Robustness of <Emphasis Type="Italic">s</Emphasis>-wave pairing symmetry in iron-based superconductors and its implications for fundamentals of magnetically driven high-temperature superconductivity

Based on the assumption that the superconducting state belongs to a single irreducible representation of lattice symmetry, we propose that the pairing symmetry in all measured iron-based superconductors is generally consistent with the A _1g s-wave. Robust s-wave pairing throughout the different families of iron-based superconductors at different doping regions signals two fundamental principles behind high-T _c superconducting mechanisms: (i) the correspondence principle: the short-range magnetic-exchange interactions and the Fermi surfaces act collaboratively to achieve high-T _c superconductivity and determine pairing symmetries; (ii) the magnetic-selection pairing rule: superconductivity is only induced by the magnetic-exchange couplings from the super-exchange mechanism through cation-anion-cation chemical bonding. These principles explain why unconventional high-T _c superconductivity appears to be such a rare but robust phenomena, with its strict requirements regarding the electronic environment. The results will help us to identify new electronic structures that can support high-T _c superconductivity.     

Gauge invariance and spinon-dopon confinement in the t-J model: implications for Fermi surface reconstruction in the cuprates

We discuss the application of the two-band spin-dopon representation of the t-J model to address the issue of the Fermi surface reconstruction observed in the cuprates. We show that the electron no double occupancy (NDO) constraint plays a key role in this formulation. In particular, the auxiliary lattice spin and itinerant dopon degrees of freedom of the spin-dopon formulation of the t-J model are shown to be confined in the emergent U(1) gauge theory generated by the NDO constraint. This constraint is enforced by the requirement of an infinitely large spin-dopon coupling. As a result, the t-J model is equivalent to a Kondo-Heisenberg lattice model of itinerant dopons and localized lattice spins at infinite Kondo coupling at all dopings. We show that mean-field treatment of the large vs. small Fermi surface crossing in the cuprates which leaves out the NDO constraint, leads to inconsistencies and it is automatically excluded form the t-J model framework.     

Spin excitations and thermodynamics of the <Emphasis Type="Italic">t</Emphasis>-<Emphasis Type="Italic">J</Emphasis> model on the honeycomb lattice

We present a spin-rotation-invariant Green-function theory for the dynamic spin susceptibility in the spin-1/2 antiferromagnetic t-J Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice. Employing a generalized mean-field approximation for arbitrary temperatures and hole dopings, the electronic spectrum of excitations, the spin-excitation spectrum and thermodynamic quantities (two-spin correlation functions, staggered magnetization, magnetic susceptibility, correlation length) are calculated by solving a coupled system of self-consistency equations for the correlation functions. The temperature and doping dependence of the magnetic (uniform static) susceptibility is ascribed to antiferromagnetic short-range order. Our results on the doping dependencies of the magnetization and susceptibility are analyzed in comparison with previous results for the t-J model on the square lattice.     

Emergent nesting of the Fermi surface from local-moment description of iron-pnictide high-T<Subscript>c</Subscript> superconductors

We uncover the low-energy spectrum of a t-J model for electrons on a square lattice of spin-1 iron atoms with 3d _xz and 3d _yz orbital character by applying Schwinger-boson-slave-fermion mean-field theory and by exact diagonalization of one hole roaming over a 4 × 4 × 2 lattice. Hopping matrix elements are set to produce hole bands centered at zero two-dimensional (2D) momentum in the free-electron limit. Holes can propagate coherently in the t-J model below a threshold Hund coupling when long-range antiferromagnetic order across the d + = 3d _{(x + iy)z} and d ? = 3d _{(x ? iy)z} orbitals is established by magnetic frustration that is off-diagonal in the orbital indices. This leads to two hole-pocket Fermi surfaces centered at zero 2D momentum. Proximity to a commensurate spin-density wave (cSDW) that exists above the threshold Hund coupling results in emergent Fermi surface pockets about cSDW momenta at a quantum critical point (QCP). This motivates the introduction of a new Gutzwiller wavefunction for a cSDW metal state. Study of the spin-fluctuation spectrum at cSDW momenta indicates that the dispersion of the nested band of one-particle states that emerges is electron-type. Increasing Hund coupling past the QCP can push the hole-pocket Fermi surfaces centered at zero 2D momentum below the Fermi energy level, in agreement with recent determinations of the electronic structure of mono-layer iron-selenide superconductors.     

