Quantum spin chains with various defects

Using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method, we study the quantum coherence in one‐dimensional disordered spin chains and Fermi systems. We consider in detail spinless fermions on a ring, and compare the influence of several kinds of impurities in a gapless and a dimerized, gapped system. In the translation‐invariant system a so‐called site‐impurity, which can be realized by a local potential or a modification of one link, increases for repulsive interaction, and decreases for attractive interaction, upon renormalization. The weakening of two neighbouring bonds, which is a realization of a so‐called bond‐impurity, on the other hand, is healed for repulsive interaction, but enhanced for intermediate attractive interactions. This leads to a strong suppression of the quantum coherence measured by the phase sensitivity, but not to localization. Adding a local distortion to a dimerized system, we find that even the presence of a single site‐impurity increases the metallic region found in the dimerized model. For a strong dimerization and a high barrier, an additional sharp maximum, is seen in the phase sensitivity as a function of interaction, already for systems with about 100 sites. A bond‐impurity in the dimerized system also opens a small metallic window in the otherwise isolating regime.     

Interaction versus dimerization in one-dimensional Fermi systems

In order to study the effect of interaction and lattice distortion on quantum coherence in one-dimensional Fermi systems, we calculate the ground state energy and the phase sensitivity of a ring of interacting spinless fermions on a dimerized lattice. Our numerical DMRG studies, in which we keep up to 1000 states for systems of about 100 sites, are supplemented by analytical considerations using bosonization techniques. We find a delocalized phase for an attractive interaction, which differs from that obtained for random lattice distortions. The extension of this delocalized phase depends strongly on the dimerization induced modification of the interaction. Taking into account the harmonic lattice energy, we find a dimerized ground state for a repulsive interaction only. The dimerization is suppressed at half filling, when the correlation gap becomes large. Received: 11 February 1998 / Revised: 1st April 1998 / Accepted: 30 April 1998     

Selfconsistent model calculations of electronic states at narrow-band-metal surfaces

For a nondegenerate narrow energy band spanned by a semiinfinite chain of three-dimensional atoms, the electronic potential and the electron density of states are calculated selfconsistently in the vicinity of the chain end. The electron-electron interaction is treated in the Hartree-Fock approximation, using the Green function method. The results for the potential and the density of states are discussed in terms of the parameters which determine the bulk electronic structure, such as the Fermi energy E_F and the intra- and interatomic Coulomb repulsion k₀ and K₁. Futhermore, the self consistent method is extended to an impurity atom at the chain end. The existence of bonding and antibonding surface states is found to depend on both the bulk and impurity parameters, such as the intraatomic Coulomb repulsion U_α and the nearest neighbour hopping element T.     

The phonon effects on the impurity states in cylindrical quantum wire with a finite confining potential

The variational method and the effective mass approximation are applied to calculate the binding energies of the hydrogenic impurity states in a cylindrical quantum wire with finite deep potential well. The phonon effects on the impurity states are considered by taking both the couplings of the electron-phonon and the impurity ion-phonon into account. The numerical results for the GaAs cylindrical quantum wire are given and discussed. It is found that the ion-phonon interaction reduces the impurity binding energy and supplies key contribution to the energy shift, but the electron-phonon coupling enhances the binding energy less. Longitudinal optical (LO) phonons play more important role than interface optical (IO) phonons in the impurity potential screening. The polaron effect caused by LO phonons is more important when the wire is thinner, otherwise the LO phonons are dominant for the thicker wires.     

Antiferromagnetic spin-S chains with exactly dimerized ground states

We show that spin S Heisenberg spin chains with an additional three-body interaction of the form (S(i-1)·S(i))(S(i)·S(i+1))+H.c. possess fully dimerized ground states if the ratio of the three-body interaction to the bilinear one is equal to 1/[4S(S+1)-2]. This result generalizes the Majumdar-Ghosh point of the J1-J2 chain, to which the present model reduces for S=1/2. For S=1, we use the density matrix renormalization group method to show that the transition between the Haldane and the dimerized phases is continuous with a central charge c=3/2. Finally, we show that such a three-body interaction appears naturally in a strong-coupling expansion of the Hubbard model, and we discuss the consequences for the dimerization of actual antiferromagnetic chains.     

