arXiv subjects

I. Leonov

Publications and source records attributed to I. Leonov.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

Magnetic Collapse and the Behavior of Transition Metal Oxides at High Pressure

We report a detail theoretical study of the electronic structure and phase stability of transition metal oxides MnO, FeO, CoO, and NiO in their paramagnetic cubic B1 structure by employing dynamical mean-field theory of correlated electrons combined with \emph{ab initio} band structure methods (DFT+DMFT). Our calculations reveal that under pressure these materials exhibit a Mott insulator-metal transition (IMT) which is accompanied by a simultaneous collapse of local magnetic moments and lattice volume, implying a complex interplay between chemical bonding and electronic correlations. Moreover, our results for the transition pressure show a monotonous decrease from ~ 145 GPa to 40 GPa, upon moving from MnO to CoO. In contrast to that, in NiO, magnetic collapse is found to occur at remarkably higher pressure of ~ 429 GPa. We provide a unified picture of such a behavior and suggest that it is primary a localized to itinerant moment behavior transition at the IMT that gives rise to magnetic collapse in transition metal oxides.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Metal-insulator transition and local-moment collapse in FeO under pressure

We employ a combination of the \emph{ab initio} band structure methods and dynamical mean-field theory to determine the electronic structure and phase stability of paramagnetic FeO at high pressure and temperature. Our results reveal a high-spin to low-spin transition within the B1 crystal structure of FeO upon compression of the lattice volume above 73~GPa. The spin-state transition is accompanied by an orbital-selective Mott metal-insulator transition (MIT). The lattice volume is found to collapse by about 8.5~\% at the MIT, implying a complex interplay between electronic and lattice degrees of freedom. Our results for the electronic structure and lattice properties are in overall good agreement with experimental data.

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arXiv2015

Metal-Insulator Transition and Lattice Instability of Paramagnetic V2O3

We determine the electronic structure and phase stability of paramagnetic V$_2$O$_3$ at the Mott-Hubbard metal-insulator phase transition, by employing a combination of an ab initio method for calculating band structures with dynamical mean-field theory. The structural transformation associated with the metal-insulator transition is found to occur upon a slight expansion of the lattice volume by $\sim 1.5$ %, in agreement with experiment. Our results show that the structural change precedes the metal-insulator transition, implying a complex interplay between electronic and lattice degrees of freedom at the transition. Electronic correlations and full charge self-consistency are found to be crucial for a correct description of the properties of V$_2$O$_3$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Correlation-driven topological Fermi surface transition in FeSe

The electronic structure and phase stability of paramagnetic FeSe is computed by using a combination of ab initio methods for calculating band structure and dynamical mean-field theory. Our results reveal a topological change (Lifshitz transition) of the Fermi surface upon a moderate expansion of the lattice. The Lifshitz transition is accompanied with a sharp increase of the local moments and results in an entire reconstruction of magnetic correlations from the in-plane magnetic wave vector $(π,π)$ to $(π,0)$. We attribute this behavior to a correlation-induced shift of the Van Hove singularity originating from the $d_{xy}$ and $d_{xz}/d_{yz}$ bands at the M-point across the Fermi level. We propose that superconductivity is strongly influenced, or even induced, by a Van Hove singularity.

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arXiv2014

Electronic correlations determine the phase stability of iron up to the melting temperature

We present theoretical results on the high-temperature phase stability and phonon spectra of paramagnetic bcc iron which explicitly take into account many-body effects. Several peculiarities, including a pronounced softening of the [110] transverse (T$_1$) mode and a dynamical instability of the bcc lattice in harmonic approximation are identified. We relate these features to the $α$-to-$γ$ and $γ$-to-$δ$ phase transformations in iron. The high-temperature bcc phase is found to be highly anharmonic and appears to be stabilized by the lattice entropy.

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arXiv2013

First-principles Calculation of Atomic Forces and Structural Distortions in Strongly Correlated Materials

We introduce a novel computational approach for the investigation of complex correlated electron materials which makes it possible to evaluate interatomic forces and thereby determine atomic displacements and structural transformations induced by electronic correlations. It combines \textit{ab initio} band structure and dynamical mean-field theory and is implemented with the linear-response formalism regarding atomic displacements. We apply this new technique to explore structural transitions of prototypical correlated systems such as elemental hydrogen, SrVO$_3$, and KCuF$_3$.

