arXiv subjects

Alfonso Romano

Publications and source records attributed to Alfonso Romano.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2008

Local dynamical lattice instabilities: Prerequisites for resonant pairing superconductivity

Fluctuating local diamagnetic pairs of electrons, embedded in a Fermi sea, are candidates for non-phonon-mediated superconductors without the stringent conditions on Tc which arise in phonon-mediated BCS classical low-Tc superconductors. The local accumulations of charge, from which such diamagnetic fluctuations originate, are irrevocably coupled to local dynamical lattice instabilities and form composite charge-lattice excitations of the system. For a superconducting phase to be realized, such excitations must be itinerant spatially phase-coherent modes. This can be achieved by resonant pair tunneling in and out of polaronic cation-ligand sites. Materials in which superconductivity driven by such local lattice instability can be expected, have a Tc which is controlled by the phase stiffness rather than the amplitude of the diamagnetic pair fluctuations. Above Tc, a pseudogap phase will be maintained up to a T*, where this pairing amplitude disappears. We discuss the characteristic local charge and lattice properties which characterize this pseudogap phase and which form the prerequisites for establishing a phase-coherent macroscopic superconducting state.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2005

Resonant pairing isotope effect in polaronic systems

The intermediate coupling regime in polaronic systems, situated between the adiabatic and the anti-adiabatic limit, is characterized by resonant pairing between quasi-free electrons which is induced by an exchange interaction with localized bipolarons. The onset of this resonant pairing takes place below a characteristic temperature T* and is manifest in the opening of a pseudogap in the density of states of the electrons. The variation of T* is examined here as a function of (i) the typical frequency ω_0 of the local lattice modes, which determines the binding energy of the bipolarons, and (ii) the doping, which amounts to a relative change of the bipolaron concentration n_B to that of the free electrons n_F. We concentrate on a doping regime, where small changes in doping give rise to a large change in T*, which is the case when n_B is small (< 0.1 per site). For finite values of n_B we find negative and practically doping independent values of the isotope coefficient α^* which characterizes the formation of resonating electron pairs. Upon decreasing the total particle density such that n_B becomes exponentially small, we find a rapid change in sign of α^*. This is related to the fact that the system approaches a state which is more BCS-like, where electron pairing occurs via virtual excitations into bipolaronic states and where T* coincides with the onset of superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2001

The boson-fermion model with on-site Coulomb repulsion between fermions

The boson-fermion model, describing a mixture of itinerant electrons hybridizing with tightly bound electron pairs represented as hard-core bosons, is here generalized with the inclusion of a term describing on-site Coulomb repulsion between fermions with opposite spins. Within the general framework of the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory, it is shown that around the symmetric limit of the model this interaction strongly competes with the local boson-fermion exchange mechanism, smoothly driving the system from a pseudogap phase with poor conducting properties to a metallic regime characterized by a substantial reduction of the fermionic density. On the other hand, if one starts from correlated fermions described in terms of the one-band Hubbard model, the introduction in the half-filled insulating phase of a coupling with hard-core bosons leads to the disappearance of the correlation gap, with a consequent smooth crossover to a metallic state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Variational study of the extended Hubbard-Holstein model on clusters of variable site spacing

We study the complete extended Hubbard-Holstein Hamiltonian on a four-site chain with equally spaced sites, with spacing-dependent electronic interaction parameters evaluated in terms of Wannier functions built from Gaussian atomic orbitals. By successive application of generalized displacement and squeezing transformations, an effective polaronic Hamiltonian is obtained, containing a purely phonon-induced, long-range intersite charge interaction. The phase diagrams for N=1,2,3,4 electrons have been determined by variational minimization of the sum of the electronic and the phononic energy, paying special attention to the effects of the above mentioned phonon-induced long-range interaction. To characterize the physics of each ground state, we have evaluated how variations of the site spacing affect the behavior of several correlation functions of experimental interest, with the aim of representing lattice deformation effects, either spontaneous or induced by external pressure.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

Hall coefficient and angle-resolved photoemission in systems with strong pair fluctuations

We examine the normal-state temperature and doping dependence of the Hall coefficient in the context of a pair-fluctuation scenario, based on a model where itinerant electrons are hybridized with localized electron pairs via a charge exchange term. We show that an anomalous behavior of the Hall effect, qualitatively similar to that observed in high-Tc superconductors, can be attributed to the non-Fermi liquid properties of the single-particle spectral function which exhibits pseudogap features. Our calculations are based on a dynamical mean-field procedure which relates the transport coefficients to the single-particle spectral function in an exact way.

cond-mat.supr-con↗