Microscopic details of stripes and bubbles in the quantum Hall regime
Josef Oswald, Rudolf A. Römer
备注：
5 main pages and 4 figures with 1 page supplemental materials and 3+4=7 supplemental figures; new version contains changes in reply to reviewer comments, some in the main text, but more and additional figures in the supplement
We use a fully self-consistent laterally resolved Hartree-Fock approximation for numerically addressing the electron configurations at higher Landau levels in the quantum Hall regime for near-macroscopic sample sizes. Our results give microscopic details of stripe- and bubble-like charge density modulations and show how these emerge depending on the filling factor. We find that there exists a region at the boundaries of the stripes and bubbles with a density modulation that corresponds to a filling factor around half filling. The microscopic details of these boundary regions determine the geometrical boundary conditions for aligning the charge density modulation either as stripes or bubbles. Transport is modelled using a non-equilibrium network model giving a pronounced anisotropy in direction of the injected current in the stripe regime close to half filling. We obtain a stripe period of 2.9 cyclotron radii. Our results indicate the dominance of many particle physics in the integer quantum Hall regime and provide an intuitive understanding of its consequences in strong magnetic fields.
Stripe-like and bubble-like patterns spontaneously form in numerous physical, chemical, and biological systems when competing long-range and short-range interactions banish uniformity. Stripe-like and the related nematic morphology are also under intense scrutiny in various strongly correlated electron systems. In contrast, the electronic bubble morphology is rare. Some of the most intriguing electron bubbles develop in the two-dimensional electron gas subjected to a perpendicular magnetic field. However, in contrast to bubbles forming in classical systems such as the Turing activator-inhibito…
The ground state phase diagram of 2D electrons in a high Landau level (index N=2) is studied by the density matrix renormalization group method. Pair correlation functions are systematically calculated for various filling factors from v=1/8 to 1/2. It is shown that the ground state phase diagram consists of three different CDW states called stripe-phase, bubble-phase, and Wigner crystal. The boundary between the stripe and the bubble phases is determined to be v_c = 0.38, and that for the bubble phase and Wigner crystal is v_c = 0.24. Each transition is of first order.
In recent experiments, external anisotropy has been a useful tool to tune different phases and study their competitions. In this paper, we look at the quantum Hall charge density wave states in the $N=2$ Landau level. Without anisotropy, there are two first-order phase transitions between the Wigner crystal, the $2$-electron bubble phase, and the stripe phase. By adding mass anisotropy, our analytical and numerical studies show that the $2$-electron bubble phase disappears and the stripe phase significantly enlarges its domain in the phase diagram. Meanwhile, a regime of stripe crystals that m…
Structural distortions in cuprate materials offer a microscopic origin for anisotropies in electron transport in the basal plane. Using a real-space Hartree-Fock approach, we consider the ground states of the anisotropic Hubbard (t_x \ne t_y) and t-J (t_x \ne t_y, J_x \ne J_y) models. Symmetrical but inhomogeneous (``polaronic'') charge structures in the isotropic models are altered even by rather small anisotropies to one-dimensional, stripe-like features. We find two distinct types of stripe, namely uniformly filled, antiphase domain walls and non-uniform, half-filled, in-phase ones. We char…
We investigate the electron density distribution and the stability of stripe phases in the realistic two-band model with hopping elements between e_g orbitals at Ni sites on the square lattice, and compare these results with those obtained for the doubly degenerate Hubbard model with two equivalent orbitals and diagonal hopping. For both models we determine the stability regions of filled and half-filled stripe phases for increasing hole doping x=2-n in the range of x<0.4, using Hartree-Fock approximation for large clusters. In the parameter range relevant to the nickelates, we obtain the most…
The experimental observations of stripes in superconducting cuprates and insulating nickelates clearly show the modulation in charge and spin density. However, these have proven to be rather insensitive to the harmonic structure and (site or bond) ordering. Using 139La NMR in La2NiO4.17, we show that in the 1/3 hole doped nickelate below the freezing temperature the stripes are strongly solitonic and site ordered with Ni3+ ions carrying S=1/2 in the domain walls and Ni2+ ions with S=1 in the domains.
We examine a realistic 3-band model, finding it capable of exhibiting the d-wave pairing characteristic of CuO2-based high-Tc superconductors, but only in the presence of symmetry-lowering charge-density stripes aligned along (1,0) axes, preferably of diameter 2 cell-widths. The present theoretical treatment has no adjustable parameters (the unit of energy t^2/V factors out of both kinetic and potential energy terms,) does not require fine-tuning, and is in qualitative accord with experiment.
