Elementary excitations in quadrupolar systems

We consider $\text{S ?}\text{3}\text{2}$ isotropic quadrupolar ordered systems and derive elementary excitations at low temperature. A Holstein-Primakoff type transformation and a linear approximation are used. For $\text{S =}\text{3}\text{2}$, the spectrum is made of four degenerate acoustic branches. For S ? 2, only two degenerate branches satisfy the Goldstone theorem: they describe Δm = ± 1 excitations similar to librons in molecular crystals. The two degenerate branches describing Δm = ± 2 excitations have a gap at k = 0 although the hamiltonian is isotropic. For a special $\text{S =}\text{3}\text{2}$ cubic hamiltonian, a Goldstone mode is found in the spectrum and related to a continuous degeneracy of the ground state. A comparison between $\text{S =}\text{1}\text{2}$ dipolar and $\text{S =}\text{3}\text{2}$ quadrupolar systems is presented.     

Elementary excitations in uranium dioxide: Unravelling the tangle

In solids with d- and f-electrons, under certain conditions the orbitals align to form an ordered structure. Collective excitations breaking this arrangement can take the form of oscillations of electric quadrupoles, the so-called quadrupolar waves. These represent a propagating pattern of charge densities implying a modulation of quadrupolar moments. Quadrupolar waves constitute a major component of the dynamics of uranium dioxide in its magneto-quadrupolar ordered phase. Together with spin-waves and phonons, these produce a very complex spectrum of elementary excitations having hybrid character over most of the Brillouin zone. Although neutron scattering spectra only reveal the tip of the iceberg of this spectrum, its complete and detailed modelling is needed to understand such experiments. Distinct roles of Jahn–Teller and superexchange mechanisms as sources of quadrupolar interactions can be clearly identified by such modelling.     

Direct observation of quadrupolar excitons in the heavy-fermion superconductor PrOs4Sb12

We report inelastic neutron scattering experiments performed to investigate the low energy magnetic excitations on single crystals of the heavy-fermion superconductor PrOs(4)Sb(12). The observed excitation clearly softens at a wave vector Q=(1,0,0), which is the same as the modulation vector of the field-induced antiferro-quadrupolar ordering, and its intensity at Q=(1,0,0) is smaller than that around the zone center. This result directly evidences that this excitonic behavior is derived mainly from nonmagnetic quadrupolar interactions. Furthermore, the narrowing of the linewidths of the excitations below the superconducting transition temperature indicates the close connection between the superconductivity and the excitons.     

Dispersive crystal field excitations and quadrupolar interactions in UPd3

We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements and random phase approximation calculations of the dispersive crystal field excitations of UPd(3). The measured spectra at lower energies agree with those calculated using quadrupolar interaction parameters deduced from bulk and x-ray scattering measurements. The more intense excitations arising from the hexagonal sites were used to obtain exchange parameters which proved to be anisotropic.     

Quadrupolar waves in uranium dioxide

In presence of active orbital degrees of freedom, elementary excitations around a broken-symmetry state may include multipolar waves, but none of these exotic dispersive excitation branches has ever been identified. We show that quadrupolar waves constitute a major component of the dynamics of uranium dioxide in its magnetoquadrupolar ordered phase, and that many unexplained features in existing inelastic neutron scattering data, including a whole excitation branch, are associated with these propagating quadrupolar fluctuations. Our model permits us to separate the role of Jahn-Teller and superexchange mechanisms as sources of quadrupolar interactions.     

Resonance and composition effects on the Raman scattering from silver-gold alloy clusters

Low-frequency Raman scattering experiments have been performed on thin films consisting of pure gold or gold-silver alloy clusters embedded in alumina matrix. It is clearly shown that the quadrupolar vibrational modes are observed by Raman scattering because of the effect of resonance with the excitation of the electronic surface dipolar plasmon. This is due to the strong coupling between the collective electronic dipolar excitation and the quadrupolar vibrational modes. This effect of resonance does not exist with the core electron excitations. The mixing of the conduction electron dipolar excitation (surface plasmon) with the core electrons leads to the quenching of the resonant Raman scattering. Received 16 November 2000     

Quadrupolar phases of the s=1 bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice

Using mean-field theory, exact diagonalizations, and SU(3) flavor theory, we have precisely mapped out the phase diagram of the S = 1 bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg model on the triangular lattice in a magnetic field, with emphasis on the quadrupolar phases and their excitations. In particular, we show that ferroquadrupolar order can coexist with short-range helical magnetic order, and that the antiferroquadrupolar phase is characterized by a remarkable 2/3 magnetization plateau, in which one site per triangle retains quadrupolar order while the other two are polarized along the field. Implications for actual S=1 magnets are discussed.     

