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At least 739 records · Page 41

Stripe order from the perspective of the Hubbard model

A microscopic understanding of the strongly correlated physics of the cuprates must account for the translational and rotational symmetry breaking that is present across all cuprate families, commonly in the form of stripes. Here we investigate emergence of stripes in the Hubbard model, a minimal model believed to be relevant to the cuprate superconductors, using determinant quantum Monte Carlo (DQMC) simulations at finite temperatures and density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) ground state calculations. By varying temperature, doping, and model parameters, we characterize the extent of stripes throughout the phase diagram of the Hubbard model. Our results show that including the often neglected next-nearest-neighbor hopping leads to the absence of spin incommensurability upon electron-doping and nearly half-filled stripes upon hole-doping. The similarities of these findings to experimental results on both electron and hole-doped cuprate families support a unified description across a large portion of the cuprate phase diagram.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Superconductivity in the doped quantum spin liquid on the triangular lattice

Abstract Broad interest in quantum spin liquid (QSL) phases was triggered by the notion that they can be viewed as insulating phases with preexisting electron pairs, such that upon light doping they might automatically yield high temperature superconductivity. Yet despite intense experimental and numerical efforts, definitive evidence showing that doping QSLs leads to superconductivity has been lacking. We address the problem of a lightly doped QSL through a large-scale density-matrix renormalization group study of the t - J model on finite-circumference triangular cylinders with a small but nonzero concentration of doped holes. We provide direct evidences that doping QSL can naturally give rise to d -wave superconductivity. Specifically, we find power-law superconducting correlations with a Luttinger exponent, K s c ≈ 1, which is consistent with a strongly diverging superconducting susceptibility, $${\chi }_{sc} \,\sim\, {T}^{-(2\,-\,{K}_{sc})}$$ χ s c ~ T − ( 2 − K s c ) as the temperature T → 0. The spin–spin correlations—as in the undoped QSL state—fall exponentially which suggests that the superconducting pair-pair correlations evolve smoothly from the insulating parent state.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Electromagnetic signatures of a chiral quantum spin liquid

Quantum spin liquids (QSL) have emerged as a captivating subject within interacting spin systems that exhibit no magnetic ordering even at the lowest temperature accessible experimentally. However, definitive experimental evidence remains elusive. In light of the recent surge in theoretical and experimental interest in the half-filled Hubbard model on a triangular lattice, which offers the potential for stabilizing a chiral QSL, we investigate the electromagnetic signatures of this phase to facilitate experimental detection. Utilizing a combination of parton mean-field theory and unbiased density-matrix renormalization group calculations, we systematically examine the electrical charge and orbital electrical current associated with a spinon excitation in the chiral QSL. Additionally, we calculate the longitudinal and transverse optical conductivities below the Mott gap. Furthermore, employing quantum field theory analysis, we unravel the connection between spinon excitations and emergent as well as physical gauge fields. Our results demonstrate that the chiral QSL phase exhibits a distinct electromagnetic response, even within a Mott insulator regime. This finding holds great potential for enabling the experimental detection of this long-sought-after phase.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

3D Heisenberg universality in the van der Waals antiferromagnet NiPS 3

Van der Waals (vdW) magnetic materials are comprised of layers of atomically thin sheets, making them ideal platforms for studying magnetism at the two-dimensional (2D) limit. These materials are at the center of a host of novel types of experiments, however, there are notably few pathways to directly probe their magnetic structure. We confirm the magnetic order within a single crystal of NiPS 3 and show it can be accessed with resonant elastic X-ray diffraction along the edge of the vdW planes in a carefully grown crystal by detecting structurally forbidden resonant magnetic X-ray scattering. We find the magnetic order parameter has a critical exponent of β ~ 0.36, indicating that the magnetism of these vdW crystals is more adequately characterized by the three-dimensional (3D) Heisenberg universality class. We verify these findings with first-principles density functional theory, Monte-Carlo simulations, and density matrix renormalization group calculations.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Using magnetic dynamics to measure the spin gap in a candidate Kitaev material

