• Academic
Staff Record
Associate Professor

Dimi Culcer

[e]: 

d.culcer@unsw.edu.au

[p]: 

+61(2) 9385 0123

[f]: 

+61(2) 9385 6060

Department: 

Subjects Taught: 

PHYS1121 Physics 1A
PHYS1131 Higher Physics 1A
PHYS1221 Physics 1B
PHYS1231 Higher Physics 1B
PHYS3113 Thermal Physics and Statistical Mechanics
PHYS3114 Electrodynamics
PHYS4142 Statistical Physics (Honours)
PHYS4143 Topics in Contemporary Physics (Honours)

Research Group(s): 

Dimitrie Culcer Group

Education: 

  • BA, MPhys Oxford, 2000.
  • PhD, The University of Texas at Austin, 2005.
  • Postdoc, Argonne National Lab 2006-2008, with Prof. Roland Winkler.
  • Postdoc, CMTC - University of Maryland, College Park, 2008-2010, with Prof. Sankar Das Sarma.

Research Interests: 

Our group focuses on two main areas: quantum transport and quantum computing. You can read our recent review on transport in topological materials here: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2053-1583/ab6ff7.

QUANTUM TRANSPORT

Our focus is on systems with strong spin-orbit interactions, such as topological insulators, Weyl semimetals, transition metal dichalcogenides and holes in semiconductor nanostructures. We are interested in nonequilibrium phenomena such as charge and spin transport that involve the interplay of spin-orbit coupling and associated topological quantities with disorder, carrier-carrier interactions, as well as external electric and magnetic fields.

At present our group is developing a program to understand the non-linear electrical and optical response of topological states, which serves as a platform towards an understanding of topological materials in general. Our recent work demonstrated that doped Dirac fermion systems exhibit a resonant photovoltaic response - you can read about it here: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.087402.  Similarly, we demonstrated that spin-charge disorder correlations have a strong effect on anomalous Hall transport in topological insulators, and can even flip the sign of the conductivity, as observed experimentally: https://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.123.126603.

Another area of interest is the crossover between diffusive and ballistic transport in topological edge states and realising the promise of dissipationless transport. As part of FLEET and in collaboration with Prof. Michael Fuhrer's group at Monash we are working to understand the magneto-resistance of topological edge states following exciting experimental observations: https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.01214.

Topics we have focused on in the past include screening and Friedel oscillations, magnetic instabilities, the Kondo effect, weak localisation, spin relaxation and dephasing, and graphene, whose Hamiltonian resembles that of spin-orbit coupled systems, with the real spin replaced by a lattice pseudospin degree of freedom.

QUANTUM COMPUTING

We are interested in quantum computing platforms and qubit architectures that employ spins confined in semiconductor quantum dots, as well as in atoms such as acceptors and donors. We study spin manipulation, relaxation, dephasing and entanglement schemes. Dephasing is especially important in quantum computing, since it is equivalent to a loss of information, and can hamper single-qubit operations as well as entanglement. It can come from noise, phonons, as well as other mechanisms. Our recent work showed this can be mitigated in semiconductor hole systems at specific optimal operation points, you can see our latest preprint on this topic here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.11143.

Honours, Awards and Memberships: 

Australian Research Council Future Fellow 2019-2023

Selected Publications: 

My Google Scholar profile: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=UaekZ2gAAAAJ&hl=en

  1. Pankaj Bhalla, Allan H. MacDonald, D. Culcer
    Resonant photovoltaic effect in doped magnetic semiconductors                                                                                           Phys. Rev. Lett. 124, 087402 (2020)

  2. E. Marcellina, Pankaj Bhalla, A. R. Hamilton, Dimitrie Culcer                                                                                        Signatures of quantum mechanical Zeeman effect in classical transport due to topological properties of two-dimensional spin-3/2 holes                                                                                                                                                                            Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communication) 101, 121302 (2020).

  3. Dimitrie Culcer and Attila Geresdi                                                                                                                                         Topological states                                                                                                                                                               Accepted for publication as part of Nanotechnology Roadmap.

  4. D. Culcer, Aydin Cem Keser, Yongqing Li, and Grigory Tkachov
    Transport in two-dimensional topological materials: recent developments in experiment and theory,                                      2D Materials https://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/ab6ff7 (2020).

