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Results for “Quantum Phase Transition”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,063 records · Page 59
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2024

Dimensionality crossover to a two-dimensional vestigial nematic state from a three-dimensional antiferromagnet in a honeycomb van der Waals magnet

The effects of fluctuations and disorder, which are substantially enhanced in reduced dimensional-ities, can play a crucial role in producing nontrivial phases of matter such as vestigial orders char-acterized by a composite order parameter. However, fluctuation-driven magnetic phases in low dimensions have remained relatively unexplored. Here we demonstrate a phase transition from the zigzag antiferromagnetic order in the three-dimensional bulk to a Z 3 vestigial Potts-nematicity in two-dimensional few-layer samples of van der Waals magnet NiPS 3 . Our spin relaxometry and op-tical spectroscopy measurements reveal that the spin fluctuations are enhanced over the gigahertz to terahertz range as the layer number of NiPS 3 reduces. Monte Carlo simulations corroborate the experimental finding of 3-fold rotational symmetry breaking, but show that translational symmetry is restored in thin layers of NiPS 3 . Furthermore, our results show that strong quantum fluctuations can stabilize an unconventional magnetic phase after destroying a more conventional one.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2016

Optical properties of VO{sub 2} films at the phase transition: Influence of substrate and electronic correlations

Thin films of VO{sub 2} on different substrates, Al{sub 2}O{sub 3} and SiO{sub 2}/Si, have been prepared and characterized from room temperature up to 360 K. From the band structure in the rutile metallic phase and in the monoclinic insulating phase, the optical properties are calculated and compared with reflection measurements performed as a function of temperatures. Various interband transitions can be assigned and compared with previous speculations. We extract the parameters of the metallic charge carriers that evolve upon crossing the insulator-to-metal phase transition and find effects by the substrate. The influence of electronic correlations becomes obvious at the phase transition.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2024

Out-of-plane magnetic phase diagram of the Kitaev quantum magnet Na 2 Co 2 TeO 6

We have investigated the magnetic properties and mapped out the phase diagram of the honeycomb magnet Na 2⁢ Co 2 ⁢TeO 6 with Co 3d 7 in out-of-plane magnetic fields. This material has previously been proposed to show nearest-neighbor Kitaev interactions between Co spins and maybe even Kitaev quantum spin liquid behavior in high fields. At 0.01 T, we observe a thermal phase transition at T N = 27K, transitioning from a paramagnetic state to a canonical ferrimagnetic state. Upon increasing the magnetic field, a spin-floplike phase transition occurred before saturation of J = 1/2 between 10 K and T N . Below 10 K, a peak-dip-peak structure emerges between 10 and 17 T in the magnetic susceptibility (d⁢M/⁢dH) before the magnetic saturation, reminiscent of magnetization plateau behavior. The measurement of the magnetocaloric effect also shows dip-peak-dip behavior in this field range. Our data can be explained by an XXZ model with a single ion anisotropy and possibly small Kitaev and Γ exchange interactions. Finally, we also determined the magnetization saturation field that helps constrain the energy scale of the exchange interactions.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2020

Transport studies in a gate-tunable three-terminal Josephson junction

Josephson junctions with three or more superconducting leads have been predicted to exhibit topological effects in the presence of few conducting modes within the interstitial normal material. Such behavior, of relevance for topologically protected quantum bits, would lead to specific transport features measured between terminals, with topological phase transitions occurring as a function of phase and voltage bias. Although conventional, two-terminal Josephson junctions have been studied extensively, multiterminal devices have received relatively little attention to date. Motivated in part by the possibility to ultimately observe topological phenomena in multiterminal Josephson devices, as well as their potential for coupling gatemon qubits, here we describe the superconducting features of a top-gated mesoscopic three-terminal Josephson device. The device is based on an InAs two-dimensional electron gas proximitized by epitaxial aluminum. We map out the transport properties of the device as a function of bias currents, top gate voltage, and magnetic field. Finally, we find a very good agreement between the zero-field experimental phase diagram and a resistively and capacitively shunted junction computational model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2016

