arXiv subjects

Jiří Chaloupka

Publications and source records attributed to Jiří Chaloupka.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Orbital Order and Superconductivity in Bilayer Nickelate Compounds

We propose a theory for bilayer nickelate materials, where a large tetragonal field - intrinsic or induced by epitaxial strain - lifts the orbital degeneracy and localizes the $3z^2-r^2$ orbital states. These states host local spins $S=1/2$ bound into singlets by strong interlayer coupling, and their dynamics is described by weakly dispersive singlet-triplet excitations ("triplons"). The charge carriers occupy the wide bands of $x^2-y^2$ symmetry, and their Cooper pairing is mediated by the high-energy triplon excitations. As the $x^2-y^2$ band filling increases, i.e., moving further away from the Ni$^{3+}$ valence state, the indirect Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida interactions between local spins induce spin-density-wave order via triplon condensation. Implications of the model for compressively strained La$_3$Ni$_2$O$_7$ films and electron doped oxychloride Sr$_3$Ni$_2$O$_5$Cl$_2$ are discussed.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Superconductivity in the spin-state crossover materials: Nickelates with planar-coordinated low-spin Ni$^{2+}$ ions

We theoretically study quasi-two-dimensional nickel compounds, where the nickel ions assume Ni$^{2+}$ $d^8$ valence state and feature a low-spin $S=0$ ground state quasidegenerate with $S=1$ ionic excitations. Such a level structure is supported by square-planar coordination of nickel ions or a suitable substitution of apical oxygens. We construct the corresponding singlet-triplet exchange model and explore its phase diagram and excitation spectrum. By hole doping, we further introduce mobile Ni$^{3+}$ $d^7$ ionic configurations with effective spins $S=1/2$, and analyze their interactions with the $d^8$ singlet-triplet background. The interplay with the triplet excitations in the $d^8$ sector is found to have a deep impact on the propagation of the doped hole-like charge carriers and is identified as a powerful source of Cooper pairing among them.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Magnetic polarons due to spin-length fluctuations in $\boldsymbol{d}^\mathbf{4}$ spin-orbit Mott systems

Mott insulators based on $4d$ and $5d$ transition-metal ions, where spin-orbit interaction plays a key role, can exhibit various forms of unusual magnetism. A particular example is the antiferromagnet Ca$_2$RuO$_4$ containing $d^4$ Ru$^{4+}$ ions. Here the spin-orbit interaction stabilizes the non-magnetic $J=0$ singlet ionic ground state, which gets dynamically mixed - via exchange interactions - with low-energy $J=1$ ionic excitations. Thanks to a sufficient strength of the exchange, these excitations condense and a long-range order emerges. The resulting ordered moments are soft and prone to fluctuations of their effective length. The corresponding amplitude mode appears as a prominent magnetic excitation and complements the conventional magnons involving rotations of the moments. Motivated by this peculiar kind of magnetic order and the specific spectrum of magnetic excitations, we study their influence on the propagation of doped carriers. To this end, we construct a microscopic model including both $d^4$ and $d^5$ degrees of freedom and address the propagation of an injected electron by employing self-consistent Born approximation. We find that the electron shows a combination of both free and a polaronic type of motion, where the mobile carrier strongly interacts with an accompanying cloud of magnetic excitations. Remarkably, in the latter case it is the exotic excitation - the amplitude mode - that is found to dominate over the contribution of magnons. Our soft-spin situation thus largely contrasts with spin polarons widely discussed in the context of doped Heisenberg-like magnets based on rigid spin moments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Emergent transverse-field Ising model in $\boldsymbol{d}^\mathbf{4}$ spin-orbit Mott insulators

Mott-insulating transition metal oxides containing $t_{2g}^4$ ions with strong spin-orbit coupling were recently demonstrated to display unusual magnetism due to a dynamical mixing of the low-energy multiplet states via exchange processes. Here we derive exchange interactions in the situation where a tetragonal or trigonal crystal field selects a single relevant excited state on top of the singlet ionic ground state, producing an effective spin-$\frac12$. We show that these moments universally obey antiferromagnetic transverse-field Ising model (TFIM) with an intrinsic transverse field generated by the splitting of the two ionic singlets. Using Ru$^{4+}$ as a example ion, we provide quantitative estimates of the exchange and illustrate the emergent TFIM physics based on phase diagrams and excitation spectra obtained for several 2D lattices - square, honeycomb, as well as for the frustrated triangular lattice.

