Interplay between relaxational atomic fluctuations and charge density waves in La 2 − x Sr x CuO 4
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75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
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Bond ordering and molecular spin-orbital fluctuations in the cluster Mott insulator GaTa 4 Se 8
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36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Quantum fluctuations lead to glassy electron dynamics in the good metal regime of electron doped KTaO 3
One of the central challenges in condensed matter physics is to comprehend systems that have strong disorder and strong interactions. In the strongly localized regime, their subtle competition leads to glassy electron dynamics which ceases to exist well before the insulator-to-metal transition is approached as a function of doping. Here, we report on the discovery of glassy electron dynamics deep inside the good metal regime of an electron-doped quantum paraelectric system: KTaO 3 . We reveal that upon excitation of electrons from defect states to the conduction band, the excess injected carriers in the conduction band relax in a stretched exponential manner with a large relaxation time, and the system evinces simple aging phenomena—a telltale sign of glassy dynamics. Most significantly, we observe a critical slowing down of carrier dynamics below 35 K, concomitant with the onset of quantum paraelectricity in the undoped KTaO 3 . Our combined investigation using second harmonic generation technique, density functional theory and phenomenological modeling demonstrates quantum fluctuation-stabilized soft polar modes as the impetus for the glassy behavior. This study addresses one of the most fundamental questions regarding the potential promotion of glassiness by quantum fluctuations and opens a route for exploring glassy dynamics of electrons in a well-delocalized regime.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Ferromagnetic cluster-glass phase in Ca(Co 1-x Ir x ) 2-y As 2 crystals
In this study, single crystals of Ca(Co 1-x Ir x ) 2-y As 2 with 0≤x≤0.35 and 0.10≤y≤0.14 have been grown using the self-flux technique and characterized by single-crystal x-ray diffraction (XRD), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, magnetization M, and magnetic susceptibility χ measurements versus temperature T, magnetic field H, and time t, and heat-capacity C p (H,T) measurements. The XRD refinements reveal that all the Ir-substituted crystals crystallize in a collapsed-tetragonal structure as does the parent CaCo 2-y As 2 compound. A small 3.3% Ir substitution for Co in CaCo 1.86 As 2 drastically lowers the A-type antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition temperature T N from 52 to 23 K with a significant enhancement of the Sommerfeld electronic heat-capacity coefficient. The A-type AFM structure consists of ab-plane layers of spins ferromagnetically aligned along the c axis with AFM alignment of the spins in adjacent layers along this axis. The positive Weiss temperatures obtained from Curie-Weiss fits to the χ(T>T N ) data indicate that the dominant magnetic interactions are ferromagnetic (FM) for all x. A magnetic phase boundary is inferred to be present between x=0.14 and x=0.17 from a discontinuity in the x dependencies of the effective moment and Weiss temperature in the Curie-Weiss fits. FM fluctuations that strongly increase with increasing x are also revealed from the χ(T) data. Furthermore, the magnetic ground state for x≥0.17 is a spin glass as indicated by hysteresis in χ(T) between field-cooled and zero-field-cooled measurements and from the relaxation of M in a small field that exhibits a stretched-exponential time dependence. The spin glass has a small FM component to the ordering and is hence inferred to be comprised of small FM clusters. The competing AFM and FM interactions along with crystallographic disorder associated with Ir substitution are inferred to be responsible for the development of a FM cluster-glass phase. A logarithmic T dependence of Cp at low T for x=0.14 is consistent with the presence of significant FM quantum fluctuations. This composition is near the T=0 boundary at x≈0.16 between the A-type AFM phase containing ferromagnetically-aligned layers of spins and the FM cluster-glass phase.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Benchmarking a Tunable Quantum Neural Network on Trapped-Ion and Superconducting Hardware
We implement a quantum generalization of a neural network on trapped-ion and IBM superconducting quantum computers to classify MNIST images, a common benchmark in computer vision. The network feedforward involves qubit rotations whose angles depend on the results of measurements in the previous layer. The network is trained via simulation, but inference is performed experimentally on quantum hardware. The classical-to-quantum correspondence is controlled by an interpolation parameter, $a$, which is zero in the classical limit. Increasing $a$ introduces quantum uncertainty into the measurements, which is shown to improve network performance at moderate values of the interpolation parameter. We then focus on particular images that fail to be classified by a classical neural network but are detected correctly in the quantum network. For such borderline cases, we observe strong deviations from the simulated behavior. We attribute this to physical noise, which causes the output to fluctuate between nearby minima of the classification energy landscape. Such strong sensitivity to physical noise is absent for clear images. We further benchmark physical noise by inserting additional single-qubit and two-qubit gate pairs into the neural network circuits. Our work provides a springboard toward more complex quantum neural networks on current devices: while the approach is rooted in standard classical machine learning, scaling up such networks may prove classically non-simulable and could offer a route to near-term quantum advantage.