Non-ergodic states induced by impurity levels in quantum spin chains

The semi-infinite XY spin chain with an impurity at the boundary has been chosen as a prototype of interacting many-body systems to test for non-ergodic behavior. The model is exactly solvable in analytic way in the thermodynamic limit, where energy eigenstates and the spectrum are obtained in closed form. In addition of a continuous band, localized states may split off from the continuum, for some values of the impurity parameters. In the next step, after the preparation of an arbitrary non-equilibrium state, we observe the time evolution of the site magnetization. Relaxation properties are described by the long-time behavior, which is estimated using the stationary phase method. Absence of localized states defines an ergodic region in parameter space, where the system relaxes to a homogeneous magnetization. Out of this region, impurity levels split from the band, and localization phenomena may lead to non-ergodicity.     

Spectral characteristics of the impurity band in the structural disorder model

The density and character of the quantum states in the impurity band arising from broadening of the local impurity level are studied. When the impurity concentration is small, the energy levels and states in the impurity band admit an apparent geometric systematics in the main approximation. In this systematics, the wave functions are localized at one or two centers, though the energy levels depend on the positions of orther centers. The density of states and the space correlators calculated in the main approximation are of universal nature, i.e., are represented in a certain scale as universal functions independent of the concentration. In the immediate vicinity of the local level, where in terms of the geometric systematics the density of states has a gap, different states become significant, which collectivize a larger number of centers. They fill the gap, the filling degree essentially depending on the impurity concentration. The general structure of the impurity band spectrum is discussed.     

Exact solutions of an Ising spin chain with a spin-1 impurity

An exact solution of a single impurity model is hard to derive since it breaks translation invariance symmetry. We present the exact solution of the spin-1/2 transverse Ising chain imbedded by a spin-1 impurity. Using the hole decomposition scheme, we exactly solve the spin-1 impurity in two subspaces which are generated by a conserved hole operator.The impurity enlarges the energy deformation of the ground state above a pure transverse Ising system without impurity.The specific heat coefficient shows a small anomaly at low temperature for finite size. This indicates that the impurity can tune the ground state from a magnetic impurity space to a non-magnetic impurity space, which only exists for spin-1impurity comparing with spin-1/2 impurity and a pure transverse Ising chain without impurity. These behaviors essentially come from adding impurity freedom, which induces a competition between hole and fermion excitation depending on the coupling strength with its neighbor and the single-ion anisotropy.     

Hubbard电子强关联与site-type杂质势对反式聚乙炔电子态的影响

本文在苏武沛、Schrieffer和Heeger(SSH)模型的基础上,分别考虑site-type杂质势和Hubbard电子强关联的作用,计算了反式聚乙炔链的电子能谱、本征矢和序参量。结果发现,杂质势对孤子有较强的钉扎作用,它破坏了电子能谱对称性,并使midgap态发生移动,这与Hubbard电子强关联对孤子能级的影响根本不同。值得指出的是,只有同时考虑site-type杂质势和Hubbard相互作用,才能对聚乙炔的掺杂光吸收实验做出正确的理论解释。     

Spin ordering in semiconductor heterostructures with ferromagnetic δ layers

The magnetic properties of a magnetic-metal δ layer placed in a nonmagnetic nondegenerate semiconductor matrix are studied theoretically. The diffusion-induced spread of the δ layer, which is inevitable during δ doping, is taken into account, and a model is proposed in which this layer consists of a thin core enriched in metal atoms and a smeared periphery depleted in metal atoms. The exchange and potential scattering of carriers by the core causes confinement states in the form of two-dimensional spin-polarized sub-bands inside the energy gap of the semiconductor. The mechanism of the indirect exchange between impurity spins located in the strongly dilute peripheral region of the δ layer through partly filled confinement states is analyzed. In the case of a ferromagnetic core, impurity spins are oriented along (or opposite to) the core magnetization owing to carrier polarization on the confinement states. The magnetic configuration of impurity spins at the periphery of the δ layer is phenomenologically studied with allowance for the confinement mechanism of the interaction of impurity spins and the superexchange through the deep states in the semiconductor matrix.     

硅纳米结构晶体管中与杂质量子点相关的量子输运

在小于10 nm的沟道空间中,杂质数目和杂质波动范围变得十分有限,这对器件性能有很大的影响.局域纳米空间中的电离杂质还能够展现出量子点特性,为电荷输运提供两个分立的杂质能级.利用杂质原子作为量子输运构件的硅纳米结构晶体管有望成为未来量子计算电路的基本组成器件.本文结合安德森定域化理论和Hubbard带模型对单个、分立和耦合杂质原子系统中的量子输运特性进行了综述,系统介绍了提升杂质原子晶体管工作温度的方法.     