Magnetic materials with competing magnetocrystalline anisotropy and dipolar energies can develop a wide range of domain patterns, including classical stripe domains, domain branching, as well as topologically trivial and non-trivial (skyrmionic) bubbles. We image the magnetic domain pattern of Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ by magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and study its evolution due to geometric confinement, magnetic fields, and their combination. In Fe$_3$Sn$_2$ lamellae thinner than 3 $μ$m, we observe stripe domains whose size scales with the square root of the lamella thickness, exhibiting classical Kitte…
We carried out inelastic neutron scattering experiments on a buckled honeycomb lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_{2}$NiTeO$_{6}$ exhibiting a stripe structure at a low temperature. Magnetic excitations are observed in the energy range of $\hbar ω\lesssim 10$ meV having an anisotropy gap of 2 meV at 2 K. We perform spin-wave calculations to identify the spin model. The obtained microscopic parameters are consistent with the location of the stripe structure in the classical phase diagram. Furthermore, the Weiss temperature independently estimated from a bulk magnetic susceptibility is consistent with …
Microscopic evidence for spin-spinless stripe order with reduced Ni moments within $ab$ plane for bilayer nickelate La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ probed by $^{139}$La-NQR
The microscopic structure of a charge stripe in an antiferromagnetic insulator is studied within the t-Jz model using analytical and numerical approaches. We demonstrate that a stripe in an antiferromagnet should be viewed as a system of composite holon-spin-polaron excitations condensed at the self-induced antiphase domain wall (ADW) of the antiferromagnetic spins. The properties of such excitations are studied in detail with numerical and analytical results for various quantities being in very close agreement. A picture of the stripe as an effective one-dimensional (1D) band of such excitati…
In higher Landau levels ($N>1$), the ground state of the two-dimensional electron gas in a strong perpendicular magnetic field evolves from a Wigner crystal for small filling $ν$ of the partially filled Landau level, into a succession of bubble states with increasing number of guiding centers per bubble as $ν$ increases, to a modulated stripe state near $ν=0.5$. In this work, we compute the frequency-dependent longitudinal conductivity $% σ_{xx}(ω) $ of the Wigner and bubble crystal states in the presence of disorder. We apply an elastic theory to the crystal states which is characterized by a…
Strongly correlated electron systems host a variety of poorly understood correlations in their high temperature normal state. Unlike ordered phases defined by order parameters, these normal state phases are often defined through unconventional properties such as strange metallic transport or spectroscopic pseudogaps. Characterizing the microscopic correlations in the normal state is necessary to elucidate mechanisms that lead to these properties and their connection to ground state orders. Here we establish the presence of intertwined charge and spin stripes in the strange metal normal state o…
Competing inhomogeneous orders are a central feature of correlated electron materials including the high-temperature superconductors. The two- dimensional Hubbard model serves as the canonical microscopic physical model for such systems. Multiple orders have been proposed in the underdoped part of the phase diagram, which corresponds to a regime of maximum numerical difficulty. By combining the latest numerical methods in exhaustive simulations, we uncover the ordering in the underdoped ground state. We find a stripe order that has a highly compressible wavelength on an energy scale of a few K…
Most iron-based superconductors undergo a transition to a magnetically ordered state characterized by staggered stripes of parallel spins. With ordering vectors $(π,0)$ or $(0,π)$, this magnetic state breaks the high-temperature tetragonal symmetry of the system, which is manifested by a splitting of the lattice Bragg peaks. Remarkably, recent experiments in hole-doped iron arsenides reported an ordered state that displays magnetic Bragg peaks at $(π,0)$ and $(0,π)$ but remains tetragonal. Despite being inconsistent with a magnetic stripe configuration, this unusual magnetic phase can be descr…
In several strongly correlated electron systems, defects, charge and local lattice distortions are found to show complex inhomogeneous spatial distributions. There is growing evidence that such inhomogeneity plays a fundamental role in unique functionality of quantum complex materials. La1.72Sr0.28NiO4 is a prototypical strongly correlated material showing spin striped order associated with lattice and charge modulations. In this work we present the spatial distribution of the spin organization by applying micro X-ray diffraction to La1.72Sr0.28NiO4, mapping the spin-density-wave order below t…
We use microscopic Bogoliubov-de Gennes formalism to explore the ground-state phase diagram of the single-band attractive Hofstadter-Hubbard model on a square lattice. We show that the interplay between the Hofstadter butterfly and superfluidity breaks spatial symmetry, and gives rise to stripe-ordered superfluid and supersolid phases in large parameter spaces. We also discuss the effects of a trapping potential and comment on the viability of observing stripe-ordered phases with cold Fermi gases.
