No Arabic abstract
We use two recently proposed methods to calculate exactly the spectrum of two spin-${1over 2}$ charge carriers moving in a ferromagnetic background, at zero temperature, for three types of models. By comparing the low-energy states in both the one-carrier and the two-carrier sectors, we analyze whether complex models with multiple sublattices can be accurately described by simpler Hamiltonians, such as one-band models. We find that while this is possible in the one-particle sector, the magnon-mediated interactions which are key to properly describe the two-carrier states of the complex model are not reproduced by the simpler models. We argue that this is true not just for ferromagnetic, but also for antiferromagnetic backgrounds. Our results question the ability of simple one-band models to accurately describe the low-energy physics of cuprate layers.
We propose two new methods to calculate exactly the spectrum of two spin-${1over 2}$ charge carriers moving in a ferromagnetic background, at zero temperature. We find that if the spins are located on a different sublattice than that on which the fermions move, magnon-mediated effective interactions are very strong and can bind the fermions into low-energy bipolarons with triplet character. This never happens in models where spins and charge carriers share the same lattice, whether they are in the same band or in different bands. This proves that effective one-lattice models do not describe correctly the low-energy part of the two-carrier spectrum of a two-sublattice model, even though they may describe the low-energy single-carrier spectrum appropriately.
The ability to probe symmetry breaking transitions on their natural time scales is one of the key challenges in nonequilibrium physics. Stripe ordering represents an intriguing type of broken symmetry, where complex interactions result in atomic-scale lines of charge and spin density. Although phonon anomalies and periodic distortions attest the importance of electron-phonon coupling in the formation of stripe phases, a direct time-domain view of vibrational symmetry breaking is lacking. We report experiments that track the transient multi-THz response of the model stripe compound La$_{1.75}$Sr$_{0.25}$NiO$_{4}$, yielding novel insight into its electronic and structural dynamics following an ultrafast optical quench. We find that although electronic carriers are immediately delocalized, the crystal symmetry remains initially frozen - as witnessed by time-delayed suppression of zone-folded Ni-O bending modes acting as a fingerprint of lattice symmetry. Longitudinal and transverse vibrations react with different speeds, indicating a strong directionality and an important role of polar interactions. The hidden complexity of electronic and structural coupling during stripe melting and formation, captured here within a single terahertz spectrum, opens new paths to understanding symmetry breaking dynamics in solids.
Using a realistic multi-band model for two holes doped into a CuO$_2$ layer, we devise a method to turn off the magnon-mediated interaction between the holes. This allows us to verify that this interaction is attractive, and therefore could indeed be (part of) the superconducting glue. We derive its analytical expression and show that it consists of a novel kind of pair-hopping+spin-exchange terms. Its coupling constant is fitted from the ground state energy obtained with variational exact diagonalization, and it faithfully reproduces the effect of the magnon-mediated attraction in the entire Brillouin zone. For realistic parameter values, this effective interaction is borderline strong enough to bind the holes into preformed pairs.
SmS, a prototypical intermediate valence compound as well as a candidate material for correlated topological insulator, has been studied by performing high-pressure nuclear magnetic resonance measurements on a $^{33}$S-enriched sample. The observation of an additional signal below 15-20~K above a nonmagnetic-magnetic transition pressure $P_{rm c2} = 2.0$~GPa gives evidence for the magnetic transition. The absence of a Curie-term in the Knight shift near $P_{rm c2}$ indicates that the transition occurs in electronic states where the localized character of $4f$ electrons is screened through a substantial hybridization. Two distinguishable signals coexist during the stepwise evolution of magnetic volume fraction with lowering temperature near $P_{rm c2}$, which is well described in the regime of first-order transition. The fact that hyperfine fields from the ordered moments cancel out at the S site leads us to a conclusion that the ordered phase has the type II antiferromagnetic structure.
We studied the relationship between the charge doping and the correlation, and its effects on the spectral function of the BaFe$_2$As$_2$ compound in the framework of the density functional theory combined with the dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT). The calculated mass enhancements showed that the electronic correlation varies systematically from weak to strong when moving from the heavily electron-doped regime to the heavily hole-doped one. Since the compound has a multi-orbital nature, the correlation is orbital-dependent and it increases as hole-doping increases. The Fe-3d$_{xy}$ (xy) orbital is much more correlated than the other orbitals, because it reaches its half-filled situation and has a narrower energy scale around the Fermi energy. Our findings can be consistently understood as the tendency of the heavily hole-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ compound to an orbital-selective Mott phase (OSMP). Moreover, the fact that the superconducting state of the heavily hole-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ is an extreme case of such a selective Mottness constrains the non-trivial role of the electronic correlation in iron-pnictide superconductors. In addition, the calculated spectral function shows a behavior that is compatible with experimental results reported for every charge-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ compound and clarifies the importance of the characterization of its physical effects on the material.