Emergence of photo-induced multiple topological phases on square-octagon lattice

In this study, a tight-binding model on square-octagon lattice with nearest-neighbour and next-nearest-neighbour hoppings is considered. The system is topologically trivial although it exhibits quadratic band-touching points in its band-structure. It is shown that the system drives towards topologically non-trivial phases as soon as it is exposed to monochromatic circularly polarized light. Multiple topological phases are found to emerge with the variation of amplitude of light. An effective time-independent Hamiltonian of the system is obtained following the Floquet-Bloch formulation. Quasi-energy band-structures along with definite values of Chern numbers for respective bands are obtained. Characterization of topological phases are made in terms of band structure and Chern numbers. In addition, Hall conductance and topologically protected chiral edge states are obtained to explain the topological properties. Density of states is obtained in every case. The system undergoes a series of topological phase transitions among various topological phases upon variations of both amplitude of light and hopping strengths. It exhibits Chern insulating and Chern semimetallic phases depending on the values of lattice filling.

Evidence for multi-polymorphic islands during epitaxial growth of ZnO on Ag(1 1 1)

A range of models of free standing and Ag(1 1 1)-supported stoichiometric ZnO films with coverages between 2-3 monolayers are studied using density functional calculations. Following experimental observations we focus on stoichiometric hexagonal and triangular ad-layer islands grown on top of two complete ZnO monolayers. The adlayer islands display distinct edge and corner reconstructions and are found to induce a structural transition extending from the island core to the layered phase below. Based on our results we propose a general model of ad-layer triangular island structure based on seven regions exhibiting four distinct polymorphs.

Quantum magnetic phase transition in square-octagon lattice

Quantum magnetic phase transition in square-octagon lattice was investigated by cellular dynamical mean field theory combining with continuous time quantum Monte Carlo algorithm. Based on the systematic calculation on the density of states, the double occupancy and the Fermi surface evolution of square-octagon lattice, we presented the phase diagrams of this splendid many particle system. The competition between the temperature and the on-site repulsive interaction in the isotropic square-octagon lattice has shown that both antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic order can be found not only in the metal phase, but also in the insulating phase. Antiferromagnetic metal phase disappeared in the phase diagram that consists of the anisotropic parameter λ and the on-site repulsive interaction U while the other phases still can be detected at T = 0.17. The results found in this work may contribute to understand well the properties of some consuming systems that have square-octagon structure, quasi square-octagon structure, such as ZnO.