Broken symmetry in antiferromagnets

We discuss limitations of the conventional ‘broken symmetry’ picture of the Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The exact results on the ground state of the linear chain and of the three-dimensional Hamiltonian do not show a ‘degeneracy of the vacuum’. With the help of a solvable model it is shown that the correlations in the ground state may have the Néel character, as revealed by the neutron experiments, even though the ground state is quite different from the Néel states. There is no Goldstone mode in the linear chain. The spin of the antiferromagnetic spin wave is 1/2. But the physical states have a doublet of the spin waves which could be regarded as degenerate states of spin 1 and spin 0. The fermionic character is suppressed and the bosonic character revealed, as in the decolouring phenomena in quantum field theory. It is plausible that in the three-dimensional case also there is no Goldstone mode.     

Spectroscopy of the Kondo problem in a box

Motivated by experiments on double quantum dots, we study the problem of a single magnetic impurity confined in a finite metallic host. We prove an exact theorem for the ground state spin, and use analytic and numerical arguments to map out the spin structure of the excitation spectrum of the many-body Kondo-correlated state, throughout the weak to strong coupling crossover. These excitations can be probed in a simple tunneling-spectroscopy transport experiment; for that situation we solve rate equations for the conductance.     

Electronic correlation in the quantum Hall regime

Two‐dimensional interacting electron systems become strongly correlated if the electrons are subject to a perpendicular high magnetic field. After introducing the physics of the quantum Hall regime the incompressible many‐particle ground state and its excitations are studied in detail at fractional filling factors for spin‐polarized electrons. The spin degree of freedom whose importance was shown in recent experiments is considered by studying the thermodynamics at filling factor one and near one.     

Magnetic skyrmion dynamics in thin cylindrical dots

We calculate high‐frequency spin excitations of the skyrmion ground state cylindrical magnetic dots. The skyrmion is assumed to be stabilized at room temperature due to interplay of the isotropic and Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya exchange interactions, perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and magnetostatic interaction. The Skyrmion ground state is represented as combination of two radially symmetric bubble domains. To consider the Bloch‐ and Néel‐type magnetic skyrmion dynamics we apply an approximation of ultrathin domain wall between the circular domains and assume that the magnetic dot is thin enough (magnetization does not depend on the thickness coordinate). The eigenfunctions/eigenfrequencies of spin wave excitations over the skyrmion background are calculated as a function of the skyrmion radius. The developed approach allows predicting spin wave eigenfrequencies in the skyrmion ground state magnetic dots. Recent experiments on magnetic skyrmion dynamics are discussed. (© 2016 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Microscopic model for superexchange interactions and photomagnetism in binuclear transition metal complexes

Recent experiments show that the superexchange interaction in molecular clusters containing transition metal ions A?=?Ni^II and B?=?W^V, Nb^IV or Mo^V in some cases is antiferromagnetic, contrary to the conventional superexchange rules. To understand this anomaly, we develop a quantum many-body model Hamiltonian and solve it exactly using a valence bond (VB) approach. We identify the various model parameters which control the ground state spin in different clusters of the A-B system. We present quantum phase diagrams that delineate the high and low-spin ground states in the parameter space. We fit the spin gap to a spin Hamiltonian and extract the effective exchange constant within the experimentally observed range, for reasonable parameter values. We also find a region of intermediate spin ground state in the parameter space, in clusters of larger size. The spin spectrum of the microscopic model cannot be reproduced by a simple Heisenberg exchange Hamiltonian. The above microscopic model is generic and can also be employed to explain photomagnetism in the MoCu₆ system. We solve the model for MoCu₆ and find that ground state is degenerate and is spanned by the S?=?0,?1,?2 and 3 manifolds with doubly occupied Mo site corresponding to Mo(IV) and singly occupied Cu sites corresponding to Cu(II) configurations. In each of these spin spaces, we observe that there exist charge-transfer (CT) states at ≈3?eV above the ground state which are dipole coupled to the ground state. The transition dipole in the S?=?3 manifold is the largest for the CT excitations. Coupled with the fact that the density of states of the S?=?3 manifold is sparse, compared to other spin manifolds, we expect that the S?=?3 CT excited state to be long-lived, thereby explaining the experimentally observed photomagnetism in the MoCu₆ system.     

Uniaxial and biaxial spin nematic phases induced by quantum fluctuations

It is shown that zero point quantum fluctuations completely lift the accidental continuous degeneracy that is found in mean field analysis of quantum spin nematic phases of hyperfine spin-2 cold atoms. The result is two distinct ground states which have higher symmetries: a uniaxial spin nematic and a biaxial spin nematic with dihedral symmetry Dih4. There is a novel first-order quantum phase transition between the two phases as atomic scattering lengths are varied. We find that the ground state of 87Rb atoms should be a uniaxial spin nematic. We note that the energy barrier between the phases could be observable in dynamical experiments.     

