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A. S. Alexandrov

Publications and source records attributed to A. S. Alexandrov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources
arXiv2010

Molecular dynamics simulations of oxide memory resistors (memristors)

Reversible bipolar nano-switches that can be set and read electronically in a solid-state two-terminal device are very promising for applications. We have performed molecular-dynamics simulations that mimic systems with oxygen vacancies interacting via realistic potentials and driven by an external bias voltage. The competing short- and long-range interactions among charged mobile vacancies lead to density fluctuations and short-range ordering, while illustrating some aspects of observed experimental behavior, such as memristor polarity inversion.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2010

Controlling free superflow, dark matter and luminescence rings of excitons in quantum well structures

Following the discovery of Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC) in ultra cold atoms [E. Gosta, Nobel Lectures in Physics (2001-2005), World Scientific (2008)], there has been a huge experimental and theoretical push to try and illuminate a superfluid state of Wannier-Mott excitons. Excitons in quantum wells, generated by a laser pulse, typically diffuse only a few micrometers from the spot they are created. However, Butov et al. and Snoke et al. reported luminescence from indirect and direct excitons hundreds of micrometers away from the laser excitation spot in double and single quantum well (QW) structures at low temperatures. This luminescence appears as a ring around the laser spot with the dark region between the spot and the ring. Developing the theory of a free superflow of Bose-liquids we show that the macroscopic luminesce rings and the dark state are signatures of the coherent superflow of condensed excitons at temperatures below their Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless (BKT) transition temperature. To further verify the dark excitonic superflow we propose several keystone experiments, including interference of superflows from two laser spots, vortex formation, scanning of moving dipole moments, and a giant increase of the luminescence distance by applying one-dimensional confinement potential. These experiments combined with our theory will open a new avenue for creating and controlling superflow of coherent excitons on nanoscale.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2010

Key pairing interaction in layered doped ionic insulators

A controversial issue on whether the electron-phonon interaction (EPI) is crucial for high-temperature superconductivity or it is weak and inessential has remained one of the most challenging problems of contemporary condensed matter physics. We employ a continuum RPA approximation for the dielectric response function allowing for a selfconsistent semi-analytical evaluation of the EPI strength, electron-electron attractions, and the carrier mass renormalisation in layered high-temperature superconductors. We show that the Fröhlich EPI with high-frequency optical phonons in doped ionic lattices is the key pairing interaction, which is beyond the BCS-Migdal-Eliashberg approximation in underdoped superconductors, and it remains a significant player in overdoped compounds.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2010

Diamagnetism of real-space pairs above Tc in hole doped cuprates

The nonlinear normal state diamagnetism reported by Lu Li et al. [Phys. Rev. B 81, 054510 (2010)] is shown to be incompatible with an acclaimed Cooper pairing and vortex liquid above the resistive critical temperature. Instead it is perfectly compatible with the normal state Landau diamagnetism of real-space composed bosons, which describes the nonlinear magnetization curves in less anisotropic cuprates La-Sr-Cu-O (LSCO) and Y-Ba-Cu-O (YBCO) as well as in strongly anisotropic bismuth-based cuprates in the whole range of available magnetic fields.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2010

Theory of Extrinsic and Intrinsic Tunnelling in Cuprate Superconductors

A theory capable of explaining intrinsic and extrinsic tunnelling conductance in underdoped cuprates has been devised that accounts for the existence of two energy scales, their temperature and doping dependencies. The asymmetry and inhomogeneity seen in extrinsic (normal metal - superconductor (NS)) tunnelling and the normal-state gapped intrinsic (SS) conductance is explained, as well as the superconducting gap and normal state pseudogap and the temperature dependence of the full gap.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2009

Polarons in 2+epsilon dimensions and giant figure of merit of semiconducting nanolayers

Polarons - electrons coupled with lattice vibrations - play a key role in the transport and optical properties of many systems of reduced dimension and dimensionality. Their confinement affects drastically the phonon, polaron, bipolaron and multi-polaron properties of quantum wells. Here we calculate the energy spectrum and thermopower of polarons confined to a potential well as a function of the well thickness. We show that the polaron mass enhancement in 2+epsilon dimensions explains a giant thermolectric power recently observed in doped semiconducting nanolayers (multiple quantum wells (MQWs)), and propose a route for enhancing the performance of thermoelectric energy nanoconverters increasing their figure of merit by more than one order of magnitude.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

