Introduction to magnetism in condensed matter physics
F. Mila Institute of Theoretical Physics Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne Switzerland
First part: atoms and metals
Atomic magnetism in condensed matter Orbital moment, spin, crystal field, spin-orbit coupling Magnetism of itinerant electrons Orbital effects: De Haas-Van Alphen oscillations, Quantum Hall effects Spin effects: Pauli susceptibility, Stoner ferromagnetism, spin-density waves
Second part: localized moments
Localized moments in metals: Kondo, RKKY, Mott insulators Magnetic interactions: Heisenberg, dipolar, Low temperature phases of Heisenberg model Long-range order Algebraic order (1D) Spin liquids
Electron in a magnetic field
Vector potential H=r A Electrostatic potential Relativistic spin-orbit coupling
Orbital effects Electron=charged particle
Zeeman coupling Electron=spin-1/2 particle
Atomic magnetism in a crystal
Uniform magnetic field: A= (r H)
Total magnetic moment coupled to the field Larmor diamagnetism
Spherical potential of ion + distortion by surrounding ions crystal field
Transition metals: Cu, Ni, V,
Crystal field spin-orbit
Effective spin Anisotropies + sometimes (single ion, g-tensor,..) orbital degeneracy
Crystal field effects of d-electrons
Low-spin states
Ex: Co4+ 3d5 with crystal field Hunds rule
S=5/2
S=1/2 + orbital degeneracy
S=1/2 No orbital degeneracy
Rare earths: Ce, Pr, Gd,
Crystal field spin-orbit
Lifts the degeneracy effective multiplet
Effective moment + Lande gL factor
Orbital effects in metals and semiconductors: Landau levels
Free electron in a uniform magnetic field
Landau levels
Consequences
3D metals: De Haas Van Alphen oscillations of m as a function of 1/H extremal sections of Fermi surface ? H 2D electron gas: Quantum Hall effect plateaux of Hall conductance (see lecture by J. Smet)
Spin effects in metal
Zeeman term shift of up and down Fermi seas m/H Pauli susceptibility
Magnetic instabilities
Hubbard model
Kinetic energy
Electron-electron interactions
instability q=0: ferromagnetism (Stoner) q0: spin-density wave
Localized moments in metals
Kondo effect: screening of impurities by electron gas resistivity minimum RKKY interactions: effective interaction between moments mediated by electron gas J / cos(2kFr)/r3 Heavy fermions: periodic arrangement of localized moments flat band at Fermi level due to hybridization to electron gas
Mott insulators
Band theory
Odd number of e-/unit cell
Metal
Strong on-site repulsion U Small bandwidth W J=4t2/U W=4t
Insulator
Spin fluctuations
E =U-W>0
Heisenberg model
Exchange mechanisms
Kinetic exchange: virtual hops from one Wannier function to neighbors J = 4 t2/U > 0 antiferromagnetic Superexchange: kinetic exchange through ligands antiferromagnetic Hunds rule between orthogonal ligand orbitals ferromagnetic
Anderson-Goodenough-Kanamori rules
High temperature susceptibility
1/ antiferromagnet paramagnet (Curie) ferromagnet T
/ 1/(T+) / j Jij
: Curie-Weiss constant >0: AF <0: Ferro
Other interactions
Dipolar interactions Magnetic domains, hysteresis in ferromagnets Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions
Canting, torque, ESR linewidth, Four-spin interactions (higher order in t/U) nematic order, spin liquids
Heisenberg model
Important parameters
Sign of exchange integrals Ferromagnetic Antiferromagnetic Dimensionality of space
1D 2D 3D !
Magnitude of spins
S=1/2 S=1 S=3/2
Topology of exchange integrals Simple topology: Nearest-neigbour on bipartite lattice
Complex topologies: - Next-nearest couplings, - Non-bipartite lattices: triangular, kagome,
Classical spins on bipartite lattice
J>0
Ground-state: Nel
order
(Antiferromagnetism) Finite temperature: molecular-field
theory
Ordering at TN / J, flat susceptibility below TN
Quantum spins
Usual situation
Some kind of helical long-range order
up to TN>0 in 3D, at T=0 in 2D
Quantum fluctuations: Large S
Fluctuations around classical GS = bosons Holstein-Primakoff
Linear spin-wave theory I
1) Only keep terms of order S2 and S
Opposite quantization axis on sublattices A and B 2) Fourier transformation 3) Bogolioubov transformation
Linear spin-wave theory II
Anderson, 52 Kubo, 52
Bosons
Quantum Fluctuations
Physical consequences
Inelastic Neutron Scattering Spin-wave dispersion
(see lecture by H. Ronnow) La2CuO4
(Coldea et al, PRL 2001)
Specific heat: Cv / T D
Domain of validity
Fluctuations around
Thermal Fluctuations (T>0)
diverges in 1D and 2D
No LRO at T>0 in 1D and 2D (Mermin-Wagner theorem)
Quantum Fluctuations (T=0)
diverges in 1D No magnetic long-range order in 1D antiferromagnets Ground-state and excitations in 1D?
Spin gap
If excitations are spin waves, there must be a spin gap to produce an infrared cut-off in the integral
First example: spin 1 chain (Haldane, 1981) Recent example: spin 1/2 ladders
Spin ladders
SrCu2O3
(Azuma, PRL 94)
: spin gap
Magnetization of spin ladders
CuHpCl
Chaboussant et al, EPJB 98
Recent developments: TlCuCl3 (Regg et al, 2002-2006)
Origin of spin gap in ladders
Review: Dagotto and Rice , Science 96
Strong coupling
J J
J=0 JJ
Weak coupling
=J =J+O(J)
JJ
weakly coupled chains
Algebraic order
If the spectrum is gapless, low-lying excitations cannot be spin-waves Can the spectrum be gapless in 1D?