Anisotropic electromagnetic response of lightly doped La2-xSrxCuO4 within the CuO2 planes

Using infrared spectroscopy, we show that spin self-organization in untwinned La2-xSrxCuO4 (LSCO) crystals has profound consequences for the dynamical conductivity sigma(omega). The electronic response of CuO2 planes acquires significant anisotropy in the spin ordered state with enhancement of the conductivity along the direction of the diagonal spin stripes by up to a factor of 2. An examination of the anisotropic response indicates that the diagonal spin texture in weakly doped LSCO is also accompanied by the modulation of charge density. The electronic response of the charge stripes is found to be gapless consistent with the hypothesis of the metallic ground state. Our experiments directly show that the striped ordered systems reveal new degrees of freedom not present in ordinary one-dimensional conductors.     

Damping of antiferromagnetic spin waves by valence fluctuations in the double layer perovskite YBaFe2O5

Inelastic neutron scattering experiments show that spin dynamics in the charge-ordered insulating ground state of the double layer perovskite YBaFe(2)O(5) is well described in terms of e(g) superexchange interactions. Above the Verwey transition at T(V)=308 K, t(2g) double exchange-type conduction proceeds within antiferromagnetic FeO(2)-BaO-FeO(2) double layers by an electron hopping process that requires a spin flip of the five-coordinated Fe ions, costing an energy of 5S(2) approximately 0.1 eV. The hopping process disrupts near-neighbor spin correlations, leading to massive damping of zone-boundary spin waves.     

Simulation of coexisting ferromagnetic order and disorder of geometrically frustrated Co2Cl(OH)3

The ground state and phase transition of Co₂Cl(OH)₃ were investigated by Monte Carlo simulation. This compound is a magnet, with a pyrochlore structure distorted along one axis. The magnetic structure at low temperatures consists of coexisting ferromagnetism and random spin, according to experiments. However, the formation mechanism of the coexistence and the interaction between the spins were unclear. We assumed an anisotropic Ising model and examined the ground state by multicanonical Monte Carlo simulation. In a nearest neighbor model, the ground states were highly degenerated. Almost all of the states were spin glass states, but a few of the states were ferromagnetic. The latter magnetic states were ferromagnetic at triangular layers and two in-one out random state at Kagome layers. The latter states should be stabilized if weak ferromagnetic interactions exist between second nearest neighbor spins and correspond to the states reported by the experiments. This expectation was confirmed by simulation.     

Excited-state spectroscopy using single spin manipulation in diamond

We use single-spin resonant spectroscopy to study the spin structure in the orbital excited state of a diamond nitrogen-vacancy (N-V) center at room temperature. The data show that the excited-state spin levels have a zero-field splitting that is approximately half of the value of the ground state levels, a g factor similar to the ground state value, and a hyperfine splitting approximately 20x larger than in the ground state. In addition, the width of the resonances reflects the electronic lifetime in the excited state. We also show that the spin level splitting can significantly differ between N-V centers, likely due to the effects of local strain, which provides a pathway to control over the spin Hamiltonian and may be useful for quantum-information processing.     

Collective spin states in the electron gas in different dimensions and geometries

We study spin longitudinal and transverse linear response of the 3-dimensional electron gas, metal clusters and quantum dots. When the systems are spin unpolarized in the ground state, a low energy collective state emerges in finite size systems due to the discrete shell structure, whereas it is absent in the bulk due to the Landau damping. In the case of spin polarization of the ground state a collective state is present also in the bulk and a family of new collective states appears in finite size systems. Presented by E. Lipparini at the International Conference on “Atomic Nuclei and Metallic Clusters”, Prague, September 1–5, 1997.     

Atypical fractional quantum Hall effect in graphene at filling factor 1/3

We study, with the help of exact-diagonalization calculations, a four-component trial wave function that may be relevant for the recently observed graphene fractional quantum Hall state at a filling factor ν(G) = 1/3. Although it is adiabatically connected to a 1/3 Laughlin state in the upper spin branch, with SU(2) valley-isospin ferromagnetic ordering and a completely filled lower spin branch, it reveals physical properties beyond such a state that is the natural ground state for a large Zeeman effect. Most saliently, it possesses at experimentally relevant values of the Zeeman gap low-energy spin-flip excitations that may be unveiled in inelastic light-scattering experiments.     

Reinvestigation of the sign problem in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

We reinvestigate the sign problem in the two-dimensional Hubbard model using the projector ground state Quantum Monte Carlo scheme with Langevin dynamics. Our interest is mainly motivated by the question: what is the parameter space in which simulations may be performed with reliable results and how does the average sign scales with inverse temperature? In the parameter space in which one may omit the sign problem we have studied the ground state properties: momentum distribution and spin structure. We find an exponential decay of the average sign. At half filling, we find evidence for an antiferromagnetic insulating ground state. At off half band fillings, the antiferromagnetic state is destroyed leaving place to an incommensurate spin density state.     