Extended s-wave pairing symmetry on the triangular lattice heavy fermion system

We investigate the pairing symmetry of the Kondo-Heisenberg model on triangular lattice, which is believed to capture the core competition of Kondo screening and local magnetic exchange interaction in heavy electron compounds. On the dominant background of the heavy fermion state, the introduction of the Heisenberg antiferromagnetic interaction (J _H ) leads to superconducting pairing instability. Depending on the strength of the interactions, it is found that the pairing symmetry favours an extended s-wave for small J _H and high conduction electron density but a chiral \(d_{x^2 - y^2 } + id_{xy}\)-wave for large J _H and low conduction electron density, which provides a phase diagram of pairing symmetry from the calculations of the ground-state energy. The transition between these two pairing symmetries is found to be first-order. Furthermore, we also analyze the phase diagram from the pairing strengths and find that the phase diagram obtained is qualitatively consistent with that based on the ground-state energy. In addition, we propose an effective single-band BCS Hamiltonian, which is able to describe the low-energy thermodynamic behaviors of the heavy fermion superconducting states. These results further deepen the understanding of the antiferromagnetic interaction which results in a geometric frustration for the model studied. Our work may provide a possible scenario to understand the pairing symmetry of the heavy fermion superconductivity, which is one of active issues in very recent years.     

Ground state pairing correlation competes in the doped triangular lattice Hubbard model

By using the constrained path quantum Monte carlo method, we study the ground state paring correlations in the t ? U ? V Hubbard model on the triangular lattice. It is shown that pairings with various symmetries dominate in different electron filling regions. The pairing correlation with fn-wave symmetry dominates over other pairings around half fillings, and as the electron filling decreases away from the half filling, the d + id-wave pairing correlation tends to dominate. As the electron filling is bellow the Van Hove singularity, the f-wave pairing dominates. These crossovers are due to the interplay of electronic correlation and geometric frustration, associating with the competition between the antiferromagnetic correlations and ferromagnetic fluctuations. Our findings reveal the possible magnetic origin of superconductivity, and also provide useful information for the understanding of superconductivity in Na _x CoO₂·H₂O and the organic compounds.     

Quantum interference effects induced by multiple magnetic impurities on a triangular lattice f-wave superconductor

The effects of multi-impurity quantum interference on triangular lattice f-wave superconductors are studied by self-consistently solving Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations within the t?t′?J?V model. An overall phase diagram is presented, which shows that f-wave superconductivity dominates near 0.3 doping. Rich phenomena are induced by quantum interference effects, such as periodic modulations in charge orders, pyramid frustum structures, and a magnetic moment reverse transition, which are qualitatively different from the single-impurity case. We also examine the local density of states to show how localized quasiparticle states are created at or near the impurity sites, which can be directly measured by scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.     

Reconstruction of the Fermi surface of HTSC cuprates in a high magnetic field

The effect of a high magnetic field on the electronic structure of HTSC cuprates is considered. The study is performed in the t-t′-t″-J* model, and the high magnetic field effect is taken into account not only as the Zeeman splitting of the one-electron levels, but also in the occupation numbers of the states with different spin projections and in the formation of the spin correlation functions. The field is assumed to be high enough to align all of the spins along the field. As a result, the Fermi surface reconstruction is obtained from four hole pockets about the nodal point (π/2, π/2) in the paramagnetic phase to a large hole pocket about the point (π, π) in the ferromagnetic phase. As the magnetic field strength decreases, a number of quantum phase transitions are revealed; they are manifested in the changed Fermi surface topology. The Fermi surface reconstruction with a decreasing field is qualitatively the same as that with an increasing doping degree in the absence of a magnetic field.     