Spin-orbit entangled materials have attracted widespread interest due to the novel magnetic phenomena arising from the interplay between spin-orbit coupling and electronic correlations. However, the intricate nature of spin interactions within Kiteav materials complicates the precise measurement of low-energy spin excitations. Using Na 2 Co 2 TeO 6 as an example, we study these low-energy spin excitations using the time-resolved resonant elastic x-ray scattering (tr-REXS). Our observations unveil remarkably slow spin dynamics at the magnetic peak, whose recovery timescale is several nanoseconds. This timescale aligns with the extrapolated spin gap of ~1 μeV, obtained by density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) simulations in the thermodynamic limit. The consistency demonstrates the efficacy of tr-REXS in discerning low-energy spin gaps inaccessible to conventional spectroscopic techniques.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Surface chemistry and buried interfaces in all-inorganic nanocrystalline solids

Semiconducting nanomaterials synthesized using wet chemical techniques play an important role in emerging optoelectronic and photonic technologies. Controlling the surface chemistry of the nano building blocks and their interfaces with ligands is one of the outstanding challenges for the rational design of these systems. We present an integrated theoretical and experimental approach to characterize, at the atomistic level, buried interfaces in solids of InAs nanoparticles capped with Sn2S64– ligands. These prototypical nanocomposites are known for their promising transport properties and unusual negative photoconductivity. We found that inorganic ligands dissociate on InAs to form a surface passivation layer. A nanocomposite with unique electronic and transport properties is formed, that exhibits type II heterojunctions favourable for exciton dissociation. We identified how the matrix density, sulfur content and specific defects may be designed to attain desirable electronic and transport properties, and we explain the origin of the measured negative photoconductivity of the nanocrystalline solids.

Materials Science↗

Quantum work statistics, Loschmidt echo and information scrambling

A universal relation is established between the quantum work probability distribution of an isolated driven quantum system and the Loschmidt echo dynamics of a two-mode squeezed state. When the initial density matrix is canonical, the Loschmidt echo of the purified double thermofield state provides a direct measure of information scrambling and can be related to the analytic continuation of the partition function. Information scrambling is then described by the quantum work statistics associated with the time-reversal operation on a single copy, associated with the sudden negation of the system Hamiltonian.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Semiconductor Hyperbolic Metamaterials at the Quantum Limit

We study semiconductor hyperbolic metamaterials (SHMs) at the quantum limit experimentally using spectroscopic ellipsometry as well as theoretically using a new microscopic theory. The theory is a combination of microscopic density matrix approach for the material response and Green’s function approach for the propagating electric field. Our approach predicts absorptivity of the full multilayer system and for the first time allows the prediction of in-plane and out-of-plane dielectric functions for every individual layer constructing the SHM as well as effective dielectric functions that can be used to describe a homogenized SHM.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Fingerprints of an orbital-selective Mott phase in the block magnetic state of BaFe 2 Se 3 ladders

Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering (RIXS) experiments on the iron-based ladder BaFe 2 Se 3 unveiled an unexpected two-peak structure associated with local orbital (dd) excitations in a block-type antiferromagnetic phase. A mixed character between correlated band-like and localized excitations was also reported. Here, we use the density matrix renormalization group method to calculate the momentum-resolved charge- and orbital-dynamical response functions of a multi-orbital Hubbard chain. Remarkably, our results qualitatively resemble the BaFe 2 Se 3 RIXS data, while also capturing the presence of long-range magnetic order as found in neutron scattering, only when the model is in an exotic orbital-selective Mott phase (OSMP). In the calculations, the experimentally observed zero-momentum transfer RIXS peaks correspond to excitations between itinerant and Mott insulating orbitals. We provide experimentally testable predictions for the momentum-resolved charge and orbital dynamical structures, which can provide further insight into the OSMP regime of BaFe 2 Se 3 .

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Light-wave control of correlated materials using quantum magnetism during time-periodic modulation of coherent transport

Light–wave quantum electronics utilizes the oscillating carrier wave to control electronic properties with intense laser pulses. Without direct light–spin interactions, however, magnetic properties can only be indirectly affected by the light electric field, mostly at later times. A grand challenge is how to establish a universal principle for quantum control of charge and spin fluctuations, which can allow for faster-than-THz clock rates. Using quantum kinetic equations for the density matrix describing non–equilibrium states of Hubbard quasiparticles, here we show that time–periodic modulation of electronic hopping during few cycles of carrier–wave oscillations can dynamically steer an antiferromagnetic insulating state into a metalic state with transient magnetization. While nonlinearities associated with quasi-stationary Floquet states have been achieved before, magneto–electronics based on quasiparticle acceleration by time–periodic multi–cycle fields and quantum femtosecond/attosecond magnetism via strongly–coupled charge–spin quantum excitations represents an alternative way of controlling magnetic moments in sync with quantum transport.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Visualization and quantum control of light-accelerated condensates by terahertz multi-dimensional coherent spectroscopy