Parity-time symmetry breaking in magnetic systems

The understanding of out-of-equilibrium physics, especially dynamic instabilities and dynamic phase transitions, is one of the major challenges of contemporary science, spanning the broadest wealth of research areas that range from quantum optics to living organisms. By focusing on nonequilibrium dynamics of an open dissipative spin system, we introduce a non-Hermitian Hamiltonian approach, in which non-Hermiticity reflects dissipation and deviation from equilibrium. The imaginary part of the proposed spin Hamiltonian describes the effects of Gilbert damping and applied Slonczewski spin-transfer torque. In the classical limit, our approach reproduces Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert-Slonczewski dynamics of a large macrospin. Here, we reveal the spin-transfer torque-driven parity-time symmetry-breaking phase transition corresponding to a transition from precessional to exponentially damped spin dynamics. Micromagnetic simulations for nanoscale ferromagnetic disks demonstrate the predicted effect. These findings can pave the way to a general quantitative description of out-of-equilibrium phase transitions driven by spontaneous parity-time symmetry breaking.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

An investigation of shock-induced phase transition in soda-lime glass

There exists a large body of evidence from experiments and molecular dynamics simulations to suggest the occurrence of phase transitions in soda-lime glass (SLG) and other silica glasses subject to shock compression to pressures above 3 GPa. In light of these findings, the current work investigated the existence of phase transition in SLG using shock and release experiments. The experiments employed symmetric SLG–SLG impact to achieve complete unloading to zero stress after shock compression to stresses in the range of 3–7 GPa. The stress–strain response and the Lagrangian release wave speed behavior of SLG obtained from these experiments are seen to reveal a mismatch between the loading and unloading paths of the pressure–strain curve for the material, which serves as compelling evidence for the occurrence of a shock-induced phase transition in the material at relatively low pressures. Furthermore, the release wave speed vs strain data obtained from experiments were used to construct a methodology for modeling the shock and release behavior of SLG. Lastly, this scheme implemented in numerical simulations was able to capture the release behavior of shock compressed SLG, for which a robust and satisfactory model was previously unavailable.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2022

Twistronics of Janus transition metal dichalcogenide bilayers

Twisted multilayers of two-dimensional (2D) materials are an increasingly important platform for investigating quantum phases of matter, and in particular, strongly correlated electrons. The moiré pattern introduced by the relative twist between layers creates effective potentials of long wavelength, leading to electron localization. However, in contrast to the abundance of 2D materials, few twisted heterostructures have been studied until now. Here, in this study, we develop a first-principles continuum theory to study the electronic bands introduced by moire patterns of twisted Janus transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) homo- and heterobilayers. The model includes lattice relaxation, stacking-dependent effective mass, and Rashba spin-orbit coupling. We then perform a high-throughput generation and characterization of DFT-extracted continuum models for more than a hundred possible combinations of materials and stackings. Our model predicts that the moiré physics and emergent symmetries depend on chemical composition, vertical layer orientation, and twist angle, so that the miniband wave functions can form triangular, honeycomb, and kagome networks. Rashba spin-orbit effects, peculiar of these systems, can dominate the moiré bandwidth at small angles. Our work enables detailed investigation of Janus twisted heterostructures, allowing the discovery and control of novel electronic phenomena.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Boosted one dimensional fermionic superfluids on a lattice

We study the effect of a boost (Fermi sea displaced by a finite momentum) on one dimensional systems of lattice fermions with short-ranged interactions. In the absence of a boost such systems with attractive interactions possess algebraic superconducting order. Motivated by physics in higher dimensions, one might naively expect a boost to weaken and ultimately destroy superconductivity. However, we show that for one dimensional systems the effect of the boost can be to strengthen the algebraic superconducting order by making correlation functions fall off more slowly with distance. This phenomenon can manifest in interesting ways, for example, a boost can produce a Luther–Emery phase in a system with both charge and spin gaps by engendering the destruction of the former. - Highlights: • Effect of a boost on the quasi long range (QLR) superconducting (SC) order in 1D is investigated. • Unlike in higher dimensions, SC is strengthened by the boost in 1D. • Even for systems with QLR charge density wave order, a similar effect is observed. • At commensurate filling with umklapp, new phases and phase transitions are produced by the boost.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Semiholographic Quantum Criticality

We identify the near-critical effective theory (EFT) for a wide class of low-temperature phase transitions found via holography. The EFT is of the semiholographic type and describes both holographic Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless and second-order transitions with nontrivial scaling. It is a simple generalization of the Ginzburg-Landau-Wilson paradigm to systems with an emergent (or hidden) conformal sector. Having identified the near-critical EFT, we explore its basic phenomenology by computing critical exponents and low-frequency correlators.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Phase transition of p-adic Ising λ-model

