We investigate how magnetic impurities may affect a system exhibiting charge-density wave (CDW) in its ground state. We consider a disordered Hubbard-Holstein model with a homogeneous electron-phonon interaction, but with a (randomly chosen) fraction of sites displaying a non-zero Coulomb repulsion, $U$, and perform state-of-the-art finite-temperature quantum Monte Carlo simulations. For a single magnetic impurity, charge-charge correlations hamper the spin-spin ones around the repulsive site, thus requiring a strong enough value of $U$ to create non-negligible antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlations. As the number of magnetic impurities increases, these AFM correlations become deleterious to CDW order and its features. First, the critical temperature is drastically reduced, and seems to vanish around 40$\%$ of impurities (for fixed $U/λ=2$), which we correlate with the classical percolation threshold. We also notice that just a small amount of disorder suffices to create a \textit{bad insulating} state, with the suppression of both Peierls and spin gaps, even within the charge-ordered phase. Finally, we have also found that pairing correlations are enhanced at large doping, driven by the competition between CDW and AFM tendencies.
Impurity effect is systematically studied in doped Haldane material Pb(Ni$_{1-x}$$M_x$)$_2$V$_2$O$_8$ ($M$ = Mn, Co, Cu, and Mg) by use of DC and AC susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements. The occurrence of three-dimensional ordered state is universally observed for all the impurities and the complete temperature -- concentration phase diagrams are obtained, which are qualitatively similar to that in other spin-gap materials. The unique feature is found in the drastic dependence of the transition temperatures on the species of the impurities. The consideration of effective Hamiltonian …
We discuss the problem of a spin 1/2 impurity immersed in a spin S magnetically ordered background. We show that the problem maps onto a generalization of the dissipative two level system (DTLS) with two independent heat baths, associated with the Goldstone modes of the magnet, that couple to different components of the impurity spin operator. Using analytical perturbative renormalization group (RG) methods and accurate numerical renormalization group (NRG) we show that contrary to other dissipative models there is quantum frustration of decoherence and quasi-scaling even in the strong couplin…
We consider doping of non-magnetic impurities in the spin-1/2, 1/5-depleted square lattice. This structure, whose undoped phase diagram offers both magnetically ordered and spin-liquid ground states, is realized physically in CaV_4O_9. Doping into the ordered phase results in a progressive loss of order, which becomes complete at the percolation threshold. By contrast, non-magnetic impurities introduced in the spin liquids create a phase of weak but long-ranged antiferromagnetic order coexisting with the gapped state. The latter may be viewed as a true order-by-disorder phenomenon. We study th…
We investigate the properties of PbTe doped with a small concentration $x$ of Tl impurities acting as acceptors and described by Anderson impurities with negative onsite correlation energy. We use the numerical renormalization group method to show that the resulting charge Kondo effect naturally accounts for the unusual low temperature and doping dependence of normal state properties, including the self-compensation effect in the carrier density and the non-magnetic Kondo anomaly in the resistivity. These are found to be in good qualitative agreement with experiment. Our results for the Tl s-e…
We consider the effects of local impurities in highly frustrated diamond lattice antiferromagnets, which exhibit large but non-extensive ground state degeneracies. Such models are appropriate to many A-site magnetic spinels. We argue very generally that sufficiently dilute impurities induce an ordered magnetic ground state, and provide a mechanism of degeneracy breaking. The states which are selected can be determined by a "swiss cheese model" analysis, which we demonstrate numerically for a particular impurity model in this case. Moreover, we present criteria for estimating the stability of t…
We investigate the thermoelectric properties of PbTe doped with a small concentration $x$ of Tl impurities acting as acceptors and described by Anderson impurities with negative on-site (effective) interaction. The resulting charge Kondo effect naturally accounts for a number of the low temperature anomalies in this system, including the unusual doping dependence of the carrier concentration, the Fermi level pinning and the self-compensation effect. The Kondo anomalies in the low temperature resistivity at temperatures $T\leq 10\, {\rm K}$ and the $x$-dependence of the residual resistivity are…
Raman scattering studies of the frustrated spin chain system LiCu$_{2}$O$_{2}$ are reported. Two transitions into a magnetically ordered phase (taken place at temperatures $\sim$ 9 K and $\sim$ 24 K) have been confirmed from the analysis of optical properties of the samples. Interestingly, two different magnetic excitations, seen at 100 and 110 cm$^{-1}$ in the magnetically ordered phase superimpose each other independently, indicating a coherent coexistence of long-range magnetic order and dimerization. The observed phenomenon is attributed to magnetostructural peculiarities of LiCu$_{2}$O$_{…
We report the magnetic and electronic properties of the bilayer ruthenate Sr$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ upon Fe substitution for Ru. We find that Sr$_3$(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$O$_7$ shows a spin-glass-like phase below 4 K for $x$ = 0.01 and commensurate E-type antiferromagnetically ordered insulating ground state characterized by the propagation vector $q_c$ = (0.25 0.25 0) for $x$ $\geq$ 0.03, respectively, in contrast to the paramagnetic metallic state in the parent compound with strong spin fluctuations occurring at wave vectors $q$ = (0.09 0 0) and (0.25 0 0). The observed antiferromagnetic ordering is …
We review recent advances in the field of full counting statistics (FCS) of charge transfer through impurities imbedded into strongly correlated one-dimensional metallic systems, modelled by Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids (TLLs). We concentrate on the exact analytic solutions for the cumulant generating function (CGF), which became available recently and apply these methods in order to obtain the FCS of a non-trivial contact between two crossed TLL.
