Commensurate-Incommensurate Phase Transitions for Multichain Quantum Spin Models: Exact Results

The behavior in an external magnetic field is studied for a wide class of multichain quantum spin models. It is shown that the magnetic field together with the interchain couplings cause commensurate-incommensurate phase transitions between the gapless phases in the ground state. The conformal limit of these models is studied and it is shown that the low-lying excitations for the incommensurate phases are not independent. A scenario for the transition from one to two space dimensions for the integrable multichain models is proposed. The similarities in the external field behavior for the quantum multichain spin models and a wide class of quantum field theories are discussed. The exponents for the gaps caused by relevant perturbations of the models are calculated.Comment: 23 pages, LaTeX, typos correcte

Time-dependent spin-wave theory

We generalize the spin-wave expansion in powers of the inverse spin to time-dependent quantum spin models describing rotating magnets or magnets in time-dependent external fields. We show that in these cases, the spin operators should be projected onto properly defined rotating reference frames before the spin components are bosonized using the Holstein-Primakoff transformation. As a first application of our approach, we calculate the reorganization of the magnetic state due to Bose-Einstein condensation of magnons in the magnetic insulator yttrium-iron garnet; we predict a characteristic dip in the magnetization which should be measurable in experiments.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, final version published in PR

On the theory of Bose-condensate fluctuations in finite size systems

An asymptotic expansions for the grand partition function of ideal Bose gas in the canonical ensemble with arbitrary number of particles is obtained. It is shown that the expressions found are valid in the whole temperature region, the critical temperature included. A comparison between the asymptotic formulas for Bose-condensate fluctuations and the exact ones is carried out and their quantitative agreement is established

Metal-nonmetal transition in LixCoO2 thin film and thermopower enhancement at high Li concentration

We investigate the transport properties of LixCoO2 thin films whose resistivities are nearly an order of magnitude lower than those of the bulk polycrystals. A metal-nonmetal transition occurs at ~0.8 in a biphasic domain, and the Seebeck coefficient (S) is drastically increased at ~140 K (= T*) with increasing the Li concentration to show a peak of magnitude ~120 \muV/K in the S-T curve of x = 0.87. We show that T* corresponds to a crossover temperature in the conduction, most likely reflecting the correlation-induced temperature dependence in the low-energy excitations

Hidden Kondo Effect in a Correlated Electron Chain

We develop a general Bethe Ansatz formalism for diagonalizing an integrable model of a magnetic impurity of arbitrary spin coupled ferro- or antiferromagnetically to a chain of interacting electrons. The method is applied to an open chain, with the exact solution revealing a ``hidden'' Kondo effect driven by forward electron scattering off the impurity. We argue that the so-called ``operator reflection matrices'' proposed in recent Bethe Ansatz studies of related models emulate only forward electron-impurity scattering which may explain the absence of complete Kondo screening for certain values of the impurity-electron coupling in these models.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex; to appear in Phys. Rev. Let

Magnetization plateau in the S=1/2 spin ladder with alternating rung exchange

We have studied the ground state phase diagram of a spin ladder with alternating rung exchange $J^{n}_{\perp} = J_{\perp}[1 + (-1)^{n} \delta ]$ in a magnetic filed, in the limit where the rung coupling is dominant. In this limit the model is mapped onto an $XXZ$ Heisenberg chain in a uniform and staggered longitudinal magnetic fields, where the amplitude of the staggered field is $\sim \delta$. We have shown that the magnetization curve of the system exhibits a plateau at magnetization equal to the half of the saturation value. The width of a plateau scales as $\delta^{\nu}$, where $\nu =4/5$ in the case of ladder with isotropic antiferromagnetic legs and $\nu =2$ in the case of ladder with isotropic ferromagnetic legs. We have calculated four critical fields ($H^{\pm}_{c1}$ and $H^{\pm}_{c2}$) corresponding to transitions between different magnetic phases of the system. We have shown that these transitions belong to the universality class of the commensurate-incommensurate transition.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figure

Thermoelectric performance of weakly coupled granular materials

We study thermoelectric properties of inhomogeneous nanogranular materials for weak tunneling conductance between the grains, g_t < 1. We calculate the thermopower and figure of merit taking into account the shift of the chemical potential and the asymmetry of the density of states in the vicinity of the Fermi surface. We show that the weak coupling between the grains leads to a high thermopower and low thermal conductivity resulting in relatively high values of the figure of merit on the order of one. We estimate the temperature at which the figure of merit has its maximum value for two- and three-dimensional samples. Our results are applicable for many emerging materials, including artificially self-assembled nanoparticle arrays.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Single-electron latch with granular film charge leakage suppressor

A single-electron latch is a device that can be used as a building block for Quantum-dot Cellular Automata (QCA) circuits. It consists of three nanoscale metal "dots" connected in series by tunnel junctions; charging of the dots is controlled by three electrostatic gates. One very important feature of a single-electron latch is its ability to store ("latch") information represented by the location of a single electron within the three dots. To obtain latching, the undesired leakage of charge during the retention time must be suppressed. Previously, to achieve this goal, multiple tunnel junctions were used to connect the three dots. However, this method of charge leakage suppression requires an additional compensation of the background charges affecting each parasitic dot in the array of junctions. We report a single-electron latch where a granular metal film is used to fabricate the middle dot in the latch which concurrently acts as a charge leakage suppressor. This latch has no parasitic dots, therefore the background charge compensation procedure is greatly simplified. We discuss the origins of charge leakage suppression and possible applications of granular metal dots for various single-electron circuits.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Quantum chiral phases in frustrated easy-plane spin chains

The phase diagram of antiferromagnetic spin-S chain with XY-type anisotropy and frustrating next-nearest-neighbor interaction is studied in the limit of large integer S with the help of a field-theoretical approach. It is shown that the existence of gapless and gapped chiral phases found in recent numerical studies [M.Kaburagi et al., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. vol.68, 3185 (1999), T.Hikihara et al., J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. vol.69, 259 (2000)] is not specific for S=1, but is rather a generic large-S feature. Estimates for the corresponding transition boundaries are obtained, and a sketch of the typical phase diagram is presented. It is also shown that frustration stabilizes the Haldane phase against the variation of the anisotropy.Comment: 4 revtex pages, 3 ps figure

Exact Thermodynamics of Disordered Impurities in Quantum Spin Chains

Exact results for the thermodynamic properties of ensembles of magnetic impurities with randomly distributed host-impurity couplings in the quantum antiferromagnetic Heisenberg model are presented. Exact calculations are done for arbitrary values of temperature and external magnetic field. We have shown that for strong disorder the quenching of the impurity moments is absent. For weak disorder the screening persists, but with the critical non-Fermi-liquid behaviors of the magnetic susceptibility and specific heat. A comparison with the disordered Kondo effect experiments in dirty metallic alloys is performed.Comment: 4 pages Late