163 research outputs found
Weak phase separation and the pseudogap in the electron-doped cuprates
We study the quantum transition from an antiferromagnet to a superconductor
in a model for electron- and hole-doped cuprates by means of a variational
cluster perturbation theory approach. In both cases, our results suggest a
tendency towards phase separation between a mixed
antiferromagnetic-superconducting phase at low doping and a pure
superconducting phase at larger doping. However, in the electron-doped case the
energy scale for phase separation is an order of magnitude smaller than for
hole doping. We argue that this can explain the different pseudogap and
superconducting transition scales in hole- and electron-doped materials.Comment: Final version, accepted for publication in Europhysics Letter
Phase separation and competition of superconductivity and magnetism in the two-dimensional Hubbard model: From strong to weak coupling
Cooperation and competition between the antiferromagnetic, d-wave
superconducting and Mott-insulating states are explored for the two-dimensional
Hubbard model including nearest and next-nearest-neighbor hoppings at zero
temperature. Using the variational cluster approach with clusters of different
shapes and sizes up to 10 sites, it is found that the doping-driven transition
from a phase with microscopic coexistence of antiferromagnetism and
superconductivity to a purely superconducting phase is discontinuous for strong
interaction and accompanied by phase separation. At half-filling the system is
in an antiferromagnetic Mott-insulating state with vanishing charge
compressibility. Upon decreasing the interaction strength U below a certain
critical value of roughly U=4 (in units of the nearest-neighbor hopping),
however, the filling-dependent magnetic transition changes its character and
becomes continuous. Phase separation or, more carefully, the tendency towards
the formation of inhomogeneous states disappears. This critical value is in
contrast to previous studies, where a much larger value was obtained. Moreover,
we find that the system at half-filling undergoes the Mott transition from an
insulator to a state with a finite charge compressibility at essentially the
same value. The weakly correlated state at half-filling exhibits
superconductivity microscopically admixed to the antiferromagnetic order. This
scenario suggests a close relation between phase separation and the
Mott-insulator physics.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, revised version to be published in Phys. Rev.
Phase diagram and single-particle spectrum of CuO layers within a variational cluster approach to the 3-band Hubbard model
We carry out a detailed numerical study of the three-band Hubbard model in
the underdoped region both in the hole- as well as in the electron-doped case
by means of the variational cluster approach. Both the phase diagram and the
low-energy single-particle spectrum are very similar to recent results for the
single-band Hubbard model with next-nearest-neighbor hoppings. In particular,
we obtain a mixed antiferromagnetic+superconducting phase at low doping with a
first-order transition to a pure superconducting phase accompanied by phase
separation. In the single-particle spectrum a clear Zhang-Rice singlet band
with an incoherent and a coherent part can be seen, in which holes enter upon
doping around . The latter is very similar to the coherent
quasi-particle band crossing the Fermi surface in the single-band model. Doped
electrons go instead into the upper Hubbard band, first filling the regions of
the Brillouin zone around . This fact can be related to the enhanced
robustness of the antiferromagnetic phase as a function of electron doping
compared to hole doping.Comment: 14 pages, 15 eps figure
Variational Cluster Perturbation Theory for Bose-Hubbard models
We discuss the application of the variational cluster perturbation theory
(VCPT) to the Mott-insulator--to--superfluid transition in the Bose-Hubbard
model. We show how the VCPT can be formulated in such a way that it gives a
translation invariant excitation spectrum -- free of spurious gaps -- despite
the fact that if formally breaks translation invariance. The phase diagram and
the single-particle Green function in the insulating phase are obtained for
one-dimensional systems. When the chemical potential of the cluster is taken as
a variational parameter, the VCPT reproduces the dimension dependence of the
phase diagram even for one-site clusters. We find a good quantitative agreement
with the results of the density-matrix renormalization group when the number of
sites in the cluster becomes of order 10. The extension of the method to the
superfluid phase is discussed.Comment: v1) 10 pages, 6 figures. v2) Final version as publishe
Theory of two-particle excitations and the magnetic susceptibility in high-Tc cuprate superconductors
Two-particle (2-p) excitations such as spin and charge excitations play a key
role in high-Tc cuprate superconductors (HTSC). On the basis of a
parameter-free theory, which extends the Variational Cluster Approach (a
recently developed embedded cluster method) to 2-p excitations, the magnetic
excitations of HTSC are shown to be reproduced for a Hubbard model within the
relevant strong-coupling regime. In particular, the resonance mode in the
underdoped regime, its intensity and "hour-glass" dispersion are in good
overall agreement with experiments.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, version as publishe
Variational cluster approach to the Hubbard model: Phase-separation tendency and finite-size effects
Using the variational cluster approach (VCA), we study the transition from
the antiferromagnetic to the superconducting phase of the two-dimensional
Hubbard model at zero temperature. Our calculations are based on a new method
to evaluate the VCA grand potential which employs a modified Lanczos algorithm
and avoids integrations over the real or imaginary frequency axis. Thereby,
very accurate results are possible for cluster sizes not accessible to full
diagonalization. This is important for an improved treatment of short-range
correlations, including correlations between Cooper pairs in particular. We
investigate the cluster-size dependence of the phase-separation tendency that
has been proposed recently on the basis of calculations for smaller clusters.