FOS: Physical sciences↗
Ultrafast lattice disordering can be accelerated by electronic collisional forces
In the prevalent picture of ultrafast structural phase transitions, the atomic motion occurs in a slowly varying potential energy surface determined adiabatically by the fast electrons. However, this ignores non-conservative forces caused by electron-lattice collisions, which can significantly influence atomic motion. Most ultrafast techniques only probe the average structure and are less sensitive to random displacements, and therefore do not detect the role played by non-conservative forces in phase transitions. Here we show that the lattice dynamics of the prototypical insulator-to-metal transition of VO 2 cannot be described by a potential energy alone. We use the sample temperature to control the preexisting lattice disorder before ultrafast photoexcitation across the phase transition and our ultrafast diffuse scattering experiments show that the fluctuations characteristic of the rutile metal develop equally fast (120 fs) at initial temperatures of 100 K and 300 K. This indicates that additional non-conservative forces are responsible for the increased lattice disorder. In conclusion, these results highlight the need for more sophisticated descriptions of ultrafast phenomena beyond the Born-Oppenheimer approximation as well as ultrafast probes of spatial fluctuations beyond the average unit cell measured by diffraction.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Observation of weakly damped modes using high resolution measurement of turbulence in a dipole confined plasma
When plasma is confined by a levitated superconducting current ring, the turbulent radial particle flux changes the direction depending upon the gradient of the particle number within tubes of equal magnetic flux [Garnier et al., Phys. Plasmas 24, 012506 (2017)]. When the density profile is highly peaked, the particle flux is outward. When the density profile is less peaked, turbulence drives an inward “particle pinch.” This change in the direction of particle flux coincides with a reversal of the mean toroidal propagation direction of turbulent fluctuations. Previously, only the mean wavenumber of the fluctuations was reported. The mean wavenumber was computed from the ensemble correlation between two probes. Here, the full frequency-wavenumber power spectrum of the saturated turbulence is calculated by applying Capon’s “maximum likelihood method” to floating potential measurements from an array of probes. The power spectrum shows that the highest intensity modes are due to unstable entropy modes, and the less intense modes coincide with weakly damped convective cells, which rotate toroidally in the direction opposite to the unstable modes. Because the weakly damped modes make up a significant fraction of the fluctuating power, these measurements imply that saturated turbulence in a dipole-confined plasma involves the excitation of weakly damped rotating convective cells.
70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗
Low-Frequency Correlated Charge-Noise Measurements Across Multiple Energy Transitions in a Tantalum Transmon
Transmon qubits fabricated with tantalum metal have been shown to possess energy relaxation times greater than 400 𝜇s and, as such, present an attractive platform for high precision, correlated noise studies across multiple higher-energy transitions. Tracking the multilevel fluctuating qudit frequencies with a precision enabled by the high coherence of the device allows us to extract the charge offset and quasiparticle dynamics. We observe qualitatively different charge-offset behavior in the tantalum device than those measured in previous low-frequency charge-noise studies. In particular, we find the charge-offset dynamics are dominated by rare, discrete jumps between a finite number of quasistationary charge configurations, a previously unobserved charge-noise process in superconducting qubits.