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arXiv2013

Magnetism of iron and nickel from rotationally invariant Hirsch-Fye quantum Monte Carlo calculations

We present a rotationally invariant Hirsch-Fye quantum Monte Carlo algorithm in which the spin rotational invariance of Hund's exchange is approximated by averaging over all possible directions of the spin quantization axis. We employ this technique to perform benchmark calculations for the two- and three-band Hubbard models on the infinite-dimensional Bethe lattice. Our results agree quantitatively well with those obtained using the continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method with rotationally invariant Coulomb interaction. The proposed approach is employed to compute the electronic and magnetic properties of paramagnetic $α$ iron and nickel. The obtained Curie temperatures agree well with experiment. Our results indicate that the magnetic transition temperature is significantly overestimated by using the density-density type of Coulomb interaction.

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arXiv2012

Rotationally-Invariant Exchange Interaction: The Case of Paramagnetic Iron

We present a generalization of the spin-fluctuation theory of magnetism which allows us to treat the full rotational invariance of the exchange interaction. The approach is formulated in terms of the local density approximation plus dynamical mean-field theory (LDA+DMFT), providing a systematic many-body treatment of the effect of spin-density fluctuations. This technique is employed to study the electronic and magnetic properties of paramagnetic $α$ iron. Our result for the Curie temperature is in good agreement with experiment, while the calculations with the Ising-type exchange interaction yield almost twice overestimated value.

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arXiv2011

Calculated phonon spectra of paramagnetic iron at the alpha-gamma phase transition

We compute lattice dynamical properties of iron at the bcc-fcc phase transition using dynamical mean-field theory implemented with the frozen-phonon method. Electronic correlations are found to have a strong effect on the lattice stability of paramagnetic iron in the bcc phase. Our results for the structural phase stability and lattice dynamical properties of iron are in good agreement with experiment.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2011

Electronic correlations at the alpha-gamma structural phase transition in paramagnetic iron

We compute the equilibrium crystal structure and phase stability of iron at the alpha(bcc)-gamma(fcc) phase transition as a function of temperature, by employing a combination of ab initio methods for calculating electronic band structures and dynamical mean-field theory. The magnetic correlation energy is found to be an essential driving force behind the alpha-gamma structural phase transition in paramagnetic iron.

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arXiv2010

Electronic correlations in short period (CrAs)$_n$/(GaAs)$_n$ ferromagnetic heterostructures

We investigate half-metallicity in [001] stacked (CrAs)$_n$/(GaAs)$_n$ heterostructures with $n \leq 3$ by means of a combined many-body and electronic structure calculation. Interface states in the presence of strong electronic correlations are discussed for the case $n=1$. For $n=2,3$ our results indicate that the minority spin half-metallic gap is suppressed by local correlations at finite temperatures, and continuously shrinks upon increasing the heterostructure period. Although around room temperature the magnetization of the heterostructure deviates by only $2%$ from the ideal integer value, finite temperature polarization at $E_F$ is reduced by at least $25%$. Below the Fermi level the minority spin highest valence states are found to localize more on the GaAs layers while lowest conduction states have a many-body origin. Our results, therefore, suggest that in these heterostructures holes and electrons remain separated among different layers.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Dynamical mean-field approach to materials with strong electronic correlations

We review recent results on the properties of materials with correlated electrons obtained within the LDA+DMFT approach, a combination of a conventional band structure approach based on the local density approximation (LDA) and the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). The application to four outstanding problems in this field is discussed: (i) we compute the full valence band structure of the charge-transfer insulator NiO by explicitly including the p-d hybridization, (ii) we explain the origin for the simultaneously occuring metal-insulator transition and collapse of the magnetic moment in MnO and Fe2O3, (iii) we describe a novel GGA+DMFT scheme in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials which allows us to compute the orbital order and cooperative Jahn-Teller distortion in KCuF3 and LaMnO3, and (iv) we provide a general explanation for the appearance of kinks in the effective dispersion of correlated electrons in systems with a pronounced three-peak spectral function without having to resort to the coupling of electrons to bosonic excitations. These results provide a considerable progress in the fully microscopic investigations of correlated electron materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Computation of correlation-induced atomic displacements and structural transformations in paramagnetic KCuF3 and LaMnO3

We present a computational scheme for ab initio total-energy calculations of materials with strongly interacting electrons using a plane-wave basis set. It combines ab initio band structure and dynamical mean-field theory and is implemented in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials. The present approach allows us to investigate complex materials with strongly interacting electrons and is able to treat atomic displacements, and hence structural transformations, caused by electronic correlations. Here it is employed to investigate two prototypical Jahn-Teller materials, KCuF3 and LaMnO3, in their paramagnetic phases. The computed equilibrium Jahn-Teller distortion and antiferro-orbital order agree well with experiment, and the structural optimization performed for paramagnetic KCuF3 yields the correct lattice constant, equilibrium Jahn-Teller distortion and tetragonal compression of the unit cell. Most importantly, the present approach is able to determine correlation-induced structural transformations, equilibrium atomic positions and lattice structure in both strongly and weakly correlated solids in their paramagnetic phases as well as in phases with long-range magnetic order.

