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Physical review. B, Condensed matter

Spin polarons in the t - J model

Gerardo Martı́nez, Peter Horsch

Published Jul 1, 1991• 498 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The motion of a single hole in a two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet (hAF) is studied in a representation where holes are described as spinless fermions (holons) and spins as normal bosons. Assuming long-range AF order the spin dynamics is treated in linear spin-wave theory. The formulation highlights the close relation with the conventional polaron problem. The holon Green's function is calculated self-consistently within the Born approximation using finite-cluster geometries for the numerical solution. As a remarkable result we find close agreement with the spectral function A(k,\ensuremath{\omega}) of a hole calculated by exact diagonalization methods. A(k,\ensuremath{\omega}) is characterized by a narrow quasiparticle (QP) peak at the low-energy side of the spectrum, which is well separated from the incoherent part for large enough J values. A complete characterization of our solution is given, including the spectral weight, the dispersion relation, and effective masses of the QP state. A finite-size-scaling study gives a nonvanishing spectral weight of the QP in the thermodynamic limit for values J/t typical for copper oxide superconductors. Our calculations indicate that the self-consistent Born approximation is a valuable scheme for characterizing the dynamics of a hole in the t-J model, even in the strong-coupling regime.

DOI
10.1103/physrevb.44.317

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Solid state physics, a very broad field in natural science, aims to explain physical properties of materials modeled as a many-body ensemble of the order of ∼ 10^23 interacting particles. For interacting metallic systems, one of the most powerful tools for unraveling the consequences of the collective interaction is the Fermi liquid theory. While still being an approximation, it excellently models many materials especially in the low-temperature and low-energy regime by treating themany-body problem as being equivalent to effectively non-interacting ”particles”, which is done by introducing the concept of quasiparticles. During the last few decades, several exotic phases of matter have been discovered, which originate from strong Coulomb interactions between the electrons, whose description is beyond the Fermi liquid theory. This thesis addresses the question of the validity of Fermi liquid theory once a single hole is introduced into an antiferromagnet with completely localized spins due to the strong interactions. Here, the most-studied case concerns the so-called 2D t − J model, which hosts a well-defined quasiparticle, the spin polaron. Focusing on a more tractable case, the t − Jz model without quantum spin fluctuations, we study the stability of the spin polaron solution once the nextnearest neighbor hopping t′ is introduced into the system. We focus on observations at the Γ-point and the X-point of systems with fixed Jz = 0.4t and varying t′ ∈ [−0.5t, 0.5t]. The model is numerically solved using exact diagonalization on finite-size lattices of up to 32 sites. A study of the quasiparticle weight under finite-size scaling reveals an “anomalous” regime at the Γ-point fort′ ≤ −0.3t, indicated by a vanishing quasiparticle weight. In order to characterize the low-energy dynamics within this “anomalous” regime, we investigated the spin correlation centered around the hole, as well as the magnon number distribution of a single-doped 20-site system. Based on the results, we present a preliminary picture of the antiferromagnetic ground state doped with one hole within that “anomalous” regime (t′ ≤ −0.3t) that deviates from the standard spin polaron as the cloud of magnetic fluctuations, typically localized around the hole, delocalizes over the whole finite-size lattice. Consequently, such systems show a weakly suppressed antiferromagnetic configuration under single-hole doping.

