Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Log inSign up
Challenges
Datasets
Workspaces
Papers
Discussions
Leaderboard
Blog
Job Board
Q3AS

© 2026 Aqora Quantum S.A.S.

TermsPrivacyLegal Notice

arXiv:1810.03309 · Physical review. B./Physical review. B

Local density of states induced near impurities in Mott insulators

Wenxin Ding, Qimiao Si A

Published Aug 5, 2024• 4 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

The local density of states near dopants or impurities has recently been probed by scanning tunneling microscopy in both the parent and very lightly doped compounds of the high-${T}_{c}$ cuprate superconductors. We use a slave-rotor representation of the Hubbard model to compute the local density of states on impurities in a Mott insulator. Our calculation accounts for the following key features of the experimental observation: (i) positions and amplitudes of the in-gap spectral weights of a single impurity; (ii) the spectral weight transfer from the upper Hubbard band to the lower Hubbard band; (iii) the difference between the cases of single and multiple impurities. For multiple impurities, our study explains the complete suppression of spectral weight observed at precisely the Fermi energy and links this property to zeros of the underlying bulk Green's function of the Mott insulating phase.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.110.l081104

Related papers

Unveiling Stripe-Shaped Charge Density Modulations in Doped Mott Insulators

Ning Xia, Yuchen Guo, Shuo Yang

Inspired by recent experimental findings, we investigate various scenarios of the doped Hubbard model with impurity potentials. We calculate the lattice Green's function in a finite-size cluster and then map it to the continuum real space, which allows for a direct comparison with scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on the local density of states. Our simulations successfully reproduce experimental data, including the characteristic stripe- and ladder-shaped structures observed in cuprate systems. Moreover, our results establish a connection between previous numerical findings on stripe-ordered ground states and experimental observations, thus providing new insights into microscopic mechanisms of the Mott insulator to superconductor transition in cuprates.

arXiv:2408.07635•Physical Review Letters•Aug 27, 2025•3 citations

Effect of Impurity on the Doping-Induced in-Gap States in a Mott Insulator

Cheng-Ping He, Shun-Li Yu, Tao Xiang +1 more

Motivated by the recent measurements of the spatial distribution of single particle excitation states in a hole-doped Mott insulator, we study the effects of impurity on the in-gap states, induced by the doped holes, in the Hubbard model on the square lattice by the cluster perturbation theory. We find that a repulsive impurity potential can move the in-gap state from the lower Hubbard band towards the upper Hubbard band, providing a good account for the experimental observation. The distribution of the spectral function in the momentum space can be used to discriminate the in-gap state induced by doped holes and that by the impurity. The spatial characters of the in-gap states in the presence of two impurities are also discussed and compared to the experiment.

Chinese Physics Letters•May 1, 2022•5 citations

Spectral evolution with doping of an antiferromagnetic Mott state

Huan-Kuang Wu, Ting-Kuo Lee

Since the discovery of half-filled cuprate to be a Mott insulator, the excitation spectra above the chemical potential for the unoccupied states has attracted much research attention. There were many theoretical works using different numerical techniques to study this problem, but many have reached different conclusions. One of the reasons is the lack of very detailed high-resolution experimental results for the theories to be compared with. Recently, the scanning tunneling spectroscopy [P. Cai et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 1047 (2016); C. Ye et al., Nat. Commun. 4, 1365 (2013)] on lightly doped Mott insulator with an antiferromagnetic order found the presence of in-gap states with energy of order half an eV above the chemical potential. The measured spectral properties with doping are not quite consistent with earlier theoretical works. Although the experiment has disorder and localization effect, but for the energy scale we will study here, a model without disorder is sufficed to illustrate the underlying physics. We perform a diagonalization method on top of the variational Monte Carlo calculation to study the evolution of antiferromagnetic Mott state with doped hole concentration in the Hubbard model. Our results found in-gap states that behave similarly with ones reported by STS. These in-gap states acquire a substantial amount of dynamical spectral weight transferred from the upper Hubbard band. The in-gap states move toward chemical potential with increasing spectral weight as doping increases. Our result also provides information about the energy scale of these in-gap states in relation with the Coulomb coupling strength $U$.

arXiv:1508.04871•Physical review. B./Physical review. B•Jan 20, 2017•8 citations

Kondo effect of impurity moments in d -wave superconductors: Quantum phase transition and spectral properties