Abstract Characterizing and controlling high-order correlation of quantum systems is key for developing quantum devices and switching technologies. Although conventional static and ultrafast spectroscopy gives access to collective excitations characterizing quantum states, more exotic correlations cannot be easily separated from other contributions. Here we develop density matrix simulations to show that seventh-order-wave-mixing peaks with distinct temperature and field dependences in two-dimensional terahertz nonlinear spectra reveal light-induced correlations in non-equilibrium superconducting states. Above critical terahertz driving, these emerging peaks split from conventional peaks along the second axis introduced by pump-probe relative phase in two-dimensional frequency space. They are photo-generated by correlations between two-photon fluctuations and interacting quasi-particle and quasi-particle/Higgs superconductor excitations. By photo-inducing persistent symmetry breaking via light-wave propagation, we also demonstrate seventh-order-wave-mixing sensing of Higgs collective modes. Our theory suggests to use multi-dimensional spectroscopy for quantum sensing of light-driven superconductivity and paves a path for quantum operations by few-cycle-THz-periodic photocurrent modulation.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Open quantum system violates generalized Pauli constraints on quantum device

Abstract The Pauli exclusion principle governs the fundamental structure and function of fermionic systems from molecules to materials. Nonetheless, when such a fermionic system is in a pure state, it is subject to additional restrictions known as the generalized Pauli constraints (GPCs). Here we verify experimentally the violation of the GPCs for an open quantum system using data from a superconducting-qubit quantum computer. We prepare states of systems with three-to-seven qubits directly on the quantum device and measure the one-fermion reduced density matrix (1-RDM) from which we can test the GPCs. We find that the GPCs of the 1-RDM are sufficiently sensitive to detect the openness of the 3-to-7 qubit systems in the presence of a single-qubit environment. Results confirm experimentally that the openness of a many-fermion quantum system can be decoded from only a knowledge of the 1-RDM with potential applications from quantum computing and sensing to noise-assisted energy transfer.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Spinon excitations and spin correlations in the one-dimensional quantum magnet β -VOSO 4 probed by Raman spectroscopy

Fractionalized excitations such as spinons and anyons have emerged as a central theme in condensed matter physics with broad implications for superconductivity, quantum statistics, and quantum computation. The nearly ideal one-dimensional S = 1/2 system β-VOSO 4 without long-range order down to 85 mK provides a promising platform to experimentally explore such fractionalized excitations. Here, we employ Raman spectroscopy to probe magnetic excitations and the evolution of spin correlations in β-VOSO 4 . Spinon signatures are found along the chain direction, evidenced by a broad, gapless scattering continuum at low temperatures. The temperature dependence of the spinon spectral weight aligns considerably with numerical density matrix renormalization group calculations. By comparing the experimental spinon spectral weight with calculated results and evaluating the associated quantum Fisher information (QFI) therefrom, we observe a steep increase in QFI upon cooling, indicating rapidly growing correlation lengths. Our study showcases QFI as a probe of spin correlations in quantum magnets.

Wulferding, Dirk [Sejong Univ., Seoul (Korea, Repu↗

Emergent Chiral Spin Liquid: Fractional Quantum Hall Effect in a Kagome Heisenberg Model

The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE) realized in two-dimensional electron systems under a magnetic field is one of the most remarkable discoveries in condensed matter physics. Interestingly, it has been proposed that FQHE can also emerge in time-reversal invariant spin systems, known as the chiral spin liquid (CSL) characterized by the topological order and the emerging of the fractionalized quasiparticles. A CSL can naturally lead to the exotic superconductivity originating from the condense of anyonic quasiparticles. Although CSL was highly sought after for more than twenty years, it had never been found in a spin isotropic Heisenberg model or related materials. By developing a density-matrix renormalization group based method for adiabatically inserting flux, we discover a FQHE in a spin-$ \frac{1}{2}$ isotropic kagome Heisenberg model. We identify this FQHE state as the long-sought CSL with a uniform chiral order spontaneously breaking time reversal symmetry, which is uniquely characterized by the half-integer quantized topological Chern number protected by a robust excitation gap. The CSL is found to be at the neighbor of the previously identified Z2 spin liquid, which may lead to an exotic quantum phase transition between two gapped topological spin liquids.