We present a theory of Kondo effect caused by an induced magnetic moment near non-magnetic impurities such as Zn and Li in the cuprate superconductors. Based on the co-existence of charge order and superconductivity, a natural description of the induced moment and the resulting Kondo effect is obtained in the framework of bond-operator theory of microscopic t-J-V Hamiltonian. The local density of state near impurities is computed in a self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes theory which shows a low-energy peak in the middle of superconducting gap. Our theory also suggests that the charge order ca…
We study the interplay of correlations and disorder using an unrestricted Slave-Boson technique in real space. Within the saddle-point approximation, we find Friedel oscillations of the charge density in the vicinity of a nonmagnetic impurity, in agreement with numerical simulations. The corresponding amplitudes are suppressed by repulsive interactions, while attractive correlations lead to a charge-density-wave enhancement. In addition, we investigate the spatial dependence of the local magnetic moment and the formation of a magnetic state at the impurity site.
Many cuprate superconductors possess an unusual charge-ordered phase that is characterized by an approximate $d_{x^2-y^2}$ intra-unit cell form factor and a finite modulation wavevector $\bq^\ast$. We study the effects impurities on this charge ordered phase via a single-band model in which bond order is the analogue of charge order in the cuprates. Impurities are assumed to be pointlike and are treated within the self-consistent t-matrix approximation (SCTMA). We show that suppression of bond order by impurities occurs through the local disruption of the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ form factor near individ…
We study theoretically the effects of strong pinning centers on a charge density wave in the limit that the charge density wave coherence length is shorter than the average inter-impurity distance. An analysis based on a Ginzburg-Landau model shows that long range forces arising from the elastic response of the charge density wave induce a kind of collective pinning which suppresses impurity-induced phase fluctuations leading to a long ranged ordered ground state. The effective correlations among impurities are characterized by a length scale parametrically longer than the average inter-impuri…
A planar Mott insulator with easy plane Néel order can be mapped onto a Gutzwiller-projected spin Hall state. The in-plane substitution of Zn$^{2+}$ and Li$^{+}$ for Cu$^{2+}$ brings zero modes around the spin vacancy. The Gutzwiller projection precludes single particle excitations, however, preserves the zero modes which have a local spin moment for Zn$^{2+}$ and a local charged hole for Li$^{+}$, respectively. While the local spin moment for Zn$^{2+}$ is screened by the long-range spin correlations, the active charge degree of freedom for Li$^{+}$ impurity twists the spin background with lon…
The stability of charge ordered phases is doping dependent, with different materials having particularly stable ordered phases. In the half filled charge ordered phases of the cuprates this occurs at one eighth doping, whereas in charge-stripe ordered La2-xSrxNiO4+delta there is enhanced stability at one third doping. In this paper we discuss the known details of the charge-stripe order in La2-xSrxNiO4+delta, and how these properties lead to the one third doping stability.
