Impurities in S=1/2 Heisenberg Antiferromagnetic Chains: Consequences for Neutron Scattering and Knight Shift

Non-magnetic impurities in an S=1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chain are studied using boundary conformal field theory techniques and finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations. We calculate the static structure function, S_imp(k), measured in neutron scattering and the local susceptibility, chi_i measured in Knight shift experiments. S_imp(k) becomes quite large near the antiferromagnetic wave-vector, and exhibits much stronger temperature dependence than the bulk structure function. \chi_i has a large component which alternates and increases as a function of distance from the impurity.Comment: 8 pages (revtex) + one postscript file with 6 figures. A complete postscript file with all figures + text (10pages) is available from http://fy.chalmers.se/~eggert/struct.ps or by request from [email protected] Submitted to Phys. Rev. Let

Trapping of dielectric particles with light-induced space-charge fields

Light-induced space-charge fields in lithium niobate crystals are used to trap and manipulate dielectric particles on the surface of such crystals. Without any external voltage source, strong field gradients are present in the proximity of the crystal surface. These are used to trap particles with diameters in the range between 100 nm and some tens of micrometers

Numerical Evidence for Multiplicative Logarithmic Corrections from Marginal Operators

Field theory calculations predict multiplicative logarithmic corrections to correlation functions from marginally irrelevant operators. However, for the numerically most suitable model - the spin-1/2 chain - these corrections have been controversial. In this paper, the spin-spin correlation function of the antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain is calculated numerically in the presence of a next nearest neighbor coupling J2 for chains of up to 32 sites. By varying the coupling strength J2 we can control the effect of the marginal operator, and our results unambiguously confirm the field theory predictions. The critical value at which the marginal operator vanishes has been determined to be at J2 = 0.241167 +/- 0.000005J.Comment: revised paper with extended data-analysis. 5 pages, using revtex with 4 embedded figures (included with macro). A complete postscript file with all figures + text (5 pages) is available from http://FY.CHALMERS.SE/~eggert/marginal.ps or by request from [email protected]

Interaction effects between impurities in low dimensional spin-1/2 antiferromagnets

We are considering the interplay between several non-magnetic impurities in the spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet in chains, ladders and planes by introducing static vacancies in numerical quantum Monte Carlo simulations. The effective potential between two and more impurities is accurately determined, which gives a direct measure of the quantum correlations in the systems. Large effective interaction potentials are an indication of strong quantum correlations in the system and reflect the detailed nature of the valence bond ground states. In two-dimensions (2D) the interactions are smaller, but can still be analyzed in terms of valence bonds.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, accepted by Europhys. Lett. The latest pdf file is available at http://www.physik.uni-kl.de/eggert/papers/interact2d.pd

Boundary Effects on Spectral Properties of Interacting Electrons in One Dimension

The single electron Green's function of the one-dimensional Tomonaga-Luttinger model in the presence of open boundaries is calculated with bosonization methods. We show that the critical exponents of the local spectral density and of the momentum distribution change in the presence of a boundary. The well understood universal bulk behavior always crosses over to a boundary dominated regime for small energies or small momenta. We show this crossover explicitly for the large-U Hubbard model in the low-temperature limit. Consequences for photoemission experiments are discussed.Comment: revised and reformatted paper to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett. (Feb. 1996). 5 pages (revtex) and 3 embedded figures (macro included). A complete postscript file is available from http://FY.CHALMERS.SE/~eggert/luttinger.ps or by request from [email protected]

Boundary susceptibility in the spin-1/2 chain: Curie like behavior without magnetic impurities

We investigate the low-temperature thermodynamics of the spin-1/2 Heisenberg chain with open ends. On the basis of boundary conformal field theory arguments and numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations, it is established that in the isotropic case the impurity susceptibility exhibits a Curie-like divergent behavior as the temperature decreases, even in the absence of magnetic impurities. A similar singular temperature dependence is also found in the boundary contributions of the specific heat coefficient. In the anisotropic case, for $1/2<\Delta<1$, these boundary quantities still show singular temperature dependence obeying a power law with an anomalous dimension. Experimental consequences will be discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figure, final versio

Low-energy local density of states of the 1D Hubbard model

We examine the local density of states (DOS) at low energies numerically and analytically for the Hubbard model in one dimension. The eigenstates represent separate spin and charge excitations with a remarkably rich structure of the local DOS in space and energy. The results predict signatures of strongly correlated excitations in the tunneling probability along finite quantum wires, such as carbon nanotubes, atomic chains or semiconductor wires in scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) experiments. However, the detailed signatures can only be partly explained by standard Luttinger liquid theory. In particular, we find that the effective boundary exponent can be negative in finite wires, which leads to an increase of the local DOS near the edges in contrast to the established behavior in the thermodynamic limit.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, more information can be found at http://www.physik.uni-kl.de/eggert/papers/index.htm