  5. Aydin Cem Keser, Roberto Raimondi, D. Culcer
    Sign change in the anomalous Hall effect and strong transport effects in a 2D massive Dirac metal due to spin-charge correlated disorder Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 126603 (2019)

  6. Shuai Yang, Zhilin Li, Chaojing Lin, Changjiang Yi, Youguo Shi, D. Culcer, Yongqing Li                                   Unconventional temperature dependence of the anomalous Hall effect in HgCr2Se4
    Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 096601 (2019)

  7. Sultan Albarakati, Cheng Tan, Zhong-Jia Chen, James G. Partridge, Guolin Zheng, Lawrence Farrar, Edwin L.H. Mayes, Matthew R. Field, Changgu Lee, Yihao Wang, Yiming Xiong, Mingliang Tian, Feixiang Xiang, Alex R. Hamilton, Oleg A. Tretiakov, D. Culcer, Yu-Jun Zhao, Lan Wang                                                                                                          Antisymmetric magnetoresistance in van der Waals Fe3GeTe2/graphite/Fe3GeTe2 tri-layer heterostructures,                Science Advances 5, eaaw0409 (2019).

  1. Tuomo Tanttu, Bas Hensen, Kok Wai Chan, Henry Yang, Wister Huang, Michael Fogarty, Fay Hudson, Kohei Itoh, D. Culcer, Arne Laucht, Andrea Morello, Andrew Dzurak                                                                                                  Controlling spin-orbit interactions in silicon quantum dots using magnetic field direction                                                   Phys. Rev. X 9, 021028 (2019)

  2. M.A. Fogarty, K.W. Chan, B. Hensen, W. Huang, T. Tanttu, C.H. Yang, A. Laucht, M. Veldhorst, F.E. Hudson, K.M. Itoh, D. Culcer, A. Morello, A.S. Dzurak
    Integrated silicon qubit platform with single-spin addressability, exchange control and robust single-shot singlet-triplet readout                                                                                                                                                                                   Nature Communication 9, 4370 (2018).

  3. Maxim Trushin, Antonio H. Castro Neto, Giovanni Vignale, D. Culcer
    Hidden Anisotropy in the Drude Conductivity of Charge Carriers with Dirac-Schrodinger Dynamics Phys. Rev. B 100, 035427 (2019).

  4. Hong Liu, Elizabeth Marcellina, Alexander R. Hamilton, and D. Culcer
    Strong influence of spin-orbit coupling on magnetotransport in two-dimensional hole systems Physical Review Letters 121, 087701 (2018).

  5. E. Marcellina, A. Srinivasan, D.?S. Miserev, A.?F. Croxall, D.?A. Ritchie, I. Farrer, O.?P. Sushkov, D. Culcer, and A. R. Hamilton                                                                                                                                                                             Electrical Control of the Zeeman Spin Splitting in Two-Dimensional Hole Systems                                                            Physical Review Letters 121, 077701 (2018).

  6. J. C. Abadillo-Uriel, Joe Salfi, Xuedong Hu, Sven Rogge, M. J. Calderon, and D. Culcer                                         Entanglement control and magic angles for acceptor qubits in Si
    Applied Physics Letters 113, 012102 (2018).

  7. M.L.V. Tagliaferri, P.L. Bavdaz, W. Huang, A.S. Dzurak, D. Culcer, M. Veldhorst Impact of valley phase and splitting on readout of silicon spin qubits
    Physical Review B 97, 245412 (2018).

  8. Weizhe Edward Liu, Stefano Chesi, David Webb, U. Zuelicke, R. Winkler, Robert Joynt, and D. Culcer
    A generalized Stoner criterion and versatile spin ordering in two-dimensional spin-orbit coupled electron systems Physical Review B 96, 235425 (2017).

  9. Weizhe Edward Liu, Ewelina M. Hankiewicz, and D. Culcer
    Weak Localization and Antilocalization in Topological Materials with Impurity Spin-Orbit Interactions Invited article for Materials 10, 807 (2017).

  10. N. M. Zimmerman, Peihao Huang and Dimitrie Culcer
    Valley Phase and Voltage Control of Coherent Manipulation in Si Quantum Dots Nano Letters DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.7b01677.

  11. D. Culcer, A. Sekine and A. H. MacDonald
    Inter-band Coherence Response to Electric Fields in Crystals: Berry-Phase Contributions and Disorder Effects Physical Review B 96, 035106 (2017).

  1. Hong Liu and D. Culcer                                                                                                                                                     Coulomb drag in topological materials                                                                                                                                Invited article for Topical Issue on Spin-Orbit Coupled Materials, Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids (2017): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpcs.2017.06.015.

  2. Jo-Tzu Hung, Elizabeth Marcellina, Bin Wang, Alexander R. Hamilton, and D. Culcer                                                          Spin blockade as a probe of Zeeman interactions in hole quantum dots
    Physical Review B 95, 195316 (2017).

  3. Hong Liu, Weizhe Edward Liu, and D. Culcer                                                                                                              Anomalous Hall Coulomb drag of massive Dirac fermions                                                                                               Physical Review B 95, 205435 (2017).

