arXiv subjects

E. Cappelluti

Publications and source records attributed to E. Cappelluti.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2011

Mechanical lattice instability and thermodynamical properties in classical solids

In this paper we revisit the onset of the instability of the solid state in classical systems within self-consistent phonon theory (SCPT). Spanning the whole phase diagram versus volume and versus pressure, we identify two different kinds of mechanism: one mainly relevant at constant volume, associated with the vanishing of the SCPT solution; and one related to the disappearing at a spinodal temperature of the solid phase as a metastable energy minimum. We show how the first mechanism occurs at extremely high temperatures and it is not reflected in any singular behavior of the thermodynamical properties. In contrast, the second one appears at physical temperatures which correlate well with the melting temperature and it is signalized by the divergence of the thermal compressibility as well as of the the lattice expansion coefficient.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2011

Effects of Fermi-surface shrinking on the optical sum rule in pnictides

In this paper we investigate the effects of the band shifts induced by the interband spin-fluctuation coupling on the optical sum rule in pnictides. We show that, despite the shrinking of the Fermi surfaces with respect to first-principle calculations, the charge-carrier concentration in each band is almost unchanged, with a substantial conservation of the total optical sum rule. However, a significant transfer of spectral weight occurs from low-energy coherent processes to incoherent ones, with practical consequences on the experimental estimate of the sum rule, that is carried out integrating the data up to a finite cut-off. This has profound consequences both on the absolute value of the sum rule and on its temperature dependence, that must be taken into account while discussing optical experiments in these systems.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Extended Drude model and role of interband transitions in the mid-infrared spectra of pnictides

We analyze the outcomes of an extended-Drude-model approach to the optical spectra of pnictides, where the multiband nature of the electronic excitations requires a careful analysis of the role of interband processes in the optical conductivity.Through a direct comparison between model calculations of the intraband optical spectra and experimental data, we show that interband transitions,whose relevance is shown by first-principle calculations,give a non negligible contribution already in the infrared region. This leads to a substantial failure of the extended-Drude-model analysis on the measured optical data without subtraction of interband contributions.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Phonon switching and combined Fano-Rice effect in optical spectra of bilayer graphene

Recent infrared measurements of phonon peaks in gated bilayer graphene reveal two striking signatures of electron-phonon interaction: an asymmetric Fano lineshape and a giant variation of the peak intensity as a function of the applied gate voltage. In this Letter we provide a unified theoretical framework which accounts for both these effects and unveils the occurrence of a switching mechanism between the symmetric ($E_g$) and anti-symmetric ($E_u$) phonon mode as dominant channel in the optical response. A complete phase diagram of the optical phonon response is also presented, as a function of both the charge density and the bandgap.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Spectroscopic and thermodynamic properties in a four-band model for pnictides

In this paper we provide a comprehesive analysis of different properties of pnictides both in the normal and superconducting state, with a particular focus on the optimally-doped Ba$_{1-x}$K$_{x}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ system. We show that, by using the band dispersions experimentally measured by ARPES, a four-band Eliashberg model in the intermediate-coupling regime can account for both the measured hierarchy of the gaps and for several spectroscopic and thermodynamic signatures of low-energy renormalization. These include the kinks in the band dispersion and the effective masses determined via specific-heat and superfluid-density measurements. We also show that, although an intermediate-coupling Eliashberg approach is needed to account for the magnitude of the gaps, the temperature behavior of the thermodynamic quantities does not show in this regime a significant deviation with respect to weak-coupling BCS calculations. This can explain the apparent success of two-band BCS fits of experimental data reported often in the literature.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Gate tunable charged-phonon effect in bilayer graphene

We observe a giant increase of the infrared intensity and a softening of the in-plane antisymmetric phonon mode Eu (~0.2 eV) in bilayer graphene as a function of the gate-induced doping. The phonon peak has a pronounced Fano-like asymmetry. We suggest that the intensity growth and the softening originate from the coupling of the phonon mode to the narrow electronic transition between parallel bands of the same character, while the asymmetry is due to the interaction with the continuum of transitions between the lowest hole and electron bands. The growth of the peak is a manifestation of the "charged-phonon" effect observed previously in organic chain conductors and doped fullerenes, which can now be tuned with the gate voltage.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Fermi surface shrinking and interband coupling in iron-based pnictides