We consider an interaction of the nearest-neighbors and next nearest-neighbors for the mixed type p-adic λ-model with spin values (−1, +1) on a Cayley tree of order two. In the previous work we have proved the existence of the p-adic Gibbs measure for the model. In this work we have proved the existence of the phase transition occurs for the model.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2011

Nonlocal Ployakov-Nambu-Jona-Lasinio model and imaginary chemical potential

With the aim of setting constraints for the modeling of the QCD phase diagram, the phase structure of the two-flavor Polyakov-loop-extended Nambu and Jona-Lasinio (PNJL) model is investigated in the range of imaginary chemical potentials ({mu}{sub I}) and compared with available N{sub f} = 2 lattice QCD results. The calculations are performed using the advanced nonlocal version of the PNJL model with the inclusion of vector-type quasiparticle interactions between quarks, and with wave-function-renormalization corrections. It is demonstrated that the nonlocal PNJL model reproduces important features of QCD at finite {mu}{sub I}, such as the Roberge-Weiss (RW) periodicity and the RW transition. Chiral and deconfinement transition temperatures for N{sub f} = 2 turn out to coincide both at zero chemical potential and at finite {mu}{sub I}. Detailed studies are performed concerning the RW endpoint and its neighborhood where a first-order transition occurs.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2015

Thermodynamic parameters for mixtures of quartz under shock wave loading in views of the equilibrium model

The numerical results of modeling of shock wave loading of mixtures with the SiO{sub 2} component are presented. The TEC (thermodynamic equilibrium component) model is employed to describe the behavior of solid and porous multicomponent mixtures and alloys under shock wave loading. State equations of a Mie–Grüneisen type are used to describe the behavior of condensed phases, taking into account the temperature dependence of the Grüneisen coefficient, gas in pores is one of the components of the environment. The model is based on the assumption that all components of the mixture under shock-wave loading are in thermodynamic equilibrium. The calculation results are compared with the experimental data derived by various authors. The behavior of the mixture containing components with a phase transition under high dynamic loads is described.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Effects of an additional conduction band on the singlet-antiferromagnet competition in the periodic Anderson model

The competition between antiferromagnetic (AF) order and singlet formation is a central phenomenon of the Kondo and periodic Anderson Hamiltonians and of the heavy fermion materials they describe. In this paper, we explore the effects of an additional conduction band on magnetism in these models, and, specifically, on changes in the AF-singlet quantum critical point (QCP) and the one particle and spin spectral functions. To understand the magnetic phase transition qualitatively, we first carry out a self-consistent mean field theory (MFT). The basic conclusion is that, at half filling, the coupling to the additional band stabilizes the AF phase to larger f d hybridization V in the PAM. We also explore the possibility of competing ferromagnetic phases when this conduction band is doped away from half filling. Here, we next employ quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) which, in combination with finite size scaling, allows us to evaluate the position of the QCP using an exact treatment of the interactions. This approach confirms the stabilization of AF order, which occurs through an enhancement of the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction. QMC results for the spectral function A (q,ω) and dynamic spin structure factor χ (q,ω) yield additional insight into the AF-singlet competition and the low temperature phases.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗
DOE OSTI2018

Magnonic Floquet Hofstadter butterfly

We introduce the magnonic Floquet Hofstadter butterfly in the two-dimensional (2D) insulating honeycomb ferromagnet using a combination of spin wave theory and quantum field theory. We show that hopping magnetic dipole moment (i.e. magnon quasiparticles) in the 2D insulating honeycomb ferromagnet accumulates the Aharonov–Casher phase when irradiated by an oscillating space- and time-dependent electric field. We study two different cases. In the first case, we consider the effects of only space-dependent electric field. In this case, we realize the magnonic Hofstadter spectrum with similar fractal structure as graphene subject to a perpendicular magnetic field, but with no spin degeneracy due to broken time-reversal symmetry by the ferromagnetic order. In addition, the magnonic Dirac points and Landau levels occur at finite energy as expected in a bosonic system. Remarkably, this discrepancy does not affect the topological invariant of the system. Consequently, the magnonic Chern number assumes odd values and the magnon Hall conductance gets quantized by odd integers. In the second case, we study the effects of both space- and time-dependent electric field. In this case, the theoretical framework is studied by the Floquet formalism. We show that the magnonic Floquet Hofstadter spectrum emerges entirely from the oscillating space- and time-dependent electric field, which is in stark contrast to electronic Floquet Hofstadter spectrum, where irradiation by circularly polarized light and a perpendicular magnetic field are applied independently. We study the deformation of the fractal structure at different laser frequencies and amplitudes, and analyze the topological phase transitions associated with gap openings in the magnonic Floquet Hofstadter butterfly.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
DOE OSTI2025

