arXiv subjects

Armando A. Aligia

Publications and source records attributed to Armando A. Aligia.

23 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Unveiling a crystalline topological insulator in a Weyl semimetal with time-reversal symmetry

We consider a natural generalization of the lattice model for a periodic array of two layers, A and B, of spinless electrons proposed by Fu [Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 106802 (2011)] as a prototype for a crystalline insulator. This model has time-reversal symmetry and broken inversion symmetry. We show that when the intralayer next-nearest-neighbor hoppings ta2, a = A, B vanish, this model supports a Weyl semimetal phase for a wide range of the remaining model parameters. When the effect of ta2 is considered, topological crystalline insulating phases take place within the Weyl semimetal one. By mapping to an effective Weyl Hamiltonian we derive some analytical results for the phase diagram as well as for the structure of the nodes in the spectrum of the Weyl semimetal.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Magnetic and orbital instabilities in a lattice of SU(4) organometallic Kondo complexes

Motivated by experiments of scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) on self-assembled networks of iron(II)-phtalocyanine (FePc) molecules deposited on a clean Au(111) surface [FePc/Au(111)] and its explanation in terms of the extension of the impurity SU(4) Anderson model to the lattice in the Kondo regime, we study the competition between the Kondo effect and the magneto-orbital interactions occurring in FePc/Au(111). We explore the quantum phases and critical points of the model using a large-$N$ slave-boson method in the mean-field approximation. The SU(4) symmetry in the impurity appears as a combination of the usual spin and an orbital pseudospin arising from the degenerate $3d_{xz}$ and $3d_{yz}$ orbitals in the Fe atom. In the case of the lattice, our results show that the additional orbital degrees of freedom crucially modify the low-temperature phase diagram, and induce new types of orbital interactions among the Fe atoms, which can potentially stabilize exotic quantum phases with magnetic and orbital order. The dominant instability corresponds to spin ferromagnetic and orbital antiferromagnetic order.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2014

Spectral evolution of the SU(4) Kondo effect from the single impurity to the two-dimensional lattice

We describe the evolution of the SU(4) Kondo effect as the number of magnetic centers increases from one impurity to the two-dimensional (2D) lattice. We derive a Hubbard-Anderson model which describes a 2D array of atoms or molecules with two-fold orbital degeneracy, acting as magnetic impurities and interacting with a metallic host. We calculate the differential conductance, observed typically in experiments of scanning tunneling spectroscopy, for different arrangements of impurities on a metallic surface: a single impurity, a periodic square lattice, and several sites of a rectangular cluster. Our results point towards the crucial importance of the orbital degeneracy and agree well with recent experiments in different systems of iron(II) phtalocyanine molecules deposited on top of Au(111) [N. Tsukahara et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 187201 (2011)], indicating that this would be the first experimental realization of an artificial 2D SU(4) Kondo-lattice system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Anderson model out of equilibrium: conductance and Kondo temperature

We calculate conductance through a quantum dot weakly coupled to metallic contacts by means of Keldysh out of equilibrium formalism. We model the quantum dot with the SU(2) Anderson model and consider the limit of infinite Coulomb repulsion. We solve the interacting system with the numerical diagrammatic Non-Crossing Approximation (NCA). We calculate the conductance as a function of temperature and gate voltage, from differential conductance (dI/dV) curves. We discuss these results in comparison with those from the linear response approach which can be performed directly in equilibrium conditions. Comparison shows that out of equilibrium results are in good agreement with the ones from linear response supporting reliability to the method employed. The discussion becomes relevant when dealing with general transport models through interacting regions. We also analyze the evolution of the curve of conductance vs gate voltage with temperature. While at high temperatures the conductance is peaked when the Fermi energy coincides with the energy of the localized level, it presents a plateau for low temperatures as a consequence of Kondo effect. We discuss different ways to determine Kondo's temperature and compare the values obtained in and out of equilibrium.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Transition between SU(4) and SU(2) Kondo effect

Motivated by experiments in nanoscopic systems, we study a generalized Anderson, which consists of two spin degenerate doublets hybridized to a singlet by promotion of an electron to two conduction bands, as a function of the energy separation $δ$ between both doublets. For $δ$=0 or very large, the model is equivalent to a one-level SU(N) Anderson model, with N=4 and 2 respectively. We study the evolution of the spectral density for both doublets ($ρ_{1 σ}(ω)$ and $ρ_{2 σ}(ω)$) and their width in the Kondo limit as $δ$ is varied, using the non-crossing approximation (NCA). As $δ$ increases, the peak at the Fermi energy in the spectral density (Kondo peak) splits and the density of the doublet of higher energy $ρ_{2 σ}(ω)$ shifts above the Ferrmi energy. The Kondo temperature $T_K$ (determined by the half width at half maximum of the Kondo peak in density of the doublet of lower energy $ρ_{1 σ}(ω)$) decreases dramatically. The variation of $T_K$ with $δ$ is reproduced by a simple variational calculation.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