Spin-Peierls instability in a quantum spin chain with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction

We analysed the ground state energy of some dimerized spin-1/2 transverse XX and Heisenberg chains with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction to study the influence of the latter interaction on the spin-Peierls instability. We found that DM interaction may act either in favour of the dimerization or against it. The actual result depends on the dependence of DM interaction on the distortion amplitude in comparison with such dependence for the isotropic exchange interaction.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 3 figure

Synthesis of Graphene on Gold

Here we report chemical vapor deposition of graphene on gold surface at ambient pressure. We studied effects of the growth temperature, pressure and cooling process on the grown graphene layers. The Raman spectroscopy of the samples reveals the essential properties of the graphene grown on gold surface. In order to characterize the electrical properties of the grown graphene layers, we have transferred them on insulating substrates and fabricated field effect transistors. Owing to distinctive properties of gold, the ability to grow graphene layers on gold surface could open new applications of graphene in electrochemistry and spectroscopy.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

The ground state properties of the spin-1/2 transverse Ising chain with periodically varying bonds and fields

Using continued fractions we study the ground state properties of the spin-1/2 Ising chain in a transverse field with periodically varying interaction strengths and external fields. We consider in detail the chain having the period of modulation of interactions equals 2 and compare the results obtained with those corresponding to the spin-1/2 isotropic XY chain in a transverse field. In contrast to the behaviour of the transverse XY chain, the transverse Ising chain does not exhibit a step-like magnetization vs. field dependence caused by the alternation of bonds, its susceptibility exhibits a logarithmic singularity at the field determined by interaction strengths, and it is stable with respect to spin-Peierls dimerization.Comment: 11 pages, latex, 4 figure

Magnetic properties of the quantum spin-1/2 XX diamond chain: The Jordan-Wigner approach

The Jordan-Wigner transformation is applied to study magnetic properties of the quantum spin-1/2 $XX$ model on the diamond chain. Generally, the Hamiltonian of this quantum spin system can be represented in terms of spinless fermions in the presence of a gauge field and different gauge-invariant ways of assigning the spin-fermion transformation are considered. Additionally, we analyze general properties of a free-fermion chain, where all gauge terms are neglected and discuss their relevance for the quantum spin system. A consideration of interaction terms in the fermionic Hamiltonian rests upon the Hartree-Fock procedure after fixing the appropriate gauge. Finally, we discuss the magnetic properties of this quantum spin model at zero as well as non-zero temperatures and analyze the validity of the approximation used through a comparison with the results of the exact diagonalization method for finite (up to 36 spins) chains. Besides the $m=1/3$ plateau the most prominent feature of the magnetization curve is a jump at intermediate field present for certain values of the frustrating vertical bond.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

Regularly alternating spin-1/2 anisotropic XY chains: The ground-state and thermodynamic properties

Using the Jordan-Wigner transformation and continued fractions we calculate rigorously the thermodynamic quantities for the spin-1/2 transverse Ising chain with periodically varying intersite interactions and/or on-site fields. We consider in detail the properties of the chains having a period of the transverse field modulation equal to 3. The regularly alternating transverse Ising chain exhibits several quantum phase transition points, where the number of transition points for a given period of alternation strongly depends on the specific set of the Hamiltonian parameters. The critical behavior in most cases is the same as for the uniform chain. However, for certain sets of the Hamiltonian parameters the critical behavior may be changed and weak singularities in the ground-state quantities appear. Due to the regular alternation of the Hamiltonian parameters the transverse Ising chain may exhibit plateau-like steps in the zero-temperature dependence of the transverse magnetization vs. transverse field and many-peak temperature profiles of the specific heat. We compare the ground-state properties of regularly alternating transverse Ising and transverse XX chains and of regularly alternating quantum and classical chains. Making use of the corresponding unitary transformations we extend the elaborated approach to the study of thermodynamics of regularly alternating spin-1/2 anisotropic XY chains without field. We use the exact expression for the ground-state energy of such a chain of period 2 to discuss how the exchange interaction anisotropy destroys the spin-Peierls dimerized phase

Band-Insulator-Metal-Mott-Insulator transition in the half--filled t−t′t-t^{\prime} ionic-Hubbard chain

We investigate the ground state phase diagram of the half-filled $t-t^{\prime}$ repulsive Hubbard model in the presence of a staggered ionic potential $\Delta$, using the continuum-limit bosonization approach. We find, that with increasing on-site-repulsion $U$, depending on the value of the next-nearest-hopping amplitude $t^{\prime}$, the model shows three different versions of the ground state phase diagram. For $t^{\prime} < t^{\prime}_{\ast}$, the ground state phase diagram consists of the following three insulating phases: Band-Insulator at $U<U_{c}$, Ferroelectric Insulator at $U_{c} U_{c}$. For $t^{\prime} > t^{\prime}_{c}$ there is only one transition from a spin gapped metallic phase at $U U_{c}$. Finally, for intermediate values of the next-nearest-hopping amplitude $t^{\prime}_{\ast} < t^{\prime} < t^{\prime}_{c}$ we find that with increasing on-site repulsion, at $U_{c1}$ the model undergoes a second-order commensurate-incommensurate type transition from a band insulator into a metallic state and at larger $U_{c2}$ there is a Kosterlitz-Thouless type transition from a metal into a ferroelectric insulator.Comment: 9 pages 3 figure