We investigate the influence of itinerant carriers on dynamics and fluctuation of local moments in Fe-based superconductors, via linear spin-wave analysis of a spin-fermion model containing both itinerant and local degrees of freedom. Surprisingly ag
ainst the common lore, instead of enhancing the ($pi$,0) order, itinerant carriers with well nested Fermi surfaces is found to induce significant amount of textit{spatial} and temporal quantum fluctuation that leads to the observed small ordered moment. Interestingly, the underlying mechanism is shown to be intra-pocket nesting-associated long-range coupling, rather than the previously believed ferromagnetic double-exchange effect. This challenges the validity of ferromagnetically compensated first-neighbor coupling reported from short-range fitting to the experimental dispersion, which turns out to result instead from the ferro-orbital order that is also found instrumental in stabilizing the magnetic order.
We experimentally demonstrate dressed multi-wave mixing (MWM) and the reflection of the probe beam due to electromagnetically induced absorption (EIA) grating can coexist in a five-level atomic ensemble. The reflection is derived from the photonic ba
nd gap (PBG) of EIA grating, which is much broader than the PBG of EIT grating. Therefore, EIA-type PBG can reflect more energy from probe than EIT-type PBG does, which can effectively affect the MWM signal. The EIA-type as well as EIT-type PBG can be controlled by multiple parameters including the frequency detunings, propagation angles and powers of the involved light fields. Also, the EIA-type PBG by considering both the linear and third-order nonlinear refractive indices is also investigated. The theoretical analysis agrees well with the experimental results. This investigation has potential applications in all-optical communication and information processing.
We study the S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice with nearest-neighbor and plaquette four-spin exchanges (introduced by A.W. Sandvik, Phys. Rev. Lett. {bf 98}, 227202 (2007).) This model undergoes a quantum phase transition from a
spontaneously dimerized phase to Neel order at a critical coupling. We show that as the critical point is approached from the dimerized side, the system exhibits strong fluctuations in the dimer background, reflected in the presence of a low-energy singlet mode, with a simultaneous rise in the triplet quasiparticle density. We find that both singlet and triplet modes of high density condense at the transition, signaling restoration of lattice symmetry. In our approach, which goes beyond mean-field theory in terms of the triplet excitations, the transition appears sharp; however since our method breaks down near the critical point, we argue that we cannot make a definite conclusion regarding the order of the transition.
We study the magnetic excitations of undoped iron oxypnictides using a three-dimensional Heisenberg model with single-ion anisotropy. Analytic forms of the spin wave dispersion, velocities, and structure factor are given. Aside from quantitative comp
arisons which can be made to inelastic neutron scattering experiments, we also give qualitative criteria which can distinguish various regimes of coupling strength. The magnetization reduction due to quantum zero point fluctuations shows clear dependence on the c-axis coupling.
We propose a trilayer $pi$-junction that takes advantage of the unconventional $s_{x^2 y^2}=cos k_x cos k_y$ pairing symmetry which changes sign between electron and hole Fermi pockets in the iron pnictides. In addition, we also present theoretical r
esults for Andreev bound states in thin superconductor-normal metal (or insulator) iron-pnictide junctions. The presence of nontrivial in-gap states, which uniquely appear in this unconventional pairing state, is a distinct feature in comparison to other singlet pairing states.
We derive exact results for close-packed dimers on the triangular kagome lattice (TKL), formed by inserting triangles into the triangles of the kagome lattice. Because the TKL is a non-bipartite lattice, dimer-dimer correlations are short-ranged, so
that the ground state at the Rokhsar-Kivelson (RK) point of the corresponding quantum dimer model on the same lattice is a short-ranged spin liquid. Using the Pfaffian method, we derive an exact form for the free energy, and we find that the entropy is 1/3 ln2 per site, regardless of the weights of the bonds. The occupation probability of every bond is 1/4 in the case of equal weights on every bond. Similar to the case of lattices formed by corner-sharing triangles (such as the kagome and squagome lattices), we find that the dimer-dimer correlation function is identically zero beyond a certain (short) distance. We find in addition that monomers are deconfined on the TKL, indicating that there is a short-ranged spin liquid phase at the RK point. We also find exact results for the ground state energy of the classical Heisenberg model. The ground state can be ferromagnetic, ferrimagnetic, locally coplanar, or locally canted, depending on the couplings. From the dimer model and the classical spin model, we derive upper bounds on the ground state energy of the quantum Heisenberg model on the TKL.
