arXiv subjects

A. L. Chernyshev

Publications and source records attributed to A. L. Chernyshev.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Spontaneous Magnon Decays

A theoretical overview of the phenomenon of spontaneous magnon decays in quantum antiferromagnets is presented. The intrinsic zero-temperature damping of magnons in quantum spin systems is a fascinating many-body effect, which has recently attracted significant attention in view of its possible observation in neutron-scattering experiments. An introduction to the theory of magnon interactions and a discussion of necessary symmetry and kinematic conditions for spontaneous decays are provided. Various parallels with the decays of anharmonic phonons and excitations in superfluid 4He are extensively used. Three principal cases of spontaneous magnon decays are considered: field-induced decays in Heisenberg antiferromagnets, zero-field decays in spiral antiferromagnets, and triplon decays in quantum-disordered magnets. Analytical results are compared with available numerical data and prospective materials for experimental observation of the decay-related effects are briefly discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Highly Dispersive Scattering From Defects In Non-Collinear Magnets

We demonstrate that point-like defects in non-collinear magnets give rise to a highly dispersive structure in the magnon scattering, violating a standard paradigm of its momentum independence. For a single impurity spin coupled to a prototypical non-collinear antiferromagnet we find that the resolvent is dominated by a distinct dispersive structure with its momentum-dependence set by the magnon dispersion and shifted by the ordering vector. This feature is a consequence of umklapp scattering off the impurity-induced spin texture, which arises due to the non-collinear ground state of the host system. Detailed results for the staggered and uniform magnetization of this texture as well as the T-matrix from numerical linear spin-wave theory are presented.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Lifetime of Gapped Excitations in a Collinear Quantum Antiferromagnet

We demonstrate that local modulations of magnetic couplings have a profound effect on the temperature dependence of the relaxation rate of optical magnons in a wide class of antiferromagnets in which gapped excitations coexist with acoustic spin waves. In a two-dimensional collinear antiferromagnet with an easy-plane anisotropy, the disorder-induced relaxation rate of the gapped mode, Gamma_imp=Gamma_0+A(TlnT)^2, greatly exceeds the magnon-magnon damping, Gamma_m-m=BT^5, negligible at low temperatures. We measure the lifetime of gapped magnons in a prototype XY antiferromagnet BaNi2(PO4)2 using a high-resolution neutron-resonance spin-echo technique and find experimental data in close accord with the theoretical prediction. Similarly strong effects of disorder in the three-dimensional case and in noncollinear antiferromagnets are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Roton-Phonon Interactions in Superfluid 4He

High-resolution neutron resonance spin-echo measurements of superfluid 4He show that the roton energy does not have the same temperature dependence as the inverse lifetime. Diagrammatic analysis attributes this to the interaction of rotons with thermally excited phonons via both four- and three-particle processes, the latter being allowed by the broken gauge symmetry of the Bose condensate. The distinct temperature dependence of the roton energy at low temperatures suggests that the net roton-phonon interaction is repulsive.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2012

Field-dependence of magnon decay in yttrium iron garnet thin films

We discuss threshold field-dependence of the decay rate of the uniform magnon mode in yttrium iron garnet (YIG) thin films. We demonstrate that decays must cease to exist in YIG films of thickness less than 1 μm, the lengthscale defined by the exchange length. We show that due to the symmetry of the three-magnon coupling the decay rate is linear in ΔH=(Hc-H) in the vicinity of the threshold field Hc instead of the step-like ΓΘ(ΔH) expected from the two-dimensional character of magnon excitations in such films. For thicker films, the decay rate should exhibit multiple steps due to thresholds for decays into a sequence of the two-dimensional magnon bands. For yet thicker films, such thresholds merge and crossover to the three-dimensional single-mode behavior: Γ|ΔH|^{3/2}.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Dynamical structure factor of quasi-2D antiferromagnet in high fields

We study high-field magnon dynamics and examine the dynamical structure factor in the quasi-2D tetragonal Heisenberg antiferromagnet with interlayer coupling corresponding to realistic materials. Within spin-wave theory, we show that a non-zero interlayer coupling mitigates singular corrections to the excitation spectrum occurring in the high-field regime that would otherwise require a self-consistent approach beyond the 1/S approximation. For the fields between the threshold for decays and saturation field we observe widening of the two-magnon sidebands with significant shifting of the spectral weight away from the quasiparticle peak. We find spectrum broadening throughout large regions of the Brillouin zone, dramatic redistributions of spectral weight to the two-magnon continuum, two-peak structures and other features clearly unlike conventional single-particle peaks.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Quantum fluctuations and strong mass renormalization in NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2