Magnetic textures in the ferromagnetic phases of La$_{1-x}$Sr$_x$MnO$_3$ for 0.15 $< x <$ 0.30 have been investigated by Lorentz microscopy combined with small-angle electron diffraction experiments. Various types of magnetic textures characterized by stripe, plate-shaped, and cylindrical (magnetic bubble) domains were found. Two distinct types of magnetic stripe domains appeared in the orthorhombic structure with an inversion symmetry of La$_{0.825}$Sr$_{0.175}$MnO$_3$, depending significantly on magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Based on in-situ observations as functions of temperature and the …
Large Isolated Stripes on Short 18-leg $t$-$J$ Cylinders
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München（慕尼黑大学）；Arnold Sommerfeld Center for Theoretical Physics (ASC)（阿诺德·索末菲理论物理中心）；Munich Center for Quantum Science and Technology (MCQST)（慕尼黑量子科学与技术中心）
We investigate the electronic states of underdoped La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 (LSCO) by using a microscopic model, i.e., t-t'-t''-J model, containing vertical charge stripes. The numerically exact diagonalization calculation on small clusters shows the consistent explanation of the physical properties in the angle-resolved photoemission, neutron magnetic scattering and optical conductivity experiments such as the antiphase domain and quasi-one-dimensional charge transport. The pair correlation function of the d-channel is suppressed by the stripes. These results demonstrate a crucial role of the stripe…
We construct a two-dimensional microscopic model of interacting quantum dimers that displays an infinite number of periodic striped phases in its T=0 phase diagram. The phases form an incomplete devil's staircase and the period becomes arbitrarily large as the staircase is traversed. The Hamiltonian has purely short-range interactions, does not break any symmetries of the underlying square lattice, and is generic in that it does not involve the fine-tuning of a large number of parameters. Our model, a quantum mechanical analog of the Pokrovsky-Talapov model of fluctuating domain walls in two d…
A prevailing description of the stripe phase in underdoped cuprate superconductors is that the charge carriers (holes) phase segregate on a microscopic scale into hole rich and hole poor regions. We report resonant elastic x-ray scattering measurements of stripe-ordered La$_{1.475}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_{0.125}$CuO$_4$ at the Cu $L$ and O $K$ absorption edges that identify an additional feature of stripe order. Analysis of the energy dependence of the scattering intensity reveals that the dominant signature of the stripe order is a spatial modulation in the energies of Cu 3d and O 2p states rather tha…
We report on numerical study of the Dirac fermions in partially filled N=3 Landau level (LL) in graphene. At half-filling, the equal-time density-density correlation function displays sharp peaks at nonzero wavevectors $\pm {\bf q^{*}}$. Finite-size scaling shows that the peak value grows with electron number and diverges in the thermodynamic limit, which suggests an instability toward a charge density wave. A symmetry broken stripe phase is formed at large system size limit, which is robust against purturbation from disorder scattering. Such a quantum phase is experimentally observable throug…
We compare the energies of different electron solids, such as bubble crystals with triangular and square symmetry and stripe phases, to those of correlated quantum liquids in partially filled intermediate Landau levels. Multiple transitions between these phases when varying the filling of the top-most partially filled Landau level explain the observed reentrance of the integer quantum Hall effect. The phase transitions are identified as first-order. This leads to a variety of measurable phenomena such as the phase coexistence between a Wigner crystal and a two-electron bubble phase in a Landau…
For stripes of hole rich lines in doped antiferromagnets, we investigate the competition between anti-phase and in-phase domain wall ground state configurations. We argue that a phase transition must occure as a function of the electron/hole filling fraction of the domain wall. Due to {\em transverse} kinetic hole fluctuations, empty domain walls are always anti-phase. At arbitrary electron filling fraction ($δ$) of the domain wall (and in particular for $δ\approx 1/4$ as in LaNdSrCuO), it is essential to account also for the transverse magnetic interactions of the electrons and their mobility…
Spinon Singlet Pairing: Origin of $d$-Wave Sign Structure in a Partially-Filled Stripe
Beijing Computational Science Research Center（北京计算科学研究中心）；Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University（北京师范大学物理学院）；Center of Quantum Materials and Devices, Chongqing University（重庆大学量子材料与器件中心）；Department of Physics and Chongqing Key Laboratory for Strongly Coupled Physics, Chongqing University（重庆大学物理学院及强关联物理重庆市重点实验室）
Motivated by the stripe developments in cuprates, we review some analytical results of our studies of the charge- and spin density modulations (CDW and SDW) in a weakly coupled one dimensional repulsive electron system on a lattice. It is shown that close to half filling, in the high temperature regime above the mean field transition temperature, short range repulsions favor charge density fluctuations with wave vectors bearing special relations with those of the spin density fluctuations. In the low temperature regime, not only the wave vectors, but also the mutual phases of the CDW and SDW b…
College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics（南京航空航天大学理学院）；Department of Physics, Fudan University（复旦大学物理系）；High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院高磁场实验室）；Advanced Technology Research Institute of Taihu Photon Center, School of Physical Science and Technology, Suzhou University of Science and Technology（苏州科技大学物理科学与技术学院太湖光子中心先进技术研究 institute）