We used a quantum Monte Carlo method to study the magnetic impurity adatoms on graphene. We found that by tuning the chemical potential we could switch the values of the impurity's local magnet moment between relatively large and small values. Our computations of the impurity's spectral density found its behavior to differ significantly from that of an impurity in a normal metal and our computations of the charge-charge and spin-spin correlations between the impurity and the conduction band electrons found them to be strongly suppressed. In general our results are consistent with those from po…
We study the influence of spinless impurities on a frustrated magnet featuring a spin-density wave (stripe) phase by means of Monte Carlo simulations. We demonstrate that the interplay between the impurities and an order parameter that breaks a real-space symmetry triggers the emergence of a random-field mechanism which destroys the stripe-ordered phase. Importantly, the strength of the emerging random fields can be tuned by the repulsion between the impurity atoms; they vanish for perfect anticorrelations between neighboring impurities. This provides a novel way of controlling the phase diagr…
Giant oxygen isotope effects observed in colossal magnetoresistance manganites are investigated by employing the combined model of the double exchange and interacting lattice polaron mechanism. We have shown that the isotope effects on $ T_C$ in the metallic phase and $ T_{CO}$ in the charge ordered phase of manganites can be explained well in terms of the double exchange and polaron narrowing factors with reasonable physical parameters.
For an epitaxial Pr0.48Ca0.52MnO3 film on NdGaO3, we use transmission electron microscopy to observe a "charge-ordered" superlattice along the in-plane direction a. The same film shows no electrical signatures of charge order. The in-plane electrical anisotropy (rho)a/(rho)c = 28 is constant, and there is no evidence of sliding charge density waves up to the large field of ~10^3 V/cm.
Motivated by recent nuclear magnetic resonance experiments on ZnCu$_3$(OH)$_6$Cl$_2$, we present an exact-diagonalization study of the combined effects of non-magnetic impurities and Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interactions in the $s = 1/2$ kagome antiferromagnet. The local response to an applied field and correlation-matrix data reveal that the dimer freezing which occurs around each impurity for $D = 0$ persists at least up to $D/J\simeq 0.06$, where $J$ and $D$ denote respectively the exchange and DM interaction energies. The phase transition to the ($Q = 0$) semiclassical, 120$^\circ$ state…
The magnetic excitations of charge-stripe ordered La2NiO4.11 where investigated using polarized- and unpolarized-neutron scattering to determine the magnetic excitations of the charge stripe electrons. We observed a magnetic excitation mode consistent with the gapped quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic correlations of the charge stripe electrons previously observed in La(2-x)Sr(x)NiO(4) x = 1/3 and x = 0.275.
We study the recently reported characteristic gapless charge ordered state in a spinless fermion system on a triangular lattice under strong inter-site Coulomb interactions. In this state the charges are spontaneously divided into solid and liquid component, and the former solid part aligns in a Wigner crystal manner while the latter moves among them like a pinball. We show that such charge ordered liquid is stable over a wide range of filling, $1/3<n<2/3$, and examine its filling dependent nature.
A mechanism for charge-ordered ferromagnetic phase in manganites is proposed. The mechanism is based on the double exchange in the presence of diagonal disorder. It is modeled by a combination of the Ising double-exchange and the Falicov-Kimball model. Within the dynamical mean-field theory the charge and spin correlation function are explicitely calculated. It is shown that the system exhibits two successive phase transitions. The first one is the ferromagnetic phase transition, and the second one is a charge ordering. As a result a charge-ordered ferromagnetic phase is stabilized at low temp…
We extend the general formalism discussed in the previous paper [A. B. Culver and N. Andrei, Phys. Rev. B 103, 195106 (2021)] to two models with charge fluctuations: the interacting resonant level model and the Anderson impurity model. In the interacting resonant level model, we find the exact time-evolving wavefunction and calculate the steady state impurity occupancy to leading order in the interaction. In the Anderson impurity model, we find the nonequilibrium steady state for small or large Coulomb repulsion $U$, and we find that the steady state current to leading order in $U$ agrees with…
We report an experimental study of the time dependence of the resistivity and magnetization of charge-ordered La$_{0.5}$Ca$_{0.5}$MnO$_{3}$ under different thermal and magnetic field conditions. A relaxation with a stretched exponential time dependence has been observed at temperatures below the charge ordering temperature. A model using a hierarchical distribution of relaxation times can explain the data.
We report on broadband dielectric spectroscopy on the one-dimensional semiconductor (NbSe4)3I. Below the structural phase transition close to 270 K we observe colossal dielectric constants with a frequency and temperature dependence very similar to what is observed in canonical charge-density wave systems. Guided by structural details we interpret this structural phase transition as driven by complex charge-order processes.