Superconducting Gap, Normal State Pseudogap and Tunnelling Spectra of Bosonic and Cuprate Superconductors

We develop a theory of normal-metal - superconductor (NS) and superconductor - superconductor (SS) tunnelling in bosonic superconductors with strong attractive correlations taking into account coherence effects in single-particle excitation spectrum and disorder. The theory accounts for the existence of two energy scales, their temperature and doping dependencies, asymmetry and inhomogeneity of tunnelling spectra of underdoped cuprate superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2009

Comment on Multiple Quantum Oscillations in the de Haas - van Alphen Spectra of the Underdoped High-Temperature Superconductor YBa2Cu3O6.5 (A. Audouard et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 103 (2009) 157003)

Recent observations of slow magneto-oscillations in some underdoped cuprate superconductors are one of the most striking discoveries in the field of superconductivity since many probes of underdoped cuprates clearly point to a non Fermi-liquid normal state. We show that a large magnitude and strong magnetic-field dependence of the residual resistance invalidate the conventional interpretation of the magneto-oscillations as a normal-state dHvA effect. We propose that the oscillations are most likely caused by a quantum interference of vortex and crystal lattice modulations of the order parameter in the mixed superconducting state.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2009

Hot electron relaxation in a heavy fermion system with tuned doping

Femtosecond time-resolved optical spectroscopy was used to systematically study photoexcited carrier relaxation dynamics in the intermediate-valence heavy fermion system Yb1-xLuxAl3 (0 < x < 1). Given the demonstrated sensitivity of this experimental technique to the presence of the low energy gaps in the charge excitation spectrum, the aim of this work was to study the effect of dilution of the Kondo lattice on its low energy electronic structure. The results imply that in Yb1-xLuxAl3 the hybridization gap, resulting from hybridization of local moments and conduction electrons, persists up to 30% doping. Interestingly, below some characteristic, doping dependent temperature T*(x) the relaxation time divergence, governed by the relaxation bottleneck due to the presence of the indirect hybridization gap, is truncated. This observation is attributed to the competing ballistic transport of hot electrons out of the probed volume at low temperatures. The derived theoretical model accounts for both the functional form of relaxation dynamics below T*(x), as well as the doping dependence of the low temperature relaxation rate in Yb1-xLuxAl3.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2009

Polaronic memristor strongly coupled to electrodes

Attractive electron correlations due to an electron-vibron interaction (EVI) can overcome the direct Coulomb repulsion of polarons in strongly deformable molecular quantum dots (MQDs). If it realizes, a switching appears in the I-V characteristics of the degenerate nonadiabatic molecular bridges weakly coupled to electrodes providing a route to ultrafast `memristors' (memory-resistors) as the basis for future oscillators, amplifers, and other important circuit elements. Here, we extend our theory of polaronic memristors to adiabatic MQDs strongly coupled to the leads and show that the degeneracy of MQD (or other multilevel energy structure) along with the polaron-polaron attraction is a necessary ingredient of its switching behavior in the strong-coupling regime as well.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗
arXiv2009

Zero-temperature phase transitions in dilute bosonic superfluids on a lattice

Kinetic energy driven phase transitions in Bose superfluids occur at low values of the repulsion when the values of the next-to-nearest and next-to-next-to-nearest hopping term attain certain critical values, resulting in alterations in the wave vector of the condensate. We map out the space of possible phases allowed by particular forms of the single-particle energy dispersion in the superfluid state, noting the appearance of a new phase, and examine in more detail the effects of additional repulsive terms on the form of the condensate wavefunction. We also examine the effect of these additional hopping terms on the formation of inhomogeneities in the condensate.

cond-mat.quant-gas↗
arXiv2009

Kinetic quantum phase transition in bosonic superfluids on a lattice

It has been well known that quantum fluctuations induce a macroscopic phase transition from a superfluid to a Mott insulator phase driven by the repulsive potential energy in the ground state of dense bosonic systems on a lattice. We find a quantum phase transition from the homogeneous to an inhomogeneous Bose-condensate strongly affected or sometimes driven by the kinetic energy dispersion in dilute bosonic superfluids, which provides a clear identification of the superfluid state.

