
• Correlated insulating states in carbon nanotubes controlled by magnetic field
• Binding and spontaneous condensation of excitons in narrow-gap carbon nanotubes
• Electrical control of the metal-insulator transition in a one dimensional device
• Anomalous screening in narrow-gap carbon nanotubes