Matthias Vojta C, R. Bulla

We discuss the dynamics of magnetic moments in d-wave superconductors. In particular, we focus on moments induced by doping nonmagnetic impurities into cuprates. The interaction of such moments with the Bogoliubov quasiparticles of the superconductors can be described by variants of the pseudogap Kondo model, characterized by a power-law density of states at the Fermi level. The numerical renormalization-group technique is employed to investigate this Kondo problem for realistic band structures and particle-hole asymmetries, both at zero and finite temperatures. In particular, we study the boundary quantum phase transition between the local-moment and asymmetric strong-coupling phases, and argue that this transition has been observed in recent nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. We determine the spectral properties of both phases and the location of the critical point as a function of Kondo coupling and doping, and discuss quantum-critical crossovers near this phase transition. In addition, changes in the local density of states around the impurity are calculated as functions of temperature, being relevant to scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.

arXiv:cond-mat/0108171•Physical review. B, Condensed matter•Dec 4, 2001•76 citations

Algebraic-Dynamical Perturbation Theory of Large-$U$ Hubbard Models. Single Particle Spectrum of Antiferromagnetic Mott Insulating States

Wenxin Ding, Rong Yu

In this work, we present an analytical framework for studying antiferromagnetic (AFM) Mott insulating states in the Hubbard model. We first derive an analytical solution for the single-particle Green's functions in the atomic limit. Within a second-order perturbation approach, we compute the ground state energy and show that the ground state is antiferromagnetically ordered. Then we derive an analytical solution for single-particle Green's functions when effects of the hopping term are considered in the Néel state. With the analytical solution, we compute the spectral functions and explain various properties of the AFM Mott insulating state as observed both experimentally and numerically: i) magnetic blueshift of the Mott gap; ii) the low energy part in the parental compounds of cuprate high \(T_c\) superconductors, which corresponds to a single band Hubbard model description. This work comprehends the electronic properties of antiferromagnetic Mott states analytically and provides a foundation for future investigations of doped antiferromagnetic Mott insulators, aiming for the mechanism of cuprates high-\(T_c\) superconductivity.

arXiv:2310.18982•Oct 29, 2023•0 citations

Local density of states of a quarter-filled one-dimensional Mott insulator with a boundary

Dirk Schuricht

We study the low-energy limit of a quarter-filled one-dimensional Mott insulator. We analytically determine the local density of states in the presence of a strong impurity potential, which is modeled by a boundary. To this end we calculate the Green function using field theoretical methods. The Fourier transform of the local density of states shows signatures of a pinning of the spin-density wave at the impurity as well as several dispersing features at frequencies above the charge gap. These features can be interpreted as propagating spin and charge degrees of freedom. Their relative strength can be attributed to the ``quasi-fermionic'' behavior of charge excitations with equal momenta. Furthermore, we discuss the effect of bound states localized at the impurity. Finally, we give an overview of the local density of states in various one-dimensional systems and discuss implications for scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.

