Anomalous influence of spin fluctuations on the heat capacity and entropy in a strongly correlated helical ferromagnet MnSi

The influence of spin fluctuations on the thermodynamic properties of a helical ferromagnet MnSi has been investigated in the framework of the Hubbard model with the electronic spectrum determined from the first-principles LDA + U + SO calculation, which is extended taking into account the Hund coupling and the Dzyaloshinskii–Moriya antisymmetric exchange. It has been shown that the ground state of the magnetic material is characterized by large zero-point fluctuations, which disappear at the temperature T* (<T _c is the temperature of the magnetic phase transition). In this case, the entropy abruptly increases, and a lambdashaped anomaly appears in the temperature dependence of the heat capacity at constant volume (C _V (T)). In the temperature range T* < T < T _c , thermal fluctuations lead to the disappearance of the inhomogeneous magnetization. The competition between the increase in the entropy due to paramagnon excitations and its decrease as a result of the reduction in the amplitude of local magnetic moments, under the conditions of strong Hund exchange, is responsible for in the appearance of a “shoulder” in the dependence C _V (T)).     

Helical spin structure in manganese silicide MnSi

At 4.2 K, MnSi has a helical spin structure with a period of 180 Å in the [111] direction. In magnetic fields greater than 4 kOe, a conical spin structure, whose screw axis coincides with the field direction and whose period is independent of the applied field is realized.     

Electronic structure of half-metallic ferromagnet Co<Subscript>2</Subscript>MnSi at high-pressure

In this study, first principles calculation results of the half-metallic ferromagnetic Heusler compound Co₂MnSi are presented. All calculations are based on the spin-polarized generalized gradient approximation (σ-GGA) of the density functional theory and ultrasoft pseudopotentials with plane wave basis. Electronic structure of related compound in cubic L2₁ structure is investigated up to 95 GPa uniform hydrostatic pressure. The half-metal to metal transition was observed around ~70 GPa together with downward shift of the conduction band minimum (CBM) and a linear increase of direct band gap of minority spins at Γ-point with increasing pressure. The electronic density of states of minority spins at Fermi level, which are mainly due to the cobalt atoms, become remarkable with increasing pressure resulting a sharp decrease in spin polarization ratio. It can be stated that the pressure affects minority spin states rather than that of majority spins and lead to a slight reconstruction of minority spin states which lie below the Fermi level. In particular, energy band gap of minority spin states in equilibrium structure is obviously not destroyed, but the Fermi level is shifted outside the gap.     

Electronic structure and magnetic phase transition in MnSi

Temperature variations of the amplitude of zero-point and thermal spin fluctuations in a helicoidal ferromagnetic (MnSi) are characterized using the electronic structure model that follows from ab initio LDA + U + SO calculations. It is found that a drastic reduction in the amplitude of zero-point spin fluctuations at temperature T _S (in the vicinity of the magnetic phase transition) leads to ferromagnetic solution instability (a change in the sign of the intermode interaction parameter). The observed magnetovolume effect and a sharp change in the radius of spin correlations have the same underlying cause. The results of calculation of the volumetric coefficient of thermal expansion agree well with the observed anomaly in the region of the magnetic phase transition.     

Theory of the helical spin crystal: a candidate for the partially ordered state of MnSi

MnSi is an itinerant magnet which at low temperatures develops a helical spin-density wave. Under pressure it undergoes a transition into an unusual partially ordered state whose nature is debated. Here we propose that the helical spin crystal (the magnetic analog of a solid) is a useful starting point to understand partial order in MnSi. We consider different helical spin crystals and determine conditions under which they may be energetically favored. The most promising candidate has bcc structure and is reminiscent of the blue phase of liquid crystals in that it has line nodes of magnetization protected by symmetry. We introduce a Landau theory to study the properties of these states, in particular, the effect of crystal anisotropy, magnetic field, and disorder. These results compare favorably with existing data on MnSi from neutron scattering and magnetic field studies. Future experiments to test this scenario are also proposed.     

