A finite fractal cluster theory of 1/f noise in percolation systems near metal-insulator transition

The problem of 1/f noise in thin metal films and metal-insulator composites in the scaling fractal regime near percolation threshold is considered. The correspondence between a percolation transition and a second order phase transition is extended from the point of view of electronic polarization and electrical fluctuations. The charge fluctuations on finite fractal clusters are argued to be analogous to spontaneous order parameter fluctuations in phase transitions, being correlated upto percolation correlation length. The charge relaxation times are shown to be related to the cluster sizes having distribution function of the formg()^–b , whereb is connected to Euclidean and fractal dimensionalities and critical exponents. This produces the 1/f noise spectrum. Below percolation threshold, the nodes-links-blobs picture is invoked such that the blobs represent metallic conductances of the finite clusters and the links are tunnelling conductances between them through narrowest barrier regions. Above threshold, the finite cluster network is visualized as connected to the infinite cluster through narrowest tunnelling regions. The correlated spontaneous charge fluctuation on finite fractal clusters is held responsible for conductance fluctuation on either side of the metal-insulator transition via tunnelling processes. Finally, the scaling behaviour of noise magnitude near percolation threshold is explained.     

Ten-fold spin-orbital degeneracy in the true d-electron Hubbard model of the Mott metal-insulator transition

The ten-fold spin-orbital degeneracy of true d-electrons is included in the non-spin-orbitally degenerate Hubbard model treatment theory of the Mott metal-insulator transition of Rice and Brinkman, and Gutzwiller. The Rice-Brinkman and Kohn phase diagrams of the Mott metal-insulator transition are shown to shift due to spin-orbital degeneracy of true d-electrons so as to increase the available phase space in the temperature-“interaction” Mott phase diagram for the formation of the antiferromagnetic insulator, superlattice metal or superlattice insulator states in these phase diagrams.     

Planar Hall effect and anisotropic magnetoresistance in layered structures Co0.45Fe0.45Zr0.1/a-Si with percolation conduction

Magnetic and magnetotransport properties of multilayered nanostructures Co_0.45Fe_0.45Zr_0.1/a-Si obtained by ion-beam sputtering are investigated. The temperature dependence of the resistance obeys a law of the form R _xx ∝-logT, which is typical of metal-insulator nanocomposites on the metal side of the percolation transition. The magnetoresistance anisotropy effect, as well as the planar Hall effect, is observed for the first time for this type of nanocomposites in the vicinity of the percolation transition. The correlation of these two effects with the transverse (between Hall probes) magnetoresistive effect, which may reach 6–9%, is revealed. A weak negative magnetoresistance of the order of 0.15%, which is observed for subnanometer amorphous silicon layer thicknesses, is attributed to spin-dependent electron transitions between adjacent ferromagnetic layers in the case when the exchange interaction between these layers is of the antiferromagnetic type.     

Pseudogap and metal-insulator transitions in doped semiconductors

The electronic spectrum of a doped semiconductor described by the Anderson-Holstein impurity model and its conductivity derived from the Kubo linear response theory are calculated. Two characteristic temperatures depending on the doping level x are found in the phase diagram, T _PG and T _λ(x). The pseudogap that opens in the single-particle spectrum at low doping levels and temperatures closes at the lower one, T _PG. The pseudogap state of an insulator is attributed to spin fluctuations in a doped compound. At the higher characteristic temperature T _λ(x),, spin fluctuations vanish and the doped compound becomes a paramagnetic poor metal. Two distinct metal-insulator crossovers between semiconductor-like and metallic temperature dependence of resistivity are found. An insulator-to-poor-metal transition occurs at T ^*(x) ≈ T _λ(x). A poor-metal-to-insulator transition at a lower temperature is attributed to the temperature dependence of density of states in the pseudogap. It is shown that both transitions are observed in La_2?x Sr_xCUO₄.     

Kondo proximity effect: how does a metal penetrate into a Mott insulator?

