We show that the low-energy fluctuations of the valence bond in underdoped high-T_c cuprates, originating from quantum fluctuations of the superexchange interaction, are pinned by the electronic disorder due to off-stoichiometric dopants, leading to a valence bond glass (VBG) pseudogap phase. The antinodal Fermi surface sections are gapped out, giving rise to a normal state Fermi arc whose length shrinks with underdoping. Below T_c, the superexchange interaction induces a d-wave superconducting gap that coexists with the VBG pseudogap. The evolution of the local and momentum-space spectroscopy with doping and temperature captures the salient properties of the pseudogap phenomena and the electronic disorder. The unified theory elucidates the important interplay between strong correlation and the intrinsic electronic disorder in doped transition metal oxides.
We report progress in understanding the fermionic Ising spin glass with arbitrary filling. A crossover from a magnetically disordered single band phase via two intermediate bands just below the freezing temperature to a 3-band structure at still lower temperatures - beyond an almost random field instability - is shown to emerge in the magnetic phase. An attempt is made to explain the exact solution in terms of a quantum Parisi phase. A central nonmagnetic band is found and seen to become sharply separated at T=0 by gaps from upper and lower magnetic bands. The gap sizes tend towards zero as th…
We have studied the electronic structure of RuP and related Ru pnictides using photoemission spectroscopy. Ru 3d core-level and valence-band spectra of RuP show that the Ru valence is +3 with t_{2g}^5 configuration. The photoemisson spectral weight near the Fermi level is moderately suppressed in the pseudogap phase of RuP, consistent with the pseudogap opening of 2Δ/k_BT_c ~ 3 (gap size Δ~ 50 meV and transition temperature T_c ~ 330 K). The Ru 3d peak remains sharp in the pseudogap phase and the insulating phase of RuP, suggesting that the electronic orderings responsible for the phase transi…
We propose a new class of ground states for doped Mott insulators in the electron second-quantization representation. They are obtained from a bosonic resonating valence bond (RVB) theory of the t-J model. At half filling, the ground state describes spin correlations of the S=1/2 Heisenberg model very accurately. Its spin degrees of freedom are characterized by RVB pairing of spins, the size of which decreases continuously as holes are doped into the system. Charge degrees of freedom emerge upon doping and are described by twisted holes in the RVB background. We show that the twisted holes exh…
Infrared optical conductivity [$σ(ω)$] of the intermediate valence compound YbAl$_3$ has been measured at temperatures 8 K $\leq T \leq$ 690 K to study its microscopic electronic structures. Despite the highly metallic characters of YbAl$_3$, $σ(ω)$ exhibits a clear pseudogap (strong depletion of spectral weight) of about 60 meV below 40 K. It also shows a strong mid-infrared peak centered at $\sim$ 0.25 eV. Energy-dependent effective mass and scattering rate of the carriers obtained from the data indicate the formation of a heavy-mass Fermi liquid state. These characteristic results are discu…
The pseudogap phase of the underdoped cuprates is the host to a variety of novel electronic phenomenon. An example is the dc-resistivity which shows metallic behaviour in the ab-plane, while the c-axis response is insulating. We apply a model, originally formulated by Yang, Rice, and Zhang, to study the resistivity in the pseudogap phase. This model is able to reproduce the qualitative features of the resistivity, including the systematic deviations from linear behaviour for the in-plane conductivity, and the insulating behaviour along the c-axis. We compare this to the predictions of the arc …
We present a valence transition model for electron- and hole-doped cuprates, within which there occurs a discrete jump in ionicity Cu$^{2+} \to$ Cu$^{1+}$ upon doping, at or near optimal doping in the electron-doped compounds and at the pseudogap phase transition in the hole-doped materials. Doped cuprates have negative charge-transfer gaps, just as rare earth nickelates and BaBiO$_3$. Because of strong correlations and small $d-p$ electron hoppings the systems behave as effective $\frac{1}{2}$-filled Cu-band in the undoped state, and as correlated two-dimensional geometrically frustrated near…
