Doped Mott insulator as the origin of heavy Fermion behavior in LiV2O4

We investigate the electronic structure of LiV2O4, for which heavy fermion behavior has been observed in various experiments, by the combination of the local density approximation and dynamical mean field theory. To obtain results at zero temperature, we employ the projective quantum Monte Carlo method as an impurity solver. Our results show that the strongly correlated a1g band is a lightly doped Mott insulator which -at low temperatures- shows a sharp (heavy) quasiparticle peak just above the Fermi level, which is consistent with recent photoemission experiment by Shimoyamada et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 96 026403 (2006)].Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Temperature dependent correlations in covalent insulators

Motivated by the peculiar behavior of FeSi and FeSb2 we study the effect of local electronic correlations on magnetic, transport and optical properties in a specific type of band insulator, namely a covalent insulator. Investigating a minimum model of covalent insulator within a single-site dynamical mean-field approximation we are able to obtain the crossover from low temperature non-magnetic insulator to high-temperature paramagnetic metal with parameters realistic for FeSi and FeSb2 systems. Our results show that the behavior of FeSi does not imply microscopic description in terms of Kondo insulator (periodic Anderson model) as can be often found in the literature, but in fact reflects generic properties of a broader class of materials.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Specific features of the electrical resistance of half-metallic ferromagnetic alloys Co2CrAl and Co2CrGa

It has been shown by comparing the results of studying the electrical and magnetic properties of the half-metallic ferromagnetic Heusler alloys Co2CrAl and Co2CrGa with the calculations of their electronic structure that high values of the electrical resistivity ρ are caused by a disordered distribution of atoms over the sites of the L21 cubic structure, and the anomalous behavior of ρ(T) is associated with the transformation of the electronic spectrum due to the ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic transition. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd

Internal energy and parameters of the order-disorder phase transition in titanium monoxide TiO y

Quantum-mechanical ab initio calculations are used to simulate the free energy functions for titanium monoxide TiO y . The effect of the long-range order of the Ti5O5 type superstructure on the internal energy of the compound is studied by the supercell method. The dependences of the configuration entropy and free energy on the long-range order parameter are determined. It is found that the order-disorder phase transition in titanium monoxide must occur in accordance with the mechanism of the first-order phase transition with a critical value of the long-range order parameter of 0.971. The calculated parameters of the phase transition are compared with the experimental data and the results obtained using the model of point charges and by calculating the Madelung energy. It is concluded that the short-range order and the phonon entropy must be taken into account in calculating the equilibrium phase diagrams for strongly nonstoichiometric compounds. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd

Electronic structure and stability of nonstoichiometric titanium monoxide TiOy with structural vacancies in one of the sublattices

The electronic structure of nonstoichiometric titanium monoxide TiOy with different compositions y, which contains structural vacancies either in the metallic sublattice or in the nonmetallic sublattice, has been investigated using the supercell method within the DFT-GGA approximation with pseudopotentials. The cases of ordered and disordered arrangements of vacancies have been considered. It has been found that the complete removal of vacancies from the sublattice is energetically unfavorable, and the ordering of oxygen vacancies according to the type of the Ti6O5□1 superstructure, as well as titanium vacancies according to the Ti5black small square1O6 type, does not lead to the stabilization of the B1 basic structure of titanium monoxide. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd

Simulation of the short-range order in disordered cubic titanium monoxide TiO1.0

A model of the atomic structure with the short-range order in the vacancy distribution for the disordered cubic phase of titanium monoxide TiO1.0 has been proposed. The effect of the short-range order on the electronic structure and the stability of the compound has been studied by the supercell method within the DFT-GGA approximation with the use of pseudopotentials. It has been established that the appearance of the short-range order considerably decreases the total energy. The decrease in the energy is comparable with the energy gain during the ordering of the vacancies according to the type of monoclinic superstructure Ti5O5 to the long-range order parameter η = 0.7. It has been shown that the discrepancies between the theoretical and experimental electronic spectra of titanium monoxide can be explained by allowance for the short range order. © 2013 Pleiades Publishing, Ltd

NiO: Correlated Bandstructure of a Charge-Transfer Insulator

The bandstructure of the prototypical charge-transfer insulator NiO is computed by using a combination of an {\it ab initio} bandstructure method and the dynamical mean-field theory with a quantum Monte-Carlo impurity solver. Employing a Hamiltonian which includes both Ni-d and O-p orbitals we find excellent agreement with the energy bands determined from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. This solves a long-standing problem in solid state theory. Most notably we obtain the low-energy Zhang-Rice bands with strongly k-dependent orbital character discussed previously in the context of low-energy model theories.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figur