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arXiv:1706.00926 · Physical Review Letters

Probing the Bond Order Wave Phase Transitions of the Ionic Hubbard Model by Superlattice Modulation Spectroscopy

Karla Loida, Jean-Sébastien Bernier, R. Citro, E. Orignac, Corinna Kollath

Published Dec 6, 2017• 29 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

An exotic phase, the bond order wave, characterized by the spontaneous dimerization of the hopping, has been predicted to exist sandwiched between the band and Mott insulators in systems described by the ionic Hubbard model. Despite growing theoretical evidence, this phase still evades experimental detection. Given the recent realization of the ionic Hubbard model in ultracold atomic gases, we propose here to detect the bond order wave using superlattice modulation spectroscopy. We demonstrate, with the help of time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group and bosonization, that this spectroscopic approach reveals characteristics of both the Ising and Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions signaling the presence of the bond order wave phase. This scheme also provides insights into the excitation spectra of both the band and Mott insulators.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.119.230403

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An exotic phase, the bond order wave, characterized by the spontaneous dimerization of the hopping, has been predicted to exist sandwiched between the band and Mott insulators in systems described by the ionic Hubbard model. Despite growing theoretical evidence, this phase still evades experimental detection. Given the recent realization of the ionic Hubbard model in ultracold atomic gases, we propose here to detect the bond order wave using superlattice modulation spectroscopy. We demonstrate, with the help of time-dependent density-matrix renormalization group and bosonization, that this spectroscopic approach reveals characteristics of both the Ising and Kosterlitz-Thouless transitions signaling the presence of the bond order wave phase. This scheme also provides insights into the excitation spectra of both the band and Mott insulators.
In the past fifteen years ultracold atoms confined to optical lattices, which are artificial crystals of light, have proven to be powerful tools in the study of strongly correlated many-body systems widely known from a condensed matter context. The detailed knowledge, high tunability and control of microscopic parameters has enabled the creation and control of highly non-trivial quantum systems for which a direct comparison of model calculations to experimental measurements is now possible. In order to gain precise information on the properties of ultracold gases in optical lattices, many powerful methods have been developed. In particular spectroscopic methods have enabled to probe different characteristic excitations. However, many fascinating properties of strongly interacting quantum many-body systems are not yet fully characterized. Therefore, this thesis explores further possibilities of lattice modulation spectroscopy which is a time-periodic modulation of the optical lattice amplitude. We theoretically investigate the response of different (mostly one-dimensional) cold atom systems to a lattice modulation by means of the time-dependent density matrix renormalization group method and different analytical approximations. In addition to the normal lattice modulation, we consider a superlattice modulation scheme where the lattice amplitude is modulated in a dimerized fashion, coupling to a certain class of excitations in the system. The lattice modulation spectroscopy is a versatile probe which we use to study different situations relevant for experimental applications. We show that a detection of signatures of the exotic bond order wave phase is feasible in a system of interacting fermions on a one-dimensional optical lattice with staggered energy offset. Moreover, we demonstrate that a temperature measurement of fermions confined to an optical lattice is possible as well as a determination of the interaction strength of bosonic atoms confined to a one-dimensional optical lattice. In addition, various excitations in all these systems are investigated in detail.
Density matrix renormalization group methods are used to investigate the quantum phase diagram of a one-dimensional half-filled ionic Peierls-Hubbard model at the antiadiabatic limit where quantum phonon fluctuations are taken into account partially. We found that two continuous phase transitions always exist from dimerized spin-gapped (bond-order-wave) state to band-insulator and undimerized spin-gapless (Mott-insulator) phase while undimerized spin-gapless phase vanishes at the adiabatic limit. Our results indicate that quantum phonon fluctuations, electron-electron interaction, and ionic potential combine in the formation of the bond-order wave phase.