It is shown that the energy barrier driving the phase separation decreases with
increasing cluster size. This supports the conjecture that the ground state
exhibits microscopic inhomogeneities rather than macroscopic phase separation.
The evolution of the single-particle spectum as a function of doping is studied
in addtion and the relevance of our results for experimental findings is
pointed out.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, published versio
Charge ordering in extended Hubbard models: Variational cluster approach
We present a generalization of the recently proposed variational cluster
perturbation theory to extended Hubbard models at half filling with repulsive
nearest neighbor interaction. The method takes into account short-range
correlations correctly by the exact diagonalisation of clusters of finite size,
whereas long-range order beyond the size of the clusters is treated on a
mean-field level. For one dimension, we show that quantum Monte Carlo and
density-matrix renormalization-group results can be reproduced with very good
accuracy. Moreover we apply the method to the two-dimensional extended Hubbard
model on a square lattice. In contrast to the one-dimensional case, a first
order phase transition between spin density wave phase and charge density wave
phase is found as function of the nearest-neighbor interaction at onsite
interactions U>=3t. The single-particle spectral function is calculated for
both the one-dimensional and the two-dimensional system.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figure
Charge ordering in quarter-filled ladder systems coupled to the lattice
We investigate charge ordering in the presence of electron-phonon coupling
for quarter-filled ladder systems by using Exact Diagonalization. As an example
we consider NaV2O5 using model parameters obtained from first-principles
band-structure calculations. The relevant Holstein coupling to the lattice
considerably reduces the critical value of the nearest-neighbor Coulomb
repulsion at which formation of the zig-zag charge-ordered state occurs, which
is then accompanied by a static lattice distortion. Energy and length of a
kink-like excitation on the background of the distorted lattice are calculated.
Spin and charge spectra on ladders with and without static distortion are
obtained, and the charge gap and the effective spin-spin exchange parameter J
are extracted. J agrees well with experimental results. Analysis of the
dynamical Holstein model, restricted to a small number of phonons, shows that
low frequency lattice vibrations increase the charge order, accompanied by
dynamically produced zig-zag lattice distortions.Comment: 11 pages, 17 figures, revised version as to appear in Phys. Rev.
The 3-Band Hubbard-Model versus the 1-Band Model for the high-Tc Cuprates: Pairing Dynamics, Superconductivity and the Ground-State Phase Diagram
One central challenge in high- superconductivity (SC) is to derive a
detailed understanding for the specific role of the - and
- orbital degrees of freedom. In most theoretical studies an
effective one-band Hubbard (1BH) or t-J model has been used. Here, the physics
is that of doping into a Mott-insulator, whereas the actual high- cuprates
are doped charge-transfer insulators. To shed light on the related question,
where the material-dependent physics enters, we compare the competing magnetic
and superconducting phases in the ground state, the single- and two-particle
excitations and, in particular, the pairing interaction and its dynamics in the
three-band Hubbard (3BH) and 1BH-models. Using a cluster embedding scheme, i.e.
the variational cluster approach (VCA), we find which frequencies are relevant
for pairing in the two models as a function of interaction strength and doping:
in the 3BH-models the interaction in the low- to optimal-doping regime is
dominated by retarded pairing due to low-energy spin fluctuations with
surprisingly little influence of inter-band (p-d charge) fluctuations. On the
other hand, in the 1BH-model, in addition a part comes from "high-energy"
excited states (Hubbard band), which may be identified with a non-retarded
contribution. We find these differences between a charge-transfer and a Mott
insulator to be renormalized away for the ground-state phase diagram of the
3BH- and 1BH-models, which are in close overall agreement, i.e. are
"universal". On the other hand, we expect the differences - and thus, the
material dependence to show up in the "non-universal" finite-T phase diagram
(-values).Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure
- …