MAGNETIC PROPERTIES AND MATERIALS↗

Classical molecular dynamics simulation of electronically non-adiabatic processes

Both classical and quantum mechanics (as well as hybrids thereof, i.e., semiclassical approaches) find widespread use in simulating dynamical processes in molecular systems. For large chemical systems, however, which involve potential energy surfaces (PES) of general/arbitrary form, it is usually the case that only classical molecular dynamics (MD) approaches are feasible, and their use is thus ubiquitous nowadays, at least for chemical processes involving dynamics on a single PES (i.e., within a single Born-Oppenheimer electronic state). Our paper reviews recent developments in an approach which extends standard classical MD methods to the treatment of electronically non-adiabatic processes, i.e., those that involve transitions between different electronic states. This approach treats nuclear and electronic degrees of freedom (DOF) equivalently (i.e., by classical mechanics, thereby retaining the simplicity of standard MD), and provides "quantization" of the electronic states through a symmetrical quasi-classical (SQC) windowing model. The approach is seen to be capable of treating extreme regimes of strong and weak coupling between the electronic states, as well as accurately describing coherence effects in the electronic DOF (including the de-coherence of such effects caused by coupling to the nuclear DOF). A survey of recent applications is presented to illustrate the performance of the approach. We also described is a newly developed variation on the original SQC model (found universally superior to the original) and a general extension of the SQC model to obtain the full electronic density matrix (at no additional cost/complexity).

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Exploring non-adiabatic approximations to the exchange–correlation functional of TDDFT

A decomposition of the exact exchange–correlation potential of time-dependent density functional theory into an interaction component and a kinetic component offers a new starting point for non-adiabatic approximations. The components are expressed in terms of the exchange–correlation hole and the difference between the one-body density matrix of the interacting and Kohn–Sham systems, which must be approximated in terms of quantities accessible from the Kohn–Sham evolution. We explore several preliminary approximations, evaluate their fulfillment of known exact conditions, and test their performance on simple model systems for which available exact solutions indicate the significance of going beyond the adiabatic approximation.

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CH↗

Relationship between microporous structure and light gas transport through glassy polymeric membranes revealed by molecular simulations

Microporous glassy polymers are attractive materials for gas separation membranes, due to their high permeability and tailorable selectivity, provided physical aging can be delayed. The archetypal microporous glassy polymer, PTMSP, can be blended with a hyper-crosslinked isatin–triptycene porous polymer network (PPN) to delay physical aging. However, while PPN is effective at reducing physical aging, it also affects the permeability of light gases through PTMSP. Molecular dynamics simulations were used here to shed fundamental light on the mechanisms responsible for these effects. Atomistic models are developed that satisfactorily reproduce experimental observations such as matrix density and cavity size distributions for neat PTMSP as well as for PTMSP–PPN blends. Analysis of the simulation results suggests that physical aging is delayed because the PPN inclusions slow down PTMSP relaxation while reducing the connectivity between free volume pockets. To understand how PPN inclusions affect light gas permeability, the atomistic models developed are used to probe CO 2 and CH 4 diffusion and sorption. These simulations are conducted for PTMSP matrices exhibiting varying density, towards reproducing experimental permeability data. Interrogating the simulation trajectories, it is discovered that while CH 4 travels preferentially through the free volume cavities, CO 2 preferentially interacts with the available surfaces, especially in the presence of PPN. These differences help interpret experimental observations. The transport of C 2 H 6 and H 2 S through PTMSP matrices was also investigated. These gases, and in particular H 2 S, were found to absorb within PTMSP, yielding very low diffusion coefficients. The ability to predict differences in diffusion pathways for various natural gas components unveils the possibility of engineering membranes to control permeability and selectivity towards large-scale applications.

Bao Le, Tran Thi [Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (U↗