Partially disordered antiferromagnetic state in two-dimensional triangular-lattice antiferromagnet

The partially disordered antiferromagnetic (PDA) state, as an exotic phase peculiar to the antiferromagnet with Ising spin in triangular lattice, is investigated by using Monte Carlo simulations of Wang-Landau algorithm and Glauber algorithm. It is revealed that PDA state, as the ground state of the triangular antiferromagnetic system, presents the complicated spin configuration due to geometrical frustration. The formation of multi-domain structure within the framework of honeycomb antiferromagnet results in the high degeneracy of PDA state. And this degeneracy of ground state can be lifted by a small magnetic field. Consequently the system shows the ferrimagnetic state, and the magnetization plateau of 1/3 saturate value (Ms) is observed in many experiments. Moreover, due to the multi-domain structure of PDA state and those spins on domain walls, the metastable steps may manifest themselves superposed on the 1/3Ms plateau in some special cases.     

半导体量子阱中弱耦合磁极化子的性质

采用线性组合算符和改进的LLP变分法,研究了在考虑电子自旋情况下无限深量子阱中弱耦合磁极化子的性质。导出了弱耦合磁极化子的声子平均数、基态能量和电子自旋能量与磁极化子基态能量之比的绝对值的表达式。并对两种不同阱材料的量子阱进行了数值计算,结果表明:磁极化子的声子平均数随电子-LO声子耦合常数和阱宽的增加而增大,并且最终随着阱宽的增加而趋于体情况下的极限值;由于电子自旋能的作用使磁极化子的基态能量由不考虑电子自旋下的一条分裂为两条,并且它随阱宽和电子-LO声子耦合常数的增加而减小,随回旋共振频率(磁场)的增加而增大。电子自旋作用能否忽略由回旋共振频率和阱材料本身的性质决定。     

Haldane-like antiferromagnetic spin chain in the large anisotropy limit

We consider the one dimensional, periodic spin chain with N sites, similar to the one studied by Haldane [1], however in the opposite limit of very large anisotropy and small nearest neighbour, anti-ferromagnetic exchange coupling between the spins, which are of large magnitude s. For a chain with an even number of sites we show that actually the ground state is non-degenerate and given by a superposition of the two Neél states, due to quantum spin tunnelling. With an odd number of sites, the Neél state must necessarily contain a soliton. The position of the soliton is arbitrary thus the ground state is N-fold degenerate. This set of states reorganizes into a band. We show that this occurs at order 2s in perturbation theory. The ground state is non-degenerate for integer spin, but degenerate for half-odd integer spin as is required by Kramers' theorem [18].     

Variational approach to spin fluctuations in the Hubbard model

We study a one parameter variational wave function to improve the spin density wave ground state of the Hubbard model by inclusion of quantum spin fluctuations. Using a perturbative approach and novel lattice summation techniques we present analytical as well as numerical results for the correlation energies and the staggered magnetizations in one and two dimensions. We find ground state energies which are satisfyingly close to known exact results and are significantly lower than those of existing Gutzwiller and numerical treatments.     

Optical and magnetic characterisation of Co3+ and Ni3+ in LaAlO3: interplay between the spin state and Jahn-Teller effect

The coordination, the electronic structures and the spin of the ground state of Ni(3+) (3d(7)) and Co(3+) (3d(6)) introduced as impurities in LaAlO(3) are investigated through optical spectroscopy and magnetic measurements. The unusual trivalent valence state in both transition-metal ions was stabilised via a sol-gel process followed by high oxygen pressure treatments. We show that the crystal-field strength at the nearly O(h) transition-metal site in LaAlO(3) locates Ni(3+) and Co(3+) near the spin state crossover, yielding a low-spin ground state in both cases. We analyse how the interplay between the Jahn-Teller (JT) effect and the spin state affects the magnetic moment of the ion and its temperature dependence. The optical spectra reveal a JT effect associated with a low-spin ground state in Ni(3+) and with a thermally populated high-spin low-lying first excited state in Co(3+). The corresponding JT distortions are derived from structural correlations. We conclude that the JT effect is unable to stabilise the intermediate spin state in Co(3+). A low-spin ground state in thermal equilibrium with a high-spin low-lying first excited state is detected in diluted Co(3+)-doped LaAlO(3). These results are compared with those obtained in the parent pure compounds LaNiO(3) and LaCoO(3).     

Stimulated and spontaneous optical generation of electron spin coherence in charged GaAs quantum dots

We report on the coherent optical excitation of electron spin polarization in the ground state of charged GaAs quantum dots via an intermediate charged exciton (trion) state. Coherent optical fields are used for the creation and detection of the Raman spin coherence between the spin ground states of the charged quantum dot. The measured spin decoherence time, which is likely limited by the nature of the spin ensemble, approaches 10 ns at zero field. We also show that the Raman spin coherence in the quantum beats is caused not only by the usual stimulated Raman interaction but also by simultaneous spontaneous radiative decay of either excited trion state to a coherent combination of the two spin states.     

Semiclassical ordering in the large-N pyrochlore antiferromagnet

We study the semiclassical limit of the Sp(N) generalization of the pyrochlore lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet by expanding about the N --> infinity saddlepoint in powers of a generalized inverse spin. To leading order, we write down an effective Hamiltonian as a series in loops on the lattice. Using this as a formula for calculating the energy of any classical ground state, we perform Monte Carlo simulations and find a unique collinear ground state. This state is not a ground state of linear spin-wave theory, and can therefore not be a physical (N = 1) semiclassical ground state.