Dual vortex theory of doped Mott insulators

We present a general framework for describing the quantum phases obtained by doping paramagnetic Mott insulators on the square lattice. The undoped insulators are efficiently characterized by the projective transformations of various fields under the square lattice space group (the PSG). We show that the PSG also imposes powerful constraints on the doped system, and on the effective action for the vortex and Bogoliubov quasiparticle excitations of superconducting states. This action can also be extended across transitions to supersolid or insulating states at non-zero doping. For the case of a valence bond solid (VBS) insulator, we show that the doped system has the same PSG as that of elementary bosons with density equal to the density of electron Cooper pairs. We also discuss aspects of the action for a d-wave superconductor obtained by doping a “staggered-flux” spin liquid state.     

Imaging nanoscale electronic inhomogeneity in the lightly doped Mott insulator Ca(2-x)NaxCuO2Cl2

The spatial variation of electronic states was imaged in the lightly doped Mott insulator Ca(2-x)NaxCuO2Cl2 using scanning tunneling microscopy or spectroscopy. We observed nanoscale domains with a high local density of states within an insulating background. The observed domains have a characteristic length scale of 2 nm (approximately 4-5a, a: lattice constant) with preferred orientations along the tetragonal [100] direction. We argue that such spatially inhomogeneous electronic states are inherent to slightly doped Mott insulators and play an important role for the insulator to metal transition.     

Influence of Doping on the Mott Metal—Insulator Transition in Infinite Dimensions

We have studied the effect of hole-doping on the established scenerio of the first-order Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT) at half-filling using dynamical mean-field theory and exact diagonalization technique.The mott insulator state is changed into metallic state immediately as holes are doped into the system.The latter is expected to be Fermi liquid.The previously found unanalytical structure of MIT no longer exists for doping as small as 2 percent.We compare our results with that obtained from Gutzwiller approximation.     

Quantum phases in a doped Mott insulator on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice

We propose the projected BCS wave function as the ground state for the doped Mott insulator SrCu2(BO3)2 on the Shastry-Sutherland lattice. At half filling this wave function yields the exact ground state. Adding mobile charge carriers, we find a strong asymmetry between electron and hole doping. Upon electron doping an unusual metal with strong valence bond correlations forms. Hole doped systems are d-wave resonating valence bond superconductors in which superconductivity is strongly enhanced by the emergence of spatially varying plaquette bond order.     

Traces of the evolution from Mott insulator to a band insulator in the pair excitation spectra

We inspect the fundamental difference between the correlated band insulators (BI) and the Mott insulators (MI) from the perspective of the dynamical pair excitations. To this end, we investigated the physics of the two-plane Hubbard model by employing the well-tested dynamical mean field theory (DMFT) together with the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method. At half-filling our results clearly indicate that while the spectral weight of the pair excitation becomes minimal at MI which corresponds to a diminishing of the double occupancy, the opposite occurs at BI. We then discuss the effect of doping and find that the correlated band insulator and the Mott insulator robust at low doping concentration and the metallic state emerges at larger doping. The pair spectral function demonstrates that the metallic state of doped MI is strongly different from that of doped BI and it is readily reflected in the lineshape of the spectra. We discuss the implication of our results in the context of the two-particle spectroscopy.     

Doping-driven orbital-selective Mott transition in multi-band Hubbard models with crystal field splitting

We have studied the doping-driven orbital-selective Mott transition in multi-band Hubbard models with equal band width in the presence of crystal field splitting. Crystal field splitting lifts one of the bands while leaving the others degenerate. We use single-site dynamical mean-field theory combined with continuous time quantum Monte Carlo impurity solver to calculate a phase diagram as a function of total electron filling N and crystal field splitting Δ. We find a large region of orbital-selective Mott phase in the phase diagram when the doping is large enough. Further analysis indicates that the large region of orbital-selective Mott phase is driven and stabilized by doping. Such models may account for the orbital-selective Mott transition in some doped realistic strongly correlated materials.     

Theory for slightly doped antiferromagnetic mott insulators

New trial wave functions, constructed explicitly from the unique Mott insulating state with antiferromagnetic order, are proposed to describe the ground state of a Mott insulator slightly doped with holes or electrons. A rigid band is observed as charged quasiparticles with well-defined momenta being realized in these states. These states have much less superconducting correlations than previously studied ones. Small Fermi patches obtained are consistent with recent experiments on high T(c) cuprates doped lightly with holes or electrons.     