We show that a new glassy phase can emerge in presence of strong magnetic frustration and quantum fluctuations. It is a Valence Bond Glass. We study its properties solving the Hubbard-Heisenberg model on a Bethe lattice within the large $N$ limit introduced by Affleck and Marston. We work out the phase diagram that contains Fermi liquid, dimer and valence bond glass phases. This new glassy phase has no electronic or spin gap (although a pseudo-gap is observed), it is characterized by long-range critical valence bond correlations and is not related to any magnetic ordering. As a consequence it …
Golden SmS is a paramagnetic, mixed-valence system with a pseudogap. With increasing pressure across a critical pressure Pc, the system undergoes a discontinuous transition into a metallic, anti-ferromagnetically ordered state. By using a combination of thermodynamic, transport, and magnetic measurements, we show that the pseudogap results from the formation of a local bound state with spin singlet. We further argue that the transition Pc is regarded as a transition from an insulating electron-hole gas to a Kondo metal, i.e., from a spatially bound state to a Kondo virtually bound state betwee…
Through the measurements of magnetic field dependence of specific heat in $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ in zero temperature limit, we find that the nodal slope $v_Δ$ of the superconducting gap has a very similar doping dependence of the pseudogap temperature $T^*$ or value $Δ_p$. Meanwhile the maximum quasiparticle gap derived from $v_Δ$ is quite close to $T^*$. Both indicate a close relationship between the pseudogap and superconductivity. It is also found that $T_c \approx βv_Δγ_n(0)$, where $γ_n(0)$ is the extracted zero temperature value of the normal state specific heat coefficient which is proport…
We show that both kinetic and superexchange energies of the t-J model may be read off from the optical data, based on an optical sum rule for the Hubbard model. Then we comparatively study two mean-field theories of pseudogap phase based on the t-J model. We find that while the pseudogap phase is superexchange-energy-driven in the slave-boson resonating-valence-bond (RVB) state, it is kinetic-energy-driven in the bosonic RVB state. The sharp contrast in the mechanisms of the pseudogap phases can be attributed to the fact that the antiferromagnetic (AF) correlations behave quite differently in …
Recent experiments have revealed incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) in the pseudogap regime in underdoped cuprates, e.g. YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+δ}$ and HgBa$_2$CuO$_{4+δ}$. However, its relationship with the pseudogap is still controversial. In this work, we take a phenomenological synthesis of the doped resonating valence bond (RVB) state and the CDW order. Starting from the Yang-Rice-Zhang Green's function ansatz for the doped RVB state [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 73}, 174501 (2006)], in which the Fermi surface is partially truncated into four nodal hole-like Fermi pockets by the antinodal RVB gap,…
We present here a new mechanism of high-T_c (critical temperature) superconductivity. This new model is able to explain all the HTSC (high-T_c superconductivity) properties, like high T_c, origin and nature of NSPG (normal state pseudogap), anomalous superconducting state (SS) energy gap (SSEG) properties, absence of NMR spin relaxation rate coherence peak, existence of NSPG below T_c, nature of high-T_c magnetic superconductivity, external magnetic field (H) dependence of the NSPG formation temperature T^*, etc. The coexistence of NSPG and SS BCS enegy gap (EG), below T_c, has been predicted …
We present a theory for site dilution in the Valence Bond Crystal Phase of the Kagome Lattice Heisenberg Model. The presence of an empty site leads to strong singlet bond across the impurity. It also creates a free spin, which delocalizes inside the unit cell. Finite concentration of quenched impurities leads to a Valence Bond Glass phase. This phase has short-range Valence Bond order, no spin-gap, large spin susceptibilities, linear specific heat due to two-level systems, as well as singlet and triplet excitations that decompose into kink-antikink pairs delocalized over a few lattice constant…
The pseudogap is one of the most pervasive phenomena of high temperature superconductors. It is attributed either to incoherent Cooper pairing setting in above the superconducting transition temperature Tc, or to a hidden order parameter competing with superconductivity. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering from underdoped YBa(2)Cu(3)O(6.6) to show that the dispersion relations of spin excitations in the superconducting and pseudogap states are qualitatively different. Specifically, the extensively studied "hour glass" shape of the magnetic dispersions in the superconducting state is no lo…
