We present a method of extracting the exchange parameters of the classical Heisenberg model from first-principles calculations of spin-spiral total energies based on density functional theory. The exchange parameters of the transition-metal monoxides MnO and NiO are calculated and used to estimate magnetic properties such as transition temperatures and magnon energies. Furthermore we show how to relate the magnon energies directly to differences in spin-spiral total energies for systems containing an arbitrary number of magnetic sublattices. This provides a comparison between magnon energies using a finite number of exchange parameters and the infinite limit.
We review the theory and application of adiabatic exchange-correlation (xc-) kernels for ab initio calculations of ground state energies and quasiparticle excitations within the frameworks of the adiabatic connection fluctuation dissipation theorem a
nd Hedins equations, respectively. Various different xc-kernels, which are all rooted in the homogeneous electron gas, are introduced but hereafter we focus on the specific class of renormalized adiabatic kernels, in particular the rALDA and rAPBE. The kernels drastically improve the description of short-range correlations as compared to the random phase approximation (RPA), resulting in significantly better correlation energies. This effect greatly reduces the reliance on error cancellations, which is essential in RPA, and systematically improves covalent bond energies while preserving the good performance of the RPA for dispersive interactions. For quasiparticle energies, the xc-kernels account for vertex corrections that are missing in the GW self-energy. In this context, we show that the short-range correlations mainly correct the absolute band positions while the band gap is less affected in agreement with the known good performance of GW for the latter. The renormalized xc-kernels offer a rigorous extension of the RPA and GW methods with clear improvements in terms of accuracy at little extra computational cost.
The ultrastrong coupling of (quasi-)particles has gained considerable attention due to its application potential and richness of the underlying physics. Coupling phenomena arising due to electromagnetic interactions are well explored. In magnetically
ordered systems, the quantum-mechanical exchange-interaction should furthermore enable a fundamentally different coupling mechanism. Here, we report the observation of ultrastrong intralayer exchange-enhanced magnon-magnon coupling in a compensated ferrimagnet. We experimentally study the spin dynamics in a gadolinium iron garnet single crystal using broadband ferromagnetic resonance. Close to the ferrimagnetic compensation temperature, we observe ultrastrong coupling of clockwise and anticlockwise magnon modes. The magnon-magnon coupling strength reaches more than 30% of the mode frequency and can be tuned by varying the direction of the external magnetic field. We theoretically explain the observed phenomenon in terms of an exchange-enhanced mode-coupling mediated by a weak cubic anisotropy.
Core-electron x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is a powerful technique for studying the electronic structure and chemical composition of molecules, solids and surfaces. However, the interpretation of measured spectra and the assignment of peaks to at
oms in specific chemical environments is often challenging. Here, we address this problem and introduce a parameter-free computational approach for calculating absolute core-electron binding energies. In particular, we demonstrate that accurate absolute binding energies can be obtained from the total energy difference of the ground state and a state with an explicit core hole when exchange and correlation effects are described by a recently developed meta-generalized gradient approximation and relativistic effects are included even for light elements. We carry out calculations for molecules, solids and surface species and find excellent agreement with available experimental measurements. For example, we find a mean absolute error of only 0.16 eV for a reference set of 103 molecular core-electron binding energies. The capability to calculate accurate absolute core-electron binding energies will enable new insights into a wide range of chemical surface processes that are studied by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.
Recently topological aspects of magnon band structure have attracted much interest, and especially, the Dirac magnons in Cu3TeO6 have been observed experimentally. In this work, we calculate the magnetic exchange interactions Js using the first-princ
iples linear-response approach and find that these Js are short-range and negligible for the Cu-Cu atomic pair apart by longer than 7 Angstrom. Moreover there are only 5 sizable magnetic exchange interactions, and according to their signs and strengths, modest magnetic frustration is expected. Based on the obtained magnetic exchange couplings, we successfully reproduce the experimental spin-wave dispersions. The calculated neutron scattering cross section also agrees very well with the experiments. We also calculate Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions (DMIs) and estimate the canting angle (about 1.3{deg}) of the magnetic non-collinearity based on the competition between DMIs and Js, which is consistent with the experiment. The small canting angle agrees with that the current experiments cannot distinguish the DMI induced nodal line from a Dirac point in the spin-wave spectrum. Finally we analytically prove that the sum rule conjectured in [Nat. Phys. 14, 1011 (2018)] holds but only up to the 11th nearest neighbour.
Employing first principles electronic structure calculations in conjunction with the frozen-magnon method we calculate exchange interactions, spin-wave dispersion, and spin-wave stiffness constants in inverse-Heusler-based spin gapless semiconductor
(SGS) compounds Mn$_2$CoAl, Ti$_2$MnAl, Cr$_2$ZnSi, Ti$_2$CoSi and Ti$_2$VAs. We find that their magnetic behavior is similar to the half-metallic ferromagnetic full-Heusler alloys, i.e., the intersublattice exchange interactions play an essential role in the formation of the magnetic ground state and in determining the Curie temperature, $T_mathrm{c}$. All compounds, except Ti$_2$CoSi possess a ferrimagnetic ground state. Due to the finite energy gap in one spin channel, the exchange interactions decay sharply with the distance, and hence magnetism of these SGSs can be described considering only nearest and next-nearest neighbor exchange interactions. The calculated spin-wave dispersion curves are typical for ferrimagnets and ferromagnets. The spin-wave stiffness constants turn out to be larger than those of the elementary 3$d$-ferromagnets. Calculated exchange parameters are used as input to determine the temperature dependence of the magnetization and $T_mathrm{c}$ of the SGSs. We find that the $T_mathrm{c}$ of all compounds is much above the room temperature. The calculated magnetization curve for Mn$_2$CoAl as well as the Curie temperature are in very good agreement with available experimental data. The present study is expected to pave the way for a deeper understanding of the magnetic properties of the inverse-Heusler-based SGSs and enhance the interest in these materials for application in spintronic and magnetoelectronic devices.