We report inelastic neutron scattering studies of magnetic excitations in antiferromagnetically ordered SrFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ ($T_{N}=220$ K), the parent compound of the FeAs-based superconductors. At low temperatures (T=7 K), the spectrum of magnetic e
xcitations $S(Q,hbar omega)$ consists of a Bragg peak at the elastic position ($hbar omega =0$ meV), a spin gap ($ Delta leq 6.5$ meV), and sharp spin wave excitations at higher energies. Based on the observed dispersion relation, we estimate the effective magnetic exchange coupling using a Heisenberg model. On warming across $T_{N} $, the low temperature spin gap rapidly closes, with weak critical scattering and spin-spin correlations in the paramagnetic state. The antiferromagnetic order in SrFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ is therefore consistent with a first order phase transition, similar to the structural lattice distortion.
We calculate the expected finite frequency neutron scattering intensity based on the two-sublattice collinear antiferromagnet found by recent neutron scattering experiments as well as by theoretical analysis on the iron oxypnictide LaOFeAs. We consid
er two types of superexchange couplings between Fe atoms: nearest-neighbor coupling J1 and next-nearest-neighbor coupling J2. We show how to distinguish experimentally between ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic J1. Whereas magnetic excitations in the cuprates display a so-called resonance peak at (pi,pi) (corresponding to a saddlepoint in the magnetic spectrum) which is at a wavevector that is at least close to nesting Fermi-surface-like structures, no such corresponding excitations exist in the iron pnictides. Rather, we find saddlepoints near (pi,pi/2) and (0,pi/2)(and symmetry related points). Unlike in the cuprates, none of these vectors are close to nesting the Fermi surfaces.
The recently fabricated two-dimensional magnetic materials Cu9X2(cpa)6.xH2O (cpa=2-carboxypentonic acid; X=F,Cl,Br) have copper sites which form a triangular kagome lattice (TKL), formed by introducing small triangles (``a-trimers) inside of each kag
ome triangle (``b-trimer). We show that in the limit where spins residing on b-trimers have Ising character, quantum fluctuations of XXZ spins residing on the a-trimers can be exactly accounted for in the absence of applied field. This is accomplished through a mapping to the kagome Ising model, for which exact analytic solutions exist. We derive the complete finite temperature phase diagram for this XXZ-Ising model, including the residual zero temperature entropies of the seven ground state phases. Whereas the disordered (spin liquid) ground state of the pure Ising TKL model has macroscopic residual entropy ln72=4.2767... per unit cell, the introduction of transverse(quantum) couplings between neighboring $a$-spins reduces this entropy to 2.5258... per unit cell. In the presence of applied magnetic field, we map the TKL XXZ-Ising model to the kagome Ising model with three-spin interactions, and derive the ground state phase diagram. A small (or even infinitesimal) field leads to a new phase that corresponds to a non-intersecting loop gas on the kagome lattice, with entropy 1.4053... per unit cell and a mean magnetization for the b-spins of 0.12(1) per site. In addition, we find that for moderate applied field, there is a critical spin liquid phase which maps to close-packed dimers on the honeycomb lattice, which survives even when the a-spins are in the Heisenberg limit.
We study the thermodynamics of Ising spins on the triangular kagome lattice (TKL) using exact analytic methods as well as Monte Carlo simulations. We present the free energy, internal energy, specific heat, entropy, sublattice magnetizations, and sus
ceptibility. We describe the rich phase diagram of the model as a function of coupling constants, temperature, and applied magnetic field. For frustrated interactions in the absence of applied field, the ground state is a spin liquid phase with integer residual entropy per spin $s_0/k_B={1/9} ln 72approx 0.4752...$. In weak applied field, the system maps to the dimer model on a honeycomb lattice, with irrational residual entropy 0.0359 per spin and quasi-long-range order with power-law spin-spin correlations that should be detectable by neutron scattering. The power-law correlations become exponential at finite temperatures, but the correlation length may still be long.