We report on the unconventional magnetism in the cubic B-site ordered double perovskite Ba2YMoO6, using AC and DC magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity and muSR. No magnetic order is observed down to 2 K while the Weiss temperature is ~ -160 K. This is ascribed to the geometric frustration in the lattice of edge-sharing tetrahedra with orbitally degenerate Mo5+ s=1/2 spins. Our experimental results point to a gradual freezing of the spins into a disordered pattern of spin-singlets, quenching the orbital degeneracy while leaving the global cubic symmetry unaffected, and providing a rare exampl…
The mysterious pseudogap phase of cuprate superconductors ends at a critical hole doping level p* but the nature of the ground state below p* is still debated. Here, we show that the genuine nature of the magnetic ground state in La2-xSrxCuO4 is hidden by competing effects from superconductivity: applying intense magnetic fields to quench superconductivity, we uncover the presence of glassy antiferromagnetic order up to the pseudogap boundary p* ~ 0.19, and not above. There is thus a quantum phase transition at p*, which is likely to underlie highfield observations of a fundamental change in e…
The phenomenological Green's function developed in the works of Yang, Rice and Zhang has been very successful in understanding many of the anomalous superconducting properties of the deeply underdoped cuprates. It is based on considerations of the resonating valence bond spin liquid approximation and is designed to describe the underdoped regime of the cuprates. Here we emphasize the region of doping, $x$, just below the quantum critical point at which the pseudogap develops. In addition to Luttinger hole pockets centered around the nodal direction, there are electron pockets near the antinode…
The penetration depth is calculated over the entire doping range of the cuprate phase diagram with emphasis on the underdoped regime. Pseudogap formation on approaching the Mott transition, for doping below a quantum critical point, is described within a model based on the resonating valence bond spin liquid which provides an ansatz for the coherent piece of the Green's function. Fermi surface reconstruction, which is an essential element of the model, has a strong effect on the superfluid density at T=0 producing a sharp drop in magnitude, but does not change the slope of the linear low tempe…
Through the measurements of magnetic field dependence of specific heat in $La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4$ in zero temperature limit, we determined the nodal slope $v_Δ$ of the quasiparticle gap. It is found that $v_Δ$ has a very similar doping dependence of the pseudogap temperature $T^*$ or value $Δ_p$. Meanwhile the virtual maximum gap at ($π,0$) derived from $v_Δ$ is found to follow the simple relation $Δ_q=0.46k_BT^*$ upon changing the doping concentration. This strongly suggests a close relationship between the pseudogap and superconductivity. It is further found that the superconducting transition t…
In the quest for materials with unconventional quantum phases, the organic triangular-lattice antiferromagnet $κ$-(ET)$_2$Cu$_2$(CN)$_3$ has been extensively discussed as a quantum spin liquid (QSL) candidate. Recently, an intriguing quantum critical behaviour was suggested from low-temperature magnetic torque experiments. Through microscopic analysis of all anisotropic contributions, including Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and multi-spin scalar chiral interactions, we highlight significant deviations of the experimental observations from a quantum critical scenario. Instead, we show that disorder-ind…
Sb-NMR/NQR study has revealed a formation of a pseudogap at the Fermi level in the density of states in a valence fluctuating compound CeIrSb. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature, 1/T_1T has a maximum around 300 K and decreases significantly as 1/T_1T ~ T^2, followed by a 1/T_1T = const. relation at low temperature. This temperature dependence of 1/T_1T is well reproduced by assuming a V-shaped energy gap with a residual density of states at the Fermi level. The size of energy gap for CeIrSb is estimated to be about 350 K, which is by one order of magnitude larger t…
