arXiv subjects

Pietro Bonfà

Publications and source records attributed to Pietro Bonfà.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Competing lattice structures induced by Sn substitution in CsV$_3$Sb$_5$

Understanding the effect of chemical substitution on competing phases of kagome metals is crucial for disentangling the interplay between local structural distortions and electronic instabilities. In \cvs, Sn substitution strongly modifies the electronic phase diagram, yet the microscopic mechanism driving this remains unclear. Here, we combine $^{121}$Sb nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements and density functional theory calculations to investigate the atomic-scale effects of Sn substitution in CsV$_3$Sb$_{5-x}$Sn$_x$. At low Sn concentrations, the observed satellite NQR peaks exhibit signatures of local structural distortion induced by Sn substitution, qualitatively consistent with our computational analysis. These impurity-induced features persist across the entire experimentally investigated doping range, up to $x$ = 0.65, and remain observable up to room temperature. For $x=1$, the fully doped idealized case, the estimated dynamical instabilities of the kagome lattice suggest the stabilization of two nearly energy-degenerate equilibrium structures characterized by V-trimers, distinguished by a zero- or $π$-phase shift between adjacent layers along the $c$-axis. Together, these results show that Sn substitution drives a complex interplay between local impurity-induced distortions and competing structural instabilities in vanadium-based kagome compounds.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Evolving charge order in the CDW state of AV$_3$Sb$_5$ metals

AV$_3$Sb$_5$ kagome metals are characterized by intertwined electronic and structural orders, which motivated extensive studies in recent years. Yet the details of the electronic state preceding the superconducting phase remain poorly understood. Here we extend our previous investigation [Phys. Rev. Research 7, L032046 (2025)] of RbV$_3$Sb$_5$ using avoided level crossing (ALC) muon-spin spectroscopy to the $A$ = Cs and K systems. Consistent with our previous study, we identify a second transition whose origin cannot be attributed solely to an internal magnetic field, indicating the involvement of an additional electronic mechanism that subtly modifies the charge distribution within the V plane. In particular, the ALC results point towards an additional charge modulation taking place within the charge density wave (CDW) phase and occurring at $T^{*}<T_{CDW}$ for $A$ = Cs and Rb, or in the vicinity of $T_{CDW}$ for $A$ = K.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2026

Score-based diffusion models for accurate crystal-structure inpainting and reconstruction of hydrogen positions

Generative AI models, such as score-based diffusion models, have recently advanced the field of computational materials science by enabling the generation of new materials with desired properties. In addition, these models could also be leveraged to reconstruct crystal structures for which partial information is available. One relevant example is the reliable determination of atomic positions occupied by hydrogen atoms in hydrogen-containing crystalline materials. While crucial to the analysis and prediction of many materials properties, the identification of hydrogen positions can however be difficult and expensive, as it is challenging in X-ray scattering experiments and often requires dedicated neutron scattering measurements. As a consequence, inorganic crystallographic databases frequently report lattice structures where hydrogen atoms have been either omitted or inserted with heuristics or by chemical intuition. Here, we combine diffusion models from the field of materials science with techniques originally developed in computer vision for image inpainting. We present how this knowledge transfer across domains enables a much faster and more accurate completion of host structures, compared to unconditioned diffusion models or previous approaches solely based on DFT. Overall, our approach exceeds a success rate of 97% in terms of finding a structural match or predicting a more stable configuration than the initial reference, when starting both from structures that were already relaxed with DFT, or directly from the experimentally determined host structures.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Disorder-resilient transition of Helical to Conical ground states in M$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$, M=Cr,Mn

The discovery of chiral helical magnetism (CHM) in Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$ and the stabilization of a chiral soliton lattice (CSL) has attracted considerable interest in view of their potential technological applications. However, there is an ongoing debate regarding whether the sister compound, Mn$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$, which shares the same crystal structure, exhibits similar nontrivial properties which rely on the stabilization of the lack of inversion symmetry at the magnetic ion. In this study, we conduct a comprehensive investigation of the magnetically ordered states of both compounds, using $^{53}$Cr, $^{55}$Mn and $^{93}$Nb nuclear magnetic resonance. Our results, supported by density functional calculations, detect in a high-quality single crystal of Cr$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$ all the signatures of the monoaxial CHM in a magnetic field, identifying it as a textbook NMR case. The detailed understanding of this prototypic behavior provides a reference for Mn$_{1/3}$NbS$_2$. Despite the much larger density of specific defects in this second single crystal, we confirm the presence of a CHM phase in the Mn compound, characterized by a very large critical field for the forced ferromagnetic phase ($\approx 5$ T for H$\parallel\hat c$).