In a number of quantum paramagnets, magnetic field can induce a quantum phase transition to an antiferromagnetic state which exists for a range of fields Hc1 < H < Hc2. Generally, these compounds exhibit a significant asymmetry in their properties at low- and high-field transitions. Here we present detailed specific heat and thermal conductivity measurements in NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2 together with analytical and numerical results. We show that the asymmetry is caused by a strong renormalization of the effective mass of spin excitations due to quantum fluctuations for H<Hc1 that are absent for H<Hc2.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Thermal drag revisited: Boltzmann versus Kubo

The effect of mutual drag between phonons and spin excitations on the thermal conductivity of a quantum spin system is discussed. We derive general expression for the drag component of the thermal current using both Boltzmann equation approach and Kubo linear-response formalism to leading order in the spin-phonon coupling. We demonstrate that aside from higher-order corrections which appear in the Kubo formalism both approaches yield identical results for the drag thermal conductivity. We discuss the range of applicability of our result and provide a generalization of our consideration to the cases of fermionic excitations and to anomalous forms of boson-phonon coupling. Several asymptotic regimes of our findings relevant to realistic situations are highlighted.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Field-induced decay dynamics in square-lattice antiferromagnet

Dynamical properties of the square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet in applied magnetic field are studied for arbitrary value S of the spin. Above the threshold field for two-particle decays, the standard spin-wave theory yields singular corrections to the excitation spectrum with logarithmic divergences for certain momenta. We develop a self-consistent approximation applicable for S >= 1, which avoids such singularities and provides regularized magnon decay rates. Results for the dynamical structure factor obtained in this approach are presented for S = 1 and S = 5/2.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Impurity-induced frustration in correlated oxides

Using the example of Zn-doped La2CuO4, we demonstrate that a spinless impurity doped into a non-frustrated antiferromagnet can induce substantial frustrating interactions among the spins surrounding it. This counterintuitive result is the key to resolving discrepancies between experimental data and earlier theories. Analytic and quantum Monte Carlo studies of the impurity-induced frustration are in a close accord with each other and experiments. The mechanism proposed here should be common to other correlated oxides as well.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Hydrodynamic relation in 2D Heisenberg antiferromagnet in a field

The spin-stiffness ρ_s of a 2D Heisenberg antiferromagnet depends non-analytically on external magnetic field. We demonstrate that the hydrodynamic relation between ρ_s, the uniform susceptibility χ, and the spin-wave velocity $c$ is not violated by such a behavior because similar non-analytic terms from all three quantities mutually cancel out. In this work, explicit expressions for the field-dependent spin stiffness and for the magnon velocity of the 2D square lattice antiferromagnet are obtained by direct calculation to order 1/S and in the whole range of magnetic fields.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Spinon-holon interactions in an anisotropic t-J chain: a comprehensive study

We consider a generalization of the one-dimensional t-J model with anisotropic spin-spin interactions. We show that the anisotropy leads to an effective attractive interaction between the spinon and holon excitations, resulting in a localized bound state. Detailed quantitative analytic predictions for the dependence of the binding energy on the anisotropy are presented, and verified by precise numerical simulations. The binding energy is found to interpolate smoothly between a finite value in the t-Jz limit and zero in the isotropic limit, going to zero exponentially in the vicinity of the latter. We identify changes in spinon dispersion as the primary factor for this non-trivial behavior.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Binding of holons and spinons in the one-dimensional anisotropic t-J model

We study the binding of a holon and a spinon in the one-dimensional anisotropic t-J model using a Bethe-Salpeter equation approach, exact diagonalization, and density matrix renormalization group methods on chains of up to 128 sites. We find that holon-spinon binding changes dramatically as a function of anisotropy parameter α=J_\perp/J_z: it evolves from an exactly deducible impurity-like result in the Ising limit to an exponentially shallow bound state near the isotropic case. A remarkable agreement between the theory and numerical results suggests that such a change is controlled by the corresponding evolution of the spinon energy spectrum.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Neel order in square and triangular lattice Heisenberg models