$B$-site ordered 4$d^1$ and 5$d^1$ double perovskites have a number of potential novel ground states including multipolar order, quantum spin liquids and valence bond glass states. These arise from the complex interactions of spin-orbital entangled $J_{eff}$ = 3/2 pseudospins on the geometrically frustrated fcc lattice. The 4$d^1$ Mo$^{5+}$ perovskite Ba$_2$YMoO$_6$ has been suggested to have a valence bond glass ground state. Here we report on the low temperature properties of powder samples of isostructural Ba$_2$LuMoO$_6$: the only other known cubic 4$d^1$ perovskite with one magnetic catio…
Measurements of electrodynamic response of of spin glass AuFe films in comparison with pure gold films are performed at frequencies from 0.3 THz (10 cm-1) up to 1000 THz (33000 cm-1) using different spectroscopic methods. At room temperatures the spectra of pure gold and of AuFe are typically metallic with the scattering rate of carriers in AuFe being significantly enlarged due to scattering on localized magnetic moments of Fe ions. In the spin-glass phase of AuFe at T = 5 K a pseudogap in the conductivity spectrum is detected with the magnitude close to the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY…
We give a quantitative analysis of the published results of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments for k-(ET)2X family of organic charge transfer salts by using the phenomenological spin fluctuation model of Moriya, and Millis, Monien and Pines (M-MMP). For temperatures above T_NMR ~ 50 K, the model gives a good quantitative description of the data for the paramagnetic metallic phase of several k-(ET)2X materials, with an antiferromagnetic correlation length which increases with decreasing temperature; growing to several lattice constants by T_NMR. It is shown that the fact that the dime…
The valence band electronic structure of Pr$_{0.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$MnO$_3$ has been investigated across its paramagnetic metallic (PMM) - ferromagnetic metallic (FMM) - antiferromagnetic insulator (AFMI) transition. Using surface sensitive high resolution photoemission we have conclusively demonstrated the presence of a pseudogap of magnitude 80 meV in the near Fermi level electronic spectrum in the PMM and FMM phases and finite intensity at the Fermi level in the charge ordering (CO)-AFMI phase. The pseudogap behavior is explained in terms of the strong electron-phonon interaction and the formation…
We report on the charge kinetics of La_2CuO_4 lightly doped with Li and Sr. Impedance spectroscopy measurements down to 25mK and from 20Hz to 500kHz reveal evidence for low energy charge dynamics, which slow down with decreasing temperature. Both systems are acutely sensitive to stoichiometry. In the case of Sr substitution, which at higher carrier concentration evolves to a high temperature superconductor, the ground state in the pseudogap-doping regime is one of spatially segregated, dynamic charge domains. The charge carriers slow down at substantially lower temperatures than their spin cou…
Using angle-integrated photoemission spectroscopy we have probed the novel LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$FeAs superconductor over a wide range of photon energies and temperatures. We have provided the first full characterization of the orbital character of the VB DOS and of the magnitude of the d-p hybridization energy. Finally, we have identified two characteristic temperatures: 90K where a pseudogap-like feature appears to close and 120K where a sudden change in the DOS near E$_F$ occurs. We associate these phenomena with the SDW magnetic ordering and the structural transition seen in the parent compo…
It is inferred from bulk-sensitive muon Knight shift measurement for a Bi$_{1.76}$Pb$_{0.35}$Sr$_{1.89}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ single-layer cuprate that metal-insulator (MI) transition (in the low temperature limit, $T\rightarrow0$) occurs at the critical hole concentration $p=p_{\rm MI}=0.09(1)$, where the electronic density of states (DOS) at the Fermi level is reduced to zero by the pseudogap irrespective of the Néel order or spin glass magnetism. Superconductivity also appears for $p>p_{\rm MI}$, suggesting that this feature is controlled by the MI transition. More interestingly, the magnitude of the…