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2026

Magnetic behavior of the $5d^1$ Re-based double perovskite Sr$_2$ZnReO$_6$

The subtle interplay between spin-orbit coupling, exchange interactions, and cation ordering can lead to exotic magnetic states in transition-metal ions. We report a comprehensive study of the Re-based (5$d^1$) ordered double perovskite oxide Sr$_2$ZnReO$_6$ combining synchrotron x-ray diffraction (XRD), magnetic susceptibility, muon spin relaxation ($μ$SR) measurements, and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. XRD reveals that Sr$_2$ZnReO$_6$ crystallizes in the monoclinic structure (space group $P2_1/n$) at low temperature. Magnetic susceptibility data indicate a transition below $\sim$13 K, with $M$--$H$ loops showing ferromagnetic-like hysteresis and an unusually high coercive field of 23 kOe at 2 K. Zero-field $μ$SR measurements detect static and spatially disordered internal fields below $T_M \simeq $ 12 K, consistent with a canted antiferromagnetic ground state determined by detailed DFT and force-theorem in Hubbard-I calculations. The reduced high-temperature effective moment ($\sim0.76~μ_B$) and very small static moment ($\lesssim 0.2~μ_B$) derived from $μ$SR analysis and local-field simulations indicate a decisive role of spin-orbit coupling. Through a combined experimental and computational approach we unambiguously determine the canted antiferromagnetic order in Sr$_2$ZnReO$_6$, showing that a very small ordered moment coexists with an exceptionally large coercivity. These results underscore the crucial role of spin-orbit coupling and orbital ordering, providing new insights into magnetism in 5$d^1$ double perovskites.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Observation of ubiquitous charge correlations and hidden quantum critical point in hole-doped kagome superconductors

The interplay between superconductivity and charge-density wave (CDW) order, and its evolution with carrier density, is central to the physics of many quantum materials, notably high-$T_c$ cuprates and kagome metals. Hole-doped kagome compounds exhibit puzzling double-dome superconductivity and, as chemical substitution inevitably introduces quenched disorder, their properties remain poorly understood. Here, by leveraging the sensitivity of nuclear quadrupole resonance to local and static orderings, we uncover new features, primarily the incipient and fragmented CDW phases, in the charge landscape of CsV$_3$Sb$_{5-x}$Sn$_x$. Static CDW puddles are observed well above the transition temperature, a hallmark of pinning by defects. Their doping and temperature evolution indicate that, in the absence of disorder, the inverse Star-of-David $π$-shifted (ISD-$π$) CDW order would vanish near $x=0.12$, between the two superconducting domes. This critical doping represents a hidden quantum critical point. Nevertheless, the ISD-$π$ pattern persists well beyond previous reports, although its volume fraction is progressively reduced up to the critical doping at which it saturates. We establish that carrier doping promotes fragmentation of the ISD-$π$ order, whereas randomness preserves the ISD-$π$ patches.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2025

Making atomistic materials calculations accessible with the AiiDAlab Quantum ESPRESSO app

Despite the wide availability of density functional theory (DFT) codes, their adoption by the broader materials science community remains limited due to challenges such as software installation, input preparation, high-performance computing setup, and output analysis. To overcome these barriers, we introduce the Quantum ESPRESSO app, an intuitive, web-based platform built on AiiDAlab that integrates user-friendly graphical interfaces with automated DFT workflows. The app employs a modular Input-Process-Output model and a plugin-based architecture, providing predefined computational protocols, automated error handling, and interactive results visualization. We demonstrate the app's capabilities through plugins for electronic band structures, projected density of states, phonon, infrared/Raman, X-ray and muon spectroscopies, Hubbard parameters (DFT+$U$+$V$), Wannier functions, and post-processing tools. By extending the FAIR principles to simulations, workflows, and analyses, the app enhances the accessibility and reproducibility of advanced DFT calculations and provides a general template to interface with other first-principles calculation codes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2024

Unveiling the nature of electronic transitions in RbV$_3$Sb$_5$ with Avoided Level Crossing $μ$SR