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arXiv2008

Structural relaxation due to electronic correlations in the paramagnetic insulator KCuF3

A computational scheme for the investigation of complex materials with strongly interacting electrons is formulated which is able to treat atomic displacements, and hence structural relaxation, caused by electronic correlations. It combines ab initio band structure and dynamical mean-field theory and is implemented in terms of plane-wave pseudopotentials. The equilibrium Jahn-Teller distortion and antiferro-orbital order found for paramagnetic KCuF3 agree well with experiment.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Optical evidence for symmetry changes above the Neel temperature in KCuF3

We report on optical measurements of the 1D Heisenberg antiferromagnet KCuF3. The crystal-field excitations of the Cu2+ ions have been observed and their temperature dependence can be understood in terms of magnetic and exchange-induced dipole mechanisms and vibronic interactions. Above T_N we observe a new temperature scale T_S characterized by the emergence of narrow absorption features that correlate with changes of the orbital ordering as observed by Paolasini et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 88, 106403 (2002)]. The appearance of these optical transitions provides evidence for a symmetry change above the Neel temperature that affects the orbital ordering and paves the way for the antiferromagnetic ordering.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Construction and solution of a Wannier-functions based Hamiltonian in the pseudopotential plane-wave framework for strongly correlated materials

Ab initio determination of model Hamiltonian parameters for strongly correlated materials is a key issue in applying many-particle theoretical tools to real narrow-band materials. We propose a self-contained calculation scheme to construct, with an ab initio approach, and solve such a Hamiltonian. The scheme uses a Wannier-function-basis set, with the Coulomb interaction parameter U obtained specifically for these Wannier functions via constrained Density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The Hamiltonian is solved by Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT) with the effective impurity problem treated by the Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method. Our scheme is based on the pseudopotential plane-wave method, which makes it suitable for developments addressing the challenging problem of crystal structural relaxations and transformations due to correlation effects. We have applied our scheme to the "charge transfer insulator" material nickel oxide and demonstrate a good agreement with the experimental photoemission spectra.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

LDA+DMFT implemented with the pseudopotential plane-wave approach

We present a joint implementation of dynamical-mean-field theory (DMFT) with the pseudopotential plane-wave approach, via Wannier functions, for the determination of the electronic properties of strongly correlated materials. The scheme uses, as input for the DMFT calculations, a tight-binding Hamiltonian obtained from the plane-wave calculations by projecting onto atomic-centered symmetry-constrained Wannier functions for the correlated orbitals. We apply this scheme to two prototype systems: a paramagnetic correlated metal, SrVO3, and a paramagnetic correlated system, V2O3, which exhibits a metal-insulator transition. Comparison with available Linear-Muffin-Tin-Orbital (LMTO) plus DMFT calculations demonstrate the suitability of the joint DMFT pseudopotential-plane-wave approach to describe the electronic properties of strongly correlated materials. This opens the way to future developments using the pseudopotential-plane-wave DMFT approach to address also total-energy properties, such as structural properties.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

LDA+DMFT computation of the electronic spectrum of NiO

The electronic spectrum, energy gap and local magnetic moment of paramagnetic NiO are computed by using the local density approximation plus dynamical mean-field theory (LDA+DMFT). To this end the noninteracting Hamiltonian obtained within the local density approximation (LDA) is expressed in Wannier functions basis, with only the five anti-bonding bands with mainly Ni 3d character taken into account. Complementing it by local Coulomb interactions one arrives at a material-specific many-body Hamiltonian which is solved by DMFT together with quantum Monte-Carlo (QMC) simulations. The large insulating gap in NiO is found to be a result of the strong electronic correlations in the paramagnetic state. In the vicinity of the gap region, the shape of the electronic spectrum calculated in this way is in good agreement with the experimental x-ray-photoemission and bremsstrahlung-isochromat-spectroscopy results of Sawatzky and Allen. The value of the local magnetic moment computed in the paramagnetic phase (PM) agrees well with that measured in the antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase. Our results for the electronic spectrum and the local magnetic moment in the PM phase are in accordance with the experimental finding that AFM long-range order has no significant influence on the electronic structure of NiO.

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