Band-Selective Spin-Charge Separation across the Charge Density Wave Transition in Quasi-1D NbSe 3

Non-Fermi liquid (non-FL) phase is a pivotal enigma in understanding intriguing quantum phases in strongly correlated systems, such as high-temperature superconductivity. Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid (TLL) theory, designed for one-dimensional (1D) systems, serves as one of the microscopic frameworks that elucidates non-FL behavior. Despite its theoretical concreteness, comprehensive experimental verification has remained incomplete. In particular, addressing the persistence of the TLL nature within ordered phases, such as charge density wave (CDW), has posed a significant challenge. We report the observation of TLL characteristics across the CDW transitions in a quasi-1D material NbSe 3 using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Spin-charge separation, a disentanglement of spin and charge degrees of freedom of electrons, is clearly observed within the band, accompanied by the suppression of spectral weight following a power-law behavior with anticipated temperature scaling. Surprisingly, the spin-charge separation persists even below the CDW transition temperatures, indicating the validity of the TLL nature in the CDW phase. In conclusion, our findings offer a unique opportunity to explore the interplay between the TLL and ordered phases, which could be connected to the interplay between non-FL and ordered phases in strongly correlated systems.

1-dimensional systems↗
DOE OSTI2019

Two-Dimensional Lateral Epitaxy of 2H (MoSe₂)–1T' (ReSe₂) Phases

Two-dimensional (2D) transition metal dichalcogenide (TMDC) heterostructures have been proposed as potential candidates for a variety of applications like quantum computing, neuromorphic computing, solar cells, and flexible field effective transistors. The 2D TMDC heterostructures at the present stage face difficulties being implemented in these applications because of lack of large and sharp heterostructure interfaces. Herein, we address this problem via a CVD technique to grow thermodynamically stable heterostructure of 2H/1T' MoSe₂–ReSe₂ using conventional transition metal phase diagrams as a reference. In this paper, we demonstrate how the thermodynamics of mixing in the MoReSe₂ system during CVD growth dictates the formation of atomically sharp interfaces between MoSe₂ and ReSe₂, which can be confirmed by high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy imaging, revealing zigzag selenium-terminated interface between the epitaxial 2H and 1T' lattices. Our work provides useful insights for understanding the stability of 2D heterostructures and interfaces between chemically, structurally, and electronically different phases.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2017

Entropic Origin of Pseudogap Physics and a Mott-Slater Transition in Cuprates

Here, we propose a new approach to understand the origin of the pseudogap in the cuprates, in terms of bosonic entropy. The near-simultaneous softening of a large number of different q-bosons yields an extended range of short-range order, wherein the growth of magnetic correlations with decreasing temperature T is anomalously slow. These entropic effects cause the spectral weight associated with the Van Hove singularity (VHS) to shift rapidly and nearly linearly toward half filling at higher T, consistent with a picture of the VHS driving the pseudogap transition at a temperature ~T*. As a byproduct, we develop an order-parameter classification scheme that predicts supertransitions between families of order parameters. As one example, we find that by tuning the hopping parameters, it is possible to drive the cuprates across a transition between Mott and Slater physics, where a spin-frustrated state emerges at the crossover.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗
DOE OSTI2023

Quantum Simulation of an Open System: A Dissipative 1+1D Ising Model

The 1+1D Ising model is an ideal benchmark for quantum algorithms, as it is very well understood theoretically. This is true even when expanding the model to include complex coupling constants. In this work, we implement quantum algorithms designed for the simulation of open or complex coupling quantum field theories on IBM devices with a focus on the measurement of the Lee-Yang edge singularity. This feature corresponds (at large volumes) to a phase transition, and our successful reproduction of the transition represents a non-trivial test for current hardware and its ability to distinguish features of interest in quantum field theories.

Gustafson, Erik↗