Spin lifetimes and strain-controlled spin precession of drifting electrons in zinc blende type semiconductors

We study the transport of spin polarized electrons in n-GaAs using spatially resolved continuous wave Faraday rotation. From the measured steady state distribution, we determine spin relaxation times under drift conditions and, in the presence of strain, the induced spin splitting from the observed spin precession. Controlled variation of strain along [110] allows us to deduce the deformation potential causing this effect, while strain along [100] has no effect. The electric field dependence of the spin lifetime is explained quantitatively in terms of an increase of the electron temperature.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure

Singular order parameter interaction at nematic quantum critical point in two dimensional electron systems

We analyze the infrared behavior of effective N-point interactions between order parameter fluctuations for nematic and other quantum critical electron systems with a scalar order parameter in two dimensions. The interactions exhibit a singular momentum and energy dependence and thus cannot be represented by local vertices. They diverge for all N greater or equal 4 in a collinear static limit, where energy variables scale to zero faster than momenta, and momenta become increasingly collinear. The degree of divergence is not reduced by any cancellations and renders all N-point interactions marginal. A truncation of the order parameter action at quartic or any other finite order is therefore not justified. The same conclusion can be drawn for the effective action describing fermions coupled to a U(1) gauge field in two dimensions.Comment: 18 pages, 1 figur

Turning a First Order Quantum Phase Transition Continuous by Fluctuations: General Flow Equations and Application to d-Wave Pomeranchuk Instability

We derive renormalization group equations which allow us to treat order parameter fluctuations near quantum phase transitions in cases where an expansion in powers of the order parameter is not possible. As a prototypical application, we analyze the nematic transition driven by a d-wave Pomeranchuk instability in a two-dimensional electron system. We find that order parameter fluctuations suppress the first order character of the nematic transition obtained at low temperatures in mean-field theory, so that a continuous transition leading to quantum criticality can emerge

Conductivity of interacting spinless fermion systems via the high dimensional approach

Spinless fermions with repulsion are treated non-perturbatively by classifying the diagrams of the generating functional $\Phi$ in powers of the inverse lattice dimension $1/d$. The equations derived from the first two orders are evaluated on the one- and on the two-particle level. The order parameter of the AB-charge density wave (AB-CDW) occurring at larger interaction is calculated in $d=3$. The Bethe-Salpeter equation is evaluated for the conductivity \sigma(\om) which is found to have two peaks within the energy gap $2\Delta$ in the AB-CDW: a remnant of the Drude peak and an excitonic resonance. Unexpectedly, $\sigma_{\rm\scriptscriptstyle DC}$ does not vanish for $T\to 0$Comment: Latex, 4 page

Correlated hopping of electrons: Effect on the Brinkman-Rice transition and the stability of metallic ferromagnetism

We study the Hubbard model with bond-charge interaction (`correlated hopping') in terms of the Gutzwiller wave function. We show how to express the Gutzwiller expectation value of the bond-charge interaction in terms of the correlated momentum-space occupation. This relation is valid in all spatial dimensions. We find that in infinite dimensions, where the Gutzwiller approximation becomes exact, the bond-charge interaction lowers the critical Hubbard interaction for the Brinkman-Rice metal-insulator transition. The bond-charge interaction also favors ferromagnetic transitions, especially if the density of states is not symmetric and has a large spectral weight below the Fermi energy.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures; minor changes, published versio

From infinite to two dimensions through the functional renormalization group

We present a novel scheme for an unbiased and non-perturbative treatment of strongly correlated fermions. The proposed approach combines two of the most successful many-body methods, i.e., the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) and the functional renormalization group (fRG). Physically, this allows for a systematic inclusion of non-local correlations via the flow equations of the fRG, after the local correlations are taken into account non-perturbatively by the DMFT. To demonstrate the feasibility of the approach, we present numerical results for the two-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Renormalization-group analysis of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model with a single impurity

We analyze the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model with a single static impurity by using a computational technique based on the functional renormalization group. This extends previous work for spinless fermions to spin-1/2 fermions. The underlying approximations are devised for weak interactions and arbitrary impurity strengths, and have been checked by comparing with density-matrix renormalization-group data. We present results for the density of states, the density profile and the linear conductance. Two-particle backscattering leads to striking effects, which are not captured if the bulk system is approximated by its low-energy fixed point, the Luttinger model. In particular, the expected decrease of spectral weight near the impurity and of the conductance at low energy scales is often preceded by a pronounced increase, and the asymptotic power laws are modified by logarithmic corrections.Comment: 36 pages, 13 figures, revised version as publishe

Exact analytic results for the Gutzwiller wave function with finite magnetization

We present analytic results for ground-state properties of Hubbard-type models in terms of the Gutzwiller variational wave function with non-zero values of the magnetization m. In dimension D=1 approximation-free evaluations are made possible by appropriate canonical transformations and an analysis of Umklapp processes. We calculate the double occupation and the momentum distribution, as well as its discontinuity at the Fermi surface, for arbitrary values of the interaction parameter g, density n, and magnetization m. These quantities determine the expectation value of the one-dimensional Hubbard Hamiltonian for any symmetric, monotonically increasing dispersion epsilon_k. In particular for nearest-neighbor hopping and densities away from half filling the Gutzwiller wave function is found to predict ferromagnetic behavior for sufficiently large interaction U.Comment: REVTeX 4, 32 pages, 8 figure

Hole dynamics in generalized spin backgrounds in infinite dimensions

We calculate the dynamical behaviour of a hole in various spin backgrounds in infinite dimensions, where it can be determined exactly. We consider hypercubic lattices with two different types of spin backgrounds. On one hand we study an ensemble of spin configurations with an arbitrary spin probability on each sublattice. This model corresponds to a thermal average over all spin configurations in the presence of staggered or uniform magnetic fields. On the other hand we consider a definite spin state characterized by the angle between the spins on different sublattices, i.e a classical spin system in an external magnetic field. When spin fluctuations are considered, this model describes the physics of unpaired particles in strong coupling superconductors.Comment: Accepted in Phys. Rev. B. 18 pages of text (1 fig. included) in Latex + 2 figures in uuencoded form containing the 2 postscripts (mailed separately