Probing of energy gap distribution in superconducting tunnel junctions by low temperature scanning electron microscopy

A two-dimensional voltage image of the energy gap distribution of a superconducting tunnel junction was obtained by scanning the current biased junction with an electron beam and detecting the voltage change δV. The value of the energy gap at the point of irradiation was determined quantitatively from the δV σ(V) curves, where σ(V) is the electric conductance of the junction. Further the quasiparticle diffusion length was found by measuring the length of the transition between a high- and low-gap region generated by a double tunnel junction configuration. The theoretical predictions could be verified by investigating a double tunnel junction configuration, where the energy gap could be changed deliberately by quasiparticle injection.     

Spontaneous breaking of four-fold rotational symmetry in two-dimensional electronic systems explained as a continuous topological transition

The Fermi liquid approach is applied to the problem of spontaneous violation of the C ₄ symmetry in strongly correlated two-dimensional electronic systems on a square lattice. The symmetry breaking is traced to the existence of a topological phase transition. This continuous transition is triggered when the Fermi line, driven by the quasiparticle interactions, reaches the van Hove saddle points, where the group velocity vanishes and the density of states becomes singular. An unconventional Fermi liquid emerges beyond the implicated quantum critical point.     

Fermi-surface truncation from thermal nematic fluctuations

We analyze how thermal fluctuations near a finite temperature nematic phase transition affect the spectral function A(k,ω) for single-electron excitations in a two-dimensional metal. Perturbation theory yields a splitting of the quasiparticle peak with a d-wave form factor, reminiscent of a pseudogap. We present a resummation of contributions to all orders in the Gaussian fluctuation regime. Instead of a splitting, the resulting spectral function exhibits a pronounced broadening of the quasiparticle peak, which varies strongly around the Fermi surface and vanishes upon approaching the Brillouin-zone diagonal. The Fermi surface obtained from a Brillouin-zone plot of A(k,0) seems truncated to Fermi arcs.     

The electronic spectrum and the metal-insulator transition in the Hubbard model

Calculations of quasiparticle spectra including high-order terms in the irreducible Green function method are presented. The metal-insulator transition of the 2.5-kind is connected with Fermi-surface collapse. In the band limit Fermi-liquid behaviour is obtained for the whole k-space except a small region near the Fermi surface where two quasibands exist which obey Gibbs statistics.     

Flux line lattice melting and the formation of a coherent quasiparticle Bloch state in the ultraclean URu2Si2 superconductor

We find that in the ultraclean heavy-fermion superconductor URu(2)Si(2) (T_{c0}=1.45 K) a distinct flux line lattice melting transition with outstanding characters occurs well below the mean-field upper critical fields. We show that a very small number of carriers with heavy mass in this system results in exceptionally large thermal fluctuations even at sub-Kelvin temperatures, which are witnessed by a sizable region of the flux line liquid phase. The uniqueness is further highlighted by an enhancement of the quasiparticle mean free path below the melting transition, implying a possible formation of a quasiparticle Bloch state in the periodic flux line lattice.     

A spin polaron in a two-dimensional antiferromagnet: From a local singlet to a complex quasiparticle

We set forth basic theoretical ideas concerning the spin-polaron scenario for charge excitations in a two-dimensional antiferromagnet. A distinctive feature of the approach being developed consists in considering a local polaron (rather than a bare hole) as a zero approximation for the quasiparticle. At the next step, this excitation is dressed in antiferromagnetic spin waves to form a polaron of intermediate (or infinite) radius. The method allows us to continuously describe the transition from zero to finite temperatures and to consider a wide doping range. Our approach accounts for the main results of ARPES experiments in a CuO₂ plane.     

Calculating a local oscillating quasiparticle’s lifetime at screened defects in solids

We report on a novel approach to calculate quasiparticle lifetimes of localized initial states, which decay into the continuum of underlying quasi-free quasiparticle states in the vicinity of point defects and steps in solids. By using this interpretation of the inelastic damping of wavefunctions, the lifetime becomes a local property. In particular, we consider electrons, which are injected by a scanning tunneling microscope tip into the surface state of a noble metal surface. We investigate numerically the configuration of a single scatterer, a chain of scatterers, and a triangular quantum corral. As compared to an exponential increase of the damping from prior theories, we find an oscillating damping together with a linear background of the resulting measurement signal. The different configurations show increased lifetimes with increasing dimensionality as their scattering phase space is decreased.     

Quantum critical fluctuations in disordered d-wave superconductors

To explain the strong quasiparticle damping in the cuprates, Sachdev and collaborators proposed to couple the system to a critically fluctuating id(xy)- or is-order parameter mode. Here we generalize the approach to the presence of static disorder. In the id case, the order parameter dynamics becomes diffusive, but otherwise much of the phenomenology of the clean case remains intact. In contrast, the interplay of disorder and is-order parameter fluctuations leads to a secondary superconductor transition, with a critical temperature exponentially sensitive to the impurity concentration.     

Fermi surface reconstruction in strongly correlated Fermi systems as a first-order phase transition

A quantum phase transition in strongly correlated Fermi systems beyond the topological quantum critical point has been studied using the Fermi liquid approach. The transition takes place between topologically equivalent states with three Fermi surface sheets, but one of them is characterized by a quasiparticle halo in the quasiparticle momentum distribution n(p), and the other one is characterized by a hole pocket. It has been found that the transition between these states is a first-order phase transition for the interaction constant g and temperature T. The phase diagram in the vicinity of this transition has been constructed.     

FixedJ spectral distributions in large shell model spaces

A method is developed to exactly calculate the fixedJ quasiparticle centroid energies and partial widths. Some results obtained in the even-mass lead isotopes with various interactions are analysed. FixedJ quasiparticle distributions are used to predict an upper limit for the deviations between the quasiparticle approximation and the shell model results for the low-energy levels. The influence of the states with a high quasiparticle number in the low-energy region is seen to strongly depend upon the interaction. The importance of the dimensionalities and the internal widths in explaining the admixtures is stressed.     

