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arXiv:0907.1237 · Physical Review B

Correlations in a band insulator

Michael A. Sentef, J. Kuneš, Philipp Werner, A. P. Kampf

Published Oct 8, 2009• 47 citations
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Abstract

We study a model of a covalent band insulator with on-site Coulomb repulsion at half filling using dynamical mean-field theory. Upon increasing the interaction strength the system undergoes a discontinuous transition from a correlated band insulator to a Mott insulator with hysteretic behavior at low temperatures. Increasing the temperature in the band insulator close to the insulator-insulator transition we find a crossover to a Mott insulator at elevated temperatures. Remarkably, correlations decrease the energy gap in the correlated band insulator. The gap renormalization can be traced to the low-frequency behavior of the self-energy, analogously to the quasiparticle renormalization in a Fermi liquid. While the uncorrelated band insulator is characterized by a single gap for both charge and spin excitations, the spin gap is smaller than the charge gap in the correlated system.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.80.155116

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We study a model of a covalent band insulator with on-site Coulomb repulsion at half filling using dynamical mean-field theory. Upon increasing the interaction strength the system undergoes a discontinuous transition from a correlated band insulator to a Mott insulator with hysteretic behavior at low temperatures. Increasing the temperature in the band insulator close to the insulator-insulator transition we find a crossover to a Mott insulator at elevated temperatures. Remarkably, correlations decrease the energy gap in the correlated band insulator. The gap renormalization can be traced to the low-frequency behavior of the self-energy, analogously to the quasiparticle renormalization in a Fermi liquid. While the uncorrelated band insulator is characterized by a single gap for both charge and spin excitations, the spin gap is smaller than the charge gap in the correlated system.
We investigate the ground state phase diagram of the half-filled repulsive Hubbard model in two dimensions in the presence of a staggered potential Delta, the so-called ionic Hubbard model, using cluster dynamical mean-field theory. We find that for large Coulomb repulsion, U >> Delta, the system is a Mott insulator (MI). For weak to intermediate values of Delta, on decreasing U, the Mott gap closes at a critical value Uc1(Delta) beyond which a correlated insulating phase with possible bond order is found. Further, this phase undergoes a first-order transition to a band insulator (BI) at Uc2(Delta) with a finite charge gap at the transition. For large Delta, there is a direct first-order transition from a MI to a BI with a single metallic point at the phase boundary.
We report a systematic study of the transition from a band insulator (BI) to a Mott insulator (MI) in a one-dimensional Hubbard model at half-filling with an on-site Coulomb interaction U and an alternating periodic site potential V. We employ both the zero-temperature density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method to determine the gap and critical behavior of the system and the finite-temperature transfer matrix renormalization group method to evaluate the thermodynamic properties. We find two critical points at U=Uc{U=U}_{c}U=Uc​ and U=Us{U=U}_{s}U=Us​ that separate the BI and MI phases for a given V. A charge-neutral spin-singlet exciton band develops in the BI phase (U<Uc)(U<{U}_{c})(U<Uc​) and drops below the band gap when U exceeds a special point Ue.{U}_{e}.Ue​. The exciton gap closes at the first critical point Uc{U}_{c}Uc​ while the charge and spin gaps persist and coincide between Uc<U<Us{U}_{c}<U<{U}_{s}Uc​<U<Us​ where the system is dimerized. Both the charge and spin gaps collapse at U=Us{U=U}_{s}U=Us​ when the transition to the MI phase occurs. In the MI phase (U>Us)(U>{U}_{s})(U>Us​) the charge gap increases almost linearly with U while the spin gap remains zero. These findings clarify earlier published results on the same model, and offer insights into several important issues regarding an appropriate scaling analysis of DMRG data and a full physical picture of the delicate nature of the phase transitions driven by electron correlation. The present work provides a comprehensive understanding for the critical behavior and phase diagram for the transition from BI to MI in one-dimensional correlated electron systems with a periodic alternating site potential.
