No Arabic abstract
A new numerical method is proposed for determining the low-frequency dynamics of the charge carrier coupled to the deformable quantum lattice. As an example, the polaron band structure is calculated for the one-dimensional Holstein model. The adiabatic limit on the lattice, which cannot be reached by other approaches, is investigated. In particular, an accurate description is obtained of the crossover between quantum small adiabatic polarons, pinned by the lattice, and large adiabatic polarons, moving along the continuum as classical particles. It is shown how the adiabatic contributions to the polaron dispersion, involving spatial correlations over multiple lattice sites, can be treated easily in terms of coherent states.
The optical conductivity of charge carriers coupled to quantum phonons is studied in the framework of the one-dimensional spinless Holstein model. For one electron, variational diagonalisation yields exact results in the thermodynamic limit, whereas at finite carrier density analytical approximations based on previous work on single-particle spectral functions are obtained. Particular emphasis is put on deviations from weak-coupling, small-polaron or one-electron theories occurring at intermediate coupling and/or finite carrier density. The analytical results are in surprisingly good agreement with exact data, and exhibit the characteristic polaronic excitations observed in experiments on manganites.
Recent experiments show oscillations of dominant period h/2e in conductance vs. magnetic flux of charge density wave (CDW) rings above 77 K, revealing macroscopically observable quantum behavior. The time-correlated soliton tunneling model discussed here is based on coherent, Josephson-like tunneling of microscopic quantum solitons of charge 2e. The model interprets the CDW threshold electric field as a Coulomb blockade threshold for soliton pair creation, often much smaller than the classical depinning field but with the same impurity dependence (e.g., ~ ni^2 for for weak pinning). This picture draws upon the theory of time-correlated single-electron tunneling to interpret CDW dynamics above threshold. Similar to Feynmans derivation of the Josephson current-phase relation for a superconducting tunnel junction, the picture treats the Schru007fodinger equation as an emergent classical equation to describe the time-evolution of Josephson-coupled order parameters related to soliton dislocation droplets. Vector or time-varying scalar potentials can affect the order parameter phases to enable magnetic quantum interference in CDW rings or lead to interesting behavior in response to oscillatory electric fields. The ability to vary both magnitudes and phases is an aspect important to future applications in quantum computing.
The optical spectrum of the cubic helimagnetic metal FeGe has been investigated in the frequency range from 0.01 - 3.1 eV for different temperatures from 30 K to 296 K. The optical conductivity shows the evolution of a low energy (0.22 eV) interband transition and the development of a narrow free carrier response with a strong energy and temperature dependence. The frequency dependent effective mass and scattering rate derived from the optical data indicate the formation of dressed quasi-particles with a mass renormalization factor of 12. Similar to FeSi the spectral weight in FeGe is not recovered over a broad frequency range, an effect usually attributed to the influence of the on-site Coulomb interaction.
The ability to pump quantised amounts of charge is one of the hallmarks of topological materials. An archetypical example is Laughlins gauge argument for transporting an integer number of electrons between the edges of a quantum Hall cylinder upon insertion of a magnetic flux quantum. This is mathematically equivalent to the equally famous suggestion of Thouless that an integer number of electrons are pumped between two ends of a one-dimensional quantum wire upon sliding a charge-density wave over a single wave length. We use the correspondence between these descriptions to visualise the detailed dynamics of the electron flow during a single pumping cycle, which is difficult to do directly in the quantum Hall setup, because of the gauge freedom inherent to its description. We find a close correspondence between topological edge states and the mobility edges in charge-density wave, quantum Hall, and other topological systems. We illustrate this connection by describing an alternative, non-adiabatic mode of topological transport that displaces precisely the opposite amount of charge as compared to the adiabatic pump. We discuss possible experimental realisations in the context of ultracold atoms and photonic waveguide experiments.
We have grown single crystals of the type-VIII intermetallic clathrate Ba8Ga16Sn30 from both Sn and Ga flux, evaluated their compositions through electron microprobe analysis and studied their transport properties through measurements on temperature dependent resistivity, thermopower and Hall coefficient. Crystals grown in Sn flux show n-type carriers and those from Ga flux show p-type carriers, whereas all measured compositions remain very close to the stoichiometric 8:16:30 proportion of Ba:Ga:Sn, expected from charge-balance principles. Our results indicate a very high sensitivity of the charge carrier nature and density with respect to the growth conditions, leading to relevant differences in transport properties which point to the importance of tuning this material for optimal thermoelectric performance.