arXiv subjects

Myung Joon Han

Publications and source records attributed to Myung Joon Han.

70 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2014

Spin-orbital Entangled Molecular $j_{\rm eff}$ States in Lacunar Spinel Compounds

The entanglement of the spin and orbital degrees of freedom through the spin-orbit coupling has been actively studied in condensed matter physics. In several iridium-oxide systems, the spin-orbital entangled state, identified by the effective angular momentum $j_{\rm eff}$, can host novel quantum phases with the help of electron correlations. Here, we show that a series of lacunar spinel compounds, Ga$M_4X_8$ ($M$ = Nb, Mo, Ta, and W and $X$ = S, Se, and Te), gives rise to a $\textit{molecular}$ $j_{\rm eff}$ state as a new spin-orbital composite on which the low energy effective Hamiltonian is based. A wide range of electron correlations is accessible by tuning the bandwidth under external and/or chemical pressure, enabling us to investigate the interesting cooperation between spin-orbit coupling and electron correlations. As illustrative examples, a two-dimensional topological insulating phase and an anisotropic spin Hamiltonian are investigated in the weak and strong coupling regimes, respectively. Our finding can provide an ideal platform for exploring $j_{\rm eff}$ physics and the resulting emergent phenomena.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Quasiparticle self-consistent GW study of LaNiO$_3$ and LaNiO$_3$/LaAlO$_3$ superlattice

Using quasiparticle self-consistent $GW$ calculations we examined the electronic structure of LaNiO$_3$ and the LaNiO$_3$/LaAlO$_3$ superlattice. The effects of electron correlation in Ni-$d$ bands were reasonably well described without any {\it ad hoc} parameter and without the ambiguity related to the double-counting and downfolding issues. The effective mass is about $30\%$ enhanced compared to the GGA result. One band feature, which is believed to be essential for the cuprate-like superconductivity, is not realized and the central Fermi surface pocket does not disappear. Our result is consistent with a recent dynamical mean field calculation based on the $d$--$p$ model and in contrast to the result from a $d$-band only model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Electronic Structure and Magnetic Properties of Iridate Superlattice SrIrO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$

Motivated by an experimental report of iridate superlattices, we performed first-principle electronic structure calculations for SrIrO$_3$/SrTiO$_3$. Heterostructuring causes SrIrO$_3$ to become Sr$_2$IrO$_4$-like, and the system has the well-defined $j_{\rm eff}$=1/2 states near the Fermi level as well as canted antiferromagnetic order within the quasi-two-dimensional IrO$_2$ plane. In response to a larger tensile strain, the band gap is increased due to the resulting increase in bond length and the bandwidth reduction. The ground state magnetic properties are discussed in comparison to the metastable collinear antiferromagnetic state. Our work sheds new light for understanding the recent experimental results on the iridate heterostructures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2014

Fermi level density of states modulation without charge transfer in nickelate superlattices

By using first-principles density functional theory calculations for (LaNiO3)m/(SrTiO3)n superlattices, we report a systematic way of electronic response to the interface geometry. It is found that Fermi level density of states of metallic nickelate layers is significantly reduced without charge transfer in the vicinity of interface to the insulating SrTiO3. This type of electronic state redistribution is clearly distinctive from other interface phenomena such as charge and orbital reconstruction. Our result sheds new light towards understanding the nickelates and other transitionmetal oxide heterostructures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

A Novel High-Pressure Monoclinic Metallic Phase of V2O3

Vanadium sesquioxide, V2O3, is a prototypical metal-to-insulator system where, in temperature-dependent studies, the transition always coincides with a corundum-to-monoclinic structural transition. As a function of pressure, V2O3 follows the expected behavior of increased metallicity due to a larger bandwidth for pressures up to 12.5 GPa. Surprisingly, for higher pressures when the structure becomes unstable, the resistance starts to increase. Around 32.5 GPa at 300 K, we observe a novel pressure-induced corundum-to-monoclinic transition between two metallic phases, showing that the structural phase transition can be decoupled from the metal-insulator transition. Using X-ray Raman scattering, we find that screening effects, which are strong in the corundum phase, become weakened at high pressures. Theoretical calculations indicate that this can be related to a decrease in coherent quasiparticle strength, suggesting that the high-pressure phase is likely a critical correlated metal, on the verge of Mott-insulating behavior.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Structure, strain, and control of ground state property in LaTiO$_3$/LaAlO$_3$ superlattice

Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we examined the ground state property of LaTiO$_3$/LaAlO$_3$ superlattice. Total energy calculations, taking account of the structural distortions, $U$ dependence, and exchange correlation functional dependence, show that the spin and orbital ground state can be controlled systematically by the epitaxial strain. In the wide range of strains, ferromagnetic spin and antiferro orbital ordering are stabilized, which is notably different from the previously reported ground state in titanate systems. By applying large tensile strains, the system can be transformed into an antiferromagnetic spin and ferro-orbital-ordered phase.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Collinear and non-collinear spin ground state of wurtzite CoO

Collinear and non-collinear spin structures of wurtzite phase CoO often appearing in nano-sized samples are investigated using first-principles density functional theory calculations. We examined the total energy of several different spin configurations, electronic structure and the effective magnetic coupling strengths. It is shown that the AF3-type antiferromagnetic ordering is energetically most stable among possible collinear configurations. Further, we found that a novel spiral spin order can be stabilized by including the relativistic spin-orbit coupling and the non-collinearity of spin direction. Our result suggests that a non-collinear spin ground state can be observed in the transition-metal-oxide nanostructures which adds an interesting new aspect to the nano-magnetism study.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2013

Charge transfer, confinement, and ferromagnetism in LaMnO$_3$/LaNiO$_3$ (001)-superlattice

Using first-principles density functional theory calculations, we investigated the electronic structure and magnetic properties of (LaMnO$_3$)$_m$/(LaNiO$_3$)$_n$ superlattices stacked along (001)-direction. The electrons are transferred from Mn to Ni, and the magnetic moments are induced at Ni sites that are paramagnetic in bulk and other types of superlattices. The size of induced moment is linearly proportional to the amount of transferred electrons, but it is larger than the net charge transfer because the spin and orbital directions play important roles and complicate the transfer process. The charge transfer and magnetic properties of the ($m$,$n$) superlattice can be controlled by changing the $m/n$ ratio. Considering the ferromagnetic couplings between Mn and Ni spins and the charge transfer characteristic, we propose the (2,1) superlattice as the largest moment superlattice carrying $\sim8μ_B$ per formula unit.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2012

Spin moment formation and reduced orbital polarization in LaNiO$_3$/LaAlO$_3$ superlattice: LDA+U study

Density functional band calculations have been performed to study LaNiO$_3$/LaAlO$_3$ superlattices. Motivated by recent experiments reporting the magnetic and metal-insulator phase transition as a function of LaNiO$_3$ layer thickness, we examined the electronic structure, magnetic properties, and orbital occupation depending on the number of LaNiO$_3$ layers. Calculations show that the magnetic phase is stabler than the nonmagnetic for finite and positive $U$ values. The orbital polarization is significantly reduced by $U$ even in the magnetic regions. The implications of the results are discussed in comparison to recent experimental and theoretical studies within the limitations of the LDA$+U$ method.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Electronic structure and orbital polarization of LaNiO$_3$ with a reduced coordination and under strain: first-principles study

First-principles density functional theory calculations have been performed to understand the electronic structure and orbital polarization of LaNiO$_3$ with a reduced coordination and under strain. From the slab calculation to simulate [001] surface, it is found that $d_{3z^2-r^2}$ orbital occupation is significantly enhanced relative to $d_{x^2-y^2}$ occupation owing to the reduced coordination along the perpendicular direction to the sample plane. Furthermore, the sign of the orbital polarization does not change under external strain. The results are discussed in comparison to the bulk and heterostructure cases, which sheds new light on the understanding of the available experimental data.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Chemical control of orbital polarization in artificially structured transition-metal oxides: La2NiXO6 (X=B, Al, Ga, In) from first principles