We investigate the strong correlation effect in the spinless electron-hole two-band Hubbard model using the dynamical mean-field theory. At half filling, both the renormalization factor ZZZ and the number of conduction electrons (valence holes) ncn_cnc​ decrease with increasing the interband Coulomb interaction UUU down to Z∼0.15Z\sim 0.15Z∼0.15 and nc∼0.1n_c\sim 0.1nc​∼0.1 for $U_c \sim \mbox{bandwidth}$ at which the first-order Lifshitz transition occurs from a correlated semimetal with a large effective mass m∗/m=Z−1m^*/m=Z^{-1}m∗/m=Z−1 to a band insulator with a finite gap due to the Hartree shift. A slight hole doping xxx in the band insulator with a large U>UcU>U_cU>Uc​ yields a remarkable correlated semimetal with Z∼0.1Z\sim 0.1Z∼0.1 at x∼0.01x\sim 0.01x∼0.01, where in-gap states emerge above the valence band top and those weights increase with increasing xxx together with the increase in ZZZ similar to the in-gap states observed in doped Mott insulators.
Though most fermionic Mott insulators order at low temperatures, ordering is ancillary to their insulating behavior. Our emphasis here is on disentangling ordering from the intrinsic strongly correlated physics of a doped half-filled band. To this end, we focus on the two-dimensional Hubbard model. Because the charge gap arises from on-site correlations, we have been refining the nonperturbative approach of Matsumoto and Mancini [Phys. Rev. B 55, 2095 (1997)] which incorporates local physics. Crucial to this method is a self-consistent two-site dynamical cluster expansion which builds in the nearest-neighbor energy scale J. At half-filling, we find that the spectral function possesses a gap of order U and is devoid of any coherent quasiparticle peaks although ordering or charge fractionalization are absent. At low temperatures, local antiferromagnetic correlations emerge. In the doped case, we find that the Fermi surface exceeds the Luttinger volume. The breakdown of Luttinger's theorem in the underdoped regime is traced both to the dynamically generated Mott gap as well to a nonvanishing of the imaginary part of the self-energy at the Fermi level. Spectral weight transfer across the Mott gap also emerges as a ubiquitous feature of a doped Mott insulator and suggests that high- and low-energy scales are inseparable. Additionally in the underdoped regime, we find that a pseudogap exists in the single-particle density of states as well as in the heat capacity. The pseudogap (which is set by the energy scale t2/U){t}^{2}/U)t2/U) is argued to be a ubiquitous feature of a lightly doped Mott state and simply represents the fact that hole transport involves double occupancy. In analogy with the Mott gap and antiferromagnetism, we propose that ordering may also accompany the formation of a pseudogap. We suggest a current pattern within a one-band model that preserves translational but breaks time-reversal symmetry along the canonical x and y axes but not along $x=\ifmmode\pm\else\textpm\fi{}y$ that is consistent with the experimental observations. Finally, we show that the Hall coefficient in a doped Mott insulator must change sign at a doping level x<1/3.x<1/3.x<1/3. The sign change is tied to a termination of strong correlation physics in the doped Mott state.
The ground-state phase diagram of the half-filled repulsive Hubbard model in a bilayer is investigated using cluster dynamical mean-field theory. For weak to intermediate values of Coulomb repulsion UUU, the system undergoes a transition from a Mott-insulating phase to a metallic phase and then onto a band-insulating phase as the interlayer hopping is increased. In the strong-coupling case, the model exhibits a direct crossover from a Mott-insulating phase to a band-insulating phase. These results are robust with respect to the presence or absence of magnetic order.
We analyze the effects of the on-site Coulomb repulsion U on a band insulator using dynamical mean field theory (DMFT). We find the surprising result that the gap is suppressed to zero at a critical Uc1 and remains zero within a metallic phase. At a larger Uc2 there is a second transition from the metal to a Mott insulator, in which the gap increases with increasing U. These results are qualitatively different from Hartree-Fock theory which gives a monotonically decreasing but nonzero insulating gap for all finite U.