We investigate the quantum phase transitions in the half-filled ionic Hubbard model on a two-dimensional (2D) square lattice using the variational cluster approach (VCA). We present explicit evidence for the tendency toward a novel intermediate phase in this model. This phase is characterized by bond-located magnetization. For weak Coulomb repulsion U , the system is a band insulator, and then undergoes a transition to the intermediate phase at the first-phase boundary U = U c1 . As U is increased beyond the second transition point U c2 , there occurs a Mott insulator accompanied by a long-range antiferromagnetic (AF) order. The bond-located spin density wave competes with the antiferromagnetism while the charge-density modulation exists all the way due to the staggered potential Δ.
We investigate the phase diagram of a dimerized Bose-Hubbard model, using a density matrix renormalization group technique. We find a new phase, which is the coexistence of superfluid and bond-wave phases, due to the effect of dimerization. Experimentally dimerization in optical lattice can be realized by using two counterpropagating laser beams of different wavelengths. Apart from the conventional superfluid–to–Mott-insulator transition, we find a new quantum phase transition: from superfluid-bond-wave to Mott-insulator-bond wave phase. Our study suggests a rich phase diagram which can be easily probed.
We investigate the neutral-to-ionic insulator-insulator transition in one-dimensional materials by treating a strong-coupling effective model based on the ionic Hubbard model using the density-matrix renormalization group and finite-size scaling. The effective model, formulated in a spin-one representation, contains a single parameter. We carry out an extensive finite-size scaling analysis of the relevant gaps and susceptibilities to characterize the two zero-temperature transitions. We find that the transition from the ionic band-insulating phase to an intermediate spontaneously dimerized phase is Ising, and the transition from the dimerized phase to the Mott-insulating phase is Kosterlitz-Thouless, in agreement with the field-theory-based predictions.
Strongly correlated electron systems are one of the most fascinating problems in current physics. The strong electron-electron interaction in these materials leads to the emergence of nontrivial elementary excitations (quasiparticles, QPs) above the ground state ranging from fractional spins in quasi-one-dimensional materials to magnetic monopole in the pyrochlore lattice. The condensation of these quasiparticles upon changing some external parameters may stabilize new exotic states of matter. Experimental measurements such as inelastic neutron scattering provide us with valuable information about the excitation spectrum of such systems which require microscopic models to be described. This thesis is devoted to a detailed analysis of the excitation spectrum and of the quantum phase transitions in the one-dimensional (1D) ionic Hubbard model (IHM). The IHM consists of a nearest-neighbor (n.n.) hopping, onsite Hubbard interaction, and an ionic (staggered) potential separating the odd and even sites energetically. The model exhibits two continuous phase transitions on increasing the Hubbard interaction identified by a low-energy effective field theory and confirmed by a rigorous density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) analysis after several attempts. The first transition occurs from band insulator (BI) phase to the 2-fold degenerate spontaneously dimerized insulator (SDI) phase. The transition is in the Ising universality class as is plausible from symmetry considerations. The SDI phase becomes unstable towards a quasi-long-range order Mott insulator (MI) phase at a second transition point resembling the Kosterlitz-Thouless (KT) transition in the frustrated Heisenberg chain. We employ continuous unitary transformations (CUT) to systematically map the IHM to effective Hamiltonians (almost) conserving the number of QPs in the system. Using an analysis in the BI regime where electrons and holes define QPs, the low-energy excitation spectrum of the model is quantitatively determined in the BI phase almost up to the first transition point. The transition from the BI to the SDI phase is signaled by the vanishing of an S=0 exciton mode at the total momentum K=\pi. The condensation of these excitons beyond the first transition point is described by a BCS-type-theory showing the stabilization of the SDI phase. The mean-field solution indicates no second phase transition to the quasi-long-range order MI phase. This is interpreted as the effect of strong quantum fluctuations in one dimension. We consider the IHM in the dimer limit where the uniform chain is separated into independent dimers. The different phases of the IHM are studied by increasing the interdimer hopping and reaching the uniform limit. This dimer limit satisfactorily produces the excitation spectrum of the BI phase confirming the vanishing of an S=0 exciton mode at the first transition point. It is found that the SDI-to-MI transition takes place by softening of a magnetic S=1 excitation, i.e., a triplon. We report rigorous results for the gapless triplon dispersion in the MI phase and discuss the binding effects in the 2-triplon sector.