YES!
Example: S=1/2 chain (Bethe, 1931) Correlation function: decays algebraically
Nature of excitations? Spinons!
S=1
Spinons
Excitation spectrum
A spin 1 excitation = 2 spinons
continuum
Early theory Des Cloiseaux Pearson PRB 62 Stone et al, PRL 03
Unified framework
When to expect spin-waves, and when to expect spinons?
Haldane, 1981 Integer spins: gapped spin-waves Half-integer spins: spinons
Field theory approach
Haldane, PRL 88 Path integral formulation
Evolution operator Spin coherent state
Berry phase
Solid angle of path (mod 4)
Field theory approach
In 1D antiferromagnets 1 (S integer) 1 (S -integer)
Pontryagin index (integer)
Destructive interferences for -integer spins
Spin liquids
Shastry-Sutherland, 1981
even at T=0 ! No magnetic long-range order Example: spin-1/2 ladders
Spin liquids in 2D?
Basic idea diverges in 2D as soon as or
since
Competing interactions
Classical GS: helix with pitch vector Q Dispersion
Frustrated magnets
Frustration = infinite degeneracy of classical ground state
J1-J2 model (J2>J1/2)
Kagome lattice
J1 J2
Exotic ground states?
Symmetries
SU(2) U(1) spin rotation around z + spatial symmetries (translations and point group)
Standard cases
Magnetic long-range order: broken SU(2) Spontaneous dimerization: broken translation Integer spin/unit cell: no broken symmetry (e.g. spin 1 chain, spin-1/2 ladders)
Alternatives?
More exotic alternatives
Broken SU(2) symmetry without magnetic LRO: quadrupolar order RVB spin liquids with half-integer spin per unit cell: topological order
More exotic alternatives
Broken SU(2) symmetry without magnetic LRO: quadrupolar order
RVB spin liquids with half-integer spin per unit cell: topological order
Broken SU(2) => magnetic LRO?
(if purely local order parameter) Any linear combination of l > and l - > can be obtained by a certain rotation of l > around some axis <S>=1/2 for a certain direction Any local state is magnetic
S=1/2: YES
Spin 1: NO!
Consider
True for any
Broken SU(2) symmetry
Not magnetic
Quadrupole states and directors
Rotation of l Sz=0>
director
S=1 with biquadratic interaction
Quadrupolar Hamiltonian
Pure quadrupolar Hamiltonian for J1=J2/2 Quadrupolar order Order parameter: rank 2 tensor
S=1 on triangular lattice
Antiferroquadrupolar Directors mutually perpendicular on 3 sublattices
(see also Tsunetsugu-Arikawa, 06)
Ferroquadrupolar
A. Luchli, FM, K. Penc, PRL (2006)
Parallel directors
NiGa2S4
S. Nakatsuji et al, Science 2005
Cv/ T2 No Bragg peaks Quadrupolar order?
More exotic alternatives
Broken SU(2) symmetry without magnetic LRO: quadrupolar order
RVB spin liquids with half-integer spin per unit cell: topological order
RVB spin liquids
Question: with one spin per unit cell, can we preserve SU(2) without breaking translation?
Anderson, 1973
GS =
Restore translational invariance with resonances between valence-bond configurations
Quantum Dimer Models
Rokhsar-Kivelson, 1988
Assume dimer configurations are orthogonal Broken translation Degenerate GS
Rokhsar-Kivelson 1988; Leung et al, 1996
QDM on triangular lattice
Moessner and Sondhi, 01
No broken translational symmetry RVB spin liquid
Low-lying excitation on a cylinder?
Topological sectors
Number of dimers cutting a given line
N=1
N=3
Parity conserved 2 topological sectors (N even or N odd) Cylinder: two topological sectors Torus: four topological sectors (two cuts)
Topological degeneracy
Topological sectors
Portions of Hilbert space not connected by local operators like the Hamiltonian
Topological degeneracy (Wen, 1988-90)
GS of topological sectors degenerate
Numerical proof in RVB phase of QDM
Greens function Quantum Monte Carlo
A. Ralko, M. Ferrero, F. Becca, D. Ivanov, FM, PRB 2005
Topological degeneracy broken symmetry
Example: spin-Peierls 4 ground states
Strong bond
Non-degenerate ground state
Topological order
No local order parameter: no local operator can have different expectation values in the two GS Non-local string order parameter:
nl =1 if bond occupied, 0 if bond empty
Elementary excitations = `visons
Dual lattice (-1)# dimers = -1 (-1)# dimers = 1
li>=
Periodic boundary conditions: pairs of visons fractional excitations
Read-Chakraborty 89, Senthil-Fisher 00,01
Applications of topological degeneracy?
Topological degeneracy EGS(even) = EGS(odd) h even j j odd i =0 for any local operator
Well protected qubits
Kitaev, 97; Ioffe et al, 01
Further topical problems
Doped Mott insulator Interplay of magnetism and superconductivity (see lectures by Keimer and Hinkov) Spin Hall effect Magnetization plateaux Orbital degeneracy Multiferroics
Conclusions/Perspectives
Solid state magnetism: amazingly rich field! Fundamental aspects: Fantastic playground for theoretical physicists New systems and properties regularly discovered Applications: lots of ideas to be further investigated and developed