Kagome superconductors AV$_{3}$Sb$_{5}$ provide a unique platform for studying the interplay between a variety of electronic orders, including superconductivity, charge density waves, nematic phases and more. Understanding the evolution of the electronic state from the charge density wave to the superconducting transition is essential for unraveling the interplay of charge, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom giving rise to the unusual magnetic properties of these nonmagnetic metals. Previous zero-field and high-field $μ$SR studies revealed two anomalies in the muon spin relaxation rate, a first change at $T_{CDW} \sim 100$ K and a second steep increase at $T^{*}\sim 40$ K, further enhanced by an applied magnetic field, thus suggesting a contribution of magnetic origin. In this study, we use the avoided level crossing $μ$SR technique to investigate charge order in near-zero applied field. By tracking the temperature dependence of quadrupolar level-crossing resonances, we examined the evolution of the electric field gradient at V nuclei in the kagome plane. Our results show a significant rearrangement of the charge density starting at $T^{*}$ indicating a transition in the charge distribution, likely electronic in origin, well below $T_{CDW}$. These findings, combined with previous $μ$SR, STM, and NMR studies, emphasize the intertwined nature of proximate phases in these systems, with the charge rearrangement dominating the additional increase in $μ$SR relaxation rate below $T^{*}$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2024

Magnetostriction-Driven Muon Localization in an Antiferromagnetic Oxide

Magnetostriction drives a rhombohedral distortion in the cubic rock salt antiferromagnet MnO at the Néel temperature $T_{N}=118$ K. As an unexpected consequence we show that this distortion acts to localize the site of an implanted muon due to the accompanying redistribution of electron density. This lifts the degeneracy between equivalent sites, resulting in a single observed muon precession frequency. Above $T_{N}$, the muon instead becomes delocalized around a network of equivalent sites. Our first-principles simulations based on Hubbard-corrected density-functional theory and molecular dynamics are consistent with our experimental data and help to resolve a long-standing puzzle regarding muon data on MnO, as well as having wider applicability to other magnetic oxides.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2023

Partially deorbitalized meta-GGA

Mejia-Rodriguez and Trickey recently proposed a procedure for removing the explicit dependence of meta-GGA exchange-correlation energy functionals $E_{\rm xc}$ on the kinetic energy density $τ$. We present a simple modification to this approach in which the exact Kohn-Sham $τ$ is used as input for $E_{\rm xc}$ but the functional derivative of $τ$ with respect to the density $ρ$, required to calculate the potential term $\int d^3r'\,δE_{\rm xc}/δτ({\bf r}')|_ρ\cdot δτ({\bf r}')/δρ({\bf r})$, is evaluated using an approximate kinetic energy density functional. This ensures that the Kohn-Sham potential is a local multiplicative function as opposed to the non-local potential of a generalized Kohn-Sham approach. Electronic structure codes can be easily modified to use the new method. We validate it by quantifying the accuracy of the predicted lattice parameters, bulk moduli, magnetic moments and cohesive energies of a large set of periodic solids. An unanticipated benefit of this method is to gauge the quality of approximate kinetic energy functionals by checking if the self-consistent solution is indeed at the variational minimum.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Magnetic phase diagram of the austenitic Mn-rich Ni-Mn-(In,Sn) Heusler alloys

Heusler compounds have been intensively studied owing to the important technological advancements that they provide in the field of shape memory, thermomagnetic energy conversion and spintronics. Many of their intriguing properties are ultimately governed by their magnetic states and understanding and possibly tuning them is evidently of utmost importance. In this work we examine the \alloys alloys with Density Functional Theory simulations and $^{55}$Mn Nuclear Magnetic Resonance and combine these two methods to carefully describe their ground state magnetic order. In addition, we compare the results obtained with the conventional generalized gradient approximation with the ones of strongly constrained and appropriately normed (SCAN) semilocal functionals for exchange and correlation. Experimental results eventually allow to discriminate between two different scenarios identified by ab initio simulations.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Microscopic nature of the charge-density wave in kagome superconductor RbV$_3$Sb$_5$

The recently discovered vanadium-based kagome metals AV$_3$Sb$_5$ (A = K, Rb, Cs) offer the possibility to study the interplay between competing electronic orderings, such as charge density order and superconductivity. We focus on the former and provide a comprehensive set of $^{51}$V, $^{87}$Rb, and $^{121}$Sb magnetic resonance measurements on an RbV$_3$Sb$_5$ single crystal. Elucidating the symmetries and properties of the CDW phase is essential to understanding the unconventional electronic orderings occurring in this material. We establish the structure of the $2\times 2 \times 2$ superlattice that describes the system below the charge density wave transition by combining both experimental and computational methods, with a methodology that can be readily applied to the remaining compounds of the same family. Our results give compelling evidence that the CDW structure occurring below 103 K for RbV$_3$Sb$_5$ is the so-called Inverse Start of David pattern $π$-shifted along the c axis (also known as staggered tri-hexagonal).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2022

