@article{ScharfBraggioStambinietal.2020,
  author    = {Scharf, Benedikt and Braggio, Alessandro and Stambini, Elia and Giazotto, Francesco and Hankiewicz, Ewelina M.},
  title     = {Topological Josephson heat engine},
  series = {Communications Physics},
  volume    = {3},
  journal   = {Communications Physics},
  doi       = {10.1038/s42005-020-00463-6},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-230603},
  year      = {2020},
  abstract  = {Topological superconductors represent a fruitful playing ground for fundamental research as well as for potential applications in fault-tolerant quantum computing. Especially Josephson junctions based on topological superconductors remain intensely studied, both theoretically and experimentally. The characteristic property of these junctions is their 4-periodic ground-state fermion parity in the superconducting phase difference. Using such topological Josephson junctions, we introduce the concept of a topological Josephson heat engine. We discuss how this engine can be implemented as a Josephson-Stirling cycle in topological superconductors, thereby illustrating the potential of the intriguing and fruitful marriage between topology and coherent thermodynamics. It is shown that the Josephson-Stirling cycle constitutes a highly versatile thermodynamic machine with different modes of operation controlled by the cycle temperatures. Finally, the thermodynamic cycle reflects the hallmark 4 pi -periodicity of topological Josephson junctions and could therefore be envisioned as a complementary approach to test topological superconductivity. Topological superconductors are expected to be a key component of quantum computing systems but reliably detecting their exotic properties is a challenge. Here, the authors propose a topological Josephson heat engine which uses thermodynamic effects to probe the 4 pi -periodic ground state of a topological superconductor.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{TuanScharfŽutičetal.2017,
  author    = {Tuan, Dinh Van and Scharf, Benedikt and Žutič, Igor and Dery, Hanan},
  title     = {Marrying excitons and plasmons in monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides},
  series = {Physical Review X},
  volume    = {7},
  journal   = {Physical Review X},
  number    = {4},
  doi       = {10.1103/PhysRevX.7.041040},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-173030},
  year      = {2017},
  abstract  = {Just as photons are the quanta of light, plasmons are the quanta of orchestrated charge-density oscillations in conducting media. Plasmon phenomena in normal metals, superconductors, and doped semiconductors are often driven by long-wavelength Coulomb interactions. However, in crystals whose Fermi surface is comprised of disconnected pockets in the Brillouin zone, collective electron excitations can also attain a shortwave component when electrons transition between these pockets. In this work, we show that the band structure of monolayer transition-metal dichalcogenides gives rise to an intriguing mechanism through which shortwave plasmons are paired up with excitons. The coupling elucidates the origin for the optical sideband that is observed repeatedly in monolayers of WSe\(_2\) and WS\(_2\) but not understood. The theory makes it clear why exciton-plasmon coupling has the right conditions to manifest itself distinctly only in the optical spectra of electron-doped tungsten-based monolayers.},
  language  = {en}
}