The enigmatic pseudogap phase in underdoped cuprate high T_c superconductors has long been recognized as a central puzzle of the T_c problem. Recent data show that the pseudogap is likely a distinct phase, characterized by a medium range and quasi-static charge ordering. However, the origin of the ordering wavevector and the mechanism of the charge order is unknown. At the same time, earlier data show that precursive superconducting fluctuations are also associated with this phase. We propose that the pseudogap phase is a novel pairing state where electrons on the same side of the Fermi surfac…
We present calculations of the interplane charge dynamics in the normal state of cuprate superconductors within the valence-bond dynamical mean-field theory. We show that by varying the hole doping, the c-axis optical conductivity and resistivity dramatically change character, going from metallic-like at large doping to insulating-like at low-doping. We establish a clear connection between the behavior of the c-axis optical and transport properties and the destruction of coherent quasiparticles as the pseudogap opens in the antinodal region of the Brillouin zone at low doping. We show that our…
We calculate electronic single-particle properties of short-range ordered stripe states, using Monte-Carlo simulations of collective charge-density wave (CDW) order parameters coupled to fermions on a 2d square lattice. For superconducting bond-centered stripes with a d-wave form factor, we find a valence-bond "glass" which coexists with low-energy quasiparticles featuring interference phenomena, in agreement with recent scanning-tunneling-microscopy (STM) measurements on underdoped BSCCO and CaNaCuOCl. Together with earlier work, our calculations provide a link between CDW features seen in ST…
It is proposed that the upper pseudogap phase (UPP) observed in the high-Tc cuprates correspond to the formation of spin singlet pairing under the bosonic resonating-valence-bond (RVB) description. We present a series of evidence in support of such a scenario based on the calculated magnetic properties including uniform spin susceptibility, spin-lattice and spin-echo relaxation rates, which consistently show that strong spin correlations start to develop upon entering the UPP, being enhanced around the momentum (π, π) while suppressed around (0, 0). The phase diagram in the parameter space of …
We carried out AC magnetic susceptibility measurements and muon spin relaxation spectroscopy on the cubic double perovskite Ba2YMoO6, down to 50 mK. Below ~1 K the muon relaxation is typical of a magnetic insulator with a spin-liquid type ground state, i.e. without broken symmetries or frozen moments. However, the AC susceptibility revealed a dilute-spin-glass like transition below ~ 1 K. Antiferromagnetically coupled Mo5+ 4d1 electrons in triply degenerate t2g orbitals are in this material arranged in a geometrically frustrated fcc lattice. Bulk magnetic susceptibility data has previously bee…
Unconventional quantum criticality in heavy-fermion systems has been extensively analyzed in terms of a critical destruction of the Kondo effect. Motivated by a recent demonstration of quantum criticality in a mixed-valent heavy-fermion system, β-YbAlB4, we study a particle-hole-asymmetric Anderson impurity model with a pseudogapped density of states. We demonstrate Kondo destruction at a mixed-valent quantum critical point, where a collapsing Kondo energy scale is accompanied by a singular charge-fluctuation spectrum. Both spin and charge responses scale with energy over temperature (ω/T) and…
A precursor effect on the Fermi surface in the two-dimensional Hubbard model at finite temperatures near the antiferromagnetic instability is studied using three different itinerant approaches: the second order perturbation theory, the paramagnon theory (PT), and the two-particle self-consistent (TPSC) approach. In general, at finite temperature, the Fermi surface of the interacting electron systems is not sharply defined due to the broadening effects of the self-energy. In order to take account of those effects we consider the single-particle spectral function $A({\bf k},0)$ at the Fermi leve…
The double-perovskite compounds Sr$_2$CuTeO$_6$ and Sr$_2$CuWO$_6$ are magnetically described as quasi-two-dimensional spin-1/2 square-lattice $J_1{-}J_2$ Heisenberg antiferromagnets with predominant $J_1$ and $J_2$ exchange interactions, respectively. We report the low-temperature magnetic properties of Sr$_2$CuTe$_{1-x}$W$_x$O$_6$ with randomness in the magnitudes of $J_1$ and $J_2$. It was found that the low-temperature specific heat for $0.1\leq x \leq 0.5$ has a large component proportional to the temperature $T$ above 1.2 K, although the low-temperature specific heat for the two parent s…