Using examples of the square- and triangular-lattice Heisenberg models we demonstrate that the density matrix renormalization group method (DMRG) can be effectively used to study magnetic ordering in two-dimensional lattice spin models. We show that local quantities in DMRG calculations, such as the on-site magnetization M, should be extrapolated with the truncation error, not with its square root, as previously assumed. We also introduce convenient sequences of clusters, using cylindrical boundary conditions and pinning magnetic fields, which provide for rapidly converging finite-size scaling. This scaling behavior on our clusters is clarified using finite-size analysis of the effective sigma-model and finite-size spin-wave theory. The resulting greatly improved extrapolations allow us to determine the thermodynamic limit of M for the square lattice with an error comparable to quantum Monte Carlo. For the triangular lattice, we verify the existence of three-sublattice magnetic order, and estimate the order parameter to be M = 0.205(15).

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Magnon Decay in Noncollinear Quantum Antiferromagnets

Instability of the excitation spectrum of an ordered noncollinear Heisenberg antiferromagnet (AF) with respect to spontaneous two-magnon decays is investigated. We use a spin-1/2 AF on a triangular lattice as an example and examine the characteristic long- and short wave-length features of its zero-temperature spectrum within the 1/S-approximation. The kinematic conditions are shown to be crucial for the existence of decays and for overall properties of the spectrum. The XXZ and the J-J' generalizations of the model, as well as the role of higher-order corrections are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Effects of an external magnetic field on the gaps and quantum corrections in an ordered Heisenberg antiferromagnet with Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya anisotropy

We study the effects of external magnetic field on the properties of an ordered Heisenberg antiferromagnet with the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) interaction. Using the spin-wave theory quantum correction to the energy, on-site magnetization, and uniform magnetization are calculated as a function of the field H and the DM anisotropy constant D. It is shown that the spin-wave excitations exhibit an unusual field-evolution of the gaps. This leads to various non-analytic dependencies of the quantum corrections on H and D. It is also demonstrated that, quite generally, the DM interaction suppresses quantum fluctuations, thus driving the system to a more classical ground state. Most of the discussion is devoted to the spin-S, two-dimensional square lattice antiferromagnet, whose S=1/2 case is closely realized in K2V3O8 where at H=0 the DM anisotropy is hidden by the easy-axis anisotropy but is revealed in a finite field. The theoretical results for the field-dependence of the spin-excitation gaps in this material are presented and the implications for other systems are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Thermal transport in antiferromagnetic spin-chain materials

We study the problem of heat transport in one-dimensional (1D) spin-chain systems weakly coupled to three-dimensional phonons and impurities. We consider the limit of fast spin excitations and slow phonons, applicable to a number of compounds of the cuprates family, such as Sr2CuO3, where the superexchange J is much larger than the Debye energy. In this case the Umklapp scattering among the spin excitations is strongly suppressed for all relevant temperatures. We argue that the leading scattering mechanism for the spin excitations at not too low temperatures is the "normal" (as opposed to the Umklapp) spin-phonon scattering in which the non-equilibrium momentum is transferred from the spin subsystem to phonons where it quickly relaxes through the "phonon bath". Because of the lower dimensionality of the spin excitations it is only the momentum along the chains which is conserved in such a scattering. We find that this effect leads to a particular momentum- and temperature-dependence of the spin-phonon relaxation rate valid for the broad class of low-dimensional spin systems. Subsequently we demonstrate that the spin-phonon relaxation mechanism is insufficient for the low-energy, long-wavelength 1D spin-chain excitations, which make the thermal conductivity diverge. We complete our consideration by taking into account the impurity scattering, which in 1D cuts off the quasi-ballistic spin excitations and renders the thermal conductivity finite. Our results compare very well with the existing experimental data for Sr2CuO3. Using our microscopic insight into the problem we propose further experiments and predict an unusual impurity concentration dependence for a number of quantities.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Thermal conductivity of quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnetic spin-chain materials

We study heat transport in quasi-one-dimensional spin-chain systems by considering the model of one-dimensional bosonic spin excitations interacting with three-dimensional phonons and impurities in the limit of weak spin-lattice coupling and fast spin excitations. A combined effect of the phonon and impurity scatterings yields the following spin-boson thermal conductivity behavior: kappa_s ~ T^2 at low, kappa_s ~ 1/T at intermediate, and kappa_s = const at higher temperatures. Our results agree well with the existing experimental data for Sr2CuO3. We predict an unusual dependence on the impurity concentration for a number of observables and propose further experiments.

cond-mat.str-el↗