Electronic structures of ternary iron arsenides <Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis>Fe<Subscript>2</Subscript>As<Subscript>2</Subscript> (<Emphasis Type="Italic">A</Emphasis> = Ba,Ca, or Sr)

We have studied the electronic and magnetic structures of the ternary iron arsenides AFe₂As₂ (A = Ba, Ca, or Sr) using the first-principles density functional theory. The ground states of these compounds are in a collinear antiferromagnetic order, resulting from the interplay between the nearest and the next-nearest neighbor superexchange antiferromagnetic interactions bridged by As 4p orbitals. The correction from the spin-orbit interaction to the electronic band structure is given. The pressure can reduce dramatically the magnetic moment and diminish the collinear antiferromagnetic order. Based on the calculations, we propose that the low energy dynamics of these materials can be described effectively by a t-J _H -J ₁-J ₂-type model [2008, arXiv: 0806.3526v2].     

Asymptotics of Block Toeplitz Determinants and the Classical Dimer Model

We compute the asymptotics of a block Toeplitz determinant which arises in the classical dimer model for the triangular lattice when considering the monomer-monomer correlation function. The model depends on a parameter interpolating between the square lattice (t = 0) and the triangular lattice (t = 1), and we obtain the asymptotics for 0 < t ≤ 1. For 0 < t < 1 we apply the Szegö Limit Theorem for block Toeplitz determinants. The main difficulty is to evaluate the constant term in the asymptotics, which is generally given only in a rather abstract form.     

Bott Periodicity for {\mathbb{Z}_2} Symmetric Ground States of Gapped Free-Fermion Systems

Building on the symmetry classification of disordered fermions, we give a proof of the proposal by Kitaev, and others, for a “Bott clock” topological classification of free-fermion ground states of gapped systems with symmetries. Our approach differs from previous ones in that (i) we work in the standard framework of Hermitian quantum mechanics over the complex numbers, (ii) we directly formulate a mathematical model for ground states rather than spectrally flattened Hamiltonians, and (iii) we use homotopy-theoretic tools rather than K-theory. Key to our proof is a natural transformation that squares to the standard Bott map and relates the ground state of a d-dimensional system in symmetry class s to the ground state of a (d + 1)-dimensional system in symmetry class s + 1. This relation gives a new vantage point on topological insulators and superconductors.     

Character of frustration on magnetic correlation in doped Hubbard model

The magnetic correlation in the Hubbard model on a two-dimensional anisotropic triangular lattice is studied by using the determinant quantum Monte Carlo method. Around half filling, it is found that the increasing frustration t^′/t could change the wave vector of maximum spin correlation along(π,π) → (π, 5π/6) → (5π/6, 5π/6) → (2π/3, 2π/3),indicating the frustration’s remarkable effect on the magnetism. In the studied filling region ?n? = 1.0 ? 1.3, the doping behaves like some kinds of frustration, which destroys the (π,π) AFM correlation quickly and push the magnetic order to a wide range of the (2π/3, 2π/3)120^° order when the t^′/t is large enough. Our non-perturbative calculations reveal a rich magnetic phase diagram over both the frustration and electron doping.     