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arXiv2019

Highly frustrated magnetism in relativistic $\boldsymbol{d}^\mathbf{4}$ Mott insulators: Bosonic analog of Kitaev honeycomb model

We study the orbitally frustrated singlet-triplet models that emerge in the context of spin-orbit coupled Mott insulators with $t_{2g}^4$ electronic configuration. In these compounds, low-energy magnetic degrees of freedom can be cast in terms of three-flavor "triplon" operators describing the transitions between spin-orbit entangled $J=0$ ionic ground state and excited $J=1$ levels. In contrast to a conventional, flavor-isotropic O(3) singlet-triplet models, spin-orbit entangled triplon interactions are flavor-and-bond selective and thus highly frustrated. In a honeycomb lattice, we find close analogies with the Kitaev spin model -- an infinite number of conserved quantities, no magnetic condensation, and spin correlations being strictly short-ranged. However, due to the bosonic nature of triplons, there are no emergent gapless excitations within the spin gap, and ground state is a strongly correlated paramagnet of dense triplon pairs with no long-range entanglement. Using exact diagonalization, we study the bosonic Kitaev model and its various extensions, which break exact symmetries of the model and allow magnetic condensation of triplons. Possible implications for magnetism of ruthenium oxides are discussed.

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arXiv2019

Kitaev-like honeycomb magnets: Global phase behavior and emergent effective models

Compounds of transition metal ions with strong spin-orbit coupling recently attracted attention due to the possibility to host frustrated bond-dependent anisotropic magnetic interactions. In general, such interactions lead to complex phase diagrams that may include exotic phases, e.g. the Kitaev spin liquid. Here we report on our comprehensive analysis of the global phase diagram of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model relevant to honeycomb lattice compounds Na2IrO3 and alpha-RuCl3. We have utilized recently developed method based on spin coherent states that enabled us to resolve arbitrary spin patterns in the cluster ground states obtained by exact diagonalization. Global trends in the phase diagram are understood in combination with the analytical mappings of the Hamiltonian that uncover peculiar links to known models - Heisenberg, Ising, Kitaev, or compass models on the honeycomb lattice - or reveal entire manifolds of exact fluctuation-free ground states. Finally, our study can serve as a methodological example that can be applied to other spin models with complex bond-dependent non-Heisenberg interactions.

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arXiv2017

Raman scattering from Higgs mode oscillations in the two-dimensional antiferromagnet Ca$_2$RuO$_4$

We present and analyze Raman spectra of the Mott insulator Ca$_2$RuO$_4$, whose quasi-two-dimensional antiferromagnetic order has been described as a condensate of low-lying spin-orbit excitons with angular momentum $J_{eff}=1$. In the $A_g$ polarization geometry, the amplitude (Higgs) mode of the spin-orbit condensate is directly probed in the scalar channel, thus avoiding infrared-singular magnon contributions. In the $B_{1g}$ geometry, we observe a single-magnon peak as well as two-magnon and two-Higgs excitations. Model calculations using exact diagonalization quantitatively agree with the observations. Together with recent neutron scattering data, our study provides strong evidence for excitonic magnetism in Ca$_2$RuO$_4$ and points out new perspectives for research on the Higgs mode in two dimensions.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Phase diagram and spin correlations of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model: Importance of quantum effects

We explore the phase diagram of the Kitaev-Heisenberg model with nearest neighbor interactions on the honeycomb lattice using the exact diagonalization of finite systems combined with the cluster mean field approximation, and supplemented by the insights from the linear spin-wave and second--order perturbation theories. This study confirms that by varying the balance between the Heisenberg and Kitaev term, frustrated exchange interactions stabilize in this model four phases with magnetic long range order: Néel phase, ferromagnetic phase, and two other phases with coexisting antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic bonds, zigzag and stripy phases. They are separated by two disordered quantum spin-liquid phases, and the one with ferromagnetic Kitaev interactions has a substantially broader range of stability as the neighboring competing ordered phases, ferromagnetic and stripy, have very weak quantum fluctuations. Focusing on the quantum spin-liquid phases, we study spatial spin correlations and dynamic spin structure factor of the model by the exact diagonalization technique, and discuss the evolution of gapped low-energy spin response across the quantum phase transitions between the disordered spin liquid and magnetic phases with long range order.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Magnetic anisotropy in the Kitaev model systems Na2IrO3 and RuCl3

