Defects in Heavy-Fermion Materials: Unveiling Strong Correlations in Real Space
| Autor: | Figgins, Jeremy, Morr, Dirk K. |
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| Rok vydání: | 2010 |
| Předmět: | |
| Druh dokumentu: | Working Paper |
| DOI: | 10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.066401 |
| Popis: | Complexity in materials often arises from competing interactions at the atomic length scale. One such example are the strongly correlated heavy-fermion materials where the competition between Kondo screening and antiferromagnetic ordering is believed to be the origin of their puzzling non-Fermi-liquid properties. Insight into such complex physical behavior in strongly correlated electron systems can be gained by impurity doping. Here, we develop a microscopic theoretical framework to demonstrate that defects implanted in heavy-fermion materials provide an opportunity for unveiling competing interactions and their correlations in real space. Defect-induced perturbations in the electronic and magnetic correlations possess characteristically different spatial patterns that can be visualized via their spectroscopic signatures in the local density of states or non-local spin susceptibility. These real space patterns provide insight into the complex electronic structure of heavy-fermion materials, the light or heavy character of the perturbed states, and the hybridization between them. The strongly correlated nature of these materials also manifests itself in highly non-linear quantum interference effects between defects that can drive the system through a first-order phase transition to a novel inhomogeneous ground state. Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures |
| Databáze: | arXiv |
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