Local moment formation in the superconducting state of a doped Mott insulator

A microscopic theory is presented for the local moment formation near a nonmagnetic impurity or a copper defect in high-Tc superconductors. We use a renormalized mean-field theory of the t-J model for a doped Mott insulator and study the fully self-consistent, spatially unrestricted solutions of the d-wave superconducting (SC) state in both the spin S=0 and S=1/2 sectors. We find a transition from the singlet d-wave SC state to a spin doublet SC state when the renormalized exchange coupling exceeds a doping dependent critical value. The induced S=1/2 moment is staggered and localized around the impurity. It arises from the binding of an S=1/2 nodal quasiparticle to the impurity. The local density of states is calculated and connections to NMR and STM experiments are discussed.     

Hidden charge 2e Boson in doped Mott insulators

We construct the low-energy theory of a doped Mott insulator, such as the high-temperature superconductors, by explicitly integrating over the degrees of freedom far away from the chemical potential. For either hole or electron doping, a charge 2e bosonic field emerges at low energy. The charge 2e boson mediates dynamical spectral weight transfer across the Mott gap and creates a new charge e excitation by binding a hole. The result is a bifurcation of the electron dispersion below the chemical potential as observed recently in angle-resolved photoemission on Pb-doped Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta (Pb2212).     

Pseudogap in doped Mott insulators is the near-neighbor analogue of the Mott gap

We show that the strong-coupling physics inherent to the insulating Mott state in 2D leads to a jump in the chemical potential upon doping and the emergence of a pseudogap in the single-particle spectrum below a characteristic temperature. The pseudogap arises because any singly occupied site not immediately neighboring a hole experiences a maximum energy barrier for transport equal to t(2)/U, t the nearest-neighbor hopping integral and U the on-site repulsion. The resultant pseudogap cannot vanish before each lattice site, on average, has at least one hole as a near neighbor. The ubiquity of this effect in all doped Mott insulators suggests that the pseudogap in the cuprates has a simple origin.     

掺杂菱形BN片的石墨烯纳米带的电子特性

采用基于密度泛函理论的第一性原理方法,系统研究掺杂菱形BN片的石墨烯纳米带的电子特性.掺杂使扶手椅型石墨烯纳米带（AGNRs）的带隙增大,不同位置掺杂AGNRs的带隙大小略有差异.在无磁性态,无论是否掺杂,锯齿型石墨烯纳米带（ZGNRs）都为金属.在铁磁态,掺杂使ZGNRs由金属转变为半导体.而处于反铁磁态时,无论是否掺杂,ZGNRs都为半导体,掺杂使其带隙发生改变.掺杂的AGNRs和ZGNRs的结构稳定,掺杂ZGNRs的基态为反铁磁态.掺杂菱形BN片可以有效调控GNRs的电子特性.     

Properties of holons in the quantum dimer model

I introduce a doped two-dimensional quantum dimer model describing a doped Mott insulator and retaining the original Fermi statistics of the electrons. This model shows a rich phase diagram including a d-wave hole-pair unconventional superconductor at small enough doping and a bosonic superfluid at large doping. The hole kinetic energy is shown to favor binding of topological defects to the bare fermionic holons turning them into bosons, in agreement with arguments based on resonating valence bond wave function. Results are discussed in the context of cuprate superconductors.     

Electronic model for CoO2 layer based systems: chiral resonating valence bond metal and superconductivity

Takada et al. have reported superconductivity in layered Na(x)CoO(2)yH(2)O (T(c) approximately equal to 5 K). We model a reference neutral CoO2 layer as an orbitally nondegenerate spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic Mott insulator on a triangular lattice and Na(x)CoO(2)yH(2)O as electron doped Mott insulators described by a t-J model. It is suggested that at optimal doping chiral spin fluctuations enhanced by the dopant dynamics lead to a gapful d-wave superconducting state. A chiral resonating valence bond (RVB) metal, a parity and time (PT) reversal violating state with condensed RVB gauge fields, with a possible weak ferromagnetism, and low temperature p-wave superconductivity are also suggested at higher dopings.     

Low energy electronic states and triplet pairing in layered cobaltate

The structure of the low-energy electronic states in layered cobaltates is considered starting from the Mott insulating limit. We argue that the coherent part of the wave functions and the Fermi-surface topology at low doping are strongly influenced by spin-orbit coupling of the correlated electrons on the t(2g) level. An effective t-J model based on mixed spin-orbital states is radically different from that for the cuprates, and supports unconventional, pseudospin-triplet pairing.     