Chiral fluctuations in MnSi above the Curie temperature

Polarized neutrons are used to determine the antisymmetric part of the magnetic susceptibility in noncentrosymmetric MnSi. The paramagnetic fluctuations are found to be incommensurate with the chemical lattice and to have a chiral character. We argue that antisymmetric interactions must be taken into account to properly describe the critical dynamics in MnSi above T(C). The possibility of directly measuring the polarization dependent part of the dynamical susceptibility in a large class of compounds by polarized inelastic neutron scattering is outlined as it can yield evidence for antisymmetric interactions such as spin-orbit coupling in metals as well as in insulators.     

Phase inhomogeneity of the itinerant ferromagnet MnSi at high pressures

The pressure induced quantum phase transition of the weakly ferromagnetic metal MnSi is studied using zero-field 29Si NMR spectroscopy and relaxation. Below P(*) approximately 1.2 GPa, the intensity of the signal and the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation are independent of pressure, even though the amplitude of the magnetization drops by 20% from the ambient-pressure amplitude. For P>P(*), the decreasing intensity within the experimentally detectable bandwidth signals the onset of an inhomogeneous phase that persists to the highest pressure measured, P>/=1.75 GPa, which is well beyond the known critical pressure P(c)=1.46 GPa. Implications for the non-Fermi liquid behavior observed for P>P(c) are discussed.     

Lost heat capacity and entropy in the helical magnet MnSi

The heat capacity of MnSi at B = 0 and B = 4 T was measured in the temperature range 2.5-100 K. To analyze the data, calculations of the phonon spectrum and phonon density of states in MnSi were performed. The calculated phonon frequencies were confirmed by means of inelastic neutron scattering. The analysis of the data suggests the existence of negative contributions to the heat capacity and entropy of MnSi at T > T(c) that may imply a specific ordering in the spin subsystem in the paramagnetic phase of MnSi.     

Surface spin waves in Heisenberg ferromagnet

The existence conditions and the dispersion laws for surface spin waves in Heisenberg ferromagnet are obtained for any orientation of the surface and any exchange constant or anisotropy field in the surface plane. It is shown that purely decaying modes, both of accoustical or optical types, can occur only for surface having special properties of rotational symmetry.     

Field dependence of the muon spin relaxation rate in MnSi

Muon spin rotation/relaxation measurements have been performed in the itinerant helical magnet MnSi at ambient pressure and at 8.3 kbar. We have found the following: (a) the spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T(1) shows divergence as T1T proportional, variant (T-T(c))(beta) with the power beta larger than 1 near T(c); (b) 1/T(1) is strongly reduced in an applied external field B(L) and the divergent behavior near T(c) is completely suppressed at B(L)> or =4000 G. We discuss that (a) is consistent with the self-consistent renormalization theory and reflects a departure from "mean-field" behavior, while (b) indicates selective suppression of spin fluctuations of the q=0 component by B(L).     

超导与自旋涨落

在常规超导体中,库珀对是由于电子与声子之间的相互作用而形成的. 在此过程中,人们可以只考虑电子的电荷性质与声子之间的关联. 然而在所谓的非常规超导体中,人们意识到一些其他类型的元激发也可能导致超导现象,而自旋涨落则可能是其中最重要的一种. 在大多数非常规超导体中,都可以发现自旋涨落的身影. 而在一些重要的体系中,包括铜基超导体、铁基超导体以及一些重费米子超导体体系等,可以确切地说,自旋涨落起到了关键的作用,尽管其相对应的超导机制仍然还不清楚. 文章简单介绍了自旋涨落与超导电性之间的关联.     

Squeezed thermal spin states of magnons in the ferromagnet

In this paper, we discuss squeezed thermal spin states of magnons that are described by the Heisenberg Hamiltonian in the ferromagnet, in which the magnon system possesses a new kind of quasiparticle, which we call ferromagnon, i.e. a “dressed” quasi-particle obtained from the magnons by a Bogoliubov-Valatin transformation . Generally, the mass and noise properties of ferromagnons possess potentially important and novel effects in condensed matter physics, which have extensive application in the fields of science and technology. Moreover, it is convenient to introduce the Holstein-Primakoff method, in order to take into account the nonlinear interaction among spin waves. At last we describe the quantum fluctuations of spin-components in the squeezed thermal spin states of magnons and their temperature-dependence. Below some temperature, the squeezed thermal spin states of ferromagnons show squeeze effect.     

