No Arabic abstract
We consider longitudinal nonlinear atomic vibrations in uniformly strained carbon chains with the cumulene structure ($=C=C=)_{n}$. With the aid of ab initio simulations, based on the density functional theory, we have revealed the phenomenon of the $pi$-mode softening in a certain range of its amplitude for the strain above the critical value $eta_{c}approx 11,{%}$. Condensation of this soft mode induces the structural transformation of the carbon chain with doubling of its unit cell. This is the Peierls phase transition in the strained cumulene, which was previously revealed in [Nano Lett. 14, 4224 (2014)]. The Peierls transition leads to appearance of the energy gap in the electron spectrum of the strained carbyne, and this material transforms from the conducting state to semiconducting or insulating states. The authors of the above paper emphasize that such phenomenon can be used for construction of various nanodevices. The $pi$-mode softening occurs because the old equilibrium positions (EQPs), around which carbon atoms vibrate at small strains, lose their stability and these atoms begin to vibrate in the new potential wells located near old EQPs. We study the stability of the new EQPs, as well as stability of vibrations in their vicinity. In previous paper [Physica D 203, 121(2005)], we proved that only three symmetry-determined Rosenberg nonlinear normal modes can exist in monoatomic chains with arbitrary interparticle interactions. They are the above-discussed $pi$-mode and two other modes, which we call $sigma$-mode and $tau$-mode. These modes correspond to the multiplication of the unit cell of the vibrational state by two, three or four times compared to that of the equilibrium state. We study properties of these modes in the chain model with arbitrary pair potential of interparticle interactions.
Nonlinear vibrations in strained monoatomic carbon chains are studied with the aid of ab initio methods based on the density functional theory. An unexpected phenomenon of structural transformation at the atomic level above a certain value of the strain was revealed in cumulene chain (carbyne-{beta}). This phenomenon is a consequence of stability loss of the old equilibrium atomic positions that occur at small strain, and appearance of two new stable equilibrium positions near each of them. The aforementioned restructuring gives rise to a softening of {pi}-mode whose frequency tends to zero in a certain region of amplitudes when carbon atoms begin to vibrate near new equilibrium positions. This resembles the concept of soft mode whose freezing is postulated in the theory of phase transitions in crystals to explain the transitions of displacement type. The dynamical modeling of mass point chains whose particles interact via Lennard-Jones potential can approximate our ab initio results well enough. In particular, this study demonstrates an essential role of dipole-dipole interactions between carbon atoms in formation of their new equilibrium positions in the cumulene chain. We believe that computer studying of Lennard-Jones chains enables to predict properties of various dynamical objects in carbon chains (different nonlinear normal modes and their bushes, discrete breathers etc.) which then can be verified by ab initio methods.
We demonstrate dynamical topological phase transitions in evolving Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) lattices made of interacting soliton arrays, which are entirely driven by nonlinearity and thereby exemplify emergent nonlinear topological phenomena. The phase transitions occur from topologically trivial-to-nontrivial phase in periodic succession with crossovers from topologically nontrivial-to-trivial regime. The signature of phase transition is gap-closing and re-opening point, where two extended states are pulled from the bands into the gap to become localized topological edge states. Crossovers occur via decoupling of the edge states from the bulk of the lattice.
We study ``nanoptera, which are non-localized solitary waves with exponentially small but non-decaying oscillations, in two singularly-perturbed Hertzian chains with precompression. These two systems are woodpile chains (which we model as systems of Hertzian particles and springs) and diatomic Hertzian chains with alternating masses. We demonstrate that nanoptera arise from Stokes phenomena and appear as special curves, called Stokes curves, are crossed in the complex plane. We use techniques from exponential asymptotics to obtain approximations of the oscillation amplitudes. Our analysis demonstrates that traveling waves in a singularly perturbed woodpile chain have a single Stokes curve, across which oscillations appear. Comparing these asymptotic predictions with numerical simulations reveals that this accurately describes the non-decaying oscillatory behavior in a woodpile chain. We perform a similar analysis of a diatomic Hertzian chain, that the nanpteron solution has two distinct exponentially small oscillatory contributions. We demonstrate that there exists a set of mass ratios for which these two contributions cancel to produce localized solitary waves. This result builds on prior experimental and numerical observations that there exist mass ratios that support localized solitary waves in diatomic Hertzian chains without precompression. Comparing asymptotic and numerical results in a diatomic Hertzian chain with precompression reveals that our exponential asymptotic approach accurately predicts the oscillation amplitude for a wide range of system parameters, but it fails to identify several values of the mass ratio that correspond to localized solitary-wave solutions.
We propose carbon nanotubes (CNTs) with magnetic impurities as a versatile platform to achieve unconventional Kondo physics, where the CNT bath is gapped by the spin-orbit interaction and surface curvature. While the strong-coupling phase is inaccessible for the special case of half-filled impurities in neutral armchair CNTs, the system in general can undergo quantum phase transitions to the Kondo ground state. The resultant position-specific phase diagrams are investigated upon variation of the CNT radius, chirality, and carrier doping, revealing several striking features, e.g., the existence of a maximal radius for nonarmchair CNTs to realize phase transitions, and an interference-induced suppression of the Kondo screening. We show that by tuning the Fermi energy via electrostatic gating, the quantum critical region can be experimentally accessed.
We study Majorana zero energy modes (MZEM) that occur in a s-wave superconducting surface, at the ends of a ferromagnetic (FM) chain of adatoms, in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit interaction (SOI) considering both non self-consistent and self-consistent superconducting order. We find that in the self-consistent solution the average superconducting gap function over the adatom sites has a discontinuous drop with increasing exchange interaction at the same critical value where the topological phase transition occurs. We also study the MZEM for both treatments of superconducting order and find that the decay length is a linear function of the exchange coupling strength, chemical potential and superconducting order. For wider FM chains the MZEM occur at smaller exchange couplings and the slope of the decay length as a function of exchange coupling grows with chain width. Thus we suggest experimental detection of different delocalization of MZEM in chains of varying widths. We discuss similarities and differences between the MZEM for the two treatments of the superconducting order.