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Le Journal de Physique Colloques

GROUND-STATE ENERGY OF FRÖHLICH ELECTRON-PHONON SYSTEM

Chih-Yuan Lu

Published Dec 1, 1981• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Recently Feynman's path-integral formalism of the Fröhlich optical polaron problem is generalized, by which it is easy and natural to get the second-order perturbation result in the weak-coupling case and the Pekar's result in the strongcoupling case, even in the crudest ground-state approximation. By using numerical method to the equations which are given by the ground-state approximation, the ground-state energy of the electron-optical phonon system can obtained for the overall range of coupling strength. In addition, a self-consistent set of equations is derived for a central optimized potential without using the ground-state approximation. This effective local, central potential is the solution of a linear integral equation which was similar to the extensive work of optimized-potential model (OPM) in atomic physics. By using OPM formalism, no particular choice of interaction form is taken, therefore, except the approximation by Jensen's inequality, the ground-state energy of the electron-optical phonon interacting system can be obtained without any approximation.

DOI
10.1051/jphyscol:19816140

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Journal of Physics Condensed Matter•Aug 15, 1994•12 citations
Recently Feynman's path-integral formalism of the Fröhlich optical polaron problem is generalized, by which it is easy and natural to get the second-order perturbation result in the weak-coupling case and the Pekar's result in the strongcoupling case, even in the crudest ground-state approximation. By using numerical method to the equations which are given by the ground-state approximation, the ground-state energy of the electron-optical phonon system can obtained for the overall range of coupling strength. In addition, a self-consistent set of equations is derived for a central optimized potential without using the ground-state approximation. This effective local, central potential is the solution of a linear integral equation which was similar to the extensive work of optimized-potential model (OPM) in atomic physics. By using OPM formalism, no particular choice of interaction form is taken, therefore, except the approximation by Jensen's inequality, the ground-state energy of the electron-optical phonon interacting system can be obtained without any approximation.
The ground-state energy of a two-dimensional (2D) Fr\"ohlich polaron is calculated to second order in the coupling constant (\ensuremath{\alpha}) and gives E/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{s}$=-(\ensuremath{\pi}/2)\ensuremath{\alpha}-0.063 97${\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{2}$ with \ensuremath{\Elzxh}${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{s}$ the surface optical-phonon energy. In the strong-coupling limit the adiabatic approximation is used and E/\ensuremath{\Elzxh}${\ensuremath{\omega}}_{s}$=-0.4047${\ensuremath{\alpha}}^{2}$ is found to leading order in \ensuremath{\alpha}. The Feynman path-integral approximation, the Gaussian approximation, and the modified Lee-Low-Pines unitary transformation approximation to the polaron ground-state energy all satisfy the scaling relation E2D{E}_{2\mathrm{D}}E2D​(\ensuremath{\alpha})=(2/3)E3D{E}_{3\mathrm{D}}E3D​(( 3\ensuremath{\pi}/4)\ensuremath{\alpha}), where E2D{E}_{2\mathrm{D}}E2D​ (E3D{E}_{3\mathrm{D}}E3D​) is the ground-state energy of the 2D (3D) polaron.
It is well known that two qualitatively different pictures arise in the description of the motion of an electron in an ionic crystal. In the first case, when the electron interacts weakly with the ionic lattice of the crystal, its motion is the same as the motion of a free band electron whose energy is shifted downward with respect to the bottom of the conduction band, and the effective mass is replaced by the renormalized mass (weak-coupling polaron). In the other limiting case, when the electron interacts strongly with the ionic crystal, an entire series of different self-consistent states of the electron and lattice, each of which has its own effective mass and radius (strong-coupling polaron), arises. Although the motion of an electron in an ionic crystal is described in both limiting cases with the help of the Pekar-Frohlich Hamiltonian, each case requires its own special methods of analysis. Thus, for example, in the strong-coupling theory