Quasiparticles in a strongly correlated liquid with the fermion condensate: applications to high-temperature superconductors

A model of a strongly correlated electron liquid based on fermion condensation (FC) is extended to high-temperature superconductors. Within our model, the appearance of FC presents a boundary separating the region of a strongly interacting electron liquid from the region of a strongly correlated electron liquid. We study the superconductivity of a strongly correlated liquid and show that, under certain conditions, the superconductivity vanishes at temperatures T > T _c ≈ T _node, with the superconducting gap being smoothly transformed into a pseudogap. As a result, the pseudogap occupies only a part of the Fermi surface. The gapped area shrinks with increasing the temperature and vanishes at T = _T*. The single-particle excitation width is also studied. The quasiparticle dispersion in systems with FC can be represented by two straight lines, characterized by the effective masses and, intersecting near the binding energy that is on the order of the superconducting gap. It is argued that this strong change of the quasiparticle dispersion upon binding can be enhanced in underdoped samples because of strengthening the FC influence. The FC phase transition in the presence of the superconductivity is examined, and it is shown that this phase transition can be considered as driven by the kinetic energy.     

A damping boundary condition for atomistic-continuum coupling

The minimization of spurious wave reflection is a challenge in multiscale coupling due to the difference of spatial resolution between atomistic and continuum regions. In this study, a new damping condition is presented for eliminating spurious wave reflection at the interface between atomistic and continuum regions. This damping method starts by a coarse–fine decomposition of the atomic velocity based on the bridging scale method. The fine scale velocity of the atoms in the damping region is reduced by applying nonlinear damping coefficients. The effectiveness of this damping method is verified by one-and two-dimensional simulations.     

Fluctuations and the energy-optimal control of chaos

We compute the pressure of a finite-density quark-gluon plasma at zero temperature to leading order in hard-thermal-loop perturbation theory, which includes the fermionic excitations and Landau damping. The result is compared with the weak-coupling expansion for finite positive chemical potential &mgr; through order alpha(2)(s) and with a quasiparticle model with a mass depending on &mgr;.     

de Haas-van Alphen effect in superconductors

A theory of the de Haas-van Alphen effect in type-II superconductors is proposed. The effect of the electron scattering by nonmagnetic impurities in a magnetic field in the potential produced by a nonuniform distribution of the order parameter in a mixed state is investigated. The magnitude of the order parameter and quasiparticle density of states are determined from the solution of the system of Gor’kov equations. It is shown that in the presence of even a small amount of impurities, the superconducting state near the upper critical field is gapless. In this region, the oscillatory (in the magnetic field) contribution to the density of states and the characteristic damping of the amplitude of the magnetization oscillations in the superconducting state are found. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1873–1892 (November 1997)     

Critical dynamics and relaxation of elementary excitations of the nematic phase of a non-heisenberg magnet with spin <Emphasis Type="Italic">S</Emphasis> = 1

The relaxation of elementary excitations (magnons) in the nematic phase of a magnet with spin S = 1 at the critical point of the nematic-to-ferromagnetic phase transition has been studied. Magnons in a three-dimensional nematic at the critical point have all of the properties of Goldstone excitations; in particular, their damping decrement tends to zero faster than the excitation frequency as the wave vector tends to zero. In the two-dimensional case, the ratio of the damping decrement to the frequency is small in the long-wavelength limit. The similarity between the behaviors of magnons in the spin nematic and in the isotropic Heisenberg ferromagnet has been underlined.     

The study of Gamow-Teller transition strength for some Fe and Ni isotopes

The method developed by Pyatov and Salamov has been used to study the Gamow-Teller transition strength in the iron mass region nuclei. Calculations have been performed within the framework of the proton-neutron quasiparticle random-phase approximation with separable Gamow-Teller residual interactions. The obtained results have been compared with other theoretical results and the corresponding experimental data.     

Electron-doping versus hole-doping in the 2D t-t' Hubbard model

We compare the one-loop renormalization group flow to strong coupling of the electronic interactions in the two-dimensional t-t'-Hubbard model with t' = - 0.3t for band fillings smaller and larger than half-filling. Using a numerical N-patch scheme ( N = 32, ..., 96) we show that in the electron-doped case with decreasing electron density there is a rapid transition from a d _{x2 - y2}-wave superconducting regime with small characteristic energy scale to an approximate nesting regime with strong antiferromagnetic tendencies and higher energy scales. This contrasts with the hole-doped side discussed recently which exhibits a broad parameter region where the renormalization group flow suggests a truncation of the Fermi surface at the saddle points. We compare the quasiparticle scattering rates obtained from the renormalization group calculation which further emphasize the differences between the two cases. Received 19 December 2000 and Received in final form 28 February 2001     

On heat diffusion mode of structural phase transition by two-fluid model

With the help of the two-fluid model developed by Götze and Michel for phonons it is shown for a simple model Hamiltonian that in the low temperature phase the optical soft mode becomes isothermal, the heat diffusion mode is dominant near the transition temperatureT _c and the quasiparticle interaction is of great importance in determining the thermodynamic quantities nearT _c. Green function techniques are applied to describe the two-fluid model functions in a microscopic way. The simplest approximations are discussed for the model equations describing nonequilibrium phenomena of the soft optical phonon mode in the low temperature phase. The quasiparticle interaction operator can be related to the interaction operator between quasiparticles and the condensed mode. This relation enables one to understand the behaviour of the thermodynamic quantities near the transition temperature on a microscopic way. The first order displacive phase transition is also discussed.