No Arabic abstract
The three-chain Hubbard model for Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ known as a candidate material for the excitonic insulator is investigated over the wide range of energy gap $D$ between the two-fold degenerate conduction bands and the nondegenerate valence band including both semiconducting ($D>0$) and semimetallic ($D<0$) cases. In the semimetallic case, the difference of the band degeneracy inevitably causes the imbalance of each Fermi wavenumber, resulting in a remarkable excitonic state characterized by the condensation of excitons with finite center-of-mass momentum $q$, the so-called Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) excitonic state. With decreasing $D$ corresponding to increasing pressure, the obtained excitonic phase diagram shows a crossover from BEC ($Dsimg 0$) to BCS ($Dsiml 0$) regime, and then shows a distinct phase transition at a certain critical value $D_c(<0)$ from the uniform ($q=0$) to the FFLO ($q e 0$) excitonic state, as expected to be observed in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ under high pressure.
Transition metal chalcogenide Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$, a promising material for the excitonic insulator, is investigated on the basis of the quasi-one-dimensional three-chain Hubbard model with two conduction ($c$) bands and one valence ($f$) band. In the semimetallic case where only one of two $c$ bands and the $f$ band cross the Fermi level, the transition from the $c$-$f$ compensated semimetal to the uniform excitonic insulator takes place at low temperature as the same as in the semiconducting case. On the other hand, when another $c$ band also crosses the Fermi level, the system shows three types of Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) excitonic orders characterized by the condensation of excitons with finite center-of-mass momentum $q$ corresponding to the three types of nesting vectors between the imbalanced two $c$ and one $f$ Fermi surfaces. The obtained FFLO states are metallic in contrast to the excitonic insulator and are expected to be observed in semimetallic Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ under high pressure.
We investigate the excitonic fluctuation and its mediated superconductivity in the quasi one-dimensional three-chain Hubbard model for Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ known as a candidate material for the excitonic insulator. In the semiconducting case and the semimetallic case with a small band-overlapping where one conduction ($c$) band and one valence ($f$) band cross the Fermi level, the excitonic fluctuation with $bm{q}=bm{0}$ is enhanced due to the $c$-$f$ Coulomb interaction and diverges towards the uniform excitonic order corresponding to the excitonic insulator. On the other hands, in the semimetallic case with a large band-overlapping where two $c$ bands and one $f$ band cross the Fermi level, the non-uniform excitonic fluctuation with $bm{q} eq bm{0}$ corresponding to the nesting vector between the $c$ and $f$ Fermi-surfaces (FSs) becomes dominant and results in the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) excitonic order characterized by the condensation of excitons with finite center-of-mass momentum $bm{q}$. Near the instability, the largely enhanced excitonic fluctuations mediate the $c$-$f$ interband Cooper pairs with finite center-of-mass momentum resulting in the FFLO superconductivity, which is expected to be realized in the semimetallic Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ under high pressure.
We analyze the measured optical conductivity spectra using the density-functional-theory-based electronic structure calculation and density-matrix renormalization group calculation of an effective model. We show that, in contrast to a conventional description, the Bose-Einstein condensation of preformed excitons occurs in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$, despite the fact that a noninteracting band structure is a band-overlap semimetal rather than a small band-gap semiconductor. The system above the transition temperature is therefore not a semimetal, but rather a state of preformed excitons with a finite band gap. A novel insulator state caused by the strong electron-hole attraction is thus established in a real material.
The microscopic quantum interference associated with excitonic condensation in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ is studied in the BCS-type mean-field approximation. We show that in ultrasonic attenuation the coherence peak appears just below the transition temperature $T_{rm c}$ whereas in NMR spin-lattice relaxation the rate rapidly decreases below $T_{rm c}$; these observations can offer a crucial experimental test for the validity of the excitonic condensation scenario in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$. We also show that the excitonic condensation manifests itself in a jump of the heat capacity at $T_{rm c}$ as well as in softening of the elastic shear constant, in accordance with the second-order phase transition observed in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$.
In the presence of electron-phonon coupling, an excitonic insulator harbors two degenerate ground states described by an Ising-type order parameter. Starting from a microscopic Hamiltonian, we derive the equations of motion for the Ising order parameter in the phonon coupled excitonic insulator Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ and show that it can be controllably reversed on ultrashort timescales using appropriate laser pulse sequences. Using a combination of theory and time-resolved optical reflectivity measurements, we report evidence of such order parameter reversal in Ta$_2$NiSe$_5$ based on the anomalous behavior of its coherently excited order-parameter-coupled phonons. Our work expands the field of ultrafast order parameter control beyond spin and charge ordered materials.