The magnetic excitation spectrums of charge stripe ordered La(2-x)Sr(x)NiO(4) x = 0.45 and x = 0.4 were studied by inelastic neutron scattering. We found the magnetic excitation spectrum of x = 0.45 from the ordered Ni^2+ S = 1 spins to match that of checkerboard charge ordered La(1.5)Sr(0.5)NiO(4). The distinctive asymmetry in the magnetic excitations above 40 meV was observed for both doping levels, but an additional ferromagnetic mode was observed in x = 0.45 and not in the x = 0.4. We discuss the origin of crossover in the excitation spectrum between x = 0.45 and x = 0.4 with respect to di…
We investigate Knight shift and nuclear spin relaxation rate in a charge ordered state of the one-dimensional extended Hubbard model with a quarter filled band by using RPA around the mean-field solution. It is shown that both quantities show splitting below the critical temperature of the charge order, as is experimentally observed. The relationship between the mount of the splitting in the both quantities and the charge disproportionation rate is discussed.
We study steady-state charge transfer across an interacting resonance-level model connected asymmetrically to two leads. For a linear energy dispersion relation of the leads, we calculate current-voltage characteristics of the model exactly employing the scattering Bethe-Ansatz of Mehta-Andrei and find symmetric transport showing the absence of diode effect. Next we study a lattice version of this model with a nonlinear dispersion for the leads using the Lippmann-Schwinger scattering theory. We find that the inclusion of nonlinearity in the leads' dispersion causes rectification for asymmetric…
We show that the pinning of collective charge and spin modes by impurities in the cuprate superconductors leads to qualitatively different fingerprints in the local density of states (LDOS). In particular, in a pinned (static) spin droplet, the creation of a resonant impurity state is suppressed, the spin-resolved LDOS exhibits a characteristic spatial pattern, and the LDOS undergoes significant changes with increasing magnetic field. Since all of these fingerprints are absent in a charge droplet, impurities are a new probe for identifying the nature and relative strength of collective modes.
Single-site and cluster dynamical mean-field methods are used to estimate the response of a doped Mott insulator to a charged impurity. The effect of correlations on the Thomas-Fermi screening properties is determined. The charge density, the on-site and near-neighbor spin-spin correlations in the vicinity of the impurity are compared to those far from it. The theory is used to address the question of the effect of the density perturbation induced by the muon charge on the local response functions of a high-temperature superconductor. For reasonable values of the background dielectric constant…
We study collective behavior of magnetic adatoms randomly distributed on the surface of a topological insulator. As a consequence of the spin-momentum locking on the surface, the RKKY-type interactions of two adatom spins depend on the direction of the vector connecting them, thus interactions of an ensemble of adatoms are frustrated. We show that at low temperatures the frustrated RKKY interactions give rise to two phases: an ordered ferromagnetic phase with spins pointing perpendicular to the surface, and a disordered spin-glass-like phase. The two phases are separated by a quantum phase tra…
We study the statistics of charge transfer through an impurity in a chiral Luttinger liquid (realized experimentally as a quantum point contact in a fractional quantum Hall edge state device). Taking advantage of the integrability we present a procedure for obtaining the cumulant generating function of the probability distribution to transfer a fixed amount of charge through the constriction. Using this approach we analyze in detail the behaviour of the third cumulant C_3 as a function of applied voltage, temperature and barrier height. We predict that C_3 can be used to measure the fractional…
We study the Dirac equation for quasiparticles in gapped graphene with two oppositely charged impurities by using the technique of linear combination of atomic orbitals and variational Galerkin--Kantorovich method. We show that for sufficiently large charges of impurities the wave function of the occupied electron bound state of the highest energy changes its localization from the negatively charged impurity to the positively charged one as the distance between the impurities increases. This migration of the electron wave function of supercritical electric dipole is a generalization of the fam…
The study of impurities in antiferromagnets is of considerable interest in condensed matter physics. In this paper we address the elementary question of the effect of vacancies on the orientation of the surrounding magnetic moments in an antiferromagnet. In the presence of a magnetic field, alternating magnetic moments are induced, which can be described by a universal expression that is valid in any ordered antiferromagnet and turns out to be independent of temperature over a large range. The universality is not destroyed by quantum fluctuation, which is demonstrated by quantum Monte Carlo si…
We study momentum relaxation due to dilute, weak impurities in a strongly coupled CFT, a truncation of the M2 brane theory. Using the AdS/CFT correspondence, we compute the relaxation time scale as a function of the background magnetic field B and charge density ρ. The theory admits two different types of impurities. We find that for magnetic impurities, momentum relaxation due to the impurity is suppressed by a background B or ρ. For electric impurities, due to an underlying instability in the theory towards an ordered phase, the inverse relaxation time scale increases dramatically near \sqrt…