  4. Daisy Q. Wang, Oleh Klochan, Jo-Tzu Hung, D. Culcer, Ian Farrer, David A. Ritchie, and Alex R. Hamilton          Anisotropic Pauli Spin Blockade of Holes in a GaAs Double Quantum Dot
    Nano Letters DOI: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.6b03752 (arXiv:1612.01062)

  5. J. Salfi, J. A. Mol, D. Culcer, and S. Rogge
    A charge-insensitive single-atom spin-orbit qubit in silicon                                                                                                Physical Review Letters 116, 246801 (2016).

  6. J. Salfi, M. Tong, S. Rogge, and D. Culcer,
    Quantum computing with interface-bound silicon acceptor qubits
    Invited article for the Focus Issue on Quantum Information Processing, Nanotechnology 27, 244001 (2016).

  7. E. Marcellina, A. R. Hamilton, R. Winkler, and D. Culcer
    Spin-orbit interactions in inversion-asymmetric 2D hole systems: a variational analysis                                                   Physical Review B 95, 075305 (2017).

  8. W. Huang, M. Veldhorst, N. M. Zimmerman, A. S. Dzurak, and D. Culcer                                                                                 A valley-driven spin-orbit qubit in silicon
    Physical Review B 95, 075403 (2017).

  9. P. Boross, G. Szechenyi, D. Culcer, and A. Palyi
    Control of valley dynamics in silicon quantum dots in the presence of an interface step                                                   Physical Review B 94, 035438 (2016).

  10. P. Adroguer, W. E. Liu, D. Culcer and E. M. Hankiewicz
    Conductivity Corrections for Topological Insulators with Spin-Orbit Impurities: Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka Formula Revisited Physical Review B 92, 241402 (2015).

  11. A. Kha, R. Joynt and D. Culcer
    Do micromagnets expose spin qubits to charge and Johnson noise?                                                                                  Applied Physics Letters 107, 172101 (2015).

  12. H. Liu, W. E. Liu, and D. Culcer
    Coulomb drag in topological insulator films                                                                                                                       Physica E 79, 72 (2015).

  1. Z. Yue, X. Wang, D. Wang, J. Wang, D. Culcer, and S. Dou                                                                                                  Crossover of magnetoresistance from fourfold to twofold symmetry in SmB6 single crystal, a topological Kondo insulator Journal of the Physical Society of Japan 84, 044717 (2015).

  2. A. Bermeister, D. Keith, and D. Culcer
    Charge noise, spin-orbit coupling, and dephasing of single-spin qubits                                                                                   Appl. Phys. Lett. 105, 192102 (2014).

  3. Chenyong Ju, Chao Lei, Xiangkun Xu, D. Culcer, Zhenyu Zhang, and Jiangfeng Du
    NV-Center Based Digital Quantum Simulation of a Quantum Phase Transition in Topological Insulators                           Phys. Rev. B 89, 045432 (2014); selected for Editor’s Suggestions.

  4. Weizhe Edward Liu, Hong Liu and D. Culcer
    Screening, Friedel oscillations and low-temperature conductivity in topological insulator thin films                                       Phys. Rev. B 89, 195417 (2014).

  5. G.-F. Zhang, X.-G. Li, G-F. Wu, J. Wang, D. Culcer, E. Kaxiras, and Z.-Y. Zhang                                                     Topological Proximity Effects in Graphene Nanoribbon Heterostructures                                                                          Nanoscale 6, 3259 (2014).

  6. Jie Wang and D. Culcer
    Suppression of the Kondo Resistivity Minimum in Magnetic Topological Insulators                                                                Phys. Rev. B 88, 125140 (2013).

  7. L. Jiang, C. H. Yang, Z. Pan, A. Rossi, A. S. Dzurak, and D. Culcer                                                                               Coulomb interaction and valley-orbit coupling in Si quantum dots                                                                                        Phys. Rev. B 88, 085311, (2013).

  8. Xintao Bi, Peiru He, E. M. Hankiewicz, R. Winkler, G. Vignale, and D. Culcer                                                          Anomalous spin precession and spin Hall effect in semiconductor quantum wells                                                                Phys. Rev. B 88, 035316 (2013).

  9. D. Culcer and N. M. Zimmerman
    Dephasing of Si singlet-triplet qubits due to charge and spin defects                                                                                    Appl. Phys. Lett. 102, 232108 (2013).

  10. Weizhe Edward Liu, Allan H. MacDonald, and D. Culcer                                                                                                Electron-electron interactions in non-equilibrium bilayer graphene Phys. Rev. B 87, 085408 (2013).

  11. X.-G. Li, G.-F. Zhang, G-F. Wu, H. Chen, D. Culcer, and Z.-Y. Zhang                                                                             Proximity effects in topological insulator heterostructures
    Chin. Phys. B 22, 097306 (2013).