We consider a heterostructure of a metal and a paramagnetic Mott insulator using an adaptation of dynamical mean-field theory to describe inhomogeneous systems. The metal can penetrate into the insulator via the Kondo effect. We investigate the scaling properties of the metal-insulator interface close to the critical point of the Mott insulator. At criticality, the quasiparticle weight decays as 1/x;{2} with distance x from the metal within our mean-field theory. Our numerical results (using the numerical renormalization group as an impurity solver) show that the prefactor of this power law is extremely small.     

Overheating or overcooling of electrons in a metal because of the effect of an interface with an insulator

It has been shown that the temperatures of electrons and phonons are different at a heat flow through a metal-insulator interface. This effect leads to an additional contribution to the Kapitza thermal resistance because electrons transferring heat in the metal do not transfer it through the interface, but are rather involved in heat transfer only at a certain distance from it. Consequently, heat transfer near the interface is less efficient. The effect is independent of the insulator adjacent to the metal. An exact solution has been obtained in a linear approximation. The results explain the qualitative difference of predictions of previously accepted models from experimental data in the case of large transmission coefficients of phonons through the interface.     

Competition between crystal field splitting and Hund’s rule coupling in two-orbital magnetic metal-insulator transitions

Competition between crystal field splitting and Hund’s rule coupling in magnetic metal-insulator transitions of half-filled two-orbital Hubbard model is investigated by multi-orbital slave-boson mean field theory. We show that with the increase of Coulomb interaction, the system firstly transits from a paramagnetic (PM) metal to a Néel antiferromagnetic (AFM) Mott insulator, or to a nonmagnetic orbital insulator, depending on the competition of crystal field splitting and the Hund’s rule coupling. The AFM Mott insulating, PM metallic and orbital insulating phases are not, partially and fully orbital polarized, respectively. For a small J _H and a finite crystal field, the orbital insulator is robust. These results demonstrate that large crystal field splitting favors the formation of the orbital insulating phase, while large Hund’s rule coupling tends to destroy it, driving the low-spin to high-spin transition.     

Specific features of the electrical conductivity of V6O11

A study has been made of the electrical conductivity of V₆O₁₁ single crystals over a broad range of temperatures covering the regions of the metal phase, metal-insulator phase transition, and insulator phase. It has been shown that the electrical conductivity of the metal phase correlates with the Mott limit of minimum conductivity. To explain the temperature dependence of the electrical conductivity of the V₆O₁₁ insulator phase, the theory of hopping conduction taking into account the effect of thermal vibration of atoms on the resonance integral has been invoked.     

The metal-insulator transition and the phase transition in metal-ammonia solutions

The ground state of impurity metal (sodium) atoms in liquid ammonia close to the solvated state of the free electrons is considered. It is shown that the critical solubility point lying on the metal side of the metal-insulator transition is determined by the Coulomb interaction between the ions and electrons in the overlapping impurity states, classically accessible spheres of which form an infinite percolation cluster. The percolation conductivity via the impurity states is estimated. The estimate agrees with the experimental data near the critical solubility point. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 111, 938–948 (March 1997)     

Emergence of novel phenomena on the border of low dimensional spin and charge order

Proximity to magnetic order as well as low dimensionality are both beneficial to superconductivity at elevated temperatures. Materials on the border of magnetism display a wide range of novel and potentially useful phenomena: high T_cs, heavy fermions, coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity and giant magnetoresistance. Low dimensionality is linked to enhanced fluctuations and, in the case of heavy fermions, has been experimentally shown to be beneficial for the fluctuations that are responsible for the rich abundance of novel emergent phases. This experimental strategy motivated us to explore 2D insulating magnets with a view to investigate phase evolution across metal-insulator and magnetic-non-magnetic boundaries. This has been a fruitful venture with totally novel results different to our expectations. We present results from 2 distinct systems. The MPS₃ family are highly anisotropic in both their crystal and magnetic structures. FePS₃ in particular is a model insulating honeycomb antiferromagnet. We find that the application of pressure to FePS₃ induces an insulator to metal transition. The second system, Cs₂CuCl₄, is a highly-frustrated quantum spin liquid at low temperature. The competition of the 3 relevant exchange couplings is delicately balanced. It has been shown to become antiferromagnetic at very low temperatures (~1 K). We have found that the application of pressure for 3 days or more followed by a return to ambient pressure stabilises a totally distinct magnetic ground state.     