3-dimensional systems↗
General trends of superconducting pairing and magnetic correlations in the Ruddlesden-Popper nickelate 𝑚-layered superconductors La 𝑚+1 Ni 𝑚 O 3𝑚+1
Here, we report a comprehensive theoretical analysis of the Ruddlesden-Popper layered nickelates La 𝑚+1 Ni 𝑚 O 3𝑚+1 (𝑚 = 1 to 6) under pressure. These materials have recently received significant attention due to the discovery of superconductivity in some nickelates under pressure. Our results suggest that, while these Ruddlesden-Popper layered nickelates display many similarities, they also show noticeable differences. One of the common features of La 𝑚+1 Ni 𝑚 O 3𝑚+1 is that the electronic states near the Fermi level are mainly contributed by Ni 3𝑑 orbitals, slightly hybridized with O 2𝑝 orbitals. The Ni 𝑑 3𝑧 2 −𝑟 2 orbitals display bonding-antibonding, or bonding-antibonding-nonbonding, characteristic splittings, depending on the even or odd number of stacking layers 𝑚. In addition, the ratio of the in-plane interorbital hopping between 𝑑 3𝑧 2 −𝑟 2 and 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 orbitals and in-plane intraorbital hopping between 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 orbitals was found to be large in La 𝑚+1 Ni 𝑚 O 3𝑚+1 (𝑚 = 1 to 6), and this ratio increases from 𝑚 = 1 to 𝑚 = 6, suggesting that the in-plane hybridization will increase as the layer number 𝑚 increases. In contrast to the dominant 𝑠 ± -wave state driven by spin fluctuations in the bilayer La 3 Ni 2 O 7 and trilayer La 4 Ni 3 O 10 , two nearly degenerate 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 -wave and 𝑠 ± -wave leading states were obtained in the four-layer stacking La 5 Ni 4 O 13 and five-layer stacking La 6 Ni 5 O 16 . The leading 𝑠 ± -wave state was recovered in the six-layer material La 7 Ni 6 O 19 with slightly higher calculated pairing strength 𝜆 than that of the 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 -wave state. All this evidence suggests that both 𝑠 ± -wave and 𝑑 𝑥 2 −𝑦 2 -wave channels are strongly competing in the high-order niceklates based on our random-phase approximation calculations. In general, at the level of the random-phase approximation treatment, the superconducting transition temperature 𝑇 𝑐 decreases in stoichiometric bulk systems from the bilayer La 3 Ni 2 O 7 to the six-layer La 7 Ni 6 O 19 , despite the 𝑚-dependent dominant pairing. Both in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic correlations are found to be quite complex. Within the in-plane direction, we obtained the peak of the magnetic susceptibility at 𝐪 = (0.6𝜋, 0.6𝜋) for La 5 Ni 4 O 13 (𝑚 = 4) and La 7 Ni 6 O 19 (𝑚 = 6) and at 𝐪 = (0.7𝜋, 0.7𝜋) for La 6 Ni 5 O 16 (𝑚 = 5). Along the out-of-plane direction, four layers are coupled as ↓−↑−↑−↓ in La 5 Ni 4 O 13 , five layers are coupled as ↑−↑−↓−↑−↑ in La 6 Ni 5 O 16 , and six layers are coupled as ↑−↓−↓−↑−↑−↓ in La 7 Ni 6 O 19 .
Zhang, Yang [Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (Un↗
Fluctuation-induced interactions and the spin-glass transition in Fe 2 TiO 5
In this work, we investigate the spin-glass transition in the strongly frustrated well-known compound Fe 2 TiO 5 . A remarkable feature of this transition, widely discussed in the literature, is its anisotropic properties: The transition manifests itself in the magnetic susceptibly only along one axis, despite Fe 3 + d 5 spins having no orbital component. We demonstrate, using neutron scattering, that below the transition temperature T g = 55 K, Fe 2 TiO 5 develops nanoscale surfboard-shaped antiferromagnetic regions in which the Fe 3 + spins are aligned perpendicular to the axis which exhibits freezing. We show that the glass transition may result from the freezing of transverse fluctuations of the magnetization of these regions and we develop a mean-field replica theory of such a transition, revealing a type of magnetic van der Waals effect.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Competing magnetic and nonmagnetic states in monolayer VSe 2 with charge density wave
The field of two-dimensional ferromagnets has been reinvigorated by the discovery of VSe 2 monolayer grown on van der Waals substrates, which is reported to be ferromagnetic with a Curie point higher than 330 K. However, the ferromagnetic and nonmagnetic states of pristine monolayer VSe 2 are highly debated. Here, employing density functional theory, Wannier function calculations, and the band unfolding method, we explore the electronic structure of monolayer VSe 2 with a $\sqrt{3} × \sqrt{7}$ charge density wave (CDW). Certain qualitative aspects of the calculated unfolded band dispersion and unfolded Fermi surface of monolayer VSe 2 with the $\sqrt{3} × \sqrt{7}$ CDW in the nonmagnetic state agree well with previous angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy results, albeit with uncertainty about whether these experiments probed single or multiple domains. Specifically, we find that an isolated CDW domain naturally induces a strong breaking of the threefold symmetry of the