Date Thesis Awarded
5-2019
Access Type
Honors Thesis -- Access Restricted On-Campus Only
Degree Name
Bachelors of Science (BS)
Department
Physics
Advisor
Enrico Rossi
Committee Members
Seth Aubin
Pierre Clare
Abstract
Chiral materials are a class of systems in which the momentum of quasiparticles is coupled to a pseudospin degree of freedom, thus affecting their transport properties. In particular, such materials can exhibit Klein tunneling, in which chiral particles tunnel through a potential barrier with probability one due to a suppression of backscattering. In chiral materials with an anisotropic band structure, this tunneling depends nontrivially on the interplay between chirality and the direction of dispersion.
We discuss the consequences of transport in a minimal chiral anisotropic model, highlighting the role of the pseudospin in scattering through a Klein barrier. We implement this model in bilayer phosphorene, a two-dimensional material in which low-energy quasiparticles exhibit both anisotropy and chirality. We find an effective two-band model for the system and investigate the dependence of Klein tunneling on the incident angle of incoming particles. Finally, we propose a scheme to experimentally detect anisotropy of chiral materials through scattering.
Recommended Citation
Gliozzi, Jacopo, "Chiral Transport in Anisotropic Materials" (2019). Undergraduate Honors Theses. William & Mary. Paper 1331.
https://scholarworks.wm.edu/honorstheses/1331
