No Arabic abstract
Using local density approximation plus dynamical mean-field theory (LDA+DMFT), we have computed the valence band photoelectron spectra of highly popular multiferroic BiFeO$_{3}$. Within DMFT, the local impurity problem is tackled by exact diagonalization (ED) solver. For comparison, we also present result from LDA+U approach, which is commonly used to compute physical properties of this compound. Our LDA+DMFT derived spectra match adequately with the experimental hard X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (HAXPES) and resonant photoelectron spectroscopy (RPES) for Fe 3$d$ states, whereas the other theoretical method that we employed failed to capture the features of the measured spectra. Thus, our investigation shows the importance of accurately incorporating the dynamical aspects of electron-electron interaction among the Fe 3$d$ orbitals in calculations to produce the experimental excitation spectra, which establishes BiFeO$_{3}$ as a strongly correlated electron system. The LDA+DMFT derived density of states (DOSs) exhibit significant amount of Fe 3$d$ states at the energy of Bi lone-pairs, implying that the latter is not as alone as previously thought in the spectral scenario. Our study also demonstrates that the combination of orbital cross-sections for the constituent elements and broadening schemes for the calculated spectral function are pivotal to explain the detailed structures of the experimental spectra.
The dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is a widely applicable approximation scheme for the investigation of correlated quantum many-particle systems on a lattice, e.g., electrons in solids and cold atoms in optical lattices. In particular, the combination of the DMFT with conventional methods for the calculation of electronic band structures has led to a powerful numerical approach which allows one to explore the properties of correlated materials. In this introductory article we discuss the foundations of the DMFT, derive the underlying self-consistency equations, and present several applications which have provided important insights into the properties of correlated matter.
A metal-insulator transition (MIT) in BiFeO$_3$ under pressure was investigated by a method combining Generalized Gradient Corrected Local Density Approximation with Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (GGA+DMFT). Our paramagnetic calculations are found to be in agreement with experimental phase diagram: Magnetic and spectral properties of BiFeO3 at ambient and high pressures were calculated for three experimental crystal structures $R3c$, $Pbnm$ and $Pmbar{3}m$. At ambient pressure in the $R3c$ phase, an insulating gap of 1.2 eV was obtained in good agreement with its experimental value. Both $R3c$ and $Pbnm$ phases have a metal-insulator transition that occurs simultaneously with a high-spin (HS) to low-spin (LS) transition. The critical pressure for the $Pbnm$ phase is 25-33 GPa that agrees well with the experimental observations. The high pressure and temperature $Pmbar{3}m$ phase exhibits a metallic behavior observed experimentally as well as in our calculations in the whole range of considered pressures and undergoes to the LS state at 33 GPa where a $Pbnm$ to $Pmbar{3}m$ transition is experimentally observed. The antiferromagnetic GGA+DMFT calculations carried out for the $Pbnm$ structure result in simultaneous MIT and HS-LS transitions at a critical pressure of 43 GPa in agreement with the experimental data.
We review the basic ideas of the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and some of the insights into the electronic structure of strongly correlated electrons obtained by this method in the context of model Hamiltonians. We then discuss the perspectives for carrying out more realistic DMFT studies of strongly correlated electron systems and we compare it with existent methods, LDA and LDA+U. We stress the existence of new functionals for electronic structure calculations which allow us to treat situations where the single--particle description breaks down such as the vicinity of the Mott transition.
We review recent results on the properties of materials with correlated electrons obtained within the LDA+DMFT approach, a combination of a conventional band structure approach based on the local density approximation (LDA) and the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The application to four outstanding problems in this field is discussed: (i) we compute the full valence band structure of the charge-transfer insulator NiO by explicitly including the p-d hybridization, (ii) we explain the origin for the simultaneously occuring metal-insulator transition and collapse of the magnetic moment in MnO and Fe2O3, (iii) we describe a novel GGA+DMFT scheme in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials which allows us to compute the orbital order and cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion in KCuF3 and LaMnO3, and (iv) we provide a general explanation for the appearance of kinks in the effective dispersion of correlated electrons in systems with a pronounced three-peak spectral function without having to resort to the coupling of electrons to bosonic excitations. These results provide a considerable progress in the fully microscopic investigations of correlated electron materials.
We present a review of the basic ideas and techniques of the spectral density functional theory which are currently used in electronic structure calculations of strongly-correlated materials where the one-electron description breaks down. We illustrate the method with several examples where interactions play a dominant role: systems near metal-insulator transition, systems near volume collapse transition, and systems with local moments.