Surface excitations of a bose-einstein condensate

Surface modes in a Bose-Einstein condensate of sodium atoms have been studied. We observed excitations of standing and rotating quadrupolar and hexadecapolar modes. The modes were excited with high spatial and temporal resolution using the optical dipole force of a rapidly scanning laser beam. This novel technique is very flexible and should be useful for the study of rotating Bose-Einstein condensates and vortices.     

Visualization of nano-plasmons in graphene

We study localized plasmons at the nanoscale (nano-plasmons) in graphene. The collective excitations of induced charge density modulations in graphene are drastically changed in the vicinity of a single impurity compared to graphene's bulk behavior. The dispersion of nano-plasmons depends on the number of electrons and the sign, strength and size of the impurity potential. Due to this rich parameter space the calculated dispersions are intrinsically multidimensional requiring an advanced visualization tool for their efficient analysis, which can be achieved with parallel rendering. To overcome the problem of analyzing thousands of very complex spatial patterns of nano-plasmonic modes, we take a combined visual and quantitative approach to investigate the excitations on the two-dimensional graphene lattice. Our visual and quantitative analysis shows that impurities trigger the formation of localized plasmonic excitations of various symmetries. We visually identify dipolar, quadrupolar and radial modes, and quantify the spatial distributions of induced charges.     

粉末样品中半整数四极核中心线的自旋锁定现象

本文研究了半整数四极体系中心跃迁的自旋锁定,认为占据|-1/2>与|1/2>态的粒子可构成一个孤立的子体系,用密度算符理论证明了旋转坐标系自旋温度理论在这子体系中仍适用。在实验上用NaNO₂和NaOH粉末样品验证了上述结论。     

Determination of the antiferroquadrupolar order parameters in UPd(3)

By combining accurate heat capacity and x-ray resonant scattering results we have resolved the long standing question regarding the nature of the quadrupolar ordered phases in UPd(3). The order parameter of the highest temperature quadrupolar phase has been uniquely determined to be antiphase Q{zx} in contrast to the previous conjecture of Q{x{2}-y{2}}. The azimuthal dependence of the x-ray scattering intensity from the quadrupolar superlattice reflections indicates that the lower temperature phases are described by a superposition of order parameters. The heat capacity features associated with each of the phase transitions characterize their order, which imposes restrictions on the matrix elements of the quadrupolar operators.     

Phase diagrams of spin-1 Ising model with bilinear and quadrupolar interactions under magnetic field. Two-particle cluster approximation

The spin-1 Ising model with bilinear and quadrupolar short-range interactions under magnetic field is investigated within the two-particle cluster approximation. It is shown that for those values of the quadrupolar interaction when at zero magnetic field the system undergoes a temperature phase transition between quadrupolar and paramagnetic phases, a triple point may exist in the temperature vs. magnetic field phase diagrams, necessarily along with a critical point. It is also shown that the critical points in the temperature vs. magnetic field phase diagrams of the investigated model can be of three types.     

Curie temperature of a spin-one bethe lattice

The exact expression for the Curie temperature of a spin-1 Bethe lattice with dipolar and quadrupolar interactions is derived and the nature of variation of the Curie temperature with quadrupolar interaction constant is studied.     

Quantum behavior of orbitals in ferromagnetic titanates: novel orderings and excitations

We investigate the collective behavior of orbital angular momentum in the spin ferromagnetic state of a Mott insulator with t(2g) orbital degeneracy. The frustrated nature of the interactions leads to an infinite degeneracy of classical states. Quantum effects select four distinct orbital orderings. Two of them have a quadrupolar order, while the other states show in addition weak orbital magnetism. Specific predictions are made for neutron scattering experiments which might help to identify the orbital order in YTiO3 and to detect the elementary orbital excitations.     

