49 research outputs found

    Aspects of electron-phonon interactions with strong forward scattering in FeSe Thin Films on SrTiO3_3 substrates

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    Mono- and multilayer FeSe thin films grown on SrTiO3_\mathrm{3} and BiTiO3_\mathrm{3} substrates exhibit a greatly enhanced superconductivity over that found in bulk FeSe. A number of proposals have been advanced for the mechanism of this enhancement. One possibility is the introduction of a cross-interface electron-phonon (ee-phph) interaction between the FeSe electrons and oxygen phonons in the substrates that is peaked in the forward scattering (small q{\bf q}) direction due to the two-dimensional nature of the interface system. Motivated by this, we explore the consequences of such an interaction on the superconducting state and electronic structure of a two-dimensional system using Migdal-Eliashberg theory. This interaction produces not only deviations from the expectations of conventional phonon-mediated pairing but also replica structures in the spectral function and density of states, as probed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, and quasi-particle interference imaging. We also discuss the applicability of Migdal-Eliashberg theory for a situation where the \ep interaction is peaked at small momentum transfer and in the FeSe/STO system

    Static and dynamical magnetic properties of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model with spin vacancies

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    Motivated by the potential to suppress the antiferromagnetic long-range order in favor of the long-sought-after Kitaev quantum spin liquid state, we study the effect of spin vacancies in the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model. In particular, we focus on a realistic model obtained from fitting inelastic neutron scattering on α\alpha-RuCl3_3. We observe that the long-range zigzag magnetic ordered state only survives when the doping concentration is smaller than 5\%. Upon further increasing the spin vacancy concentration, the ground state becomes a short-range ordered state at low temperatures. Compared with experiments, our classical solution over-stabilizes the zigzag correlation in the presence of spin vacancies. Our theoretical results provide guidance toward interpreting inelastic neutron scattering experiments on magnetically diluted Kitaev candidate materials.Comment: 9 figure

    Relevance of the Heisenberg-Kitaev model for the honeycomb lattice iridates A_2IrO_3

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    Combining thermodynamic measurements with theoretical density functional and thermodynamic calculations we demonstrate that the honeycomb lattice iridates A2IrO3 (A = Na, Li) are magnetically ordered Mott insulators where the magnetism of the effective spin-orbital S = 1/2 moments can be captured by a Heisenberg-Kitaev (HK) model with Heisenberg interactions beyond nearest-neighbor exchange. Experimentally, we observe an increase of the Curie-Weiss temperature from \theta = -125 K for Na2IrO3 to \theta = -33 K for Li2IrO3, while the antiferromagnetic ordering temperature remains roughly the same T_N = 15 K for both materials. Using finite-temperature functional renormalization group calculations we show that this evolution of \theta, T_N, the frustration parameter f = \theta/T_N, and the zig-zag magnetic ordering structure suggested for both materials by density functional theory can be captured within this extended HK model. Combining our experimental and theoretical results, we estimate that Na2IrO3 is deep in the magnetically ordered regime of the HK model (\alpha \approx 0.25), while Li2IrO3 appears to be close to a spin-liquid regime (0.6 < \alpha < 0.7).Comment: Version accepted for publication in PRL. Additional DFT and thermodynamic calculations have been included. 6 pages of supplementary material include

    Magnon Orbital Angular Momentum of Ferromagnetic Honeycomb and Zig-Zag Lattices

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    By expanding the gauge λn(k)\lambda_n(k) for magnon band nn in harmonics of momentum k=(k,ϕ){\bf k} =(k,\phi ), we demonstrate that the only observable component of the magnon orbital angular momentum On(k)O_n({\bf k}) is its angular average over all angles ϕ\phi, denoted by Fn(k)F_n(k). For both the FM honeycomb and zig-zag lattices, we show that Fn(k)F_n(k) is nonzero in the presence of a Dzyalloshinzkii-Moriya (DM) interaction. The FM zig-zag lattice model with exchange interactions 0<J1<J20<J_1< J_2 provides a new system where the effects of orbital angular momentum are observable. For the zig-zag model with equal exchange interactions J1xJ_{1x} and J1yJ_{1y} along the xx and yy axis, the magnon bands are degenerate along the boundaries of the Brillouin zone with kxky=±π/ak_x-k_y =\pm \pi/a and the Chern numbers CnC_n are not well defined. However, a revised model with J1yJ1xJ_{1y}\ne J_{1x} lifts those degeneracy and produces well-defined Chern numbers of Cn=±1C_n=\pm 1 for the two magnon bands. When J1y=J1xJ_{1y}=J_{1x}, the thermal conductivity κxy(T)\kappa^{xy}(T) of the FM zig-zag lattice is largest for J2/J1>6J_2/J_1>6 but is still about four times smaller than that of the FM honeycomb lattice at high temperatures. Due to the removal of band degeneracies, κxy(T)\kappa^{xy}(T) is slightly enhanced when J1yJ1xJ_{1y}\ne J_{1x}.Comment: 13 figure

    Localization of phonons in mass-disordered alloys: A typical medium dynamical cluster approach

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    The effect of disorder on lattice vibrational modes has been a topic of interest for several decades. In this work, we employ a Green\u27s function based approach, namely, the dynamical cluster approximation (DCA), to investigate phonons in mass-disordered systems. Detailed benchmarks with previous exact calculations are used to validate the method in a wide parameter space. An extension of the method, namely, the typical medium DCA (TMDCA), is used to study Anderson localization of phonons in three dimensions. We show that, for binary isotopic disorder, lighter impurities induce localized modes beyond the bandwidth of the host system, while heavier impurities lead to a partial localization of the low-frequency acoustic modes. For a uniform (box) distribution of masses, the physical spectrum is shown to develop long tails comprising mostly localized modes. The mobility edge separating extended and localized modes, obtained through the TMDCA, agrees well with results from the transfer matrix method. A reentrance behavior of the mobility edge with increasing disorder is found that is similar to, but somewhat more pronounced than, the behavior in disordered electronic systems. Our work establishes a computational approach, which recovers the thermodynamic limit, is versatile and computationally inexpensive, to investigate lattice vibrations in disordered lattice systems

    Origin of localization in Ti-doped Si

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    Intermediate band semiconductors hold the promise to significantly improve the efficiency of solar cells but only if the intermediate impurity band is metallic. We apply a recently developed first principles method to investigate the origin of electron localization in Ti doped Si, a promising candidate for intermediate band solar cells. We compute the critical Ti concentration and compare it against the available experimental data. Although Anderson localization is often overlooked in the context of intermediate band solar cells, our results show that in Ti doped Si it plays a more important role in the metal insulator transition than Mott localization. To this end we have devised a way to gauge the relative strengths of these two localization mechanisms that can be applied to study localization in doped semiconductors in general. Our findings have important implications for the theory of intermediate band solar cells
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