arXiv:1105.3196•Physical Review B•Jul 15, 2011•5 citations
The local density of states near dopants or impurities has recently been probed by scanning tunneling microscopy in both the parent and very lightly doped compounds of the high-Tc{T}_{c}Tc​ cuprate superconductors. We use a slave-rotor representation of the Hubbard model to compute the local density of states on impurities in a Mott insulator. Our calculation accounts for the following key features of the experimental observation: (i) positions and amplitudes of the in-gap spectral weights of a single impurity; (ii) the spectral weight transfer from the upper Hubbard band to the lower Hubbard band; (iii) the difference between the cases of single and multiple impurities. For multiple impurities, our study explains the complete suppression of spectral weight observed at precisely the Fermi energy and links this property to zeros of the underlying bulk Green's function of the Mott insulating phase.
Inspired by recent experimental findings, we investigate various scenarios of the doped Hubbard model with impurity potentials. We calculate the lattice Green's function in a finite-size cluster and then map it to the continuum real space, which allows for a direct comparison with scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on the local density of states. Our simulations successfully reproduce experimental data, including the characteristic stripe- and ladder-shaped structures observed in cuprate systems. Moreover, our results establish a connection between previous numerical findings on stripe-ordered ground states and experimental observations, thus providing new insights into microscopic mechanisms of the Mott insulator to superconductor transition in cuprates.
Motivated by the recent measurements of the spatial distribution of single particle excitation states in a hole-doped Mott insulator, we study the effects of impurity on the in-gap states, induced by the doped holes, in the Hubbard model on the square lattice by the cluster perturbation theory. We find that a repulsive impurity potential can move the in-gap state from the lower Hubbard band towards the upper Hubbard band, providing a good account for the experimental observation. The distribution of the spectral function in the momentum space can be used to discriminate the in-gap state induced by doped holes and that by the impurity. The spatial characters of the in-gap states in the presence of two impurities are also discussed and compared to the experiment.
Since the discovery of half-filled cuprate to be a Mott insulator, the excitation spectra above the chemical potential for the unoccupied states has attracted much research attention. There were many theoretical works using different numerical techniques to study this problem, but many have reached different conclusions. One of the reasons is the lack of very detailed high-resolution experimental results for the theories to be compared with. Recently, the scanning tunneling spectroscopy [P. Cai et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 1047 (2016); C. Ye et al., Nat. Commun. 4, 1365 (2013)] on lightly doped Mott insulator with an antiferromagnetic order found the presence of in-gap states with energy of order half an eV above the chemical potential. The measured spectral properties with doping are not quite consistent with earlier theoretical works. Although the experiment has disorder and localization effect, but for the energy scale we will study here, a model without disorder is sufficed to illustrate the underlying physics. We perform a diagonalization method on top of the variational Monte Carlo calculation to study the evolution of antiferromagnetic Mott state with doped hole concentration in the Hubbard model. Our results found in-gap states that behave similarly with ones reported by STS. These in-gap states acquire a substantial amount of dynamical spectral weight transferred from the upper Hubbard band. The in-gap states move toward chemical potential with increasing spectral weight as doping increases. Our result also provides information about the energy scale of these in-gap states in relation with the Coulomb coupling strength UUU.
We discuss the dynamics of magnetic moments in d-wave superconductors. In particular, we focus on moments induced by doping nonmagnetic impurities into cuprates. The interaction of such moments with the Bogoliubov quasiparticles of the superconductors can be described by variants of the pseudogap Kondo model, characterized by a power-law density of states at the Fermi level. The numerical renormalization-group technique is employed to investigate this Kondo problem for realistic band structures and particle-hole asymmetries, both at zero and finite temperatures. In particular, we study the boundary quantum phase transition between the local-moment and asymmetric strong-coupling phases, and argue that this transition has been observed in recent nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. We determine the spectral properties of both phases and the location of the critical point as a function of Kondo coupling and doping, and discuss quantum-critical crossovers near this phase transition. In addition, changes in the local density of states around the impurity are calculated as functions of temperature, being relevant to scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.
Algebraic-Dynamical Perturbation Theory of Large-UUU Hubbard Models. Single Particle Spectrum of Antiferromagnetic Mott Insulating States
In this work, we present an analytical framework for studying antiferromagnetic (AFM) Mott insulating states in the Hubbard model. We first derive an analytical solution for the single-particle Green's functions in the atomic limit. Within a second-order perturbation approach, we compute the ground state energy and show that the ground state is antiferromagnetically ordered. Then we derive an analytical solution for single-particle Green's functions when effects of the hopping term are considered in the Néel state. With the analytical solution, we compute the spectral functions and explain various properties of the AFM Mott insulating state as observed both experimentally and numerically: i) magnetic blueshift of the Mott gap; ii) the low energy part in the parental compounds of cuprate high TcT_cTc​ superconductors, which corresponds to a single band Hubbard model description. This work comprehends the electronic properties of antiferromagnetic Mott states analytically and provides a foundation for future investigations of doped antiferromagnetic Mott insulators, aiming for the mechanism of cuprates high-TcT_cTc​ superconductivity.
We study the low-energy limit of a quarter-filled one-dimensional Mott insulator. We analytically determine the local density of states in the presence of a strong impurity potential, which is modeled by a boundary. To this end we calculate the Green function using field theoretical methods. The Fourier transform of the local density of states shows signatures of a pinning of the spin-density wave at the impurity as well as several dispersing features at frequencies above the charge gap. These features can be interpreted as propagating spin and charge degrees of freedom. Their relative strength can be attributed to the ``quasi-fermionic'' behavior of charge excitations with equal momenta. Furthermore, we discuss the effect of bound states localized at the impurity. Finally, we give an overview of the local density of states in various one-dimensional systems and discuss implications for scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.