A generic question in the field of ultrafast dynamics is concerned with the relaxation dynamics and the subsequent thermalization of optically excited charge carriers. Among several possible relaxation channels available in a solid-state system, we focus on the coupling to magnetic excitations. In this paper, we study the real-time dynamics of a paradigmatic model, the Kondo lattice model in one dimension. We conduct a comprehensive study of the relaxation processes by evaluating the spin polarization of the conduction electron, the local spin-spin correlation between localized and conduction electrons, and the electronic momentum distribution. While in the well-studied cases of one or two charge carriers in a ferromagnetic background, no thermalization occurs, we demonstrate that the stationary state is compatible with thermalization if either the electronic filling is finite or the magnetic background is in the singlet sector. Our real-time simulations using the time-dependent Lanczos method are corroborated by a direct comparison with finite-temperature expectation values and an analysis of the spectrum in terms of the gap ratio.
A generic question in the field of ultrafast dynamics is concerned with the relaxation dynamics and the subsequent thermalization of optically excited charge carriers. Among several possible relaxation channels available in a solid-state system, we focus on the coupling to magnetic excitations. In this paper, we study the real-time dynamics of a paradigmatic model, the Kondo lattice model in one dimension. We conduct a comprehensive study of the relaxation processes by evaluating the spin polarization of the conduction electron, the local spin-spin correlation between localized and conduction electrons, and the electronic momentum distribution. While in the well-studied cases of one or two charge carriers in a ferromagnetic background, no thermalization occurs, we demonstrate that the stationary state is compatible with thermalization if either the electronic filling is finite or the magnetic background is in the singlet sector. Our real-time simulations using the time-dependent Lanczos method are corroborated by a direct comparison with finite-temperature expectation values and an analysis of the spectrum in terms of the gap ratio.
This dissertation investigates the non-equilibrium relaxation and thermalization of conduction electrons coupled to bosonic excitations, focusing on whether magnons can provide a relaxation channel analogous to phonons. Using perturbative analysis, exact diagonalization, and semiclassical simulations, we study one-dimensional systems described primarily by the Kondo lattice model. For a single conduction electron in a ferromagnetic background, the weak-coupling dynamics can be understood as the interaction of two electronic levels with a bosonic bath. We then increase the number of available many-body scattering channels by increasing the carrier density or by considering an antiferromagnetic spin background. In both cases, the long-time behavior of local observables becomes consistent with thermalization. These results show how localized spin excitations can mediate electronic relaxation.
The one-dimensional Kondo lattice model with attractive interaction among the conduction electrons is analyzed in the case of half-filling. It is shown that there are three distinct phases depending on the coupling constants of the model. Two phases have a spin and charge gap. While one shows a clear distinction of the spin and charge excitation spectrum the other phase may be characterized as a band insulator type where both excitations are due to two-particle states. The third phase is gapless in both channels and has quasi-long-range order in the spin- and charge-density-wave correlation. In this phase the spin and charge excitations have a clearly separated spectrum. For the analysis we discuss first two limiting cases. Then a density matrix renormalization group calculation on finite systems is applied to determine the phase diagram and the correlation functions in the gapped and gapless phase for general coupling constants.
A detailed derivation of the recently proposed time-dependent numerical renormalization-group (TD-NRG) approach to nonequilibrium dynamics in quantum-impurity systems is presented. We demonstrate that the method is suitable for fermionic as well as bosonic baths. Comparisons with exact analytical results for the charge relaxation in the resonant-level model and for dephasing in the spin-boson model establish the accuracy of the method. The real-time dynamics of a single spin coupled to each type of bath is investigated. We use the TD-NRG to calculate the spin relaxation and spin precession of a single Kondo impurity. The short- and long-time dynamics are studied as a function of temperature in the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic regimes. The short-time dynamics agrees very well with analytical results obtained at second order in the exchange coupling J. In the ferromagnetic regime, the transient spin decay is described by the scaling variable $x=2{\ensuremath{\rho}}_{F}\ensuremath{\mid}J(T)\ensuremath{\mid}Tt$. In the antiferromagnetic regime, the long-time decay is governed for T<TK by the Kondo time scale 1∕TK. Here ${\ensuremath{\rho}}_{F}$ is the conduction-electron density of states, TK is the Kondo temperature, and J(T) is the effective exchange coupling at temperature T. Results for spin precession are obtained by rotating the external magnetic field from the x axis to the z axis.