We study the ordered moment direction in the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model relevant to honeycomb lattice magnets with strong spin-orbit coupling. We utilize numerical diagonalization and analyze the exact cluster groundstates using a particular set of spin coherent states, obtaining thereby quantum corrections to the magnetic anisotropy beyond conventional perturbative methods. It is found that the quantum fluctuations strongly modify the moment direction obtained at a classical level, and are thus crucial for a precise quantification of the interactions. The results show that the moment direction is a sensitive probe of the model parameters in real materials. Focusing on the experimentally relevant zigzag phases of the model, we analyze the currently available neutron and resonant x-ray diffraction data on Na2IrO3 and RuCl3, and discuss the parameter regimes plausible in these Kitaev-Heisenberg model systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2016

Role of the upper branch of the hour-glass magnetic spectrum in the formation of the main kink in the electronic dispersion of high-T$_\text{c}$ cuprate superconductors

We investigate the electronic dispersion of the high-T$_{\mathrm{c}}$ cuprate superconductors using the fully self-consistent version of the phenomenological model, where charge planar quasiparticles are coupled to spin fluctuations. The inputs we use ---the underlying (bare) band structure and the spin susceptibility $χ$--- are extracted from fits of angle resolved photoemission and inelastic neutron scattering data of underdoped YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.6}$ by T. Dahm and coworkers (T. Dahm et al., Nat. Phys. 5, 217 (2009)). Our main results are: (i) We have confirmed the finding by T. Dahm and coworkers that the main nodal kink is, for the present values of the input parameters, determined by the upper branch of the hour-glass of $χ$. We demonstrate that the properties of the kink depend qualitatively on the strength of the charge-spin coupling. (ii) The effect of the resonance mode of $χ$ on the electronic dispersion strongly depends on its kurtosis in the quasimomentum space. A low (high) kurtosis implies a negligible (considerable) effect of the mode on the dispersion in the near-nodal region. (iii) The energy of the kink decreases as a function of the angle $θ$ between the Fermi surface cut and the nodal direction, in qualitative agreement with recent experimental observations. We clarify the trend and make a specific prediction concerning the angular dependence of the kink energy in underdoped YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{6.6}$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2016

Doping-Induced Ferromagnetism and Possible Triplet Pairing in d4 Mott Insulators

We study the effects of electron doping in Mott insulators containing d^4 ions such as Ru4+, Os4+, Rh5+, and Ir5+ with J=0 singlet ground state. Depending on the strength of the spin-orbit coupling, the undoped systems are either nonmagnetic or host an unusual, excitonic magnetism arising from a condensation of the excited J=1 triplet states of t_2g^4. We find that the interaction between J-excitons and doped carriers strongly supports ferromagnetism, converting both the nonmagnetic and antiferromagnetic phases of the parent insulator into a ferromagnetic metal, and further to a nonmagnetic metal. Close to the ferromagnetic phase, the low-energy spin response is dominated by intense paramagnon excitations that may act as mediators of a triplet pairing.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2015

Hidden symmetries of the extended Kitaev-Heisenberg model: Implications for honeycomb lattice iridates A2IrO3

We have explored the hidden symmetries of a generic four-parameter nearest-neighbor spin model, allowed in honeycomb lattice compounds under trigonal compression. Our method utilizes a systematic algorithm to identify all dual transformations of the model that map the Hamiltonian on itself, changing the parameters and providing exact links between different points in its parameter space. We have found the complete set of points of hidden SU(2) symmetry at which seemingly highly anisotropic model can be mapped back on the Heisenberg model and inherits therefore its properties such as the presence of gapless Goldstone modes. The procedure used to search for the hidden symmetries is quite general and may be extended to other bond-anisotropic spin models and other lattices, such as the triangular, kagome, hyper-honeycomb, or harmonic-honeycomb lattices. We apply our findings to the honeycomb lattice iridates Na2IrO3 and Li2IrO3, and illustrate how they help to identify plausible values of the model parameters that are compatible with the available experimental data.