超导与自旋涨落

在常规超导体中,库珀对是由于电子与声子之间的相互作用而形成的.在此过程中,人们可以只考虑电子的电荷性质与声子之间的关联.然而在所谓的非常规超导体中,人们意识到一些其他类型的元激发也可能导致超导现象,而自旋涨落则可能是其中最重要的一种.在大多数非常规超导体中,都可以发现自旋涨落的身影.而在一些重要的体系中,包括铜基超导体、铁基超导体以及一些重费米子超导体体系等,可以确切地说,自旋涨落起到了关键的作用,尽管其相对应的超导机制仍然还不清楚.文章简单介绍了自旋涨落与超导电性之间的关联.     

Superconductivity and spin fluctuations

In the conventional superconductors, the Cooper pairs are mediated by phonons, which is a process where only the correlations between the phonons and the charge properties of the electrons are needed. However, superconductivity can also be derived from other types of elementary excitations. The spin fluctuations are arguably the most promising candidate that can mediate such unconventional superconductivity. In some of the important systems such as cuprates, Fe-based superconductors and heavy-fermion superconductors, spin fluctuations play a key role in the mechanism of their superconductivity although there are still many debates. In this paper, we will give a brief review on the correlation between the spin fluctuations and superconductivity.     

The Heisenberg ferromagnet in spin coherent state representation

A new approach to Heisenberg ferromagnet using the spin coherent state representation is developed. The differential operator representation of spin angular momentum operators is used to derive thec-number analogs of the basic quantum mechanical equations, viz., the Schrödinger, Bloch and Liouville equations for the Heisenberg ferromagnet. As an important illustration of our formulation, which has noad hoc assumptions and does not use any boson representation, the excitation spectrum for one, two and three spin waves is obtained. In these cases it is also shown that eigenvalue spectrum can be obtained by completely ignoring the kinematical interactions.     

Spin-charge fluctuations in itinerant helical magnets

Using a generalized random phase approach quantum fluctuations beyond the helical mean-field states of the Hubbard model off half filling are discussed. The collective mode spectrum is shown to exhibit spin-charge mixing and is found to be strongly renormalized by coupling to low-energy incoherent particle-hole excitations. Results for the collective mode dispersion which displays a significant anisotropy are presented for selected helical phases. Moreover phase space regions of ‘missing’ modes are identified with a finite wave length instability of the helical states suggesting novel inhomogeneous phases of the doped Hubbard model. P.A.C.S. : 71.27.+a, 75.30.Fv, 75.40.Gb     

Longitudinal spin waves as secondary excitations of the spin system of a ferromagnet

The method of two-time Green's functions is used to calculate the natural oscillations of the longitudinal component of the spontaneous magnetization of a ferromagnet. The spectrum of these oscillations or spin waves has no gap, even when magnetic interactions are taken into account. For smallk the spectrum of longitudinal spin waves has the same properties as secondary excitations of the spin system of a ferromagnet In which the primary excitations are transverse (ordinary) spin waves.Translated from Izvestiya VUZ. Fizika, No. 4, pp. 82–85, April, 1970.     

Nonequilibrium spin accumulation and tunneling magnetoresistance in a ferromagnet/semiconductor/ferromagnet double tunnel junction

Taking into account the nonequilibrium spin accumulation, we apply a quantum-statistical approach to study the spin-polarized transport in a two-dimensional ferromagnet/semiconductor/ferromagnet (FM/SM/FM) double tunnel junction. It is found that the effective spin polarization is raised by increasing the barrier strength, resulting in an enhancement of the tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR). The nonequilibrium spin accumulation in SM may appear in both antiparallel and parallel alignments of magnetizations in two FMs, in particular for high bias voltages. The effects of spin accumulation and TMR on the bias voltage are discussed.