Recent developments in the theoretical investigation of the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model by using the density matrix renormalization group (DMRG) method are discussed in this review. Short summaries are given of the zero-temperature DMRG method, the finite-temperature DMRG method, and also the application of the finite- T DMRG to dynamic quantities. Away from half-filling, the paramagnetic metallic state is shown to be a Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid with a large Fermi surface. The size of the large Fermi surface is determined by the sum of the densities of the conduction electrons and the localized spins. The correlation exponent of this metallic phase is smaller than 1/2. At half-filling the ground state is insulating. The excitation gaps are different, depending on the channels, the spin gap, the charge gap and the quasiparticle gap. The temperature dependence of the spin and charge susceptibilities and the specific heat are discussed. Particularly interesting is the temperature dependence of various excitation spectra, which indicates unusual properties for the Kondo insulators.
Even though realistic one-dimensional experiments in the field of half-metallic semiconductors are not at hand yet, we are interested in the underlying fundamental physics. In this regard we study a one-dimensional ferromagnetic Kondo lattice model, a model in which a conduction band is coupled ferromagnetically to a background of localized d moments with coupling constant J(H), and investigate the T = 0 phase diagram as a function of the antiferromagnetic interaction J between the localized moments and the band-filling n, since it has been observed that doping of the compounds has led to formation of magnetic domains. We explore the spin-polaron formation by looking at the nearest-neighbour correlation functions in the spin and charge regimes for which we use the density matrix renormalization group method, which is a highly efficient method to investigate quasi-one-dimensional strongly correlated systems.
The first topic of this thesis is the study of many-body effects in an one-dimensional strongly correlated electronic system - the Kondo lattice model. This system is tackled numerically by means of the density matrix renormalization group, since analytic method, i.e., perturbation the- ory fail due to competing coupling constants. The Kondo lattice model consists of a conduction band of electrons which couple via a spin exchange coupling to a localized spin lattice. We study the spectral properties of the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model as a function of the exchange coupling, the band filling, and the quasimomentum in the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases. We compute the dispersion relation of the quasiparticles, their lifetimes, and the Z factor. The exact ground state and the quasiparticle-dispersion relation of the Kondo lattice model with one conduction electron are well known. The quasiparticle could be identified as the spin polaron. Our calculations of the dispersion relation for partial band fillings give a result similar to the one-electron case, which suggests that the quasiparticle in both cases is the spin polaron. We find that the quasiparticle lifetime differs by orders of magnitude between the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases and depends strongly on the quasimomentum. Further- more, we study the effects of the Coulomb interaction on the phase diagram, the static magnetic susceptibility and electron spin relaxation. We show that onsite Coulomb interaction supports ferromagnetic order and nearest neighbor Coulomb interaction drives, depending on the elec- tron filling, either a paramagnetic or ferromagnetic order. Furthermore, we calculate electron quasiparticle life times, which can be related to electron spin relaxation and decoherence times, and explain their dependence on the strength of interactions and the electron filling in order to find the sweet spot of parameters where the relaxation time is maximized. We find that effective exchange processes between the electrons dominate the spin relaxation and decoherence rate. In the second topic of this thesis, we numerically calculate the electron transport through carbon nanotube based quantum dot devices. We use a master equation’s approach in first order of the tunneling rate to the leads and an extended constant interaction model to model the carbon nanotube system. This work has been done in collaboration with two experimental groups and we compare their respective experimentally obtained data to our numerical calculations. In both collaborations striking similarity between the numerical data and the experimental data is found. In the first collaboration transport through a carbon nanotube peapod, i.e, a carbon nanotube filled with fullerenes, has been measured. We identify a small hybridization between a fullerene molecule and the surrounding carbon nanotube to be of crucial importance for the understanding of the transport data. In the second collaboration, electron transport through a carbon nanotube rope, i.e., a bundle of carbon nanotubes has been measured. Also here, hybridization between the different nanotubes plays a crucial role. Furthermore, an external magnetic field is applied, which enables the identification of specific spin states of the compound quantum dot system. This might be important for future applications of such devices in spin-dependent electronics.