Spectral properties and infrared absorption in manganites

Within a recently proposed variational approach it has been shown that, in $La_{1-x}A_xMnO_3$ perovskites with $0<x<0.5$, near the metal-insulator transition, the combined effect of the magnetic and electron-phonon interactions pushes the system toward a regime of two coexisting phases: a low electron density one made by itinerant large polarons forming ferromagnetic domains and a high electron density one made by localized small polarons giving rise to paramagnetic or antiferromagnetic domains depending on temperature. Employing the above-mentioned variational scheme, in this paper spectral and optical properties of manganites are derived for $x=0.3$ at different temperatures. It is found that the phase separation regime induces a robust pseudogap in the excitation spectrum of the system. Then the conductivity spectra are characterized by a transfer of spectral weight from high to low energies, as the temperature $T$ decreases. In the metallic ferromagnetic phase, at low $T$ two types of infrared absorption come out: a Drude term and a broad absorption band due respectively to the coherent and incoherent motion of large polarons. The obtained results turn out in good agreement with experiments.Comment: 9 figure

Ballistic transport in one-dimensional loops with Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling

We discuss the combined effect of Rashba and Dresselhaus spin-orbit interactions in polygonal loops formed by quantum wires, when the electron are injected in a node and collected at the opposite one. The conditions that allow perfect localization are found. Furthermore, we investigate the suppression of the Al'tshuler--Aronov--Spivak oscillations that appear, in presence of a magnetic flux, when the electrons are injected and collected at the same node. Finally, we point out that a recent realization of a ballistic spin interferometer can be used to obtain a reliable estimate of the magnitude ratio of the two spin-orbit interactions.\bigskipComment: 6 figure

Ground state features of the Frohlich model

Following the ideas behind the Feynman approach, a variational wave function is proposed for the Fr\"ohlich model. It is shown that it provides, for any value of the electron-phonon coupling constant, an estimate of the polaron ground state energy better than the Feynman method based on path integrals. The mean number of phonons, the average electronic kinetic and interaction energies, the ground state spectral weight and the electron-lattice correlation function are calculated and successfully compared with the best available results.Comment: 6 figure

Interplay between electron-phonon couplings and disorder strength on the transport properties of organic semiconductors

The combined effect of bulk and interface electron-phonon couplings on the transport properties is investigated in a model for organic semiconductors gated with polarizable dielectrics. While the bulk electron-phonon interaction affects the behavior of mobility in the coherent regime below room temperature, the interface coupling is dominant for the activated high $T$ contribution of localized polarons. In order to improve the description of the transport properties, the presence of disorder is needed in addition to electron-phonon couplings. The effects of a weak disorder largely enhance the activation energies of mobility and induce the small polaron formation at lower values of electron-phonon couplings in the experimentally relevant window $150 K<T<300 K$. The results are discussed in connection with experimental data of rubrene organic field-effect transistors.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Effects of electron coupling to intra- and inter-molecular vibrational modes on the transport properties of single crystal organic semiconductors

Electron coupling to intra- and inter-molecular vibrational modes is investigated in models appropriate to single crystal organic semiconductors, such as oligoacenes. Focus is on spectral and transport properties of these systems beyond perturbative approaches. The interplay between different couplings strongly affects the temperature band renormalization that is the result of a subtle equilibrium between opposite tendencies: band narrowing due to interaction with local modes, band widening due to electron coupling to non local modes. The model provides an accurate description of the mobility as function of temperature: indeed, it has the correct order of magnitude, at low temperatures, it scales as a power-law $T^{-\delta}$ with the exponent $\delta$ larger than unity, and, at high temperatures, shows an hopping behavior with a small activation energy.Comment: 3 Figures, Submitte

Exact Diagonalization Dynamical Mean Field Theory for Multi-Band Materials: Effect of Coulomb correlations on the Fermi surface of Na_0.3CoO_2

Dynamical mean field theory combined with finite-temperature exact diagonalization is shown to be a suitable method to study local Coulomb correlations in realistic multi-band materials. By making use of the sparseness of the impurity Hamiltonian, exact eigenstates can be evaluated for significantly larger clusters than in schemes based on full diagonalization. Since finite-size effects are greatly reduced this approach allows the study of three-band systems down to very low temperatures, for strong local Coulomb interactions and full Hund exchange. It is also shown that exact diagonalization yields smooth subband quasi-particle spectra and self-energies at real frequencies. As a first application the correlation induced charge transfer between t2g bands in Na_0.3CoO_2 is investigated. For both Hund and Ising exchange the small eg' Fermi surface hole pockets are found to be slightly enlarged compared to the non-interacting limit, in agreement with previous Quantum Monte Carlo dynamical mean field calculations for Ising exchange, but in conflict with photoemission data.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Electronic transport within a quasi two-dimensional model for rubrene single-crystal field effect transistors

Spectral and transport properties of the quasi two-dimensional adiabatic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model are studied adjusting the parameters in order to model rubrene single-crystal field effect transistors with small but finite density of injected charge carriers. We show that, with increasing temperature $T$, the chemical potential moves into the tail of the density of states corresponding to localized states, but this is not enough to drive the system into an insulating state. The mobility along different crystallographic directions is calculated including vertex corrections which give rise to a transport lifetime one order of magnitude smaller than spectral lifetime of the states involved in the transport mechanism. With increasing temperature, the transport properties reach the Ioffe-Regel limit which is ascribed to less and less appreciable contribution of itinerant states to the conduction process. The model provides features of the mobility in close agreement with experiments: right order of magnitude, scaling as a power law $T^{-\gamma}$, with $\gamma$ close or larger than two, and correct anisotropy ratio between different in-plane directions. Due to a realistic high dimensional model, the results are not biased by uncontrolled approximations.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, Submitte

Spectral, optical and transport properties of the adiabatic anisotropic Holstein model: Application to slightly doped organic semiconductors

Spectral, optical and transport properties of an anisotropic three-dimensional Holstein model are studied within the adiabatic approximation. The parameter regime is appropriate for organic semiconductors used in single crystal based field effect transistors. Different approaches have been used to solve the model: self-consistent Born approximation valid for weak electron-phonon coupling, coherent potential approximation exact for infinite dimensions, and numerical diagonalization for finite lattices. With increasing temperature, the width of the spectral functions gets larger and larger making the approximation of quasi-particle less accurate. On the contrary, their peak positions are never strongly renormalized in comparison with the bare ones. As expected, the density of states is characterized by an exponential tail corresponding to localized states at low temperature. For weak electron-lattice coupling, the optical conductivity follows a Drude behavior, while, for intermediate electron-lattice coupling, a temperature dependent peak is present at low frequency. For high temperatures and low particle densities, the mobility always exhibits a power-law behavior as function of temperature. With decreasing the particle density, at low temperature, the mobility shows a transition from metallic to insulating behavior. Results are discussed in connection with available experimental data.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.