Entanglement between a muon spin and $I>\frac{1}{2}$ nuclear spins

We report on the first example of quantum coherence between the spins of muons and quadrupolar nuclei. We observe this effect in vanadium intermetallic compounds which adopt the A15 crystal structure, and whose members include all technologically dominant superconductors. The entangled states are extremely sensitive to the local structural and electronic environments through the electric field gradient at the quadrupolar nuclei. This case-study demonstrates that positive muons can be used as a quantum sensing tool to probe also structural and charge related phenomena in materials, even in the absence of magnetic order.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Frustrated network of indirect exchange paths between tetrahedrally coordinated Co in Ba2CoO4

We present a detailed study of the electronic and magnetic interactions of Ba2CoO4, structurally very uncommon because of the isolated CoO4 distorted tetrahedral coordination. We show the presence of Co(d)-O(p) hybridized states characterized by spin polarized oxygen atoms, with their magnetic moments parallel to that on Co. The calculated isotropic exchange interaction parameters, which include the contributions from ligand spins, demonstrate the presence of a 3D network of magnetic couplings, that are partially frustrated in the identified magnetic ground state. Our results indicate that the dominant indirect exchange mechanism responsible for this ground state is mediated by O atoms along the Co-O...O-Co path.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2021

Quantum ESPRESSO toward the exascale

Quantum ESPRESSO is an open-source distribution of computer codes for quantum-mechanical materials modeling, based on density-functional theory, pseudopotentials, and plane waves, and renowned for its performance on a wide range of hardware architectures, from laptops to massively parallel computers, as well as for the breadth of its applications. In this paper we present a motivation and brief review of the ongoing effort to port Quantum ESPRESSO onto heterogeneous architectures based on hardware accelerators, which will overcome the energy constraints that are currently hindering the way towards exascale computing.

physics.comp-ph↗

arXiv2021

Narrowing of d bands of FeCo layers intercalated under graphene

We report on the electronic properties of an artificial system obtained by the intercalation of equiatomic FeCo layers under graphene grown on Ir(111). Upon intercalation, the FeCo film grows epitaxially on Ir(111), resulting in a lattice-mismatched system. By performing Density Functional Theory calculations, we show that the intercalated FeCo layer leads to a pronounced corrugation of the graphene film. At the same time, the FeCo intercalated layers induce a clear transition from a nearly undisturbed to a strongly hybridized graphene π-band, as measured by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A comparison of experimental results with the computed band structure and the projected density of states unveils a spin-selective hybridization between the π band of graphene and FeCo-3d states. Our results demonstrate that the reduced dimensionality, as well as the hybridization within the FeCo layers, induce a narrowing and a clear splitting of Fe 3d-up and Fe 3d-down spin bands of the confined FeCo layers with respect to bulk Fe and Co.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Ab initio modeling and experimental investigation of Fe$_2$P by DFT and spin spectroscopies

Fe$_2$P alloys have been identified as promising candidates for magnetic refrigeration at room-temperature and for custom magnetostatic applications. The intent of this study is to accurately characterize the magnetic ground state of the parent compound, Fe$_2$P, with two spectroscopic techniques, $μ$SR and NMR, in order to provide solid bases for further experimental analysis of Fe$_2$P-type transition metal based alloys. We perform zero applied field measurements using both techniques below the ferromagnetic transition $T_C=220~\mathrm K$. The experimental results are reproduced and interpreted using first principles simulations validating this approach for quantitative estimates in alloys of interest for technological applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Quantum effects in muon spin spectroscopy within the stochastic self-consistent harmonic approximation

In muon spin rotation experiments the positive implanted muon vibrates with large zero point amplitude by virtue of its light mass. Quantum mechanical calculations of the host material usually treat the muon as a point impurity, ignoring this large vibrational amplitude. As a first order correction, the muon zero point motion is usually described within the harmonic approximation, despite the large anharmonicity of the crystal potential. Here we apply the stochastic self-consistent harmonic approximation, a quantum variational method devised to include strong anharmonic effects in total energy and vibrational frequency calculations, in order to overcome these limitations and provide an accurate ab initio description of the quantum nature of the muon. We applied this full quantum treatment to the calculation of the muon contact hyperfine field in textbook-case metallic systems, such as Fe, Ni, Co including MnSi and MnGe, significantly improving agreement with experiments. Our results show that muon vibrational frequencies are strongly renormalized by anharmonicity. Finally, in contrast to the harmonic approximation, we show that including quantum anharmonic fluctuations, the muon stabilizes at the octahedral site in bcc Fe.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