Electronic structure and metal-insulator transition in SrTi 1 - x Ru xO 3

We studied the changes in the electronic structure of SrTi_1-xRu_xO₃ across the metal-insulator transition. The parent compound, SrTiO₃, is a well known diamagnetic insulator; whereas the doped compound, SrTi_1-xRu_xO₃, becomes a ferromagnetic metal above x _C = 0.35. The techniques used in the study were photoemission (PES) and O 1 s X-ray absorption (XAS) spectroscopy. The experimental spectra were analyzed in terms of band structure and Hubbard model calculations. The PES and XAS spectra of SrTi_1-xRu_xO₃ show the Ru 4 d bands growing in the band gap of SrTiO₃ . The analysis in terms of the Hubbard model indicates that the Ti 3 d and Ru 4 d bands are mostly decoupled. This suggests that the metal-insulator transition is a percolation transition like that of metals embedded in a rare gas matrix. Electron correlation effects are present in this system, but they do not seem to play a major role in the transition. Received 10 September 2001     

The one-dimensional 1/4-filled Hubbard model with alternating interactions

The one-dimensional Hubbard model with different on-site interaction on the even (U_a) and odd (U_b) sites is considered within the framework of the weak coupling approach. In the case of a 1/4-filled band the dynamical nonequivalence of sites leads to the appearance of Umklapp processes in the system and to the dynamical generation of a commensurability gap in the charge excitation spectrum for U_a ≠ U_b and U_a>0 or U_b>0. Depending on the relation between the bare coupling constants the system shows four different regimes of behaviour in the infrared limit corresponding to normal metal, nonmagnetic insulator, antiferromagnetic insulator and superconducting states. The extended model including interaction between particles on nearest and next-nearest neighbour sites is also considered.     

Vibration spectroscopy of benzene adsorbed on Pt(111) and Ni(111)

High resolution electron energy loss spectroscopy has been applied to study the adsorption of benzene (C₆H₆ and C₆D₆) on Pt(111) and Ni(111) single crystal surfaces between 140 and 320 K. The vibrational spectra provide evidence that benzene is chemisorbed with its ring parallel to the surface, predominantly π bonded to the platinum and nickel surface respectively. A significant frequency increase of the CH-out-of-plane bending mode, largest in the case of platinum, is observed compared to the free molecule. On both metals two phases of benzene exist simultaneously, characterized by a different frequency shift. The shifts are explained by electronic interaction between the metal d-orbitals and molecules adsorbed in on top and threefold hollow sites respectively. The vibrational spectra of the multilayer condensed phase of benzene exhibit the infrared active modes of the gasphase molecule as expected.     

Competing orders and disorder-induced insulator to metal transition in manganites

Effects of disorder on the two competing phases, i.e., the ferromagnetic metal and the commensurate charge/lattice ordered insulator, are studied by Monte Carlo simulation. The disorder suppresses the charge/lattice ordering more strongly than the ferromagnetic order, driving the commensurate insulator to the ferromagnetic metal near the phase boundary in the pure case. Above the ferromagnetic transition temperature, on the contrary, the disorder makes the system more insulating, which might cause an enhanced colossal magnetoresistance as observed in the half-doped or Cr-substituted manganites. No indication of the percolation or the cluster formation is found, and there remains the charge/lattice fluctuations instead which are enhanced toward the transition temperature.     

Band effects on the conductivity for a two-band Hubbard model

The band effects on the conductivity of a one-dimensional two-band Hubbard model is studied based on the ground state energy analysis. It is found that the system with filling factor one is a metal at zero temperature if the on-site interaction U is smaller than a critical value U_c, and is an insulator if U is larger than U_c. The value of metal-insulator transition point U_c is obtained. This result is different from that of 1D single-band Hubbard model where the quantum phase transition point U_c=0. Therefore, the orbital degree of freedom plays an essential role in the states of matter.     

