Similar glassy features in the NMR response of pure and disordered La1.88Sr0.12CuO4

High Tc superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 coexists with (striped and glassy) magnetic order. Here, we report NMR measurements of the 139La spin-lattice relaxation, which displays a stretched-exponential time dependence, in both pure and disordered x=0.12 single crystals. An analysis in terms of a distribution of relaxation rates T1^-1 indicates that i) the spin-freezing temperature is spatially inhomogeneous with an onset at Tg(onset)=20 K for the pristine samples, and ii) the width of the T1^-1 distribution in the vicinity of Tg(onset) is insensitive to an ~1% level of atomic disorder in CuO2 planes. This suggests that the stretched-exponential 139La relaxation, considered as a manifestation of the systems glassiness, may not arise from quenched disorder.Comment: 7 pages, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Stability of the spiral phase in the 2D extended t-J model

We analyze the t-t'-t''-J model at low doping by chiral perturbation theory and show that the (1,0) spiral state is stabilized by the presence of t',t'' above critical values around 0.2J, assuming t/J=3.1. We find that the (magnon mediated) hole-hole interactions have an important effect on the region of charge stability in the space of parameters t',t'', generally increasing stability, while the stability in the magnetic sector is guaranteed by the presence of spin quantum fluctuations (order from disorder effect). These conclusions are based on perturbative analysis performed up to two loops, with very good convergence.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figure

Cluster Spin Glass Distribution Functions in La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4

Signatures of the cluster spin glass have been found in a variety of experiments, with an effective onset temperature $T_{on}$ that is frequency dependent. We reanalyze the experimental results and find that they are characterized by a distribution of activation energies, with a nonzero glass transition temperature $T_g(x)<T_{on}$. While the distribution of activation energies is the same, the distribution of weights depends on the process. Remarkably, the weights are essentially doping independent.Comment: 5 pages, 5 ps figure

Exact models for trimerization and tetramerization in spin chains

We present exact models for an antiferromagnetic S=1 spin chain describing trimerization as well as for an antiferromagnetic S=3/2 spin chain describing tetramerization. These models can be seen as generalizations of the Majumdar-Ghosh model. For both models, we provide a local Hamiltonian and its exact three- or four-fold degenerate ground state wavefunctions, respectively. We numerically confirm the validity of both models using exact diagonalization and discuss the low lying excitations.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Cu NMR evidence for enhanced antiferromagnetic correlations around Zn impurities in YBa2Cu3O6.7

Doping the high-Tc superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.7 with 1.5 % of non-magnetic Zn impurities in CuO2 planes is shown to produce a considerable broadening of 63Cu NMR spectra, as well as an increase of low-energy magnetic fluctuations detected in 63Cu spin-lattice relaxation measurements. A model-independent analysis demonstrates that these effects are due to the development of staggered magnetic moments on many Cu sites around each Zn and that the Zn-induced moment in the bulk susceptibility might be explained by this staggered magnetization. Several implications of these enhanced antiferromagnetic correlations are discussed.Comment: 4 pages including 2 figure

Enhancement of Pairing Correlation and Spin Gap through Suppression of Single-Particle Dispersion in One-Dimensional Models

We investigate the effects of suppression of single-particle dispersion near the Fermi level on the spin gap and the singlet-pairing correlation by using the exact diagonalization method for finite-size systems. We consider strongly correlated one-dimensional models, which have flat band dispersions near wave number k=\pi/2, if the interactions are switched off. Our results for strongly correlated models show that the spin gap region expands as the single-particle dispersion becomes flatter. The region where the singlet-pairing correlation is the most dominant also expands in models with flatter band dispersions. Based on our numerical results, we propose a pairing mechanism induced by the flat-band dispersion.Comment: 5 pages, including 5 eps figures, to appear in J.Phys.Soc.Jpn Vol.69 No.

Absence of large nanoscale electronic inhomogeneities in the Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 pnictide

75As NMR and susceptiblity were measured in a Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 single crystal for x=6% for various field H values and orientations. The sharpness of the superconducting and magnetic transitions demonstrates a homogeneity of the Co doping x better than +-0.25%. On the nanometer scale, the paramagnetic part of the NMR spectra is found very anisotropic and very narrow for H//ab which allows to rule out the interpretation of Ref.[6] in terms of strong Co induced electronic inhomogeneities. We propose that a distribution of hyperfine couplings and chemical shifts due to the Co effect on its nearest As explains the observed linewidths and relaxations. All these measurements show that Co substitution induces a very homogeneous electronic doping in BaFe2As2, from nano to micrometer lengthscales, on the contrary to the K doping.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Van der Waals forces in density functional theory: perturbational long-range electron interaction corrections

Long-range exchange and correlation effects, responsible for the failure of currently used approximate density functionals in describing van der Waals forces, are taken into account explicitly after a separation of the electron-electron interaction in the Hamiltonian into short- and long-range components. We propose a "range-separated hybrid" functional based on a local density approximation for the short-range exchange-correlation energy, combined with a long-range exact exchange energy. Long-range correlation effects are added by a second-order perturbational treatment. The resulting scheme is general and is particularly well-adapted to describe van der Waals complexes, like rare gas dimers.Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Phys. Rev.