•Apr 1, 2026•0 citations
The motion of a single hole in a two-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet (hAF) is studied in a representation where holes are described as spinless fermions (holons) and spins as normal bosons. Assuming long-range AF order the spin dynamics is treated in linear spin-wave theory. The formulation highlights the close relation with the conventional polaron problem. The holon Green's function is calculated self-consistently within the Born approximation using finite-cluster geometries for the numerical solution. As a remarkable result we find close agreement with the spectral function A(k,\ensuremath{\omega}) of a hole calculated by exact diagonalization methods. A(k,\ensuremath{\omega}) is characterized by a narrow quasiparticle (QP) peak at the low-energy side of the spectrum, which is well separated from the incoherent part for large enough J values. A complete characterization of our solution is given, including the spectral weight, the dispersion relation, and effective masses of the QP state. A finite-size-scaling study gives a nonvanishing spectral weight of the QP in the thermodynamic limit for values J/t typical for copper oxide superconductors. Our calculations indicate that the self-consistent Born approximation is a valuable scheme for characterizing the dynamics of a hole in the t-J model, even in the strong-coupling regime.
We solved numerically the integral equation for the selfenergy which describes the motion of a single hole in a two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet (AF) within the selfconsistent Born approximation. This formulation stresses the similarity of the AF-spin polaron with the standard polaron problem. We confine our calculation to finite cluster geometries and compare with results from previous exact diagonalization studies. The spectral function is characterized by a narrow quasiparticle (qp) peak at the low energy side of the spectra, which appears to be well separated from the incoherent band part for large enough J values. For small J we find a reduced width of ~7t for the incoherent band. The bottom of the coherent qp band always occurs at (±π/2, ±π/2). Its bandwidth initially increases with J until J≃t and then decreases as 2t2/J. A complete characterization of our solution is given, including the dispersion relation and effective masses of this quasiparticle. The comparison with exact diagonalization studies for a 4×4 cluster is remarkably good. From our results we see that a lattice of 16×16 sites describes adequately the thermodynamic limit. We conclude that the simple Born approximation is a valuable scheme to characterize the dynamics of one hole in the t-J model. both in the perturbative and the strong coupling regimes.
The t-J model in the large-t/J and low-doping limit is approximated by an effective Hamiltonian that treats spin degrees of freedom within the linear-spin-wave approximation and the hole-hopping term with a hole-spin interaction vertex that is linear in the spin-wave operators. The Dyson's equation for the single-hole Green's function is solved numerically on finite- but sufficiently large-size square lattices. Our calculation is based on an approximate equation for the hole motion that has been obtained using a self-consistent perturbation approach where crossing diagrams are neglected. We have studied the contribution of vertex corrections and found that the leading two-loop crossing diagram is exactly zero. Thus, the leading nonzero contribution to the proper self-energy from crossing diagrams is a three-loop correction. In two dimensions, it is possible to solve Dyson's equation numerically including these three-loop corrections. The results demonstrate that the contribution of such vertex corrections is indeed small. Our solution for the hole spectral function, obtained by neglecting such small contributions from vertex corrections, shows that most features describing the hole motion are in close agreement with the results of the exact diagonalization on the 42{4}^{2}42 lattice in the region of J/t\ensuremath{\le}0.2. The results obtained on sufficiently large-size lattices suggest that certain important features of the spectral function remain while others change due to finite-size effects. In particular, we find well-defined peaks above the lowest-energy peak that survive in the thermodynamic limit. We analyze these higher-energy peaks of the spectral functions and find that they can be understood as ``string'' excitations, which are created by the hole moving in a nearly linear potential.
The motion of a single hole in a two-dimensional triangular antiferromagnet is investigated using the $t\ensuremath{-}J$ model. The one-hole states are described by strings of spin deviations around the hole. Using projection technique the one-hole spectral function is calculated. For large J/tJ/tJ/t we find low-lying quasiparticlelike bands which are well separated from an incoherent background by a gap of order J. However, for small J/tJ/tJ/t this gap vanishes and the spectrum becomes broad over an energy range of several t. The results are compared with self-consistent Born approximation calculations and numerical data.
The self-consistent Born approximation for the self-energy and the wave function of a single hole moving in a two-dimensional quantum antiferromagnet is used to calculate various spin-correlation functions that characterize the perturbation induced by the hole. The results for these correlation functions agree with the available small-cluster calculations. The hole-spin correlation functions decay asymptotically with the distance from the hole as a power law and exhibit a dipolar distortion of the antiferromagnet. The quasiparticle spectral weight remains finite.
Solid state physics, a very broad field in natural science, aims to explain physical properties of materials modeled as a many-body ensemble of the order of ∼ 10^23 interacting particles. For interacting metallic systems, one of the most powerful tools for unraveling the consequences of the collective interaction is the Fermi liquid theory. While still being an approximation, it excellently models many materials especially in the low-temperature and low-energy regime by treating themany-body problem as being equivalent to effectively non-interacting ”particles”, which is done by introducing the concept of quasiparticles. During the last few decades, several exotic phases of matter have been discovered, which originate from strong Coulomb interactions between the electrons, whose description is beyond the Fermi liquid theory. This thesis addresses the question of the validity of Fermi liquid theory once a single hole is introduced into an antiferromagnet with completely localized spins due to the strong interactions. Here, the most-studied case concerns the so-called 2D t − J model, which hosts a well-defined quasiparticle, the spin polaron. Focusing on a more tractable case, the t − Jz model without quantum spin fluctuations, we study the stability of the spin polaron solution once the nextnearest neighbor hopping t′ is introduced into the system. We focus on observations at the Γ-point and the X-point of systems with fixed Jz = 0.4t and varying t′ ∈ [−0.5t, 0.5t]. The model is numerically solved using exact diagonalization on finite-size lattices of up to 32 sites. A study of the quasiparticle weight under finite-size scaling reveals an “anomalous” regime at the Γ-point fort′ ≤ −0.3t, indicated by a vanishing quasiparticle weight. In order to characterize the low-energy dynamics within this “anomalous” regime, we investigated the spin correlation centered around the hole, as well as the magnon number distribution of a single-doped 20-site system. Based on the results, we present a preliminary picture of the antiferromagnetic ground state doped with one hole within that “anomalous” regime (t′ ≤ −0.3t) that deviates from the standard spin polaron as the cloud of magnetic fluctuations, typically localized around the hole, delocalizes over the whole finite-size lattice. Consequently, such systems show a weakly suppressed antiferromagnetic configuration under single-hole doping.