Destruction of the Fermi surface due to pseudogap fluctuations in strongly correlated systems

We generalize the dynamical-mean field theory (DMFT) by including into the DMFT equations dependence on the correlation length of the pseudogap fluctuations via the additional (momentum dependent) self-energy Σ_k. This self-energy describes nonlocal dynamical correlations induced by short-ranged collective SDW-like antiferromagnetic spin (or CDW-like charge) fluctuations. At high enough temperatures, these fluctuations can be viewed as a quenched Gaussian random field with finite correlation length. This generalized DMFT + Σ_k approach is used for the numerical solution of the weakly doped one-band Hubbard model with repulsive Coulomb interaction on a square lattice with nearest and next nearest neighbor hopping. The effective single impurity problem is solved by using a numerical renormalization group (NRG). Both types of strongly correlated metals, namely, (i) doped Mott insulator and (ii) the case of the bandwidth W ? U (U-value of local Coulomb interaction) are considered. By calculating profiles of the spectral densities for different parameters of the model, we demonstrate the qualitative picture of Fermi surface destruction and formation of Fermi arcs due to pseudogap fluctuations in qualitative agreement with the ARPES experiments. Blurring of the Fermi surface is enhanced with the growth of the Coulomb interaction.     

Theoretical analysis of the characteristic impedance in metal-insulator-metal plasmonic transmission lines

We propose a closed form formulation for the impedance of the metal-insulator-metal (MIM) plasmonic transmission lines by solving the Maxwell's equations. We provide approximations for thin and thick insulator layers sandwiched between metallic layers. In the case of very thin dielectric layer, the surface waves on both interfaces are strongly coupled resulting in an almost linear dependence of the impedance of the plasmonic transmission line on the thickness of the insulator layer. On the other hand, for very thick insulator layer, the impedance does not vary with the insulator layer thickness due to the weak-coupling/decoupling of the surface waves on each metal-insulator interface. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed formulation using two test scenarios, namely, almost zero reflection in T-junction and reflection from line discontinuity in the design of Bragg reflectors, where we compare our formulation against previously published results.     

Relaxationsphänomene in Mössbauerspektren von magnetisierten paramagnetischen Substanzen

The Mössbauer spectra of partly magnetized FeNH₄(SO₄)₂·12 H₂O show a broadening and a shift of the hyperfine structure lines, reflecting the paramagnetic spin fluctuations. These fluctuations and their influence on the γ-spectrum may be treated in a spin wave model without introducing phenomenological parameters. By means of a simple diagram technique we get a line broadening γ and line shift δ, proportional to second and third order polynomials of the magnetization and to ∫g ² dΩ and ∫g ³ dΩ, respectively.g(Ω) is the frequency spectrum of spin waves. The values of the two frequency integrals, as deduced from the measured Mössbauer data γ and δ of ferric alum, are in reasonable agreement with the results obtained from the calculated spin wave spectrum, assuming pure magnetic dipole-dipole coupling (long wave length approximation of Holstein-Primakoff). A small contribution of non-magnetic dipole-dipole interaction (van Vleck) cannot be excluded.     

Universality in quantum chaos and the one-parameter scaling theory

The one-parameter scaling theory is adapted to the context of quantum chaos. We define a generalized dimensionless conductance, g, semiclassically and then study Anderson localization corrections by renormalization group techniques. This analysis permits a characterization of the universality classes associated to a metal (g-->infinity), an insulator (g-->0), and the metal-insulator transition (g-->g(c)) in quantum chaos provided that the classical phase space is not mixed. According to our results the universality class related to the metallic limit includes all the systems in which the Bohigas-Giannoni-Schmit conjecture holds but automatically excludes those in which dynamical localization effects are important. The universality class related to the metal-insulator transition is characterized by classical superdiffusion or a fractal spectrum in low dimensions (d < or = 2). Several examples are discussed in detail.