States of local moment induced by nonmagnetic impurities in cuprate superconductors

By using a model Hamiltonian with d-wave superconductivity and competing antiferromagnetic (AF) orders, the local staggered magnetization distribution due to nonmagnetic impurities in cuprate superconductors is investigated. We show that the net moment induced by a single impurity corresponds to a local spin with S(z)=0 or 1/2 depending on the strength of the AF interaction U and the impurity scattering strength epsilon. Phase diagram of epsilon versus U for the moment formation is presented. We discuss the connection of this result with the Kondo problem. When two impurities are placed at the nearest neighboring sites, the net moment is always zero, unusually robust to parameter changes. For two neighboring strong impurities, separated by a Cu-ion site, the induced net moment has S(z)=0, 1/2, or 1.     

Magnetic response of nonmagnetic impurities in cuprates

A theory of the local magnetic response of a nonmagnetic impurity in a doped antiferromagnet, as relevant to the normal-state in cuprates, is presented. It is based on the assumption of the overdamped collective mode in the bulk system and on the evidence that equal-time spin correlations are only weakly renormalized in the vicinity of the impurity. The theory relates the Kondo-like behavior of the local susceptibility to the anomalous temperature dependence of the bulk magnetic susceptibility.     

Dynamics of topological defects in a spiral: a scenario for the spin-glass phase of cuprates

We propose that the dissipative dynamics of topological defects in a spiral state is responsible for the transport properties in the spin-glass phase of cuprates. Using the collective-coordinate method, we show that topological defects are coupled to a bath of magnetic excitations. By integrating out the bath degrees of freedom, we find that the dynamical properties of the topological defects are dissipative. The calculated damping matrix is related to the in-plane resistivity, which exhibits an anisotropy and linear temperature dependence in agreement with experimental data.     

Dynamics of metallic stripes in cuprates

We study the dynamics of metallic vertical stripes in cuprates within the three-band Hubbard model based on a recently developed time-dependent Gutzwiller approximation. As doping increases, the optical conductivity shows transfer of spectral weight from the charge-transfer band towards (i) an incoherent band centered at 1.3 eV, (ii) a Drude peak, due mainly to motion along the stripe, and (iii) a low-energy collective mode which softens with doping and merges with (ii) at optimum doping in good agreement with experiment. The softening is related to the quasidegeneracy between Cu-centered and O-centered mean-field stripe solutions close to optimal doping.     

Invar effect by local moment model

On the basis of the molecular field approximation the magnetic part of the thermal expansion coefficient of fcc Fe-Ni alloys is evaluated. The main possibility of explaining the invar effect is shown and its physical matter is revealed. The invar phenomenon is caused by mixed exchange interaction and by strong dependence of the exchange interaction J_FeFe on the interatomic distance. The latter circumstance gives rise to a large spontansous magnetostriction which compensates the normal thermal expansion of these alloys.     

Defect induced local moment in ZnO as a consequence of Stoner mechanism

We have examined the formation of a local moment by considering various defects in ZnO. The localization of the defect induced state is found to determine the presence/absence of a local moment. A lot of attention on the probable origin of magnetism in wide band gap oxides has focused on cation vacancies. Here we show that oxygen interstitial atoms give rise to a large magnetic moment which results in a spin polarization of both the conduction and valence bands, in addition to spin polarized gap states. A Stoner mechanism is invoked and the relevant Stoner parameters are determined to be 0.7 eV for an oxygen atom in the presence of an oxygen interstitial but reduced to 0.2 eV on oxygen in the presence of a Zn vacancy.     

Time reversal symmetry breaking in cuprates induced by the spiral spin order

We propose a new interpretation of the spontaneous time reversal symmetry breaking (TRSB) observed recently in a pseudogap state of cuprates (Kaminsky et al.). It is shown that the TRSB dichroism in an ARPES signal may be related to the local spin spiral structures in the system. It may be caused by a spin-orbit interaction and by spin polarization of electrons at various sections of the Fermi surface in the spiral state. The angular dependence of the dichroism signal is studied in a schematic KKR approximation. Tests are proposed to check the existence of the local spiral spin structure and to distinguish it from the TRSB state with microcurrents constructed by Varma.     

Magnetism induced by nonmagnetic dopants in zinc-blende SiC: First-principle calculations

Magnetism induced by the nonmagnetic dopants in the zinc-blende SiC (3C-SiC) is investigated by first-principle calculations. The atoms of the first 20 elements in the periodic table except inert gas are used to replace either Si or C atoms as dopants. We find that some nonmagnetic substitutional dopants (mainly the Group IA, Group IIA, Group IIIB, and Group VIIB elements) prefer the spin-polarized ground states with local magnetic moments. In general, the condition for obtaining the local magnetic moments and the magnetic ground state requires that the dopants are p-type and have large electronegativity difference from the neighboring host atoms. The magnetic moments can be tuned over a range between 1 μ B and 3 μ B by doping with the nonmagnetic elements. The nearest-neighbor exchange couplings J 0 between the local magnetic moments are quite large and the codoping method is proposed to increase the dopant concentration. These imply that the nonmagnetic doping in SiC may exhibit collective magnetism. Moreover, the Group IIA Mg and Ca atoms substituting the preferred Si atoms favor the ferromagnetic ground states with the half-metallic electronic properties, which suggests that Mg or Ca substitutional doping on the Si sites in SiC could be a potential route to fabricating the diluted magnetic semiconductors.     

