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Register a new userExploring Novel Quantum Criticality in Strained Graphene
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Strain tuning is increasingly being recognized as a clean tuning parameter to induce novel behavior in quantum matter. Motivated by the possibility of straining graphene up to $20$ percent, we investigate novel quantum criticality due to interplay between strain-induced anisotropic band structure and critical antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations (AFSF) in this setting. We detail how this interplay drives $(i)$ a quantum phase transition (QPT) between the Dirac-semimetal-incoherent pseudogapped metal-correlated insulator as a function of strain ($epsilon$), and $(ii)$ critical AFSF-driven divergent nematic susceptibility near critical strain ($epsilon_{c}$) manifesting as critical singularities in magneto-thermal expansion and Gruneisen co-efficients. The correlated band insulator at large strain affords realization of a two-dimensional dimerized spin-singlet state due to this interplay, and we argue how doping such an insulator can lead to a spin-charge separated metal, leading to anomalous metallicity and possible unconventional superconductivity. On a wider front, our work serves to illustrate the range of novel states realizable by strain-tuning quantum materials.
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We examine the exchange Hamiltonian for magnetic adatoms in graphene with localized inner shell states. On symmetry grounds, we predict the existence of a class of orbitals that lead to a distinct class of quantum critical points in graphene, where the Kondo temperature scales as $T_{K}propto|J-J_{c}|^{1/3}$ near the critical coupling $J_{c}$, and the local spin is effectively screened by a emph{super-ohmic} bath. For this class, the RKKY interaction decays spatially with a fast power law $sim1/R^{7}$. Away from half filling, we show that the exchange coupling in graphene can be controlled across the quantum critical region by gating. We propose that the vicinity of the Kondo quantum critical point can be directly accessed with scanning tunneling probes and gating.
This conference summary and outlook provides a personal overview of the topics and themes of the August 2009 Dresden meeting on quantum criticality and novel phases. The dichotomy between the local moment and the itinerant views of magnetism is revisited and refreshed in new materials, new probes and new theoretical ideas. New universality and apparent zero temperature phases of matter move us beyond the old ideas of quantum criticality. This is accompanied by alternative pairing interactions and as yet unidentified phases developing in the vicinity of quantum critical points. In discussing novel order, the magnetic analogues of superconductivity are considered as candidate states for the hidden order that sometimes develops in the vicinity of quantum critical points in metallic systems. These analogues can be thought of as pairing in the particle-hole channel and are tabulated. This analogy is used to outline a framework to study the relation between ferromagnetic fluctuations and the propensity of a metal to nematic type phases which at weak coupling correspond to Pomeranchuk instabilities. This question can be related to the fundamental relations of Fermi liquid theory.
Investigation of materials that exhibit quantum phase transition provides valuable insights into fundamental problems in physics. We present neutron scattering under pressure in a triangular-lattice antiferromagnet which has a quantum disorder in the low-pressure phase and a noncollinear structure in the high-pressure phase. The neutron spectrum continuously evolves through the critical pressure; a single mode in the disordered state becomes soft with the pressure, and it splits into gapless and gapped modes in the ordered phase. Extended spin-wave theory reveals that the longitudinal and transverse fluctuations of spins are hybridized in the modes because of the noncollinearity, and novel magnetic excitations are formed. We report a new hybridization of the phase and amplitude fluctuations of the order parameter in a spontaneously symmetry-broken state.
The quantum Hall effect in curved space has been the subject of many theoretical investigations in the past, but devising a physical system to observe this effect is hard. Many works have indicated that electronic excitations in strained graphene realize Dirac fermions in curved space in the presence of a background pseudo-gauge field, providing an ideal playground for this. However, the absence of a direct matching between a numerical, strained tight-binding calculation of an observable and the corresponding curved space prediction has hindered realistic predictions. In this work, we provide this matching by deriving the low-energy Hamiltonian from the tight-binding model analytically to second order in the strain and mapping it to the curved-space Dirac equation. Using a strain profile that produces a constant pseudo-magnetic field and a constant curvature, we compute the Landau level spectrum with real-space numerical tight-binding calculations and find excellent agreement with the prediction of the quantum Hall effect in curved space. We conclude discussing experimental schemes for measuring this effect.
We study the role of long-range electron-electron interactions in a system of two-dimensional anisotropic Dirac fermions, which naturally appear in uniaxially strained graphene, graphene in external potentials, some strongly anisotropic topological insulators, and engineered anisotropic graphene structures. We find that while for small interactions and anisotropy the system restores the conventional isotropic Dirac liquid behavior, strong enough anisotropy can lead to the formation of a quasi-one dimensional electronic phase with dominant charge order (anisotropic excitonic insulator).
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