66 research outputs found
Recommended from our members
Structural and electronic properties of SrZrO3 and Sr(Ti,Zr) O3 alloys
Using hybrid density functional calculations, we study the electronic and structural properties of SrZrO3 and ordered Sr(Ti,Zr)O3 alloys. Calculations were performed for the ground-state orthorhombic (Pnma) and high-temperature cubic (Pm3m) phases of SrZrO3. The variation of the lattice parameters and band gaps with Ti addition was studied using ordered SrTixZr1-xO3 structures with x=0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75, and 1. As Ti is added to SrZrO3, the lattice parameter is reduced and closely follows Vegard's law. On the other hand, the band gap shows a large bowing and is highly sensitive to the Ti distribution. For x=0.5, we find that arranging the Ti and Zr atoms into a 1×1SrZrO3/SrTiO3 superlattice along the [001] direction leads to interesting properties, including a highly dispersive single band at the conduction-band minimum (CBM), which is absent in both parent compounds, and a band gap close to that of pure SrTiO3. These features are explained by the splitting of the lowest three conduction-band states due to the reduced symmetry of the superlattice, lowering the band originating from the in-plane Ti 3dxy orbitals. The lifting of the t2g orbital degeneracy around the CBM suppresses scattering due to electron-phonon interactions. Our results demonstrate how short-period SrZrO3/SrTiO3 superlattices could be exploited to engineer the band structure and improve carrier mobility compared to bulk SrTiO3
Hubbard-corrected density functional perturbation theory with ultrasoft pseudopotentials
We present in full detail a newly developed formalism enabling density functional perturbation theory (DFPT) calculations from a DFT+U ground state. The implementation includes ultrasoft pseudopotentials and is valid for both insulating and metallic systems. It aims at fully exploiting the versatility of DFPT combined with the low-cost
DFT+U functional. This allows us to avoid computationally intensive frozen-phonon calculations when
DFT+U is used to eliminate the residual electronic self-interaction from approximate functionals and to capture the localization of valence electrons, e.g., on d or f states. In this way, the effects of electronic localization (possibly due to correlations) are consistently taken into account in the calculation of specific phonon modes, Born effective charges, dielectric tensors, and in quantities requiring well converged sums over many phonon frequencies, as phonon density of states and free energies. The new computational tool is applied to two representative systems, namely CoO, a prototypical transition metal monoxide and LiCoO2, a material employed for the cathode of Li-ion batteries. The results show the effectiveness of our formalism to capture in a quantitatively reliable way the vibrational properties of systems with localized valence electrons
Anisotropic Power-law Inflation
We study an inflationary scenario in supergravity model with a gauge kinetic
function. We find exact anisotropic power-law inflationary solutions when both
the potential function for an inflaton and the gauge kinetic function are
exponential type. The dynamical system analysis tells us that the anisotropic
power-law inflation is an attractor for a large parameter region.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figure. References added, minor corrections include
Anisotropic Inflation with Non-Abelian Gauge Kinetic Function
We study an anisotropic inflation model with a gauge kinetic function for a
non-abelian gauge field. We find that, in contrast to abelian models, the
anisotropy can be either a prolate or an oblate type, which could lead to a
different prediction from abelian models for the statistical anisotropy in the
power spectrum of cosmological fluctuations. During a reheating phase, we find
chaotic behaviour of the non-abelian gauge field which is caused by the
nonlinear self-coupling of the gauge field. We compute a Lyapunov exponent of
the chaos which turns out to be uncorrelated with the anisotropy.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
Bulk Axions, Brane Back-reaction and Fluxes
Extra-dimensional models can involve bulk pseudo-Goldstone bosons (pGBs)
whose shift symmetry is explicitly broken only by physics localized on branes.
Reliable calculation of their low-energy potential is often difficult because
it requires details of the stabilization of the extra dimensions. In rugby ball
solutions, for which two compact extra dimensions are stabilized in the
presence of only positive-tension brane sources, the effects of brane
back-reaction can be computed explicitly. This allows the calculation of the
shape of the low-energy pGB potential and response of the extra dimensional
geometry as a function of the perturbing brane properties. If the
pGB-dependence is a small part of the total brane tension a very general
analysis is possible, permitting an exploration of how the system responds to
frustration when the two branes disagree on what the proper scalar vacuum
should be. We show how the low-energy potential is given by the sum of brane
tensions (in agreement with common lore) when only the brane tensions couple to
the pGB. We also show how a direct brane coupling to the flux stabilizing the
extra dimensions corrects this result in a way that does not simply amount to
the contribution of the flux to the brane tensions. We calculate the mass of
the would-be zero mode, and briefly describe several potential applications,
including a brane realization of `natural inflation,' and a dynamical mechanism
for suppressing the couplings of the pGB to matter localized on the branes.
