Ferroelectricity in spiral magnets

It was recently observed that materials showing most striking multiferroic phenomena are frustrated spin-density-wave magnets. We present a simple phenomenological theory, which describes the orientation of the induced electric polarization for various incommensurate magnetic states, its dependence on temperature and magnetic field, and anomalies of dielectric susceptibility at magnetic transitions. We show that electric polarization can be induced at domain walls and that magnetic vortices carry electric charge.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Instanton calculation of the density of states of disordered Peierls chains

We use the optimal fluctuation method to find the density of electron states inside the pseudogap in disordered Peierls chains. The electrons are described by the one-dimensional Dirac Hamiltonian with randomly varying mass (the Fluctuating Gap Model). We establish a relation between the disorder average in this model and the quantum-mechanical average for a certain double-well problem. We show that the optimal disorder fluctuation, which has the form of a soliton-antisoliton pair, corresponds to the instanton trajectory in the double-well problem. We use the instanton method developed for the double-well problem to find the contribution to the density of states from disorder realizations close to the optimal fluctuation.Comment: 14 pages, revtex, epsf, 3 Postscript figure

Optical excitation of interacting electron-hole pairs in disordered one-dimensional semiconductors

We apply the optimal fluctuation method to the calculation of the optical absorption in disordered one-dimensional semiconductors below the fundamental optical gap. We find that a photon energy exists at which the shape of the optimal fluctuation undergoes a dramatic change, resulting in a different energy dependence of the absorption rate above and below this energy. In the limit when the interaction of an electron and a hole with disorder is stronger than their interaction with each other, we obtain an analytical expression for the optical conductivity. We show that to calculate the absorption rate, it is, in general, necessary to consider a manifold of optimal fluctuations, rather than just a single fluctuation. For an arbitrary ratio of the Coulomb interaction and disorder, the optimal fluctuation is found numerically.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figure

Magnetic Susceptibility Due to Disorder-Induced Neutral Solitons in Interacting Polymer Chains

We study the magnetic response due to neutral solitons induced by disorder in polymer materials. We account for interchain interactions, which, if sufficiently strong, result in a bond-ordered phase, in which the neutral solitons are bound into pairs. We analytically calculate the corresponding pair size distribution. As the spins of the solitons have a distance dependent antiferromagnetic coupling, this allows us to calculate the magnetic susceptibility in the ordered phase. At low temperatures, the result deviates from the usual Curie behavior in a way that depends on the relative strength of the disorder and the interchain interactions. We compare our results to the observed magnetic susceptibility of trans-polyacetylene and we suggest new experiments extending towards lower temperatures.Comment: 23 pages, 5 Postscript figures included; to appear in Phys. Rev.

Disorder-induced solitons in conjugated polymers

We show that weak off-diagonal disorder in degenerate ground state conjugated polymers results in a finite density of randomly positioned kinks (solitons and antisolitons) in the lattice dimerization. For realistic values of the disorder, these kinks should clearly show up in the optical and magnetic properties.Comment: 5 pages, revtex, 2 Postscript figure

Peierls transition with acoustic phonons and twist deformation in carbon nanotubes

We consider the Peierls instability due to the interaction of electrons with both acoustic and optical phonons. We suggest that such a transition takes place in carbon nanotubes with small radius. The topological excitations and the temperature dependence of the conductivity resulting from the electron-lattice interactions are considered.Comment: 5 pages, 3 PostScript figures included; submitted to Phys. Rev. Let