It is widely believed that high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates emerges from doped Mott insulators. The physics of the parent state seems deceivingly simple: The hopping of the electrons from site to site is prohibited because their on-site Coulomb repulsion U is larger than the kinetic energy gain t. When doping these materials by inserting a small percentage of extra carriers, the electrons become mobile but the strong correlations from the Mott state are thought to survive; inhomogeneous electronic order, a mysterious pseudogap and, eventually, superconductivity appear. How th…
We point out that unidirectional bond-centered charge-density-wave states in cuprates involve electronic order in both s- and d-wave channels, with non-local Coulomb repulsion suppressing the s-wave component. The resulting bond-charge-density wave, coexisting with superconductivity, is compatible with recent photoemission and tunneling data and as well as neutron-scattering measurements, once long-range order is destroyed by slow fluctuations or glassy disorder. In particular, the real-space structure of d-wave stripes is consistent with the scanning-tunneling-microscopy measurements on both …
We study the half-filled Hubbard model on the geometrically frustrated face centered cubic (FCC) lattice, using an auxiliary field based real space technique. The low temperature state is a paramagnetic metal at weak interaction, an antiferromagnetic insulator (AFI) with flux like order at intermediate interaction, and an AFI with `C type' order at very strong interaction. Remarkably, there is a narrow window between the paramagnetic metal and the AFI where the system exhibits spin glass behaviour arising from the presence of disordered but `frozen' local moments. The spin glass state is metal…
We report the observation of spin glass state in the double perovskite oxide Sr$_{2}$FeCoO$_{6}$ prepared through sol-gel technique. Initial structural studies using x rays reveal that the compound crystallizes in tetragonal $I 4/m$ structure with lattice parameters, $a$ = 5.4609(2) Åand $c$ = 7.7113(7) Å. The temperature dependent powder x ray studies reveal no structural phase transition in the temperature range 10 -- 300 K. However, the unit cell volume shows an anomaly coinciding with the magnetic transition temperature thereby suggesting a close connection between lattice and magnetism. N…
The pseudogap phase occurring in cuprate and organic superconductors is analyzed based on the dynamical cluster approximation (DCA) approach to the Hubbard model. A cluster embedded in a self-consistent bath is studied. With increasing Coulomb repulsion, U, the antinodal point [k=(pi,0)] displays a gradual suppression of spectral density of states around the Fermi energy which is not observed at the nodal point [k=(pi/2,pi/2)]. The opening of the antinodal pseudogap is related to the internal structure of the cluster and the much weaker bath-cluster couplings at the antinodal than nodal point.…
We study the low temperature phase of the 3D Coulomb glass within a mean field approach which reduces the full problem to an effective single site model with a non-trivial replica structure. We predict a finite glass transition temperature $T_c$, and a glassy low temperature phase characterized by permanent criticality. The latter is shown to assure the saturation of the Efros-Shklovskii Coulomb gap in the density of states. We find this pseudogap to be universal due to a fixed point in Parisi's flow equations. The latter is given a physical interpretation in terms of a dynamical self-similari…
In this study, we report the observation of a pseudogap associated with the insulator-metal transition in compositions of Pr$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$MnO$_3$ system with no charge ordering. Our valence band photoemission study shows that the observed shifts in the near Fermi level density of states are abrupt at the Curie transtion and occur over an energy scale of $\sim$ 1 eV, strongly suggesting that the charge-ordering gap observed earlier in other manganites and the pseudogap observed here may indeed have same origin. These results could be understood within the framework of models based on electronic…
We give a quantitative analysis of the previously published nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments in the k-(ET)2X family of organic charge transfer salts by using the phenomenological spin fluctuation model of Moriya, and Millis, Monien and Pines (M-MMP). For temperatures above T_nmr ~ 50 K, the model gives a good quantitative description of the data in the metallic phases of several k-(ET)2X materials. These materials display antiferromagnetic correlation lengths which increase with decreasing temperature and grow to several lattice constants by T_nmr. It is shown that the fact that th…