Since the scalar can be light enough to be relevant to precision tests of
gravity (in a technically natural way) this mechanism can be relevant to
evading phenomenological bounds.Comment: 36 pages, JHEP styl
Effective Theory Approach to the Spontaneous Breakdown of Lorentz Invariance
We generalize the coset construction of Callan, Coleman, Wess and Zumino to
theories in which the Lorentz group is spontaneously broken down to one of its
subgroups. This allows us to write down the most general low-energy effective
Lagrangian in which Lorentz invariance is non-linearly realized, and to explore
the consequences of broken Lorentz symmetry without having to make any
assumptions about the mechanism that triggers the breaking. We carry out the
construction both in flat space, in which the Lorentz group is a global
spacetime symmetry, and in a generally covariant theory, in which the Lorentz
group can be treated as a local internal symmetry. As an illustration of this
formalism, we construct the most general effective field theory in which the
rotation group remains unbroken, and show that the latter is just the
Einstein-aether theory.Comment: 45 pages, no figures
Observation by resonant angle-resolved photoemission of a critical thickness for 2-dimensional electron gas formation in SrTiO embedded in GdTiO
For certain conditions of layer thickness, the interface between GdTiO
(GTO) and SrTiO (STO) in multilayer samples has been found to form a
two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) with very interesting properties including
high mobilities and ferromagnetism. We have here studied two trilayer samples
of the form [2 nm GTO/1.0 or 1.5 unit cells STO/10 nm GTO] as grown on (001)
(LaAlO)(SrAlTaO) (LSAT), with the STO layer
thicknesses being at what has been suggested is the critical thickness for 2DEG
formation. We have studied these with Ti-resonant angle-resolved (ARPES) and
angle-integrated photoemission and find that the spectral feature in the
spectra associated with the 2DEG is present in the 1.5 unit cell sample, but
not in the 1.0 unit cell sample. We also observe through core-level spectra
additional states in Ti and Sr, with the strength of a low-binding-energy state
for Sr being associated with the appearance of the 2DEG, and we suggest it to
have an origin in final-state core-hole screening.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
The First Magnetic Fields
We review current ideas on the origin of galactic and extragalactic magnetic
fields. We begin by summarizing observations of magnetic fields at cosmological
redshifts and on cosmological scales. These observations translate into
constraints on the strength and scale magnetic fields must have during the
early stages of galaxy formation in order to seed the galactic dynamo. We
examine mechanisms for the generation of magnetic fields that operate prior
during inflation and during subsequent phase transitions such as electroweak
symmetry breaking and the quark-hadron phase transition. The implications of
strong primordial magnetic fields for the reionization epoch as well as the
first generation of stars is discussed in detail. The exotic, early-Universe
mechanisms are contrasted with astrophysical processes that generate fields
after recombination. For example, a Biermann-type battery can operate in a
proto-galaxy during the early stages of structure formation. Moreover, magnetic
fields in either an early generation of stars or active galactic nuclei can be
dispersed into the intergalactic medium.Comment: Accepted for publication in Space Science Reviews. Pdf can be also
downloaded from http://canopus.cnu.ac.kr/ryu/cosmic-mag1.pd
Statistical Anisotropy from Anisotropic Inflation
We review an inflationary scenario with the anisotropic expansion rate. An
anisotropic inflationary universe can be realized by a vector field coupled
with an inflaton, which can be regarded as a counter example to the cosmic
no-hair conjecture. We show generality of anisotropic inflation and derive a
universal property. We formulate cosmological perturbation theory in
anisotropic inflation. Using the formalism, we show anisotropic inflation gives
rise to the statistical anisotropy in primordial fluctuations. We also explain
a method to test anisotropic inflation using the cosmic microwave background
radiation (CMB).Comment: 32 pages, 5 figures, invited review for CQG, published versio
On cosmic inflation in vector field theories
We investigate the longitudinal ghost issue in Abelian vector inflation. It
turns out that, within the class of Lorentz-invariant vector field theories
with three degrees of freedom and without any extra (scalar) fields, the
possibilities are essentially exhausted by the classical solution due to Larry
Ford with an extremely flat potential which doesn't feel the fast roll of its
argument. And, moreover, one needs to fulfil an extra condition on that
potential in order to avoid severe gradient instability. At the same time, some
Lorentz-violating modifications are worth to be explored.Comment: 10 pages; a few minor typos corrected; published versio
- …