Effective Hamiltonian for HTSC cuprates taking into account electron-phonon interaction in the strong-correlation regime

Electron-phonon interaction is sequentially derived from a realistic p-d multiband model for the cuprates under conditions of strong electron correlations. The electronic structure is described using the representation of the Hubbard X operators in a generalized tight-binding method. Dependences of the diagonal and off-diagonal (on lattice sites) matrix elements of electron-phonon interaction on the wavevectors are found for three phonon modes, namely, breathing, apical breathing, and bending modes. The interactions of the breathing and bending modes with electrons are shown to contribute to the formation of kinks in the (0; 0)-(π; π) and (0; 0)-(π; 0) directions, respectively. A low-energy t-J* model with phonons is developed; apart from electron-phonon interaction, it also includes spin-phonon interaction. The elimination of phonons gives an effective electron-electron interaction that depends on the occupation number of a multielectron term and on the carrier concentration due to strong electron correlations.     

Periodic Striped Ground States in Ising Models with Competing Interactions

We consider Ising models in two and three dimensions, with short range ferromagnetic and long range, power-law decaying, antiferromagnetic interactions. We let J be the ratio between the strength of the ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic interactions. The competition between these two kinds of interactions induces the system to form domains of minus spins in a background of plus spins, or vice versa. If the decay exponent p of the long range interaction is larger than d + 1, with d the space dimension, this happens for all values of J smaller than a critical value J_c(p), beyond which the ground state is homogeneous. In this paper, we give a characterization of the infinite volume ground states of the system, for p > 2d and J in a left neighborhood of J_c(p). In particular, we prove that the quasi-one-dimensional states consisting of infinite stripes (d = 2) or slabs (d = 3), all of the same optimal width and orientation, and alternating magnetization, are infinite volume ground states. Our proof is based on localization bounds combined with reflection positivity.     

A brief review on <Emphasis Type="Italic">μ</Emphasis>SR studies of unconventional Fe- and Cr-based superconductors

Muon spin relaxation/rotation (μSR) is a vital technique for probing the superconducting gap structure, pairing symmetry and time reversal symmetry breaking, enabling an understanding of the mechanisms behind the unconventional superconductivity of cuprates and Fe-based high-temperature superconductors, which remain a puzzle. Very recently double layered Fe-based super- conductors having quasi-2D crystal structures and Cr-based superconductors with a quasi-1D structure have drawn considerable attention. Here we present a brief review of the characteristics of a few selected Fe- and Cr-based superconducting materials and highlight some of the major outstanding problems, with an emphasis on the superconducting pairing symmetries of these materials. We focus on μSR studies of the newly discovered superconductors ACa₂Fe₄As₄F₂ (A = K, Rb, and Cs), ThFeAsN, and A₂Cr₃As₃ (A = K, Cs), which were used to determine the superconducting gap structures, the presence of spin fluctuations, and to search for time reversal symmetry breaking in the superconducting states. We also briefly discuss the results of μSR investigations of the superconductivity in hole and electron doped BaFe₂As₂.     

High precision determination of the low-energy constants for the two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice

The low-energy constants, namely the staggered magnetization density M? _s per spin, the spin stiffness ρ _s , and the spinwave velocity c of the two-dimensional (2-d) spin-1/2 Heisenberg model on the honeycomb lattice are calculated using first principles Monte Carlo method. The spinwave velocity c is determined first through the winding numbers squared. M? _s and ρ _s are then obtained by employing the relevant volume- and temperature-dependence predictions from magnon chiral perturbation theory. The periodic boundary conditions (PBCs) implemented in our simulations lead to a honeycomb lattice covering both a rectangular and a parallelogram-shaped region. Remarkably, by appropriately utilizing the predictions of magnon chiral perturbation theory, the numerical values of M? _s , ρ _s , and c we obtain for both the considered periodic honeycomb lattice of different geometries are consistent with each other quantitatively. The numerical accuracy reached here is greatly improved. Specifically, by simulating the 2-d quantum Heisenberg model on the periodic honeycomb lattice overlaying a rectangular area, we arrive at M? _s = 0.26882(3), ρ _s  = 0.1012(2)J, and c = 1.2905(8)Ja. The results we obtain provide a useful lesson for some studies such as simulating fermion actions on hyperdiamond lattice and investigating second order phase transitions with twisted boundary conditions.     