Recent measurements of Fermi surface with de Haas-van Alphen oscillations in LaFePO showed a shrinking of the Fermi pockets with respect to first-principle LDA calculations, suggesting an energy shift of the hole and electrons bands with respect to LDA. We show that these shifts are a natural consequence of the strong particle-hole asymmetry of electronic bands in pnictides, and that they provide an indirect experimental evidence of a dominant interband scattering in these systems.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Vertex renormalization in dc conductivity of doped chiral graphene

The remarkable transport properties of graphene follow not only from the the Dirac-like energy dispersion, but also from the chiral nature of its excitations, which makes unclear the limits of applicability of the standard semiclassical Boltzmann approach. In this paper we provide a quantum derivation of the transport scattering time in graphene in the case of electron-phonon interaction. By using the Kubo formalism, we compute explicitly the vertex corrections to the dc conductivity by retaining the full chiral matrix structure of graphene. We show that at least in the regime of large chemical potential the Boltzmann picture is justified, and it is also robust against a small sublattice inequivalence which partly spoils the role of chirality.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Finite size Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at grain boundaries in solid $^4$He and role of $^3$He impurities

We analyze the complex phenomenology of the Non-Classical Rotational Inertia (NCRI) observed at low temperature in solid $^4$He within the context of a two dimensional Berezinski-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in a premelted $^4$He film at the grain boundaries. We show that both the temperature and $^3$He doping dependence of the NCRI fraction (NCRIF) can be ascribed to finite size effects induced by the finite grain size. We give an estimate of the average size of the grains which we argue to be limited by the isotopic $^3$He impurities and we provide a simple power-law relation between the NCRIF and the $^3$He concentration.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2008

Spectroscopic Signatures of Massless Gap Opening in Graphene

Gap opening in graphene is usually discussed in terms of a semiconducting-like spectrum, where the appearance of a finite gap at the Dirac point is accompanied by a finite mass for the fermions. In this Letter we propose a gap scenario from graphene which preserves the massless characters of the carriers. This approach explains recent spectroscopic measurements carried out in epitaxially-grown graphene, ranging from photoemission to optical transmission.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2008

Polaronic signatures in the optical properties of Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$

We investigate the temperature and doping dependence of the optical conductivity $σ(ω)$ of Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$ in terms of magnetic/lattice polaron formation. We employ dynamical mean-field theory in the context of the Holstein-t-J model where an exact analytical solution is available in the limit of infinite connectivity. We show that the pseudogap features in the optical conductivity of this compound can be associated to the formation of lattice polarons assisted by the magnetic interaction.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Surface instability and isotopic impurities in quantum solids

In this paper we employ a self-consistent harmonic approximation to investigate surface melting and local melting close to quantum impurities in quantum solids. We show that surface melting can occur at temperatures much lower than the critical temperature $T_c$ of the solid phase instability in the bulk. Similar effects are driven by the presence of an isotope substitution. In this latter case, we show that stronger local lattice fluctuations, induced by a lighter isotope atom, can induce local melting of the host bulk phase. Experimental consequences and the possible relevance in solid helium are discussed.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2007

Electron-phonon effects on spin-orbit split bands of two dimensional systems

The electronic self-energy is studied for a two dimensional electron gas coupled to a spin-orbit Rashba field and interacting with dispersionless phonons. For the case of a momentum independent electron-phonon coupling (Holstein model) we solve numerically the self-consistent non-crossing approximation for the self-energy and calculate the electron mass enhancement $m^*/m$ and the spectral properties. We find that, even for nominal weak electron-phonon interaction, for strong spin-orbit couplings the electrons behave as effectively strongly coupled to the phonons. We interpret this result by a topological change of the Fermi surface occurring at sufficiently strong spin-orbit coupling, which induces a square-root divergence in the electronic density of states at low energies. We provide results for $m^*/m$ and for the density of states of the interacting electrons for several values of the electron filling and of the spin-orbit interaction.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Polaronic features in the optical properties of the Holstein-t-J model

