On the electron-energy loss spectra and plasmon resonance in cuprates

The consequences of the non-Drude charge response in the normal state of cuprates and the effect of the layered structure on electron-energy loss spectra are investigated, both for experiments in the transmission and the reflection mode. It is shown that in the intermediate doping regime the plasmon resonance has to be nearly critically damped as a result of the anomalous frequency dependence of the relaxation rate. This also implies an unusual low-energy dependence of the loss function. Both facts are consistent with experiments in cuprates. Our study based on the t-J model shows good agreement with measured plasmon frequencies.Comment: LaTeX, 4 pages with 2 figures. submitted to PR

Charge dynamics of t-J model and anomalous bond-stretching phonons in cuprates

The density response of a doped Mott-Hubbard insulator is discussed starting from the t-J model in a slave boson 1/N representation. In leading order O(1) the density fluctuation spectra $N({\bf q},\omega)$ are determined by an undamped collective mode at large momentum transfer, in striking disagreement with results obtained by exact diagonalization, which reveal a very broad dispersive peak, reminescent of strong spin-charge coupling. The 1/N corrections introduce the polaron character of the bosonic holes moving in a uniform RVB background. The resulting $N({\bf q},\omega)$ captures all features observed in diagonalization studies, fulfills the appropriate sum rules, and apart from the broadening of the collective mode shows a new low energy feature at the energy $\chi J+\delta t$ related to the polaron motion in the spinon background. It is further shown that the low energy structure, which is particularly pronounced in $(\pi,0)$ direction, describes the strong renormalization and anomalous damping of the highest bond-stretching phonons in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$.Comment: Presented at the meeting "Highlights in Condensed Matter Physics" in honor of the 60th birthday of Prof. Ferdinando Mancini, May 9-11, 2003, Salerno, Ital

Electron-phonon coupling and spin-charge separation in one-dimensional Mott insulators

We examine the single-particle excitation spectrum in the one-dimensional Hubbard-Holstein model at half-filling by performing the dynamical density matrix renormalization group (DDMRG) calculation. The DDMRG results are interpreted as superposition of spectra for a spinless carrier dressed with phonons. The superposition is a consequence of robustness of the spin-charge separation against electron-phonon coupling. The separation is in contrast to the coupling between phonon and spin degrees of freedom in two-dimensional systems. We discuss implication of the results of the recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements on SrCuO${}_{2}$.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. submitted to the Physical Review Letter

Density response of the t-J model and renormalization of breathing and half-breathing phonon modes: A slave-fermion calculation

The density fluctuation spectrum $N({\bf k},\omega)$ is calculated for the t-J model in the low-doping regime using a slave-fermion method for the constrained fermions. The obtained results for $N({\bf k},\omega)$ are in good agreement with diagonalization results. The density response is characterized by incoherent, momentum dependent spectral functions reaching up to energies $\sim 8t$ and a low-energy structure at energy $\sim J$ due to transitions in the quasiparticle band. $N({\bf k},\omega)$ is shown to lead to a strong renormalization of planar bond-streching and breathing phonon modes with a large phonon linewidth at intermediate momenta caused by the low-energy response. Our results are consistent with recent neutron scattering data, showing the peculiar behavior of these modes.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, `Materials and Mechanisms of Superconductivity VI' conference, Houston, USA, Febr. 20-25, 200

Magnetism of one-dimensional Wigner lattices and its impact on charge order

The magnetic phase diagram of the quarter-filled generalized Wigner lattice with nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor hopping t_1 and t_2 is explored. We find a region at negative t_2 with fully saturated ferromagnetic ground states that we attribute to kinetic exchange. Such interaction disfavors antiferromagnetism at t_2 <0 and stems from virtual excitations across the charge gap of the Wigner lattice, which is much smaller than the Mott-Hubbard gap proportional to U. Remarkably, we find a strong dependence of the charge structure factor on magnetism even in the limit U to infinity, in contrast to the expectation that charge ordering in the Wigner lattice regime should be well described by spinless fermions. Our results, obtained using the density-matrix renormalization group and exact diagonalization, can be transparently explained by means of an effective low-energy Hamiltonian

Magnetic properties of spin-orbital polarons in lightly doped cobaltates

We present a numerical treatment of a spin-orbital polaron model for Na_xCoO_2 at small hole concentration (0.7 < x < 1). We demonstrate how the polarons account for the peculiar magnetic properties of this layered compound: They explain the large susceptibility; their internal degrees of freedom lead both to a negative Curie-Weiss temperature and yet to a ferromagnetic intra-layer interaction, thereby resolving a puzzling contradiction between these observations. We make specific predictions on the momentum and energy location of excitations resulting from the internal degrees of freedom of the polaron, and discuss their impact on spin-wave damping.Comment: 4+ pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Critical behavior of the S=3/2 antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain

Using the density-matrix renormalization-group technique we study the long-wavelength properties of the spin S=3/2 nearest-neighbor Heisenberg chain. We obtain an accurate value for the spin velocity v=3.8+- 0.02, in agreement with experiment. Our results show conclusively that the model belongs to the same universality class as the S=1/2 Heisenberg chain, with a conformal central charge c=1 and critical exponent eta=1Comment: RevTeX (version 3.0), 4 twocolumn pages with 4 embedded figure

A new view of the electronic structure of the spin-Peierls compound alpha'-NaV2O5

The present understanding of the electronic and magnetic properties of $\alpha'$-NaV$_2$O$_5$ is based on the hypothesis of strong charge disproportionation into V$^{4+}$ and V$^{5+}$, which is assumed to lead to a spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain system. A recent structure analysis shows, however, that the V-ions are in a mixed valence state and indistiguishable. We propose an explanation for the insulating state, which is not based on charge modulation, and show that strong correlations together with the Heitler-London character of the relevant intermediate states naturally lead to antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains. The interchain coupling is weak and frustrated, and its effect on the uniform susceptibility is found to be small.Comment: EPJ-style, 7 pages with 5 eps figure