Generalised model for anisotropic compact stars

In the present investigation an exact generalised model for anisotropic compact stars of embedding class 1 is sought with a general relativistic background. The generic solutions are verified by exploring different physical aspects, viz. energy conditions, mass–radius relation, stability of the models, in connection to their validity. It is observed that the model presented here for compact stars is compatible with all these physical tests and thus physically acceptable as far as the compact star candidates RXJ 1856-37, SAX J 1808.4-3658 (SS1) and SAX J 1808.4-3658 (SS2) are concerned.     

Low-energy singlet sector in the spin-1/2 <Emphasis Type="Italic">J</Emphasis><Subscript>1</Subscript>–<Emphasis Type="Italic">J</Emphasis><Subscript>2</Subscript> Heisenberg model on a square lattice

Based on a special variant of the plaquette expansion, an operator is constructed whose eigenvalues give the low-energy singlet spectrum of a spin-\(\frac{1}{2}\) Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice with nearest-heighbor and frustrating next-nearest-neighbor exchange couplings J ₁ and J ₂. It is well known that a nonmagnetic phase arises in this model for 0.4 ? J ₂/J ₁ ? 0.6, sandwiched by two Néel ordered phases. In agreement with previous results, we observe a first-order quantum phase transition (QPT) at J ₂ ≈ 0.64 J ₁ from the non-magnetic phase to the Néel one. A large gap (? 0.4J ₁) is found in the singlet spectrum for J ₂ < 0.64J ₁, which excludes a gapless spin-liquid state for 0.4 ? J ₂/J ₁ ? 0.6 and the deconfined quantum criticality scenario for the QPT to another Néel phase. We observe a first-order QPT at J ₂ ≈ 0.55J ₁, presumably between two nonmagnetic phases.     

High-efficiency Red Electrofluorescence Devices Employing a Rhenium Complex as Phosphorescent Sensitizer

Efficiencies of up to 7.81 cd/A and brightness of 8843 cd/m² are obtained based on green–yellow phosphorescent material, fac 4, 4′-bi (tert-butyl)-2, 2′-bipyridine Re(CO)₃Cl[(Bu ^t bpy)Re(CO)₃Cl] doped into 4,4′-N,N′-dicarbazole-biphenyl (CBP) host. We also fabricate high-efficiency red devices by introduction of (Bu^tbpy)Re(CO)₃Cl as a sensitizer, and the undoped ultrathin layer 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB) as fluorescent acceptor. Förster energy of triplet and singlet are efficient due to appropriate overlap between emission spectrum of (Bu ^t bpy)Re(CO)₃Cl and absorption spectrum of DCJTB.     

Enhanced Conductivity and High Thermal Stability of W-Doped SnO<Subscript>2</Subscript> Based on First-Principle Calculations

Tungsten (W)-doped SnO₂ is investigated by first-principle calculations, with a view to understand the effect of doping on the lattice structure, thermal stability, conductivity, and optical transparency. Due to the slight difference in ionic radius as well as high thermal and chemical compatibility between the native element and the heterogeneous dopant, the doped system changes a little with different deviations in the lattice constant from Vegard’s law, and good thermal stability is observed as the doping level reaches x = 0.125 in Sn_1-x W _x O₂ compounds. Nevertheless, the large disparities in electron configuration and electronegativity between W and Sn atoms will dramatically modify the electronic structure and charge distribution of W-doped SnO₂, leading to a remarkable enhancement of conductivity, electron excitation in the low energy region, and the consequent optical properties, while the visible transparency of Sn_1-x W _x O₂ is still preserved. Particularly, it is found that the optimal photoelectric properties of W-doped SnO₂ may be achieved at x = 0.03. These observations are consistent with the experimental results available on the structural, thermal, electronic, and optical properties of Sn_1-x W _x O₂, thus presenting a practical way of tailoring the physical behaviors of SnO₂ through the doping technique.