Collective state of electrons and impurities with a spin

The problem of states of an electron system interacting with impurities that have a spin of 1/2 is considered. It is shown that in the calculation of the energy of the system, the electron spin-flip processes and the formation of electron–hole–impurity flip spin (hole against the background of electrons with another spin projection) play the major role. Such complexes are accumulated in the system (a sort of Bose condensate of complexes is formed); this reduces the energy of the system, which is a linear function of the initial interaction of an electron with the impurity spin (in contrast, for example, to the result obtained in perturbation theory). The hole-type excitation and the spin excitation have a gap in the spectrum. Small parameters of the problem are the interaction of electrons with impurity spins and the number of impurities. The electron–electron interaction is not taken into account. Impurities are assumed to be distributed at random, and calculations are performed using the known averaging over the positions of impurities.     

Laser dressed donor impurities in free-standing GaAs films under an electric field

The laser-field dependence of the shallow donor states in a free-standing thin GaAs film under an external static field is studied within the effective mass approximation. The laser dressing effects are considered for the confinement potential of the well as well as for the impurity Coulomb interaction distorted by the dielectric mismatch at interfaces. We found that (i) the increase of the laser intensity dramatically modifies the electron potential energy, which establishes the quantum confinement; (ii) the ground state subband energy is significantly enhanced by the electrostatic self-energy arising from the interaction between the electron and its images; (iii) the impurity binding is much larger than those of the dielectrically homogenous case and it becomes stronger sensitive to the laser intensity variation; (iv) under an electric field parallel to the growth direction, the inversion symmetry with respect to the quantum well center is broken and a red/blue-shift of the binding energy, depending on the impurity position along the field direction, occurs. Therefore, the shallow donor energy levels in the free-standing thin films can be tuned in a wide range by proper tailoring of the structure parameters (well size, impurity position) as well as by varying the external applied fields.     

Topological Invariants in Terms of Green's Function for the Interacting Kitaev Chain

A one-dimensional closed interacting Kitaev chain and the dimerized version are studied. The topological invariants in terms of Green's function are calculated by the density matrix renormalization group method and the exact diagonalization method. For the interacting Kitaev chain, we point out that the calculation of the topological invariant in the charge density wave phase must consider the dimerized configuration of the ground states. The variation of the topological invariant is attributed to the poles of eigenvalues of the zero-frequency Green functions. For the interacting dimerized Kitaev chain, we show that the topological invariant defined by Green's functions can distinguish more topological nonequivalent phases than the fermion parity.     

The formation of heavy-fermion states in non-Fermi-liquid impurity systems

A mechanism for the occurrence of heavy-fermion states in non-Fermi-liquid (NFL) metals with f-shell impurities is proposed. The impurity with an unstable valence is suggested to have an energy spectrum consisting of a deep f-level and quasicontinuum states (narrow band) in resonance with the Fermi energy. Depending on the impurity concentration, the single-site NFL states are generated by the two-channel Kondo scattering for the low concentration (the Kondo regime) or by the screening interaction for a relatively high concentration (the X-ray-edge regime). It is shown that the NFL states are unstable against the scattering of the NFL excitations by electron states of the narrow band. This scattering generates additional narrow Fermi-liquid (FL) resonances at/near the Fermi level in the Kondo regime and in the X-ray-edge regime. The mixed-valence states are shown to be induced by new FL resonances. The mixed valence mechanism is local and is related to the instability of single-site NFL states. The FL resonances lead to the existence of additional energy scales and of pseudogaps near the Fermi level in the mixed-valence states. They also considerably narrow the region with a nearly integer valence.     

High-Order Coupled Cluster Method (CCM) Calculations for Quantum Magnets with Valence-Bond Ground States