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arXiv2014

Evidence for a superconducting origin of prominent features of the in-plane infrared response of underdoped cuprates and implications of their persistence above $T_{\mathrm{c}}$

We report on results of our analysis of published experimental data of the in-plane infrared response of two representative underdoped high-$T_{\mathrm{c}}$ cuprate superconductors, focusing on a characteristic gap feature in the spectra of the real part of the conductivity and the corresponding structures of the memory function, that develop below a temperature $T^{\mathrm{ons}}$ considerably higher than $T_{\mathrm{c}}$. Several arguments based on comparisons of the data with results of our calculations are provided indicating that the features are due to superconductivity and that $T^{\mathrm{ons}}$ marks the onset of a precursor superconducting phase.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2013

Spin-state Crossover Model for the Magnetism of Iron Pnictides

We propose a minimal model describing magnetic behavior of Fe-based superconductors. The key ingredient of the model is a dynamical mixing of quasi-degenerate spin states of Fe2+ ion by intersite electron hoppings, resulting in an effective local spin Seff. The moments Seff tend to form singlet pairs, and may condense into a spin nematic phase due to the emergent biquadratic exchange couplings. The long-range ordered part m of Seff varies widely, 0<=m<=Seff, but magnon spectra are universal and scale with Seff, resolving the puzzle of large but fluctuating Fe-moments. Unusual temperature dependences of a local moment and spin susceptibility are also explained.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

On the Origin of Zigzag Magnetic Order in Iridium Oxide Na2IrO3

We explore the phase diagram of spin-orbit Mott insulators on a honeycomb lattice, within the Kitaev-Heisenberg model extended to its full parameter space. Zigzag-type magnetic order is found to occupy a large part of the phase diagram of the model, and its physical origin is explained as due to interorbital t2g-eg hopping. Magnetic susceptibility and spin wave spectra are calculated and compared to the experimental data, obtaining thereby the spin coupling constants in Na2IrO3 and Li2IrO3.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Spin-Orbital Liquid on a Triangular Lattice

Using Lanczos exact diagonalization of finite clusters we demonstrate that the spin-orbital $d^1$ model for triply degenerate $t_{2g}$ orbitals on a triangular lattice provides an example of a spin-orbital liquid ground state. We also show that the spin-orbital liquid involves entangled valence bond states which violate the Goodenough-Kanamori rules, and modify effective spin exchange constants.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Spin-orbital resonating valence bond liquid on a triangular lattice: Evidence from finite-cluster diagonalization

We investigate the ground state of the $d^1$ spin-orbital model for triply degenerate $t_{2g}$ orbitals on a triangular lattice which unifies intrinsic frustration of spin and orbital interactions with geometrical frustration. Using full or Lanczos exact diagonalization of finite clusters we establish that the ground state of the spin-orbital model which interpolates between the superexchange and direct exchange interactions on the bonds is characterized by valence-bond correlations. In the absence of Hund's exchange the model describes a competition between various possible valence-bond states. By considering the clusters with open boundary conditions we demonstrate that orbital interactions are always frustrated, but this frustration is removed by pronounced spin singlet correlations which coexist with supporting them dimer orbital correlations. Such local configurations contribute to the disordered ground states found for the clusters with periodic boundary conditions which interpolate between a highly resonating, dimer-based, entangled spin-orbital liquid phase, and a valence-bond state with completely static spin-singlet states. We argue that these states are also realized for the infinite lattice and anticipate that pronounced transitions between different regimes found for particular geometries will turn out to smooth crossovers in the properties of the spin-orbital liquid in the thermodynamic limit. Finally, we provide evidence that the resonating spin-orbital liquid phase involves entangled states on the bonds. In such a phase classical considerations based on the mean-field theory cannot be used, spin exchange interactions do not determine spin bond correlations, and quantum fluctuations play a crucial role in the ground states and magnetic transitions.

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