We derive the exact solution for the optical conductivity $σ(ω)$ of one hole in the Holstein-t-J model in the framework of dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). We investigate the magnetic and phonon features associated with polaron formation as a function of the exchange coupling $J$, of the electron-phonon interaction $λ$ and of the temperature. Our solution directly relates the features of the optical conductivity to the excitations in the single-particle spectral function, revealing two distinct mechanisms of closing and filling of the optical pseudogap that take place upon varying the microscopic parameters. We show that the optical absorption at the polaron crossover is characterized by a coexistence of a magnon peak at low frequency and a broad polaronic band at higher frequency. An analytical expression for $σ(ω)$ valid in the polaronic regime is presented.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Strong-coupling properties of unbalanced Eliashberg superconductors

In this paper we investigate the thermodynamical properties of ``unbalanced'' superconductors, namely, systems where the electron-boson coupling $λ$ is different in the self-energy and in the Cooper channels. This situation is encountered in a variety of situation, as for instance in d-wave superconductors. Quite interesting is the case where the pairing in the self-energy is smaller than the one in the gap equation. In this case we predict a finite critical value $λ_c$ where the superconducting critical temperature $T_c$ diverges but the zero temperature gap is still finite. The specific heat, magnetic critical field and the penetration depth are also evaluated.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Optical properties of the Holstein-t-J model from dynamical mean-field theory

We employ dynamical mean-field theory to study the optical conductivity $σ(ω)$ of one hole in the Holstein-t-J model. We provide an exact solution for $σ(ω)$ in the limit of infinite connectivity. We apply our analysis to Nd$_{2-x}$Ce$_x$CuO$_4$. We show that our model can explain many features of the optical conductivity in this compounds in terms of magnetic/lattice polaron formation.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Topological Change of the Fermi Surface in Low Density Rashba Gases: Application to Superconductivity

Strong spin-orbit coupling can have a profound effect on the electronic structure in a metal or semiconductor, particularly for low electron concentrations. We show how, for small values of the Fermi energy compared to the spin-orbit splitting of Rashba type, a topological change of the Fermi surface leads to an effective reduction of the dimensionality in the electronic density of states. We investigate its consequences on the onset of the superconducting instability. We show, by solving the Eliashberg equations for the critical temperature as a function of spin-orbit coupling and electron density, that the superconducting critical temperature is significantly tuned in this regime by the spin-orbit coupling. We suggest that materials with strong spin-orbit coupling are good candidates for enhanced superconductivity.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Isotope effects in the Hubbard-Holstein model within dynamical mean-field theory

We study the isotope effects arising from the coupling of correlated electrons with dispersionless phonons by considering the Hubbard-Holstein model at half-filling within the dynamical mean-field theory. In particular we calculate the isotope effects on the quasi-particle spectral weight $Z$, the renormalized phonon frequency, and the static charge and spin susceptibilities. In the weakly correlated regime $U/t \lesssim 1.5$, where $U$ is the Hubbard repulsion and $t$ is the bare electron half-bandwidth, the physical properties are qualitatively similar to those characterizing the Holstein model in the absence of Coulomb repulsion, where the bipolaronic binding takes place at large electron-phonon coupling, and it reflects in divergent isotope responses. On the contrary in the strongly correlated regime $U/t \gtrsim 1.5$, where the bipolaronic metal-insulator transition becomes of first order, the isotope effects are bounded, suggesting that the first order transition is likely driven by an electronic mechanism, rather then by a lattice instability. These results point out how the isotope responses are extremely sensitive to phase boundaries and they may be used to characterize the competition between the electron-phonon coupling and the Hubbard repulsion.

cond-mat.str-el↗