a special form of adiabatic perturbation theory has been developed in which the trans-lational degeneracy is removed before the perturbation expansion is made. It has been possible to relate both descriptions within the framework of Feynman's varia-tional approach, in which a smooth upper bound was obtained for the energy of the ground state of the polaron for all values of the electron-phonon coupling constant a (see Fig. 1). We call attention in this connection to Ref. 6, where the thermodynamic properties are calculated with the help of a special method for performing the calculations and for finding averages of T-products. The approach developed there is more convenient for performing specific calculations than is the use of path integrals. It seems to us that it has definite advantages in the construction of general proofs concerning the choice of the approximating Hamiltonians (this is illustrated in Ref. 6 for the example of the linear Bogolyubov model), in the investigation of the characteristics of the behavior of a polaron in external fields, etc.
The next lowest order term of the ground state energy has its origin in lowering of frequencies of phonons localized around the polaron. An eigenvalue equation is derived, the solution of which gives phonon eigenmodes and frequencies in the presence of the polaron. Several eigenvalues are obtained by numerical integration. From the results, the ground state energy is estimated as E0/ℏω0=−0.108513α2−2.836+O(1/α2)E_{0}/\hbar\omega_{0}{=}-0.108513\alpha^{2}-2.836+O(1/\alpha^{2})E0​/ℏω0​=−0.108513α2−2.836+O(1/α2), where ω 0 is the frequency of the optical phonon and α is the electron-phonon coupling constant. The numerical value of the effective mass is 0.0227019α 4 .
This chapter presents a brief introduction to the path-integral method before applying it to the polaron problem. The coupling theory is based on the path-integral formulation of quantum mechanics developed by Feynman in 1955. The path-integral formalism proves to be a useful tool for many field-theoretic problems. Feynman's path-integral method as applied by Feynman to determine the polaron effective mass has an intuitive rather than formal basis. The comparison revealed unequivocally the superiority of the Feynman model over the entire range of the coupling constant. Schultz also simulated the Feynman approximation by replacing the whole lattice with a second, fictitious particle harmonically bound to the electron by a spring of constant k. Thus, the Feynman's strong-coupling energy is better than the Landau-Pekar energy with the Gaussian trial function. The numerical results reported by Marshall and Mills show that the second-order correction to the Feynman result for the ground state energy is less than 2% for the entire coupling rang.
After deriving the quantum mechanical model polaron Hamiltonian, Frohlich, Pelzar and Zineau presented a perturbative solution to the problem. This chapter examines the perturbation theory from Frohlich et al. and presents other important weak and intermediate coupling polaron theories. It discusses several polaronic properties like average number of virtual phonons in the polaron cloud, electron life-time, lattice polarization potential using the first-order perturbative wave function and obtained the polaron energy and the polaron mass using the second-order Rayleigh-Schrodinger perturbation theory (RSPT). The second-order RSPT is known to have a limited range of validity. In the one-phonon Tamm-Dancoff approximation, the exact ground state energy appears in the denominator instead of the unperturbed energy that appears in RSPT. The chapter also discusses the work of Lee and Pines who have used the Tomonaga's approximation made in the formulation of the meson-theoretic problem to the case of polaron.
A refined approach where the wave function is gradually improved is developed in the one-dimensional (1D) large-Frohlich-polaron problem. The results for the ground-state energy, the effective mass, and the average number of virtual phonons are obtained for a wide range of the coupling constant It, and are in agreement with those of the Feynman path-integral formalism. In addition, in the weak-coupling limit, the expansions of these observables in powers of the coupling constant are exactly calculated up to the alpha 3 -term. They are E=- alpha -0.06066 alpha 2 -0.00844 alpha 3 , m*=1+0.5 alpha +0.19194 alpha 2 +0.06912 alpha 3 , and N=0.5 alpha +0.12132 alpha 2 +0.029540 alpha 3 , which agree with the known results of the fourth-order perturbation theory.