electronic structure. In addition we find that, relative to the undistorted structure, the CDW structure shows a strong competition between nonmagnetic and various magnetic states, with an energy difference less than 5 meV/f.u. For the CDW structure in the antiferromagnetic state, the band dispersions and Fermi surface are similar to those in the nonmagnetic state, while the unfolded bands of the ferromagnetic CDW state display a sizable exchange splitting. These results indicate the possibility of various antiferromagnetic fluctuations in VSe 2 to coexist and compete with ferromagnetic order and the experimentally reported CDW order. In this work, our calculations build insights for exploring the interplay between magnetism and CDW behaviors more generally in transition metal dichalcogenides.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Complex orders and chirality in the classical Kitaev-Γ model
It is well recognized that the low-energy physics of many Kitaev materials is governed by two dominant energy scales, the Ising-type Kitaev coupling 𝐾 and the symmetric off-diagonal Γ coupling. An understanding of the interplay between these two scales is therefore the natural starting point toward a quantitative description that includes subdominant perturbations that are inevitably present in real materials. This study focuses on the classical 𝐾−Γ model on the honeycomb lattice, with a specific emphasis on the region 𝐾< 0 and Γ > 0 , which is the most relevant for the available materials and which remains enigmatic in both quantum and classical limits, despite much effort. We employ large-scale Monte Carlo simulations on specially designed finite-size clusters and unravel the presence of a complex multisublattice magnetic order in a wide region of the phase diagram, whose structure is characterized in detail. We show that this order can be quantified in terms of a coarse-grained scalar-chirality order, featuring a counterrotating modulation on the two spin sublattices. Here, we also provide a comparison to previous studies and discuss the impact of quantum fluctuations on the phase diagram.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Developing a Chemical and Structural Understanding of the Surface Oxide in a Niobium Superconducting Qubit
We report superconducting thin films of niobium have been extensively employed in transmon qubit architectures. Although these architectures have demonstrated remarkable improvements in recent years, further improvements in performance through materials engineering will aid in large-scale deployment. Here, we use information retrieved from secondary ion mass spectrometry and electron microscopy to conduct a detailed assessment of the surface oxide that forms in ambient conditions for transmon test qubit devices patterned from a niobium film. We observe that this oxide exhibits a varying stoichiometry with NbO and NbO 2 found closer to the niobium film and Nb 2 O 5 found closer to the surface. In terms of structural analysis, we find that the Nb 2 O 5 region is semicrystalline in nature and exhibits randomly oriented grains on the order of 1-2 nm corresponding to monoclinic N-Nb 2 O 5 that are dispersed throughout an amorphous matrix. Using fluctuation electron microscopy, we are able to map the relative crystallinity in the Nb 2 O 5 region with nanometer spatial resolution. Through this correlative method, we observe that amorphous regions are more likely to contain oxygen vacancies and exhibit weaker bonds between the niobium and oxygen atoms. Based on these findings, we expect that oxygen vacancies likely serve as a decoherence mechanism in quantum systems.
37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗
The classical-to-quantum crossover in the strain-induced ferroelectric transition in SrTiO3 membranes
Mechanical strain presents an effective control over symmetry-breaking phase transitions. In quantum paralelectric SrTiO3, strain can induce ferroelectric order via modification of the local Ti potential energy landscape. However, brittle bulk materials can only withstand limited strain range (~0.1%). Taking advantage of nanoscopically-thin freestanding membranes, we demonstrate an in- situ strain-induced reversible ferroelectric transition in freestanding SrTiO3 membranes. We measure the ferroelectric order by detecting the local anisotropy of the Ti 3d orbital signature using x-ray linear dichroism at the Ti-K pre-edge, while the strain is determined by x-ray diffraction. With reduced thickness, the SrTiO3 membranes remain elastic with >1% tensile strain cycles. A robust displacive ferroelectricity appears beyond a temperature-dependent critical strain. Interestingly, we discover a crossover from a classical ferroelectric transition to a quantum regime at low temperatures, which enhances strain-induced ferroelectricity. Our results offer new opportunities to strain engineer functional properties in low dimensional quantum materials and provide new insights into the role of ferroelectric fluctuations in quantum paraelectric SrTiO3.
