arXiv subjects

Jean-Pierre Julien

Publications and source records attributed to Jean-Pierre Julien.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Electronic structure and transport in materials with flat bands: 2D materials and quasicrystals

In this review, we present recent works on materials whose common point is the presence of electronic bands of very low dispersion, called "flat bands", which are due to specific atomic order effects without electron interactions. These states are always indicative of some form of confinement and have consequences on the electronic properties. A first part is devoted to the cases where this confinement is due to the long-range geometry of the defect-free structure. We have thus studied periodic approximant structures of quasiperiodic Penrose and octagonal tilings, and twisted bilayers of graphene (TBG) or transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) whose rotation angle between the two layers assumes a special value, called "magic angle". In these materials, the flat bands correspond to electronic states distributed over a very large number of atoms (several hundreds or even thousands of atoms). We have shown that their electronic transport properties cannot be described by usual Bloch-Boltzmann theories, because the interband terms of the velocity operator dominate the intraband terms as far as quantum diffusion is concerned. In the case of TBG, flat bands can induce a magnetic state and other electron-electron correlation effects. The second part focuses on two-dimensional nanomaterials in the presence of local point defects that cause resonant electronic states (vacancies, adsorbed atoms or molecules). We present studies on monolayer graphene, twisted or Bernal bilayer graphene, carbon nanotubes, monolayer and multilayer black phosphorene, and monolayer TMDs. A recent result is the discovery that the selective functionalization of a Bernal bilayer graphene sublattice leads to a metallic or insulating behavior depending on the functionalized sublattice type. This result suggests that functionalization can be a key parameter to control the electronic properties of 2D materials.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2025

Surface Local Impurity Scattering as a Probe for Topological Kondo Insulators

Shortly after the discovery of topological band insulators, topological Kondo insulators (TKIs) have also been theoretically predicted. The latter has ignited revival interest in the properties of Kondo insulators. Currently, the feasibility of topological nature in SmB$_6$ has been intensively analyzed by several complementary probes. Here by starting with a minimal-orbital Anderson lattice model, we explore the local electronic structure in a Kondo insulator. We show that the two strong topological regimes sandwiching the weak topological regime give rise to a single Dirac cone, which is located near the center or corner of the surface Brillouin zone. We further find that, when a single impurity is placed on the surface, low-energy resonance states are induced in the weak scattering limit for the strong TKI regimes and the resonance level moves monotonically across the hybridization gap with the strength of impurity scattering potential; while low energy states can only be induced in the unitary scattering limit for the weak TKI regime, where the resonance level moves universally toward the center of the hybridization gap. These impurity-induced low-energy quasiparticles will lead to characteristic signatures in scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, which has recently found success in probing into exotic properties in heavy fermion systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

First-Principles Study of the Fermi Surface Topology of CeCu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$

Since the discovery of heavy-fermion superconductivity in CeCu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$, the material has attracted great interest particularly with regard to the nature of the superconducting pairing and its mechanism. Consequently, it is essential to better understand the electronic Fermi surface topology and its role in strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations. The standard density functional theory method is insufficient to model the interplay of strong onsite Coulomb repulsion in localized 4{\it f}-electrons and their hybridization with itinerant ligand-orbital electrons. We have performed electronic ground state calculations on CeCu$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ using the Gutzwiller wavefunction approximation. The Gutzwiller approximation captures the quasiparticle band renormalization from the strong onsite Coulomb repulsion. We have performed an analysis of this effect on the electronic structure and the Fermi surface topology by varying the interaction strength and taking into account the crystal-field splitting. Using the de Haas van Alphen effect, the extremal Fermi surface cross-sectional areas were calculated to quantify the effects of quasiparticle mass renormalization on the Fermi surface. Our results confirm two Fermi surface sheets corresponding to the heavy (488m$_{e}$) and light (4.35m$_{e}$) quasiparticles, which is in close agreement with experimental measurements as well as the renormalized band method.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Model for the dynamics of carrier injection in a band with polaronic states: Application to exciton dissociation in organic solar cells

We develop a quantum model for the dynamics of carrier injection in a band that presents a strong carrier-vibration coupling. This coupling modifies the spectral density of the band and can even create pseudo-gaps that sign the onset of polaronic states. The injection of a carrier that interacts with many vibration modes is a complex many-body process that is treated by combining the quantum scattering theory and the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT). For the model analysed here, which is adapted to compact phases, the number Z of neighbors of a given site is large and in this limit the DMFT becomes exact. The model is applied to the excitonic dissociation at the donor-acceptor interface for organic solar cells. The main ingredients are the electron-hole Coulomb interaction, the recombination process and the existence of polaronic states in the acceptor band. Using parameters extracted from ab-initio calculations we analyze the spectral density on the charge transfer state (CTS), the average energy transfered to phonons on the CTS and the quantum yield of the injection process. We find in particular that, even with a strong electron-vibration coupling, one can get a vibrationally cold charge transfer state with a high injection yield as often observed experimentally.

cond-mat.other↗

arXiv2019

Modelization of charge carriers mobilities in halide perovskites: Fröhlich scattering and quantum localization effects in a dynamic disorder regime