Neutron diffraction measurement on the spin glass double perovskite Sr$_2$FeCoO$_6$ reveals site disorder as well as Co$^{3+}$ intermediate spin state. In addition, multiple valence states of Fe and Co are confirmed through Mössbauer and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The structural disorder and multiple valence lead to competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions and subsequently to a spin glass state, which is reflected in the form of an additional $T$-linear contribution at low temperatures in specific heat. A clear evidence of Jahn-Teller distortion at the Co$^{3+}$-O$_6$ …
Electronic structure, electrical transport, dc and ac magnetization properties of the hole substituted (Sr2+) partially B-site disordered double perovskite Pr2-xSrxCoMnO6 system have been investigated. Electronic structure was probed by employing X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) measurements. The study suggested the presence of mixed valence states of the B-site ions (Co2+/Co3+ and Mn3+/Mn4+) with significant enhancement of the average oxidation states due to hole doping. The mere absence of electronic states near the Fermi level in the valence band (VB) spectra for both of the pure (x=0…
Epitaxial thin films of hexagonal ErMnO3 fabricated on Pt(111)/Al2O3(0001) and YSZ(111) substrates exhibited both ferroelectric character and magnetic ordering at low temperatures. As the temperature was reduced, the ErMnO3 films first showed antiferromagnetism. At lower temperatures, the films deposited at lower oxygen partial pressures exhibited spin glass behavior. This re-entrant spin glass behavior was attributed to competition between an antiferromagnetic interaction in the hexagonal geometry and a ferromagnetic interaction caused by a change in Mn valence induced by excess electrons fro…
Transport and magnetic properties along with high resolution valence band photoemission study of disordered double perovskite Sr$_{2}$TiIrO$_{6}$ has been investigated. Insulator to insulator transition along with a magnetic transition concurrently occurs at 240 K. Comparison of valence band photoemission with band structure calculations suggests that the spin orbit coupling as well as electron correlation are necessary to capture the line shape and width of the Ir 5$d$ band. Room temperature valence band photoemission spectra show negligibly small intensity at Fermi energy, $E_{F}$. Fermi cut…
The Hubbard model in $D$ dimensions, with the on-site repulsion $U$ and the transfer integral between nearest neighbors $-t/\sqrt{D}$, is studied on the basis of the Kondo-lattice theory. If $U/|t| \gg 1$, $|n - 1| \lesssim |t|/(DU)$, where $n$ is the number of electrons per unit cell, and $D$ is so small that $|J|/D \gg k_{\rm B}T_c$, where $J = -4t^2/U$ and $T_c$ is $0 {\rm K}$ for $D = 1$ and is the highest critical temperature among possible ones for $D \ge 2$, a low-$T$ phase where $T_c < T \ll |J|/(k_{\rm B}D)$ is a frustrated electron liquid. Since the liquid is stabilized by the Kondo …
We analyze the effect of quenched disorder on spin-1/2 quantum magnets in which magnetic frustration promotes the formation of local singlets. Our results include a theory for 2d valence-bond solids subject to weak bond randomness, as well as extensions to stronger disorder regimes where we make connections with quantum spin liquids. We find, on various lattices, that the destruction of a valence-bond solid phase by weak quenched disorder leads inevitably to the nucleation of topological defects carrying spin-1/2 moments. This renormalizes the lattice into a strongly random spin network with i…
In this work, a temperature-induced valence-state transition is studied in a narrow composition range of Ba$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$TbIrO$_6$. The valence-state transition involves an electron transfer between Tb and Ir leading to the valence-state change between Tb$^{3+}$/Ir$^{5+}$ and Tb$^{4+}$/Ir$^{4+}$ phases. This first-order transition has a dramatic effect on the lattice, transport properties, and the long-range magnetic order at low temperatures for both Tb and Ir ions. Ir$^{5+}$ ion has an electronic configuration of 5$d^4$ ($J\rm_{eff}$ = 0) which is expected to be nonmagnetic. In contrast, Ir$…