Water dynamics in a lithium chloride aqueous solution probed by Brillouin neutron and x-ray scattering

We studied the collective excitations in an aqueous solution of lithium chloride over the temperature range of 270-205 K using neutron and x-ray Brillouin scattering. Both neutron and x-ray experiments revealed the presence of low- and high-frequency excitations, similar to the low- and high-frequency excitations in pure water. These two excitations were detectable through the entire temperature range of the experiment, at all probed values of the scattering momentum transfer (0.2 ?(-1) < Q < 1.8 ?(-1)). A wider temperature range was investigated using elastic intensity neutron and x-ray scans. Clear evidence of the crossover in the dynamics of the water molecules in the solution was observed in the single-particle relaxational dynamics on the μeV (nanosecond) time scale, but not in the collective dynamics on the meV (picosecond) time scale.     

Low-temperature properties of some disordered systems from the statistical properties of nearly degenerate two-level excitations

The thermal fluctuations that exist at very low temperature in disordered systems are often attributed to the existence of some two-level excitations. In this paper, we revisit this question via the explicit studies of the following 1D models (i) a particle in 1D random potentials (ii) the random field Ising chain with continuous disorder distribution. In both cases, we define precisely the two-level excitations and their statistical properties, and we show that their contributions to various observables are in full agreement at low temperature with the the rigorous results obtained independently. The statistical properties of these two-level excitations moreover yield simple identities at order T in temperature for some generating functions of thermal cumulants. For the random-field Ising chain, in the regime where the Imry-Ma length is large, we obtain that the specific heat is dominated by small non-universal excitations, that depend on the details of the disorder distribution, whereas the magnetic susceptibility and the Edwards-Anderson order parameter are dominated by universal large excitations, whose statistical properties only depend on the variance of the initial disorder via the Imry-Ma length.Received: 21 July 2004, Published online: 5 November 2004PACS: 75.40.Cx Static properties - 05.40.-a Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, noise, and Brownian motion     

A spin-one Ising model on the Bethe lattice

We study the statistical mechanics of spin-one Ising models on the Bethe lattice assuming that the spins interact by dipolar and quadrupolar interactions. An exact calculation of the properties of the system is performed on the basis of the general formulation of Morita. An exact expression for the Curie temperature is derived and the results are found to be in agreement with those of Obokata and Oguchi who utilized a generalized Bethe approximation to a spin-one Ising system. The nature of variation of the Curie temperature with respect to the change of quadrupolar exchange is discussed for various coordination numbers and the results agree qualitatively with the earlier works. The temperature variation of both dipolar and quadrupolar moments is studied.     

An investigation of string-like cooperative motion in a strong network glass-former

The phase states of a non-Heisenberg two-dimensional ferromagnet are studied, in which the long-range magnetic order is stabilized by the magnetoelastic interaction. It is shown that in this system, together with the phases of nonzero magnetic order, there exists a quadrupolar phase characterized by a tensor order parameter at zero external field. The transition temperature from the quadrupolar phase to the paramagnetic phase is determined.Received: 24 November 2003, Published online: 18 June 2004PACS: 75.10.-b General theory and models of magnetic ordering - 75.30.Kz Magnetic phase boundaries (including magnetic transitions, metamagnetism, etc.)     

Irrational versus rational charge and statistics in two-dimensional quantum systems

We show that quasiparticle excitations with irrational charge and irrational exchange statistics exist in tight-binding systems described, in the continuum approximation, by the Dirac equation in (2+1)-dimensional space and time. These excitations can be deconfined at zero temperature, but when they are, the charge rerationalizes to the value 1/2 and the exchange statistics to that of "quartons" (half-semions).     

Quantum logical operations for spin 3/2 quadrupolar nuclei monitored by quantum state tomography

This article presents the realization of many self-reversible quantum logic gates using two-qubit quadrupolar spin 3/2 systems. Such operations are theoretically described using propagation matrices for the RF pulses that include the effect of the quadrupolar evolution during the pulses. Experimental demonstrations are performed using a generalized form of the recently developed method for quantum state tomography in spin 3/2 systems. By doing so, the possibility of controlling relative phases of superimposed pseudo-pure states is demonstrated. In addition, many aspects of the effect of the quadrupolar evolution, occurring during the RF pulses, on the quantum operations performance are discussed. Most of the procedures presented can be easily adapted to describe selective pulses of higher spin systems (>3/2) and for spin 1/2 under J couplings.