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
Non-magnetic ion site disorder effects on the quantum magnetism of a spin-1/2 equilateral triangular lattice antiferromagnet
Here, with the motivation to study how non-magnetic ion site disorder affects the quantum magnetism of Ba 3 CoSb 2 O 9 , a spin-1/2 equilateral triangular lattice antiferromagnet, we performed DC and AC susceptibility, specific heat, elastic and inelastic neutron scattering measurements on single crystalline samples of Ba 2.87 Sr 0.13 CoSb 2 O 9 with Sr doping on non-magnetic Ba 2+ ion sites. The results show that Ba 2.87 Sr 0.13 CoSb 2 O 9 exhibits (i) a two-step magnetic transition at 2.7 K and 3.3 K, respectively; (ii) a possible canted 120 degree spin structure at zero field with reduced ordered moment as 1.24 μ B /Co; (iii) a series of spin state transitions for both H∥ab-plane and H∥c-axis. For H∥ab-plane, the magnetization plateau feature related to the up–up–down phase is significantly suppressed; (iv) an inelastic neutron scattering spectrum with only one gapped mode at zero field, which splits to one gapless and one gapped mode at 9 T. All these features are distinctly different from those observed for the parent compound Ba 3 CoSb 2 O 9 , which demonstrates that the non-magnetic ion site disorder (the Sr doping) plays a complex role on the magnetic properties beyond the conventionally expected randomization of the exchange interactions. We propose the additional effects including the enhancement of quantum spin fluctuations and introduction of a possible spatial anisotropy through the local structural distortions.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Competition of three-dimensional magnetic phases in Ca2Ru1-xFexO4: A structural perspective
The crystalline and magnetic structures of Ca 2 Ru 1 - x Fe x O 4 ( x = 0.02 , 0.05, 0.08, and 0.12) have been studied using neutron and x-ray diffraction. The Fe-doping reduces the Ru-O bond length in both apical and planar directions. The smaller Ru( Fe ) O 6 octahedron leads to its reduced distortion. The P b c a space group is maintained in all the Fe dopings, so is the octahedral flattening. Warming has a similar effect on the lattice to that of the Fe doping in releasing the distorted octahedra but precipitates an abrupt octahedral elongation near the N e ' el temperature. Two competing antiferromagnetic orders, A - and B -centered phases have been observed. The Fe-doping-relaxed crystal structure prefers the latter to the former. As the doping increases, the B -centered phase continuously grows at the cost of the A -centered one and eventually replaces it at x = 0.12 . The absence of the two-dimensional antiferromagnetic critical fluctuations above the magnetic transition temperature and the three-dimensional magnetic correlation below the transition, together with the anomalous lattice response, point to an important role of orbital degree of freedom in driving the magnetic phase competition.
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
Time Evolution of Correlation Functions in Quantum Many-Body Systems
We give rigorous analytical results on the temporal behavior of two-point correlation functions—also known as dynamical response functions or Green’s functions—in closed many-body quantum systems. We show that in a large class of translation-invariant models the correlation functions factorize at late times $\langle$A ( t ) B$\rangle$ β → $\langle$ A$\rangle$ β $\langle$ B$\rangle$ β , thus proving that dissipation emerges out of the unitary dynamics of the system. We also show that for systems with a generic spectrum the fluctuations around this late-time value are bounded by the purity of the thermal ensemble, which generally decays exponentially with system size. For autocorrelation functions we provide an upper bound on the timescale at which they reach the factorized late time value. Remarkably, this bound is only a function of local expectation values and does not increase with system size. We give numerical examples that show that this bound is a good estimate in nonintegrable models, and argue that the timescale that appears can be understood in terms of an emergent fluctuation-dissipation theorem. Our study extends to further classes of two point functions such as the symmetrized ones and the Kubo function that appears in linear response theory, for which we give analogous results.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
Stripe correlations in the two-dimensional Hubbard-Holstein model
Several state-of-the-art numerical methods have observed static or fluctuating spin and charge stripes in doped two-dimensional Hubbard models, suggesting that these orders play a significant role in shaping the cuprate phase diagram. Many experiments, however, also indicate that the cuprates have strong electron-phonon (e-ph) coupling, and it is unclear how this interaction influences stripe correlations. We study static and fluctuating stripe orders in the doped single-band Hubbard-Holstein model using zero temperature variational Monte Carlo and finite temperature determinant quantum Monte Carlo. We find that the lattice couples more strongly with the charge component of the stripes, leading to an enhancement or suppression of stripe correlations, depending on model parameters like the next-nearest-neighbor hopping t' or phonon energy Ω. Our results help elucidate how the e-ph interaction can tip the delicate balance between stripe and superconducting correlations in the Hubbard-Holstein model with implications for our understanding of the high-T c cuprates.
71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