No Arabic abstract
In this work, we investigate models for bulk, bi- and multilayers containing half-metallic ferromagnets (HMFs), at zero and at finite temperature, in order to elucidate the effects of strong electronic correlations on the spectral properties (density of states). Our focus is on the evolution of the finite-temperature many-body induced tails in the half-metallic gap. To this end, the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) is employed. For the bulk, a Bethe lattice model is solved using a matrix product states based impurity solver at zero temperature and a continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo (CT-QMC) solver at finite temperature. We demonstrate numerically, in agreement with the analytical result, that the tails vanish at the Fermi level at zero temperature. In order to study multilayers, taken to be square lattices within the layers, we use the real-space DMFT extension with the CT-QMC impurity solver. For bilayers formed by the HMF with a band or correlated insulator, we find that charge fluctuations between the layers enhance the finite temperature tails. In addition, in the presence of inter-layer hopping, a coherent quasiparticle peak forms in the otherwise correlated insulator. In the multilayer heterostructure setup, we find that by suitably choosing the model parameters, the tails at the HMF/Mott insulator interface can be reduced significantly, and that a high spin polarization is conceivable, even in the presence of long-ranged electrostatic interactions.
Anomalous magnetic and electronic properties of the half-metallic ferromagnets (HMF) have been discussed. The general conception of the HMF electronic structure which take into account the most important correlation effects from electron-magnon interactions, in particular, the spin-polaron effects, is presented. Special attention is paid to the so called non-quasiparticle (NQP) or incoherent states which are present in the gap near the Fermi level and can give considerable contributions to thermodynamic and transport properties. Prospects of experimental observation of the NQP states in core-level spectroscopy is discussed. Special features of transport properties of the HMF which are connected with the absence of one-magnon spin-flip scattering processes are investigated. The temperature and magnetic field dependences of resistivity in various regimes are calculated. It is shown that the NQP states can give a dominate contribution to the temperature dependence of the impurity-induced resistivity and in the tunnel junction conductivity. First principle calculations of the NQP-states for the prototype half-metallic material NiMnSb within the local-density approximation plus dynamical mean field theory (LDA+DMFT) are presented.
Using the recently developed Nth-order muffin-tin-orbital (NMTO) based downfolding technique we revisit the electronic properties of half-metallic ferromagnets, the semi-Heusler NiMnSb and rutile CrO2. The NMTO Wannier orbitals for the Mn-d and Cr-t2g manifolds are constructed and the mechanism of chemical bonding is discussed. The effective hopping Hamiltonian parameters are calculated using a NMTO downfolded basis set. We propose model Hamiltonian parameters with possibly minimal basis sets for both half-metallic ferromagnetic alloys.
Including on-site electronic interactions described by the multi-orbital Hubbard model we study the correlation effects in the electronic structure of bulk palladium. We use a combined density functional and dynamical mean field theory, LDA+DMFT, based on the fluctuation exchange approximation. The agreement between the experimentally determined and the theoretical lattice constant and bulk modulus is improved when correlation effects are included. It is found that correlations modify the Fermi surface around the neck at the $L$-point while the Fermi surface tube structures show little correlation effects. At the same time we discuss the possibility of satellite formation in the high energy binding region. Spectral functions obtained within the LDA+DMFT and $GW$ methods are compared to discuss non-local correlation effects. For relatively weak interaction strength of the local Coulomb and exchange parameters spectra from LDA+DMFT shows no major difference in comparison to $GW$.
We present results for the electronic structure of alpha uranium using a recently developed quasiparticle self-consistent GW method (QSGW). This is the first time that the f-orbital electron-electron interactions in an actinide has been treated by a first-principles method beyond the level of the generalized gradient approximation (GGA) to the local density approximation (LDA). We show that the QSGW approximation predicts an f-level shift upwards of about 0.5 eV with respect to the other metallic s-d states and that there is a significant f-band narrowing when compared to LDA band-structure results. Nonetheless, because of the overall low f-electron occupation number in uranium, ground-state properties and the occupied band structure around the Fermi energy is not significantly affected. The correlations predominate in the unoccupied part of the f states. This provides the first formal justification for the success of LDA and GGA calculations in describing the ground-state properties of this material.
Do electrons become ferromagnetic just because of their repulisve Coulomb interaction? Our calculations on the three-dimensional electron gas imply that itinerant ferromagnetim of delocalized electrons without lattice and band structure, the most basic model considered by Stoner, is suppressed due to many-body correlations as speculated already by Wigner, and a possible ferromagnetic transition lowering the density is precluded by the formation of the Wigner crystal.