The self-interaction corrected density-functional calculations are performed for Re impurities and their pairs in silicon. Rhenium ions form in the host crystal not very tight pairs, with impurities separated by one Si atom or by a distance close to two silicon bonds. Comparison of formation energies for various pairs of substitutionals, interstitials, and mixed-site impurities favours the last type. Electron transfer from the interstitial into the substitutional impurity makes the both Re sites nonmagnetic, but the p-type and the n-type co-doping revives magnetism again, the latter more effic…
The charge dynamics of Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$TM$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ (TM = Mn and Cr) has been investigated by optical spectroscopy. It was found that in addition to the strong suppression of the coherent charge transport, the magnetic impurity induces a novel spectral feature related to the carrier localization in the far-infrared region above the antiferromagnetic transition temperature. We attribute it to the cooperative effect between conduction electrons and local magnetic order induced by magnetic impurities. The present results demonstrate that Mn and Cr are not conventional magnetic pair-breakers in …
We study effects of quenched disorder on coupled two-dimensional arrays of Luttinger liquids (LL) as a model for stripes in high-T_c compounds. In the framework of a renormalization-group analysis, we find that weak inter-LL charge-density-wave couplings are always irrelevant as opposed to the pure system. By varying either disorder strength, intra- or inter-LL interactions, the system can undergo a delocalization transition between an insulator and a novel strongly anisotropic metallic state with LL-like transport. This state is characterized by short-ranged charge-density-wave order, the sup…
Measurements of the dc transport properties and the low-frequency conductivity noise in films of charge ordered Nd_0.5Ca_0.5MnO_3 grown on Si subtrate reveal the existence of a threshold field in the charge ordered regime beyond which strong non linear conduction sets in along with a large broad band conductivity noise. Threshold-dependent conduction disappears as T -> T_{CO}, the charge ordering temperature. This observation suggests that the charge ordered state gets depinned at the onset of the non-linear conduction.
We employ {\it{ab-initio}} calculations to investigate the charge density waves in single-layer NbSe$_2$, and we explore how they are affected by transition metal atoms. Our calculations reproduce the observed orthorhombic phase in single-layer NbSe$_2$ in the clean limit, establishing the energy order between three different distorted structures, two consisting of triangular Nb-Nb clusters and a third, energetically unfavoured, consisting of hexagonal Nb-Nb clusters. Such energy order, in agreement with known experimental work, is reversed by the adsorption of Co and Mn, which favour the form…
We study charge ordered d-wave resonating valence bond states (dRVB) in the doped cuprates, and estimate the energies of these states in a generalized $t-J $ model by using a renormalized mean field theory. The long range Coulomb potential tends to modulate the charge density in favor of the charge ordered RVB state. The possible relevance to the recently observed $4 \times 4$ checkerboard patterns in tunnelling conductance in high $T_c$ cuprates is discussed.
The study of randomness in low-dimensional quantum antiferromagnets is at the forefront of research in the field of strongly correlated electron systems, yet there have been relatively few experimental model systems. Complementary neutron scattering and numerical experiments demonstrate that the spin-diluted Heisenberg antiferromagnet La2Cu(1-z)(Zn,Mg)zO4 is an excellent model material for square-lattice site percolation in the extreme quantum limit of spin one-half. Measurements of the ordered moment and spin correlations provide important quantitative information for tests of theories for th…
Recent experiments showed that the robust charge-ordering in manganites can be weakened by reducing the grain size down to nanoscale. Weak ferromagnetism was evidenced in both nanoparticles and nanowires of charge-ordered manganites. To explain these observations, a phenomenological model based on surface phase separation is proposed. The relaxation of superexchange interaction on the surface layer allows formation of a ferromagnetic shell, whose thickness increases with decreasing grain size. Possible exchange bias and softening of the ferromagnetic transition in nanosized charge-ordered mang…
Charge-ordered rare earth manganites Nd0.5Ca0.5MnO3, La0.25Nd0.25Ca0.5MnO3, Pr0.7Ca0.3MnO3 and Pr0.6Ca0.4MnO3 are found to exhibit dielectric constant anomalies around the charge-ordering or the magnetic transition temperatures. Magnetic fields have a marked effect on the dielectric properties, indicating the presence of coupling between the magnetic and electrical order parameters. The observation of magnetoferroelectricity in these manganites is in accord with the recent theoretical predictions of Khomskii and coworkers.
We consider chiral electrons moving along the 1D helical edge of a 2D topological insulator and interacting with a disordered chain of Kondo impurities. Assuming the electron-spin couplings of random anisotropies, we map this system to the problem of the pinning of the charge density wave by the disordered potential. This mapping proves that arbitrary weak anisotropic disorder in coupling of chiral electrons with spin impurities leads to the Anderson localization of the edge states.
