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arXiv:1506.08997 · Physical Review B

Chainlike transitions in Wigner crystals: Sequential versus nonsequential

J. E. Galván-Moya, Vyacheslav R. Misko, François Maria Peeters

Published Aug 21, 2015• 6 citations
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Abstract

The structural transitions of the ground state of a system of repulsively interacting particles confined in a quasi-one-dimensional channel, and the effect of the interparticle interaction as well as the functional form of the confinement potential on those transitions are investigated. Although the nonsequential ordering of transitions (non-SOT), i.e., the $1\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{-}4\ensuremath{-}3\ensuremath{-}4\ensuremath{-}5\ensuremath{-}6\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\cdots}$ sequence of chain configurations with increasing density, is widely robust as predicted in a number of theoretical studies, the sequential ordering of transitions (SOT), i.e., the $1\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{-}3\ensuremath{-}4\ensuremath{-}5\ensuremath{-}6\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\cdots}$ chain, is found as the ground state for long-ranged interparticle interaction and hard-wall-like confinement potentials. We found an energy barrier between every two different phases around its transition point, which plays an important role in the preference of the system to follow either a SOT or a non-SOT. However, that preferential transition requires also the stability of the phases during the transition. Additionally, we analyze the effect of a small structural disorder on the transition between the two phases around its transition point. Our results show that a small deformation of the triangular structure changes dramatically the picture of the transition between two phases, removing in a considerable region the non-SOT in the system. This feature could explain the fact that the non-SOT is, up to now, not observed in experimental systems, and suggests a more advanced experimental setup to detect the non-SOT.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.92.064112