Suppression of superconductivity in high-T c cuprates due to nonmagnetic impurities: Implications for the order parameter symmetry

We show explicitly that the broad histogram single-spin-flip random walk dynamics does not give correct microcanonical average even in one dimension. The dynamics violates the detailed balance condition by an amount proportional to the inverse system size. As a result, in distribution different configurations with the same energy can have different probabilities. We propose a modified dynamics which ensures detailed balance and the histogram obtained from this dynamics is exactly flat. The broad histogram equation relating the average number of potential moves to density of states is generally valid. Received 2 October 1998 and Received in final form 13 October 1998     

Staggered local density of states around the vortex in underdoped cuprates

We have studied a single vortex with the staggered flux (SF) core based on the SU(2) slave-boson theory of high T(c) superconductors. We find that, whereas the center in the vortex core is a SF state, as one moves away from the core center a correlated staggered modulation of the hopping amplitude chi and pairing amplitude Delta becomes predominant. We predict that in this region the local density of states exhibits staggered modulation when measured on the bonds, which may be directly detected by STM experiments.     

Ferromagnetic clusters induced by a nonmagnetic random disorder in diluted magnetic semiconductors

In this work, we analyze the nonmagnetic random disorder leading to a formation of ferromagnetic clusters in diluted magnetic semiconductors. The nonmagnetic random disorder arises from randomness in the host lattice. Including the disorder to the Kondo lattice model with random distribution of magnetic dopants, the ferromagnetic–paramagnetic transition in the system is investigated in the framework of dynamical mean-field theory. At a certain low temperature one finds a fraction of ferromagnetic sites transiting to the paramagnetic state. Enlarging the nonmagnetic random disorder strength, the paramagnetic regimes expand resulting in the formation of the ferromagnetic clusters.     

Cu NQR study of the stripe phase local structure in the lanthanum cuprates

Using Cu nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) in Eu-doped La2-xSrxCuO4 we find the evidence of the pinned stripe phase at 1.3 K for 0. 080.18 correlating with the onset of bulk superconductivity corresponds to the depinning of the stripe phase.     

Pressure induced lattice instability and phase separation in the cuprates

High pressure structural studies using a synchrotron source and Raman measurements on various cuprates reveal several structural modifications. The data have shown strong deviations from the normal equation of state at characteristic pressures, hysteresis, and the appearance of additional peaks that can be attributed to a new phase. The combined data of synchrotron angle-dispersive experiments with the optical measurements indicate that at some critical pressures, at least for certain compounds, non-linear effects are observed together with phase separation that affect the distribution of the carriers and the transition temperature. The comparison of the data with those induced by an internal pressure by an atomic substitution indicates that the effect is related to the existence of carriers within the CuO₂ superconducting planes.     

Effects of nonmagnetic impurities on spin-fluctuation induced superconductivity

We study the effects of nonmagnetic impurities on the phase diagram of a system of interacting electrons with a flat Fermi surface. The one-loop Wilsonian renormalization group flow of the angle dependent diffusion function D(theta;(1),theta;(2),theta;(3)) and interaction U(theta;(1),theta;(2),theta;(3)) determines the critical temperature and the nature of the low temperature state. As the imperfect nesting increases, the critical temperature decreases, and the low temperature phase changes from the spin-density wave (SDW) to the d-wave superconductivity (dSC) and finally, for bad nesting, to the charge-localized state. Both SDW and dSC phases are affected by disorder. The pair breaking depends on the imperfect nesting and is the most efficient when the critical temperature for superconductivity is maximal.     

Dynamics of defects in semiconductors

Hyperfine interaction techniques involving radioactive probe atoms like the perturbed angular correlation technique (PAC) and the Mössbauer effect have, due to their inherent sensitivity, successfully been applied to the study of defects in semiconductors. By probing the characteristic charge distribution around the probe atom interacting with a defect, they contributed to the microscopic understanding of the nature, structure and stability of complexes formed between radioactive dopant atoms and defects present in elemental and compound semiconductors. Moreover, dynamic effects can be studied by hyperfine interaction probe techniques. In this case, dynamics always means the fluctuation of a charge distribution resulting in a time dependent hyperfine interaction within the time scale defined by the lifetime of the isomeric nuclear state used for the measurement. Such fluctuations can either be caused by structural changes like local rearrangements of a defect complex or by electronic transitions in the semiconductor resulting in a change of the charge state of a defect complex. Examples using PAC to monitor such processes will be discussed for the semiconductor silicon.     

Persistence of Li induced Kondo moments in the superconducting state of cuprates

Using 7Li NMR shift data, the anomalous local moment induced by spinless Li impurities persists below T(c) in YBa 2Cu 3O6+y. In the underdoped regime, the moments retain their Curie law below Tc. In contrast, near optimal doping, the large Kondo screening observed above Tc (TK = 135 K) is strongly reduced below Tc as expected theoretically when the superconducting gap develops. The limited spatial extent of the induced moment (on first near neighbor Cu) is not drastically modified below Tc, which allows a comparison with STM determination of the local density of states. Our results constrain theoretical models of the impurity electronic properties.     

Electron electric dipole moment induced by octet-colored scalars

An appended sector of two octet-colored scalars, each an electroweak doublet, is an interesting extension of the simple two Higgs doublet model motivated by the minimal flavor violation. Their rich CP violating interaction gives rise to a sizable electron electric dipole moment, besides the quark electric dipole moment via the two-loop contribution of Barr–Zee mechanism.