Transport Scaling and Critical Tilt Effects in Disordered 2D Dirac Fermions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how tilt influences transport and spectral properties of disordered 2D Dirac fermions, revealing complex scaling behaviors and tilt-driven localization-delocalization transitions.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of tilt effects on transport in disordered 2D Dirac systems, uncovering novel scaling laws and phase transitions not previously understood.

Findings

Conductivity scales logarithmically with system size for single Dirac nodes.

Tilt causes a spike in scaling coefficient at the transition between type-I and type-II Dirac regimes.

Different tilt orientations lead to contrasting localization behaviors, indicating a tilt-driven phase transition.

Abstract

Two-dimensional (2D) Dirac fermions occur ubiquitously in condensed matter systems from topological phases to quantum critical points. Since the advent of topological semimetals, where the dispersion is often tilted around the band crossing where the Dirac fermion can appear, tilt has emerged as a key handle that controls physical properties. We study how tilt affects the transport and spectral properties of tilted 2D Dirac fermions under scalar disorder. Although our spectral analyses always show conformity to appropriate Gaussian ensembles, suggestive of delocalization, the conductivity scaling $g(L)$ shows a surprising richness. For a single Dirac node, relevant for quantum Hall transitions and topological insulator surface states, we find $g(L)\sim a_1\log(L)$ with a tilt-dependent coefficient $a_1>0$. Interestingly, when the tilt and transport directions are aligned, $a_1$ and hence $g(L)$ shows a spike at the critical point between the type-I and type-II regimes of the Dirac node. For systems with two Dirac nodes with unbroken time-reversal symmetry, pertinent to quasi-2D Dirac materials, we find $g(L)\sim L^{a_1}(\log L)^{a_2}$. However, we find a surprising tension between tilt along and perpendicular to the transport directions. For the former, $a_1$ changes sign as a function of tilt, hinting at a tilt-driven localization-delocalization transition, while $a_1<0$ for all tilts in the latter case, implying localization. These localized behaviors also reveal tension with the delocalization seen in spectral properties and suggest differing localization tendencies in real and Hilbert spaces. Overall, our work identifies tilt as an essential control parameter that uncovers rich and unconventional transport physics in 2D Dirac materials.