Magnetic fluctuations and itinerant ferromagnetism in two-dimensional systems with Van Hove singularities

A criterion for ferromagnetism in two-dimensional systems with the Fermi level near Van Hove singularities (VHSs) is analyzed. In the quasistatic approximation applied to a spin-fermion model, it is shown that the spectrum of spin excitations (paramagnons) is positively defined when the interaction I between the electronic and spin degrees of freedom is sufficiently large (I > I _c). The critical interaction I _c is much greater than its value determined from the Stoner criterion; hence, the latter criterion is not an adequate criterion for ferromagnetism in the presence of Van Hove singularities in the electronic spectrum. By combining the quasistatic approximation with the method of equations of motion, the electronic self-energy is obtained in the first order in the inverse number of spin components.     

Electron Spectrum Topology and Giant Singularities of the Electron Density of States in Cubic Lattices

The topology of energy surfaces in reciprocal space is studied in detail for simple cubic (sc), body-centered cubic (bcc), and face-centered cubic (fcc) lattices in the tight-binding approximation, taking into account hopping integrals t and t′ between the nearest and next-nearest neighbor sites, respectively. It is shown that lines and surfaces formed by van Hove k points can arise at values τ = t′/t = τ* corresponding to a change in the surface topology. At a small deviation of τ from these special values, the spectrum near the van Hove line (surface) only slightly depends on k. This corresponds to a giant effective mass proportional to |τ - τ*|⁻¹ near several van Hove points. Singular contributions to the density of states near these special t values are analyzed and explicit expressions are obtained for the density of states in terms of elliptic integrals. It is shown that, in some cases, the maximum density of states is achieved at energies corresponding to k points in high-symmetry directions inside the Brillouin zone rather than at its edges. The corresponding contributions to electronic and magnetic characteristics are discussed, in particular, in application to itinerant weak magnets.

     

Magnetic States and Metal—Insulator in Strongly Correlated Systems (Scientific Summary)

JETP Letters - Various slave particle approaches to the consideration of electron correlations in many-electron models, in particular, in application to layered copper oxide systems, have been...     

Spin fluctuations and ferromagnetic order in two-dimensional itinerant systems with Van Hove singularities

The quasistatic approach is used to analyze the criterion of ferromagnetism for two-dimensional (2D) systems with the Fermi level near Van Hove (VH) singularities of the electron spectrum. It is shown that the spectrum of spin excitations (paramagnons) is positively defined when the interaction between electrons and paramagnons, determined by the Hubbard on-site repulsion U, is sufficiently large. Due to incommensurate spin fluctuations near the ferromagnetic quantum phase transition, the critical interaction U_c remains finite at VH filling and exceeds considerably its value obtained from the Stoner criterion. A comparison with the functional renormalization group results and mean-field approximation which yields a phase separation is also performed.     

Pressure-Induced Decrease in the Curie Temperature of Gd<Subscript>2</Subscript>Fe<Subscript>17</Subscript>: LSDA+U Calculations

To explain the magnetic properties of advanced ferromagnetic intermetallic compounds of the R₂Fe₁₇ (R is a rare-earth element) class, experimentalists often use the hypothesis of competition between ferromagnetic exchange and antiferromagnetic exchange between four types of the nearest iron atoms in nonequivalent lattice sites. For the rhombohedral Gd₂Fe₁₇ ferromagnet, we calculate the magnetic moments of iron and gadolinium ions, the parameters of exchange between Fe atoms, and Curie temperature T_C at a zero pressure and during hydrostatic lattice compression. The magnetic moment of the unit cell of Gd₂Fe₁₇ is shown to decrease under pressure, and this decrease is almost completely associated with a decrease in the magnetic moments of Fe rather than Gd ions, the pressure dependence of the magnetic moments of which is weaker by an order of magnitude. In contrast to the hypothesis regarding the competition of exchange interactions between different kinds of Fe atoms, the parameters of exchange between the nearest iron atoms in different crystallographic sites are found to be positive ferromagnetic (at a zero pressure and during compression), and a ferromagnetic character of interaction is shown to remain unchanged under pressure even for Fe atoms in the so-called dumbbell sites with the nearest interatomic distances. The Curie temperature T_C of Gd₂Fe₁₇ is shown to decrease with increasing pressure. The changes in the exchange parameters and the magnetic moments of Gd₂Fe₁₇ during compression are found to be mainly related to a change in the position of energy spectrum branches with respect to each other and the Fermi level ?_F rather than to a change in the overlapping of wavefunctions, which play a minor role.     

Kohn anomalies in momentum dependence of magnetic susceptibility of some three-dimensional systems

We study a question of the presence of Kohn points, yielding at low temperatures nonanalytic momentum dependence of magnetic susceptibility near its maximum, in electronic spectra of some threedimensional systems. In particular, we consider a one-band model on face-centered cubic lattice with hopping between the nearest and next-nearest neighbors, which models some aspects of the dispersion of ZrZn₂, and the two-band model on body-centered cubic lattice, modeling the dispersion of chromium. For the former model, it is shown that Kohn points yielding maxima of susceptibility exist in a certain (sufficiently wide) region of electronic concentrations; the dependence of the wave vectors, corresponding to the maxima, on the chemical potential is investigated. For the two-band model, we show the existence of the lines of Kohn points, yielding maximum susceptibility, whose position agrees with the results of band structure calculations and experimental data on the wave vector of antiferromagnetism of chromium.     

Ferromagnetism,spiral magnetic structures and phase separation in the two-dimensional Hubbard model

The quasistatic approximation and equation-of-motion decoupling for the electron Green's functions are applied to trace the effect of electronic dispersion and electron correlations on the ferromagnetism of two-dimensional itinerant-electron systems. It is found that next-nearest-neighbor hopping t′$t\prime$ is of crucial importance for ferromagnetism formation yielding the magnetic phase diagram which is strongly asymmetric with respect to half-filling. At small t′$t\prime$ in the vicinity of half-filling the ferromagnetic phase region is restricted by the spin-density wave instability, and far from half-filling by one-particle (spin-polaron) instability. At t′$t\prime$ close to t/2$t/2$ ferromagnetism is stabilized at moderate Hubbard U   due to substantial curvature of the Fermi surface which passes in the vicinity of the van Hove singularity points. The results obtained are of possible importance for high-_Tc$T_{\mathrm{c}}$ compounds and layered ruthenates.