arXiv subjects

Lucian Covaci

Publications and source records attributed to Lucian Covaci.

27 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

An electric-field driven Mott metal-insulator transition in correlated thin films: an inhomogeneous dynamical mean-field theory approach

Simulations are carried out based on the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) in order to investigate the properties of correlated thin films for various values of the chemical potential, temperature, interaction strength, and applied transverse electric field. Application of a sufficiently strong field to a thin film at half-filling leads to the appearance of conducting regions near the surfaces of the film, whereas in doped slabs the application of a field leads to a conductivity enhancement on one side of the film and a gradual transition to the insulating state on the opposite side. In addition to the inhomogeneous DMFT, an independent layer approximation (ILA) is considered, in which the properties of each layer are approximated by a homogeneous bulk environment. A comparison between the two approaches reveals that the less expensive ILA results are in good agreement with the DMFT approach, except close to the metal-to-insulator transition points and in the layers immediately at the film surfaces. The hysteretic behavior (memory effect) characteristic of the bulk doping driven Mott transition persists in the slab.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Adatoms and Anderson localization in graphene

We address the nature of the disordered state that results from the adsorption of adatoms in graphene. For adatoms that sit at the center of the honeycomb plaquette, as in the case of most transition metals, we show that the ones that form a zero-energy resonant state lead to Anderson localization in the vicinity of the Dirac point. Among those, we show that there is a symmetry class of adatoms where Anderson localization is suppressed, leading to an exotic metallic state with large and rare charge droplets, that localizes only at the Dirac point. We identify the experimental conditions for the observation of the Anderson transition for adatoms in graphene.

cond-mat.dis-nn↗

arXiv2011

Superconducting proximity effect in graphene under inhomogeneous strain

The interplay between quantum Hall states and Cooper pairs is usually hindered by the suppression of the superconducting state due to the strong magnetic fields needed to observe the quantum Hall effect. From this point of view graphene is special since it allows the creation of strong pseudo-magnetic fields due to strain. We show that in a Josephson junction made of strained graphene, Cooper pairs will diffuse into the strained region. The pair correlation function will be sub-lattice polarized due to the polarization of the local density of states in the zero pseudo-Landau level. We uncover two regimes; 1) one in which the cyclotron radius is larger than the junction length in which case the supercurrent will be enhanced, and 2) the long junction regime where the supercurrent is strongly suppressed because the junction becomes an insulator. In the latter case quantized Hall states form and Andreev scattering at the normal/superconducting interface will induce edge states. Our numerical calculation has become possible due to an extension of the Chebyshev Bogoliubov-de Gennes method to computations on video cards (GPUs).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Proximity induced pseudogap in mesoscopic superconductor/normal-metal bilayers

Recent scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of the proximity effect in Au/La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ and La$_{1.55}$Sr$_{0.45}$CuO$_{4}$/La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_{4}$ bilayers showed a proximity-induced pseudogap [Yuli et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 103}, 197003 (2009)]. We describe the proximity effect in mesoscopic superconductor/normal-metal bilayers by using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for a tight-binding Hamiltonian with competing antiferromagnetic and d-wave superconductivity orders . The temperature dependent local density of states is calculated as a function of the distance from the interface. Bound state due to both d-wave and spin density wave gaps are formed in the normal metal for energies less than the respective gaps. If there is a mismatch between the Fermi velocities in the two layers we observe that these states will shift in energy when spin density wave order is present, thus inducing a minigap at finite energy. We conclude that the STM measurement in the proximity structures is able to distinguish between the two scenarios proposed for the pseudogap (competing or precursor to superconductivity).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Emerging nonequilibrium bound state in spin-current-local-spin scattering

Magnetization reversal is a well-studied problem with obvious applicability in computer hard-drives. One can accomplish a magnetization reversal in at least one of two ways: application of a magnetic field, or through a spin current. The latter is more amenable to a fully quantum mechanical analysis. We formulate and solve the problem whereby a spin current interacts with a ferromagnetic Heisenberg spin chain, to eventually reverse the magnetization of the chain. Spin-flips are accomplished through both elastic and inelastic scattering. A consequence of the inelastic scattering channel, when it is no longer energetically possible, is the occurrence of a new entity: a non-equilibrium bound state (NEBS), which is an emergent property of the coupled local plus itinerant spin system. For certain definite parameter values the itinerant spin lingers near the local spins for some time, before eventually leaking out as an outwardly diffusing state. This phenomenon results in novel spin-flip dynamics and filtering properties for this type of system.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2009

Polaron formation in the presence of Rashba spin-orbit coupling: implications for spintronics

We study the effects of the Rashba spin-orbit coupling on the polaron formation, using a suitable generalization of the Momentum Average approximation. Contrary to previous investigations of this problem, we find that the spin-orbit interaction decreases the effective electron-phonon coupling. It is thus possible to lower the effective mass of the polaron by increasing the spin-orbit coupling. We also show that when the spin-orbit coupling is large as compared to the phonon energy, the polaron retains only one of the spin polarized bands in its coherent spectrum. This has major implications for the propagation of spin-polarized currents in such materials, and thus for spintronic applications.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2008

Survival of the Dirac points in rippled graphene

We study the effects of the rippling of the graphene sheet on the quasiparticle dispersion. This is achieved using a generalization to the honeycomb lattice of the Momentum Average approximation, which is accurate for all coupling strengths and at all energies. We show that even though the position of the Dirac points may move and the Fermi speed can be renormalized significantly, quasiparticles with very long lifetimes survive near the Dirac points even for very strong couplings.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Holstein polaron: the effect of multiple phonon modes

We generalize the Momentum Average approximations MA$^{(0)}$ and MA$^{(1)}$ to study the effects of coupling to multiple optical phonons on the properties of a Holstein polaron. As for a single phonon mode, these approximations are numerically very efficient. They become exact for very weak or very strong couplings, and are highly accurate in the intermediate regimes, {\em e.g.} the spectral weights obey exactly the first six, respectively eight, sum rules. Our results show that the effect on ground-state properties is cumulative in nature. In particular, if the effective coupling to one mode is much larger than to the others, this mode effectively determines the GS properties. However, even very weak coupling to a second phonon mode has important non-perturbational effects on the higher energy spectrum, in particular on the dispersion and the phonon statistics of the polaron band.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2005

Proximity effect in clean strong/weak/strong superconducting tri-layers

Recent measurements of the Josephson critical current through LSCO/LCO/LSCO thin films showed an unusually large proximity effect. Using the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equations for a tight binding Hamiltonian we describe the proximity effect in weak links between a superconductor with critical temperature $T_c$ and one with critical temperature $T_c$', where $T_c>T_c$'. The weak link (N') is therefore a superconductor above its own critical temperature and the superconducting regions are considered to have either s-wave or d-wave symmetry. We note that the proximity effect is enhanced due to the presence of superconducting correlations in the weak link. The dc Josephson current is calculated, and we obtain a non-zero value for temperatures greater than $T_c$' for sizes of the weak links that can be almost an order of magnitude greater than the conventional coherence length. Considering pockets of superconductivity in the N' layer, we show that this can lead to an even larger effect on the Josephson critical current by effectively shortening the weak link.

cond-mat.supr-con↗