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M. Carignano

Publications and source records attributed to M. Carignano.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Order in the ground state of a simple cubic dipole lattice in an external field

Motivated by the presence of a lattice of rotating molecular dipoles in the high temperature phase of methylammonium lead iodide, we investigate the ground state of a simple cubic lattice of dipoles interacting with each other via the dipole-dipole interaction and with an external field via the Zeeman interaction. In the absence of an external field, the ground state is infinitely degenerate, and all the configurations in the ground state manifold are periodic along the three lattice axes with period 2. We numerically determine the ground state of a 1000-dipole lattice interacting with an external field, and we analyze the polarization, dipole orientation statistics and correlations in this state. These calculations show that for some special directions of the external field the two-site periodicity in the dipole configurations is preserved, while in the general case this periodicity is lost and complex dipole configurations form in the presence of the external field.

cond-mat.other

Domain boundaries in Luttinger-Tisza ordered dipole lattices

Motivated by the recent interest in the possible ordering of the CH$_3$NH$_3$ dipoles in the material CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$, we investigate the properties of domain boundaries in a simple cubic lattice of dipoles. We perform numerical simulations in which we set the boundary conditions such that the dipoles at opposite sides of the simulated sample are ordered in different directions, hence simulating a domain boundary. We calculate the lowest energy configuration under this constraint. We find that if we consider only dipole-dipole interactions the dipole orientations tend to gradually transform between the two orientations at the two opposite ends of the sample. When we take into consideration the finite spatial size of the CH$_3$NH$_3$ molecules and go beyond the point dipole approximation, we find that the domain boundary becomes sharper. For the parameters of CH$_3$NH$_3$PbI$_3$, our results indicate that the optimal energy structure has a boundary region of a width on the order of a single unit cell.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci