No Arabic abstract
The fluctuations of the magnetic order parameter, or longitudinal spin excitations, are investigated theoretically in the ferromagnetic Fe and Ni as well as in the antiferromagnetic phase of the pnictide superconductor FeSe. The charge and spin dynamics of these systems is described by evaluating the generalized charge and spin density response function calculated from first-principles linear response time dependent density functional theory within adiabatic local spin density approximation. We observe that the formally non-interacting Kohn-Sham system features strong coupling between the magnetization and charge dynamics in the longitudinal channel and that the coupling is effectively removed upon the inclusion of the Coulomb interaction in the charge channel and the resulting appearance of plasmons. The longitudinal spin fluctuations acquire a collective character without the emergence of the Goldstone boson, similar to the case of paramagnon excitations in non-magnetic metals like Pd. In ferromagnetic Fe and Ni the longitudinal spin dynamics is governed by interactions between low-energy intraband electron-hole pairs while in quasi two dimensional antiferromagnet FeSe it is dominated by the interband transitions with energies of the order of exchange splitting. In the later material, the collective longitudinal magnetization fluctuations feature well defined energies and long life times for small momenta and appear below the particle-hole continuum. The modes become strongly Landau-damped for growing wave-vectors. We relate our theoretical findings to existing experimental spin-polarized electron energy loss spectroscopy results. In bulk bcc Fe, the longitudinal magnetic modes appear above the typical energies of transverse spin-waves, have energies comparable with the Stoner spin-flip excitation continuum, and are order of magnitude less energetic than the charge dynamics.
First principles approaches have been successful in solving many-body Hamiltonians for real materials to an extent when correlations are weak or moderate. As the electronic correlations become stronger often embedding methods based on first principles approaches are used to better treat the correlations by solving a suitably chosen many-body Hamiltonian with a higher level theory. Such combined methods are often referred to as second principles approaches. At such level of the theory the self energy, i.e. the functional that embodies the stronger electronic correlations, is either a function of energy or momentum or both. The success of such theories is commonly measured by the quality of the self energy functional. However, self-consistency in the self-energy should, in principle, also change the real space charge distribution in a correlated material and be able to modify the electronic eigenfunctions, which is often undermined in second principles approaches. Here we study the impact of charge self-consistency within two example cases: TiSe$_{2}$, a three-dimensional charge-density-wave candidate material, and CrBr$_{3}$, a two-dimensional ferromagnet, and show how real space charge re-distribution due to correlation effects taken into account within a first principles Greens function based many-body perturbative approach is key in driving qualitative changes to the final electronic structure of these materials.
Monolayer NbSe$_2$ has recently been shown to be a 2-dimensional superconductor, with a competing charge-density wave (CDW) order. This work investigates the electronic structure of monolayer NbSe$_2$ based on first principles calculations, focusing on charge and magnetic orders in connection to the superconductivity. It is found that decreased screening in the monolayer NbSe$_2$ with a perfect lattice exhibits magnetic instability, which is removed by the formation of CDW. Two energetically competitive but distinct $3times3$ CDW structures are revealed computationally, which have a significant impact on the Fermi surface. The relations of the potential CDW phases with experimental structure and the coexisting superconductivity are discussed.
Electronic nematicity is an important order in most iron-based superconductors, and FeSe represents a unique example, in which nematicity disentangles from spin ordering. It is commonly perceived that this property arises from strong electronic correlation, which can not be properly captured by density functional theory (DFT). Here, we show that by properly considering the paramagnetic condition and carefully searching the energy landscape with symmetry-preconditioned wavefunctions, two nematic solutions stand out at either the DFT+$U$ or hybrid functional level, both of which are lower in energy than the symmetric solution. The ground-state band structure and Fermi surface can be well compared with the recent experimental results. Symmetry analysis assigns these two new solutions to the $B_{1g}$ and $E_u$ irreducible representations of the D$_{4h}$ point group. While the $B_{1g}$ Ising nematicity has been widely discussed in the context of vestigial stripe antiferromagnetic order, the two-component $E_u$ vector nematicity is beyond previous theoretical discussion. Distinct from the $B_{1g}$ order, the $E_u$ order features mixing of the Fe $d$-orbitals and inversion symmetry breaking, which lead to striking experimental consequences, e.g. missing of an electron pocket.
We determine the nature of coupled phonons and magnetic excitations in AlFeO3 using inelastic light scattering from 5 K to 315 K covering a spectral range from 100-2200 cm-1 and complementary first-principles density functional theory-based calculations. A strong spin-phonon coupling and magnetic ordering induced phonon renormalization are evident in (a) anomalous temperature dependence of many modes with frequencies below 850 cm-1, particularly near the magnetic transition temperature Tc ~ 250 K, (b) distinct changes in band positions of high frequency Raman bands between 1100-1800 cm-1, in particular a broad mode near 1250 cm-1 appears only below Tc attributed to the two-magnon Raman scattering. We also observe weak anomalies in the mode frequencies at ~ 100 K, due to a magnetically driven ferroelectric phase transition. Understanding of these experimental observations has been possible on the basis of first-principles calculations of phonons spectrum and their coupling with spins.
The complicated electronic, magnetic, and colossal magnetoresistant (CMR) properties of Sr and Ca doped lanthanum manganites can be understood by spin-polarized first-principles calculations. The electronic properties can be attributed to a detailed balancing between Sr and Ca induced metal-like O 2p and majority-spin (majority-spin) Mn eg delocalized states and the insulator-like minority-spin (minority-spin) Mn t2g band near the Fermi level (EF). The magnetic properties can be attributed to a detailed balancing between O mediated antiferromagnetic superexchange and delocalized majority-spin Mn eg-state mediated ferromagnetic spin-spin couplings. While CMR can be attributed to the lining up of magnetic domains trigged by the applied magnetic field, which suppresses the trapping ability of the empty Mn t2g states that resists the motion of conducting Mn majority-spin eg electrons.