We analyze the quantum transport properties of MAPbI3 within a tight-binding model. Charge carriers are strongly scattered by the Fröhlich interaction with longitudinal optical phonon modes. This limits their mobilities at room temperature to the order of 200 cm$^2$/Vs. In the presence of additional extrinsic disorder the mobility decreases and a large fraction of the electronic states at band edges can be localized. These states would be insulating if the lattice were static, but their localization is broken by the dynamic disorder induced by the vibrations of the longitudinal optical modes. This process of electrons and holes diffusion, driven by the lattice dynamics, contributes to the unique electronic properties of this material.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2015

Explicit inclusion of electronic correlation effects in molecular dynamics

We design a quantum molecular dynamics method for strongly correlated electron metals. The strong electronic correlation effects are treated within a real-space version of the Gutzwiller variational approximation (GA), which is suitable for the inhomogeneity inherent in the process of quantum molecular dynamics (MD) simulation. We also propose an efficient algorithm based on the second-moment approximation to the electronic density of states for the search of the optimal variation parameters, from which the effective renormalized interatomic MD potentials are fully determined. By considering a minimal one-correlated-orbital Anderson many-particle model based on tight-binding hopping integrals, this fast GA-MD method is benchmarked with that using exact diagonalization to solve the GA variational parameters. In the infinite damping limit, the efficiency and accuracy are illustrated. This novel method will open up an unprecedented opportunity enabling large-scale quantum MD simulations of strongly correlated electronic materials.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Local Electronic Structure and Fano Interference in Tunneling into a Kondo Hole System

Motivated by recent success of local electron tunneling into heavy fermion materials, we study the local electronic structure around a single Kondo hole in an Anderson lattice model and the Fano interference pattern relevant to STM experiments. Within the Gutzwiller method, we find that an intragap bound state exists in the heavy Fermi liquid regime. The energy position of the intragap bound state is dependent on the on-site potential scattering strength in the conduction and $f$-orbital channels. Within the same method, we derive a new $dI/dV$ formulation, which includes explicitly the renormalization effect due to the $f$-electron correlation. It is found that the Fano interference gives asymmetric coherent peaks separated by the hybridization gap. The intragap peak structure has a Lorenzian shape, and the corresponding $dI/dV$ intensity depends on the energy location of the bound state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Extended Recursion in Operator Space (EROS), a new impurity solver for the single impurity Anderson model

We have developed a new efficient and accurate impurity solver for the single impurity Anderson model (SIAM), which is based on a non-perturbative recursion technique in a space of operators and involves expanding the self-energy as a continued fraction. The method has no special occupation number or temperature restrictions; the only approximation is the number of levels of the continued fraction retained in the expansion. We also show how this approach can be used as a new approach to Dynamical Mean Field Theory (DMTF) and illustrate this with the Hubbard model. The three lowest orders of recursion give the Hartree-Fock, Hubbard I, and Hubbard III approximations. A higher level of recursion is able to reproduce the expected 3-peak structure in the spectral function and Fermi liquid behavior.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Coulomb correlation in presence of spin-orbit coupling: application to plutonium

Attempts to go beyond the local density approximation (LDA) of Density Functional Theory (DFT) have been increasingly based on the incorporation of more realistic Coulomb interactions. In their earliest implementations, methods like LDA+$U$, LDA + DMFT (Dynamical Mean Field Theory), and LDA+Gutzwiller used a simple model interaction $U$. In this article we generalize the solution of the full Coulomb matrix involving $F^{(0)}$ to $F^{(6)}$ parameters, which is usually presented in terms of an $\ell m_\ell$ basis, into a $jm_{j}$ basis of the total angular momentum, where we also include spin-orbit coupling; this type of theory is needed for a reliable description of $f$-state elements like plutonium, which we use as an example of our theory. Close attention will be paid to spin-flip terms, which are important in multiplet theory but that have been usually neglected in these kinds of studies. We find that, in a density-density approximation, the $jm_j$ basis results provide a very good approximation to the full Coulomb matrix result, in contrast to the much less accurate results for the more conventional $\ell m_\ell$ basis.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Importance of on-site interaction in graphene

We use the Gutzwiller method to investigate the importance of the on-site Coulomb interaction in graphene. We apply it to Hubbard Hamiltonian to study the renormalization of the kinetic energy in graphene due to the on-site Coulomb interaction. We find that a reasonable strength of the interaction has a very weak effect in reducing the kinetic energy. Hence we predict that the Brinkmann-Rice metal-insulator transition in graphene is not possible. The effect is understood in terms of the high kinetic energy in graphene.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Quantum transport of slow charge carriers in quasicrystals and correlated systems

We show that the semi-classical model of conduction breaks down if the mean free path of charge carriers is smaller than a typical extension of their wavefunction. This situation is realized for sufficiently slow charge carriers and leads to a transition from a metallic like to an insulating like regime when scattering by defects increases. This explains the unconventional conduction properties of quasicrystals and related alloys. The conduction properties of some heavy fermions or polaronic systems, where charge carriers are also slow, present a deep analogy.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