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The structural transitions of the ground state of a system of repulsively interacting particles confined in a quasi-one-dimensional channel, and the effect of the interparticle interaction as well as the functional form of the confinement potential on those transitions are investigated. Although the nonsequential ordering of transitions (non-SOT), i.e., the 1\ensuremath−2\ensuremath−4\ensuremath−3\ensuremath−4\ensuremath−5\ensuremath−6\ensuremath−\ensuremath⋯1\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{-}4\ensuremath{-}3\ensuremath{-}4\ensuremath{-}5\ensuremath{-}6\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\cdots}1\ensuremath−2\ensuremath−4\ensuremath−3\ensuremath−4\ensuremath−5\ensuremath−6\ensuremath−\ensuremath⋯ sequence of chain configurations with increasing density, is widely robust as predicted in a number of theoretical studies, the sequential ordering of transitions (SOT), i.e., the 1\ensuremath−2\ensuremath−3\ensuremath−4\ensuremath−5\ensuremath−6\ensuremath−\ensuremath⋯1\ensuremath{-}2\ensuremath{-}3\ensuremath{-}4\ensuremath{-}5\ensuremath{-}6\ensuremath{-}\ensuremath{\cdots}1\ensuremath−2\ensuremath−3\ensuremath−4\ensuremath−5\ensuremath−6\ensuremath−\ensuremath⋯ chain, is found as the ground state for long-ranged interparticle interaction and hard-wall-like confinement potentials. We found an energy barrier between every two different phases around its transition point, which plays an important role in the preference of the system to follow either a SOT or a non-SOT. However, that preferential transition requires also the stability of the phases during the transition. Additionally, we analyze the effect of a small structural disorder on the transition between the two phases around its transition point. Our results show that a small deformation of the triangular structure changes dramatically the picture of the transition between two phases, removing in a considerable region the non-SOT in the system. This feature could explain the fact that the non-SOT is, up to now, not observed in experimental systems, and suggests a more advanced experimental setup to detect the non-SOT.
We study the structural phase transitions in confined systems of strongly interacting particles. We consider infinite quasi-one-dimensional systems with different pairwise repulsive interactions in the presence of an external confinement following a power law. Within the framework of Landau's theory, we find the necessary conditions to observe continuous transitions and demonstrate that the only allowed continuous transition is between the single- and the double-chain configurations and that it only takes place when the confinement is parabolic. We determine analytically the behavior of the system at the transition point and calculate the critical exponents. Furthermore, we perform Monte Carlo simulations and find a perfect agreement between theory and numerics.
We present a mean-field description of the zigzag phase transition of a quasi-one-dimensional system of strongly interacting particles, with interaction potential ${r}^{\ensuremath{-}n}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}r/\ensuremath{\lambda}}$, that are confined by a power-law potential (${y}^{\ensuremath{\alpha}}$). The parameters of the resulting one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau theory are determined analytically for different values of $\ensuremath{\alpha}$ and nnn. Close to the transition point for the zigzag phase transition, the scaling behavior of the order parameter is determined. For $\ensuremath{\alpha}=2$, the zigzag transition from a single to a double chain is of second order, while for $\ensuremath{\alpha}>2$, the one-chain configuration is always unstable and, for $\ensuremath{\alpha}<2$, the one-chain ordered state becomes unstable at a certain critical density, resulting in jumps of single particles out of the chain.
Abstract. The physics of interacting quantum wires has attracted a lot of attention recently. When the density of electrons in the wire is very low, the strong repulsion between electrons leads to the formation of a Wigner crystal. We review the rich spin and orbital properties of the Wigner crystal, both in the one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional regime. In the one-dimensional Wigner crystal the electron spins form an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with exponentially small exchange coupling. In the presence of leads the resulting inhomogeneity of the electron density causes a violation of spin-charge separation. As a consequence the spin degrees of freedom affect the conductance of the wire. Upon increasing the electron density, the Wigner crystal starts deviating from the strictly one-dimensional geometry, forming a zigzag structure instead. Spin interactions in this regime are dominated by ring exchanges, and the phase diagram of the resulting zigzag spin chain has a number of unpolarized phases as well as regions of complete and partial spin polarization. Finally we address the orbital properties in the vicinity of the transition from a onedimensional to a quasi-one-dimensional state. Due to the locking between chains in the zigzag Wigner crystal, only one gapless mode exists. Manifestations of Wigner crystal physics at weak interactions are explored by studying the fate of the additional gapped low-energy mode as a function of interaction strength. PACS numbers: 71.10.Pm2 1.
The physics of interacting quantum wires has attracted a lot of attention recently. When the density of electrons in the wire is very low, the strong repulsion between electrons leads to the formation of a Wigner crystal. We review the rich spin and orbital properties of the Wigner crystal, in both the one-dimensional and the quasi-one-dimensional regimes. In the one-dimensional Wigner crystal the electron spins form an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with exponentially small exchange coupling. In the presence of leads, the resulting inhomogeneity of the electron density causes a violation of spin-charge separation. As a consequence the spin degrees of freedom affect the conductance of the wire. Upon increasing the electron density, the Wigner crystal starts deviating from the strictly one-dimensional geometry, forming a zigzag structure instead. Spin interactions in this regime are dominated by ring exchanges, and the phase diagram of the resulting zigzag spin chain has a number of unpolarized phases as well as regions of complete and partial spin polarization. Finally we address the orbital properties in the vicinity of the transition from a one-dimensional to a quasi-one-dimensional state. Due to the locking between chains in the zigzag Wigner crystal, only one gapless mode exists. Manifestations of Wigner crystal physics at weak interactions are explored by studying the fate of the additional gapped low-energy mode as a function of interaction strength.
The Chapter 2 is devoted to the study of the transport properties of a quantum wire, described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger model, in the presence of a backscattering potential provided by several point-like or extended time-dependent impurities (barriers) and find regimes of conductance enhancement. In Chapte 3 we study a set of crossed 1D systems, which are coupled with each other via tunnelling at the crossings. Concentrating on the case of a single crossing, we were able to explain recent experiments on crossed metallic and semiconducting nanotubes, which showed the presence of localized states in the region of crossing. The Chapter 4 treats the effects of disorder and interactions in a quantum Hall ferromagnet. We study the problem by projecting the original fermionic Hamiltonian into magnon states, which behave as bosons in the vicinity of the ferromagnetic ground state. The approach permits the reformulation of a strongly interacting model into a non-interacting one. The latter is a non-perturbative scheme that consists in treating the two-particle neutral excitations of the electron system as a bosonic single-particle. Indeed, the employment of bosonization facilitates the inclusion of disorder in the study of the system. It has been shown previously that disorder may drive a quantum phase transition in the Hall ferromagnet. However, such studies have been either carried out in the framework of the nonlinear sigma model, as an effective low-energy theory, or included the long-range Coulomb interaction in a quantum description only up to the Hartree-Fock level. Here, we establish the occurrence of a disorder-driven quantum phase transition from a ferromagnetic 2DEG to a spin glass phase by taking into account interactions between electrons up to the random phase approximation level in a fully quantum description. In the Chapter 5 we derive and discuss an experimentally realistic model describing ultracold atoms in an optical lattice including a commensurate, but staggered, Zeeman field. The resulting band structure is quite exotic; fermions in the third band have an unusual rounded picture-frame Fermi surface (essentially two concentric squircles), leading to imperfect nesting. We develop a generalized theory describing the spin and charge degrees of freedom simultaneously, and show that the system can develop a coupled spin-charge-density wave order. This ordering is absent in studies of the Hubbard model that treat spin and charge density separately.
The ground state (GS) of interacting particles on a disordered one-dimensional (1D) host-lattice is studied by a new numerical method. It is shown that if the concentration of particles is small, then even a weak disorder of the host-lattice breaks the long-range order of Generalized Wigner Crystal (GWC), replacing it by the sequence of blocks (domains) of particles with random lengths. The mean domains length as a function of the host-lattice disorder parameter is also found. It is shown that the domain structure can be detected by a weak random field, whose form is similar to that of the ground state but has fluctuating domain walls positions. This is because the generalized magnetization corresponding to the field has a sufficiently sharp peak as a function of the amplitude of fluctuations for small amplitudes.