In this article, we prove that exact representations of dimer and plaquette valence-bond ket ground states for quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnets may be formed via the usual coupled cluster method (CCM) from independent-spin product (e.g. Néel) model states. We show that we are able to provide good results for both the ground-state energy and the sublattice magnetization for dimer and plaquette valence-bond phases within the CCM. As a first example, we investigate the spin-half J ₁–J ₂ model for the linear chain, and we show that we are able to reproduce exactly the dimerized ground (ket) state at J ₂/J ₁=0.5. The dimerized phase is stable over a range of values for J ₂/J ₁ around 0.5, and results for the ground-state energies are in good agreement with the results of exact diagonalizations of finite-length chains in this regime. We present evidence of symmetry breaking by considering the ket- and bra-state correlation coefficients as a function of J ₂/J ₁. A radical change is also observed in the behavior of the CCM sublattice magnetization as we enter the dimerized phase. We then consider the Shastry-Sutherland model and demonstrate that the CCM can span the correct ground states in both the Néel and the dimerized phases. Once again, very good results for the ground-state energies are obtained. We find CCM critical points of the bra-state equations that are in agreement with the known phase transition point for this model. The results for the sublattice magnetization remain near to the “true” value of zero over much of the dimerized regime, although they diverge exactly at the critical point. Finally, we consider a spin-half system with nearest-neighbor bonds for an underlying lattice corresponding to the magnetic material CaV₄O₉ (CAVO). We show that we are able to provide excellent results for the ground-state energy in each of the plaquette-ordered, Néel-ordered, and dimerized regimes of this model. The exact plaquette and dimer ground states are reproduced by the CCM ket state in their relevant limits. Furthermore, we estimate the range over which the Néel order is stable, and we find the CCM result is in reasonable agreement with the results obtained by other methods. Our new approach has the dual advantages that it is simple to implement and that existing CCM codes for independent-spin product model states may be used from the outset. Furthermore, it also greatly extends the range of applicability to which the CCM may be applied. We believe that the CCM now provides an excellent choice of method for the study of systems with valence-bond quantum ground states.     

Spectral properties of linear chain with one-point dynamical disorder

We have investigated the one-dimensional model of an exciton moving along a (finite or semi-infinite) chain of sites with the local energy at one specific site being randomly modulated. The modulation is described by the Markoff stochastic process and we do not invoke the white-noise assumption. For this model, we give an approximation-free calculation of the density of states, the projected density of states and the optical absorption spectrum. The exact solution is found for a broad family of stochastic processes which bridges (and includes) the dichotomic process and the Gaussian one. The results are discussed in various physical limits such as whitenoise limit, weak-perturbation limit and weak-tunneling limit. Particularly, in the slow-modulation (or static) limit, our model represents a chain with a static distribution of energy at the distinguished impurity site and the spectral characteristics reveal a nontrivial dependence on the width of this energy distribution.     

Exact demonstration of magnetization plateaus and first-order dimer-Neel phase transitions in a modified shastry-sutherland model for SrCu2(BO3)(2)

We study a generalized Shastry-Sutherland model for the material SrCu2(BO3)(2). Along a line in the parameter space, we show rigorously that the model has a first-order phase transition between dimerized and Neel-ordered ground states. Furthermore, when a magnetic field is applied in the dimerized phase, magnetization plateaus develop at commensurate values of the magnetization. We also discuss various aspects of the phase diagram and properties of this model away from this exactly soluble line, which include gap-closing continuous transitions between dimerized and magnetically ordered phases.     

Entanglement and quantum phase transition in alternating XY spin chain with next-nearest neighbouring interactions

By using the method of density-matrix renormalization-group to solve the different spin spin correlation functions, the nearest-neighbouring entanglement （NNE） and the next-nearest-neighbouring entanglement （NNNE） of one-dimensional alternating Heisenberg XY spin chain are investigated in the presence of alternating the-nearestneighbouring interaction of exchange couplings, external magnetic fields and the next-nearest neighbouring interaction. For a dimerised ferromagnetic spin chain, the NNNE appears only above a critical dimerized interaction, meanwhile, the dimerized interaction a effects a quantum phase transition point and improves the NNNE to a large extent. We also study the effect of ferromagnetic or antiferromagnetic next-nearest neighbouring （NNN） interaction on the dynamics of NNE and NNNE. The ferromagnetic NNN interaction increases and shrinks the NNE below and above a critical frustrated interaction respectively, while the antiferromagnetic NNN interaction always reduces the NNE. The antiferromagnetic NNN interaction results in a large value of NNNE compared with the case where the NNN interaction is ferromagnetic.     

Electronic and Shallow Impurity States in Semiconductor Heterostructures Under an Applied Electric Field

With the use of variational method to solve the effective mass equation, we have studied the electronic and shallow impurity states in semiconductor heterostructures under an applied electric field. The electron energy levels are calculated exactly and the impurity binding energies are calculated with the variational approach. It is found that the behaviors of electronic and shallow impurity states in heterostructures under an applied electric field are analogous to that of quantum wells. Our results show that with the increasing strength of electric field, the electron confinement energies increase, and the impurity binding energy increases also when the impurity is on the surface, while the impurity binding energy increases at first, to a peak value, then decreases to a value which is related to the impurity position when the impurity is away from the surface. In the absence of electric field, the result tends to the Levine＇s ground state energy （-1/4 effective Rydberg） when the impurity is on the surface, and the ground impurity binding energy tends to that in the bulk when the impurity is far away from the surface. The dependence of the impurity binding energy on the impurity position for different electric field is also discussed.