cond-mat.other↗
arXiv2009

Singlet and triplet bipolarons on the triangular lattice

We study the Coulomb-Fröhlich model on a triangular lattice, looking in particular at states with angular momentum. We examine a simplified model of crab bipolarons with angular momentum by projecting onto the low energy subspace of the Coulomb-Fröhlich model with large phonon frequency. Such a projection is consistent with large long-range electron-phonon coupling and large repulsive Hubbard $U$. Significant differences are found between the band structure of singlet and triplet states: The triplet state (which has a flat band) is found to be significantly heavier than the singlet state (which has mass similar to the polaron). We test whether the heavier triplet states persist to lower electron-phonon coupling using continuous time quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulation. The triplet state is both heavier and larger, demonstrating that the heavier mass is due to quantum interference effects on the motion. We also find that retardation effects reduce the differences between singlet and triplet states, since they reintroduce second order terms in the hopping into the inverse effective mass.

cond-mat.str-el↗
arXiv2008

Phase separation of electrons strongly coupled with phonons in cuprates and manganites

Recent advanced Monte Carlo simulations have not found superconductivity and phase separation in the Hubbard model with on-site repulsive electron-electron correlations. We argue that microscopic phase separations in cuprate superconductors and colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) manganites originate from a strong electron-phonon interaction (EPI) combined with unavoidable disorder. Attractive electron correlations, caused by an almost unretarded EPI, are sufficient to overcome the direct inter-site Coulomb repulsion in these charge-transfer Mott-Hubbard insulators, so that low energy physics is that of small polarons and small bipolarons (real-space electron (hole) pairs dressed by phonons). They form clusters localised by disorder below the mobility edge, but propagate as the Bloch states above the mobility edge. I identify the Froehlich finite-range EPI with optical phonons as the most essential for pairing and phase separation in superconducting layered cuprates. The pairing of oxygen holes into heavy bipolarons in the paramagnetic phase (current-carrier density collapse (CCDC)) explains also CMR of doped manganites due to magnetic break-up of bipolarons in the ferromagnetic phase. Here I briefly present an explanation of high and low-resistance phase coexistence near the ferromagnetic transition as a mixture of polaronic ferromagnetic and bipolaronic paramagnetic domains due to unavoidable disorder in doped manganites.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2008

Electron relaxation in metals: Theory and exact analytical solutions

The non-equilibrium dynamics of electrons is of a great experimental and theoretical value providing important microscopic parameters of the Coulomb and electron-phonon interactions in metals and other cold plasmas. Because of the mathematical complexity of collision integrals theories of electron relaxation often rely on the assumption that electrons are in a "quasi-equilibrium" (QE) with a time-dependent temperature, or on the numerical integration of the time-dependent Boltzmann equation. We transform the integral Boltzmann equation to a partial differential Schroedinger-like equation with imaginary time in a one-dimensional "coordinate" space reciprocal to energy which allows for exact analytical solutions in both cases of electron-electron and electron-phonon relaxation. The exact relaxation rates are compared with the QE relaxation rates at high and low temperatures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2008

Unconventional pairs glued by conventional phonons in cuprate superconductors

It has gone almost unquestioned that superexchange in the t-J (or Hubbard) model, and not phonons, is responsible for the unconventional ("d-wave") pairing symmetry of cuprate superconductors. However a number of advanced numerical studies have not found superconductivity in the Hubbard model. On the other hand compelling experimental evidence for a strong electron-phonon interaction (EPI) has currently arrived. Here I briefly review some phonon-mediated unconventional pairing mechanisms. In particular the anisotropy of sound velocity makes the phonon-mediated attraction of electrons non-local in space providing unconventional Cooper pairs with a nonzero orbital momentum already in the framework of the conventional BCS theory with weak EPI. In the opposite limit of strong EPI rotational symmetry breaking appears as a result of a reduced Coulomb repulsion between unconventional bipolarons. Using the variational Monte-Carlo method we have found that a relatively weak finite-range EPI induces a d-wave BCS state also in doped Mott-Hubbard insulators or strongly-correlated metals. These results tell us that poorly screened EPI with conventional phonons is responsible for the unconventional pairing in cuprate superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗
arXiv2008

Low-temperature proximity effect in clean metals

Theories of proximity effect in layered superconductor-normal metal structures usually deal with a hypothetic normal metal with no interaction between electrons and with finite temperatures often close to the superconductor critical temperature. We present an asymptotic solution of the Gor'kov equations in the opposite low-temperature limit for a clean normal metal with a repulsive interaction between electrons. The order parameter in the metal exhibits a power-law decay, Delta(x) is proportional to 1/x, as a function of the distance from the SN boundary, x, with a proximity length strongly depending on the repulsive interaction.

cond-mat.supr-con↗