The application of modern layer-by-layer growth techniques to transition-metal oxide materials raises the possibility of creating new classes of materials with rationally designed correlated electron properties. An important step toward this goal is the demonstration that electronic structure can be controlled by atomic composition. In compounds with partially occupied transition-metal d shells, one important aspect of the electronic structure is the relative occupancy of different d orbitals. Previous work has established that strain and quantum confinement can be used to influence orbital occupancy. In this paper we demonstrate a different modality for orbital control in transition-metal oxide heterostructures, using density-functional band calculations supplemented by a tight-binding analysis to show that the choice of nontransition-metal counterion X in transition-metal oxide heterostructures composed of alternating LaNiO3 and LaXO3 units strongly affects orbital occupancy, changing the magnitude and in some cases the sign of the orbital polarization.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2010

Dimensional trend in CePt2In7, Ce-115 compounds, and CeIn3

We present realistic Kondo-lattice simulation results for the recently-discovered heavy-fermion antiferromagnet CePt2In7 comparing with its three-dimensional counterpart CeIn3 and the less two-dimensional ones, Ce-115's. We find that the distance to the magnetic quantum critical point is the largest for CeIn3 and the smallest for Ce-115's, and CePt2In7 falls in between. We argue that the trend in quasi-two-dimensional materials stems from the frequency dependence of the hybridization between Cerium 4f-electrons and the conduction bands.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

First Principle Simulations of Heavy Fermion Cerium Compounds Based on the Kondo Lattice

We propose a new framework for first-principle calculations of heavy-fermion materials. These are described in terms of the Kondo lattice Hamiltonian with the parameters extracted from a realistic density functional based calculation which is then solved using continuous-time quantum Monte Carlo method and dynamical mean field theory. As an example, we show our results for the Neel temperatures of Cerium-122 compounds (CeX2Si2 with X=Ru, Rh, Pd, Cu, Ag, and Au) where the general trend around the magnetic quantum critical point is successfully reproduced. Our results are organized on a universal Doniach phase diagram in a semi-quantitative way.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Competition between structural distortion and magnetic moment formation in fullerene C$_{20}$

We investigated the effect of on-site Coulomb interactions on the structural and magnetic ground state of the fullerene C$_{20}$ based on density-functional-theory calculations within the local density approximation plus on-site Coulomb corrections (LDA+$U$). The total energies of the high symmetry ($I_{h}$) and distorted ($D_{3d}$) structures of C$_{20}$ were calculated for different spin configurations. The ground state configurations were found to depend on the forms of exchange-correlation potentials and the on-site Coulomb interaction parameter $U$, reflecting the subtle nature of the competition between Jahn-Teller distortion and magnetic instability in fullerene C$_{20}$. While the non-magnetic state of the distorted $D_{3d}$ structure is robust for small $U$, a magnetic ground state of the undistorted $I_{h}$ structure emerges for $U$ larger than 4 eV when the LDA exchange-correlation potential is employed.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2009

Doping Driven ($π, 0$) Nesting and Magnetic Properties of Fe$_{1+x}$Te Superconductors

To understand newly discovered superconductivity in Fe--based systems, we investigate electronic structure and magnetic properties of Fe$_{1+x}$Te using first--principles density functional calculations. While the undoped FeTe has the same Fermi surface nested at ($π,π$) as in Fe arsenides, doping by $\sim 0.5$ electrons reveals a novel square--type Fermi surface showing a strong ($π, 0$) nesting and leading to a different magnetic structure. Our result strongly supports the same mechanism of superconductivity in chalcogenides as in the arsenides, reconciling theory to existing experiments. Calculated magnetic interactions are found to be critically dependent on doping and notably different from the arsenides.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Anisotropy, Itineracy, and Magnetic Frustration in High-Tc Iron Pnictides

Using first-principle density functional theory calculations combined with insight from a tight-binding representation, dynamical mean field theory, and linear response theory, we have extensively investigated the electronic structures and magnetic interactions of nine ferropnictides representing three different structural classes. The calculated magnetic interactions are found to be short-range, and the nearest ($J_{1a}$) and next-nearest ($J_{2}$) exchange constants follow the universal trend of J_{1a}/2J_{2}\sim 1, despite their itinerant origin and extreme sensitivity to the z-position of As. These results bear on the discussion of itineracy versus magnetic frustration as the key factor in stabilizing the superconducting ground state. The calculated spin wave dispersions show strong magnetic anisotropy in the Fe plane, in contrast to cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