24 research outputs found
The critical phonon scattering and peculiarities of the transport phenomena in ferroelectric crystal
The review of the theoretical study of the critical phonon scattering and
anomalous heat transport near the phase transition temperature Tc is presented.
An interpretation and quantitative approach to the description of
the anomalous temperature dependence of the thermal conductivity λ(T)
near Tc are discussed.Представлено огляд теоретичних досліджень критичного розсіяння фононів і аномального переносу тепла поблизу температури фазового переходу Tc. Обговорюється інтерпретація і кількісний підхід до опису аномальної температурної залежності A(T) поблизу Tc
Unraveling the Mott-Peierls intrigue in vanadium dioxide
Vanadium dioxide is one of the most studied strongly correlated materials. Nonetheless, the intertwining between electronic correlation and lattice effects has precluded a comprehensive description of the rutile metal to monoclinic insulator transition, in turn triggering a longstanding "the chicken or the egg" debate about which comes first, the Mott localization or the Peierls distortion. Here, we suggest that this problem is in fact ill posed: The electronic correlations and the lattice vibrations conspire to stabilize the monoclinic insulator, and so they must be both considered to not miss relevant pieces of the VO2 physics. Specifically, we design a minimal model for VO2 that includes all the important physical ingredients: the electronic correlations, the multiorbital character, and the two components of the antiferrodistortive mode that condense in the monoclinic insulator. We solve this model by dynamical mean-field theory within the adiabatic Born-Oppenheimer approximation. Consistently with the first-order character of the metal-insulator transition, the Born-Oppenheimer potential has a rich landscape, with minima corresponding to the undistorted phase and to the four equivalent distorted ones, and which translates into an equally rich thermodynamics that we uncover by the Monte Carlo method. Remarkably, we find that a distorted metal phase intrudes between the low-temperature distorted insulator and high-temperature undistorted metal, which sheds new light on the debated experimental evidence of a monoclinic metallic phase
Ferroelectric Phase Transitions in Films with Depletion Charge
We consider ferroelectric phase transitions in both short-circuited and
biased ferroelectric-semiconductor films with a space (depletion) charge which
leads to some unusual behavior. It is shown that in the presence of the charge
the polarization separates into `switchable' and `non-switchable' parts. The
electric field, appearing due to the space charge, does not wash out the phase
transition, which remains second order but takes place at somewhat reduced
temperature. At the same time, it leads to a suppression of the
ferroelectricity in a near-electrode layer. This conclusion is valid for
materials with both second and first order phase transitions in pure bulk
samples. Influence of the depletion charge on thermodynamic coercive field
reduces mainly to the lowering of the phase transition temperature, and its
effect is negligible. The depletion charge can, however, facilitate an
appearance of the domain structure which would be detrimental for device
performance (fatigue). We discuss some issues of conceptual character, which
are generally known but were overlooked in previous works. The present results
have general implications for small systems with depletion charge.Comment: 11 pages, REVTeX 3.1, five eps-figures included in the text. Minor
clarifications in the text. To appear in Phys. Rev. B 61, Apr 1 (2000
Domain structure of bulk ferromagnetic crystals in applied fields near saturation
We investigate the ground state of a uniaxial ferromagnetic plate with
perpendicular easy axis and subject to an applied magnetic field normal to the
plate. Our interest is the asymptotic behavior of the energy in macroscopically
large samples near the saturation field. We establish the scaling of the
critical value of the applied field strength below saturation at which the
ground state changes from the uniform to a branched domain magnetization
pattern and the leading order scaling behavior of the minimal energy.
Furthermore, we derive a reduced sharp-interface energy giving the precise
asymptotic behavior of the minimal energy in macroscopically large plates under
a physically reasonable assumption of small deviations of the magnetization
from the easy axis away from domain walls. On the basis of the reduced energy,
and by a formal asymptotic analysis near the transition, we derive the precise
asymptotic values of the critical field strength at which non-trivial
minimizers (either local or global) emerge. The non-trivial minimal energy
scaling is achieved by magnetization patterns consisting of long slender
needle-like domains of magnetization opposing the applied fieldComment: 38 pages, 7 figures, submitted to J. Nonlin. Sci
Entrapment of a Network of Domain Walls
We explore the idea of a network of defects to live inside a domain wall in
models of three real scalar fields, engendering the Z_2 x Z_3 symmetry. The
field that governs the Z_2 symmetry generates a domain wall, and entraps the
hexagonal network formed by the three-junctions of the model of two scalar
fields that describes the remaining Z_3 symmetry. If the host domain wall bends
to the spherical form, in the thin wall approximation there may appear
non-topological structures hosting networks that accept diverse patterns. If
Z_3 is also broken, the model may generate a buckyball containing sixty
junctions, a fullerene-like structure. Applications to cosmology are outlined.Comment: Revtex, 4 pages, 2 ps figures; version to appear in Phys. Rev. D,
Rapid Communicatio