Experimental observation of pseudogap in a modulation-doped Mott insulator: Sn/Si(111)-(√30×√30)R30°

Unusual quantum phenomena usually emerge upon doping Mott insulators. Using a molecular beam epitaxy system integrated with cryogenic scanning tunneling microscope, we investigate the electronic structure of a modulation-doped Mott insulator Sn/Si(111)-($\sqrt{3}\times \sqrt{3})R$30$^\circ$. In underdoped regions, we observe a universal pseudogap opening around the Fermi level, which changes little with the applied magnetic field and the occurrence of Sn vacancies. The pseudogap gets smeared out at elevated temperatures and alters in size with the spatial confinement of the Mott insulating phase. Our findings, along with the previously observed superconductivity at a higher doping level, are highly reminiscent of the electronic phase diagram in the doped copper oxide compounds.     

The effect of dilute nitrogen on nonlinear optical properties of the InGaAsN/GaAs single quantum wells

Employing the extended dynamical mean field theory (EDMFT) and the quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method, we investigate the effect of the spatial fluctuations in the two-band Hubbard model with anisotropic bandwidth in the vicinity of the Mott metal-insulator transition. At half filling, we demonstrate that while the inclusion of the non-local spin-spin interaction amounts to enhancing the correlation and suppressing the metallic character, the orbitally selective Mott transition (OSMT) remains stable for various strengths of the non-local correlation. The same is true when the system is doped away from half filling. The OSMT phase is evidenced at low dopant concentration and the simultaneous metallic phase emerges at overdoped regime. From the analysis of the self energy, it follows that the nature of the metallic phase upon doping violates the Fermi liquid character and persists at considerably large doping. Our theory also offers a new perspective for the investigation of the non-local fluctuation in the multi-orbital system within the single-site scheme.     

D-wave superconductivity in doped Mott insulators

The effect of proximity to a Mott insulating phase on the charge transport properties of a superconductor is determined. An action describing the low energy physics is formulated and different scenarios for the approach to the Mott phase are distinguished by different variation with doping of the parameters in the action. A crucial issue is found to be the doping dependence of the quasiparticle charge which is defined here and which controls the temperature and field dependence of the electromagnetic response functions. Presently available data on high-T_c superconductors are analyzed. The data, while neither complete nor entirely consistent, suggest that neither the quasiparticle velocity nor the quasiparticle charge vanish as the Mott phase is approached, in contradiction to the predictions of several widely studied theories of lightly doped Mott insulators. Implications of the results for the structure of vortices in high-T_c superconductors are determined.     

Generalizing the Cooper-pair instability to doped Mott insulators

Copper oxides become superconductors rapidly upon doping with electron holes, suggesting a fundamental pairing instability. The Cooper mechanism explains normal superconductivity as an instability of a fermi-liquid state, but high-temperature superconductors derive from a Mott-insulator normal state, not a fermi liquid. We show that precocity to pair condensation with doping is a natural property of competing antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity on a singly-occupied lattice, thus generalizing the Cooper instability to doped Mott insulators, with significant implications for the high-temperature superconducting mechanism.     

Non-Fermi-liquid behavior in the periodic anderson model

We study the Mott metal-insulator transition in the periodic Anderson model with dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). Near the quantum transition, we find a non-Fermi-liquid metallic state down to a vanishing temperature scale. We identify the origin of the non-Fermi-liquid behavior as being due to magnetic scattering of the doped carriers by the localized moments. The non-Fermi-liquid state can be tuned by either doping or external magnetic field. Our results show that the coupling to spatial magnetic fluctuations (absent in DMFT) is not a prerequisite to realizing a non-Fermi-liquid scenario for heavy fermion systems.     

Influences of Al doping on the electronic structure of Mg(0001) and dissociation properties of H2

By using the density functional theory method, we systematically study the effects of the doping of an Al atom on the electronic structures of the Mg(0001) surface and on the dissociation behaviors of H₂ molecules. We find that for the Al-doped surfaces, the surface relaxation around the doping layer changes from expansion of a clean Mg(0001) surface to contraction, due to the redistribution of electrons. After doping, the work function is enlarged, and the electronic states around the Fermi energy have a major distribution around the doping layer. For the dissociation of H₂ molecules, we find that the energy barrier is enlarged for the doped surfaces. In particular, when the Al atom is doped at the first layer, the energy barrier is enlarged by 0.30 eV. For different doping lengths, however, the dissociation energy barrier decreases slowly to the value on a clean Mg(0001) surface when the doping layer is far away from the top surface. Our results well describe the electronic changes after Al doping for the Mg(0001) surface, and reveal some possible mechanisms for improving the resistance to corrosion of the Mg(0001) surface by doping of Al atoms.