No Arabic abstract
Electron-phonon ($e$-ph) interactions are key to understanding the dynamics of electrons in materials, and can be modeled accurately from first-principles. However, when electrons and holes form Coulomb-bound states (excitons), quantifying their interactions and scattering processes with phonons remains an open challenge. Here we show a rigorous approach for computing exciton-phonon (ex-ph) interactions and the associated exciton dynamical processes from first principles. Starting from the ab initio Bethe-Salpeter equation, we derive expressions for the ex-ph matrix elements and relaxation times. We apply our method to bulk hexagonal boron nitride, for which we map the ex-ph relaxation times as a function of exciton momentum and energy, analyze the temperature and phonon-mode dependence of the ex-ph scattering processes, and accurately predict the phonon-assisted photoluminescence. The approach introduced in this work is general and provides a framework for investigating exciton dynamics in a wide range of materials.
Phonon Hall effect (PHE) has attracted a lot of attention in recent years with many theoretical and experimental explorations published. While experiments work on complicated materials, theoretical studies are still hovering around the phenomenon-based models. Moreover, previous microscopic theory was found unable to explain large thermal Hall conductivity obtained by experiments in strontium titanate (STO). Therefore, as a first attempt to bridge this gap, we implement first-principles calculations to explore the PHE in real materials. Our work provides a new benchmark of the PHE in sodium chloride (NaCl) under a large external magnetic field. Moreover, we demonstrate our results in barium titanate (BTO), and discuss the results in STO in detail about their deviation from experiments. As a possible future direction, we further propose that the inner electronic Berry curvature plays an important role in the PHE in STO.
The coupling between electronic spins and lattice vibrations is fundamental for driving relaxation in magnetic materials. The debate over the nature of spin-phonon coupling dates back to the 40s, but the role of spin-spin, spin-orbit and hyperfine interactions, has never been fully established. Here we present a comprehensive study of the spin dynamics of a crystal of Vanadyl-based molecular qubits by means of first-order perturbation theory and first-principles calculations. We quantitatively determine the role of the Zeeman, hyperfine and electronic spin dipolar interactions in the direct mechanism of spin relaxation. We show that, in a high magnetic field regime, the modulation of the Zeeman Hamiltonian by the intra-molecular components of the acoustic phonons dominates the relaxation mechanism. In low fields, hyperfine coupling takes over, with the role of spin-spin dipolar interaction remaining the less important for the spin relaxation.
We develop a method for calculating the electron-phonon vertex in polar semiconductors and insulators from first principles. The present formalism generalizes the Frohlich vertex to the case of anisotropic materials and multiple phonon branches, and can be used either as a post-processing correction to standard electron-phonon calculations, or in conjunction with {it ab initio} interpolation based on maximally localized Wannier functions. We demonstrate this formalism by investigating the electron-phonon interactions in anatase TiO$_2$, and show that the polar vertex significantly reduces the electron lifetimes and enhances the anisotropy of the coupling. The present work enables {it ab initio} calculations of carrier mobilities, lifetimes, mass enhancement, and pairing in polar materials.
We have given a summary on our theoretical predictions of three kinds of topological semimetals (TSMs), namely, Dirac semimetal (DSM), Weyl semimetal (WSM) and Node-Line Semimetal (NLSM). TSMs are new states of quantum matters, which are different with topological insulators. They are characterized by the topological stability of Fermi surface, whether it encloses band crossing point, i.e., Dirac cone like energy node, or not. They are distinguished from each other by the degeneracy and momentum space distribution of the nodal points. To realize these intriguing topological quantum states is quite challenging and crucial to both fundamental science and future application. In 2012 and 2013, Na$_3$Bi and Cd$_3$As$_2$ were theoretically predicted to be DSM, respectively. Their experimental verifications in 2014 have ignited the hot and intensive studies on TSMs. The following theoretical prediction of nonmagnetic WSM in TaAs family stimulated a second wave and many experimental works have come out in this year. In 2014, a kind of three dimensional crystal of carbon has been proposed to be NLSM due to negligible spin-orbit coupling and coexistence of time-reversal and inversion symmetry. Though the final experimental confirmation of NLSM is still missing, there have been several theoretical proposals, including Cu$_3$PdN from us. In the final part, we have summarized the whole family of TSMs and their relationship.
We present a Greens function approach to calculate the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMI) from first principles electronic structure calculations, that is computationally more efficient and accurate than the most-commonly employed supercell and generalized Bloch-based approaches. The method is applied to the (111) Co/Pt bilayer where the Co- and/or Pt-thickness dependence of the DMI coefficients are calculated. Overall, the calculated DMI are in relatively good agreement with the corresponding values reported experimentally. Furthermore, we investigate the effect of strain in the DMI tensor elements and show that the isotropic N{e}el DMI can be significantly modulated by the normal strains, $epsilon_{xx},epsilon_{yy}$ and is relatively insensitive to the shear strain, $epsilon_{xy}$. Moreover, we show that anisotropic strains, $(epsilon_{xx}-epsilon_{yy})$ and $epsilon_{xy}$, result in the emergence of anisotropic N{e}el- and Bloch-type DMIs, respectively.