We review a series of exact, analytical and numerical results obtained on the adiabatic Holstein–Hubbard model, many of which are new and non-trivial. We study next the role of the quantum lattice fluctuations that were initially neglected. The possibility of having high- T c bipolaronic superconductors is analysed on the basis of these results. We suggest that models that involve only electron–phonon coupling are very unlikely to produce bipolaronic superconductivity, which is prevented by the spatial ordering of the bipolarons associated with a lattice instability. This is due to a very large effective mass of the bipolarons that can be related to the large Peierls–Nabarro energy barrier required to move these bipolarons through the lattice in the adiabatic limit. We conjecture that high- T c superconductivity originates specifically from the exceptionally well-balanced competition between electron–phonon coupling and electron–electron repulsion. In the restricted region in which, within the mean field approach, the energy of a bipolaron is close to those of two polarons, a new type of electron pairing occurs by formation of pairs of polarons in the spin singlet state. Such a polaron pair, called a spin resonant bipolaron (SRB), is not the standard bipolaron (both could exist in the adiabatic case). Its Peierls–Nabarro energy barrier can be sharply depressed, almost to zero. As a result of quantum lattice fluctuations, its tunnelling energy is sharply enhanced. Then, superconductivity could persist for a relatively large electron–phonon coupling, with an unusually large critical temperature as a Bose condensate of SRBs before becoming, at larger coupling and in any case, an insulating spin–Peierls polaronic phase.
We review a series of exact, analytical and numerical results obtained on the adiabatic Holstein–Hubbard model, many of which are new and non-trivial. We study next the role of the quantum lattice fluctuations that were initially neglected. The possibility of having high- T c bipolaronic superconductors is analysed on the basis of these results. We suggest that models that involve only electron–phonon coupling are very unlikely to produce bipolaronic superconductivity, which is prevented by the spatial ordering of the bipolarons associated with a lattice instability. This is due to a very large effective mass of the bipolarons that can be related to the large Peierls–Nabarro energy barrier required to move these bipolarons through the lattice in the adiabatic limit. We conjecture that high- T c superconductivity originates specifically from the exceptionally well-balanced competition between electron–phonon coupling and electron–electron repulsion. In the restricted region in which, within the mean field approach, the energy of a bipolaron is close to those of two polarons, a new type of electron pairing occurs by formation of pairs of polarons in the spin singlet state. Such a polaron pair, called a spin resonant bipolaron (SRB), is not the standard bipolaron (both could exist in the adiabatic case). Its Peierls–Nabarro energy barrier can be sharply depressed, almost to zero. As a result of quantum lattice fluctuations, its tunnelling energy is sharply enhanced. Then, superconductivity could persist for a relatively large electron–phonon coupling, with an unusually large critical temperature as a Bose condensate of SRBs before becoming, at larger coupling and in any case, an insulating spin–Peierls polaronic phase.
At large electron-phonon coupling, the phonon of the Holstein-Hubbard model can be (generally) treated classically. Exact results can be obtained for this model at any band filling and any finite dimension where the Hubbard term with coefficient U is treated rigorously. The existence of chaotic bipolaronic states is proven when U is smaller than a certain value Uc and for an electron-phonon coupling k sufficiently large. The existence of magnetic polaronic states is also proven for positive U and k sufficiently large. For 0<U<Uc, there exists an overlap region with chaotic mixed polaronic-bipolaronic states. There is a region for U=Uc/2 and large k of special interest, where the bipolarons in their ground-state become singlet pairs of polarons bounded by a magnetic resonance. Then, the Peierls-Nabarro barrier which usually pins polarons and bipolarons to the lattice depresses to almost zero and the validity of the classical lattice approximation breaks down so that the initial exact results do not apply in that specific region. The formation of a superconducting state with possibly a high critical temperature, is then conjectured at a large coupling k in a narrow domain in-between the two insulating domains corresponding to Bipolaronic Charge Density Waves and to magnetic Polaronic Spin Density Waves respectively.
Abstract. The spatially localized bound states of two electrons in the adiabatic two-dimensional Holstein-Hubbard model on a square lattice are investigated both numerically and analytically. The interplay between the electron-phonon coupling g, which tends to form bipolarons and the repulsive Hubbard interaction υ ≥ 0, which tends to break them, generates many different ground-states. There are four domains in the g,υ phase diagram delimited by first order transition lines. Except for the domain at weak electronphonon coupling (small g) where the electrons remain free, the electrons form bipolarons which can 1) be mostly located on a single site (small υ, large g); 2) be an anisotropic pair of polarons lying on two neighboring sites in the magnetic singlet state (large υ, large g); or 3) be a ”quadrisinglet state ” which is the superposition of 4 electronic singlets with a common central site. This quadrisinglet bipolaron is the most stable in a small central domain in between the three other phases. The pinning modes and the Peierls-Nabarro barrier of each of these bipolarons are calculated and the barrier is found to be strongly depressed in the region of stability of the quadrisinglet bipolaron. PACS. 71.10.Fd Lattice fermion models (Hubbard model, etc.) – 71.38.+i Polarons and electron phonon interactions – 74.20.Mn Nonconventional mechanisms (spin fluctuations, polarons and bipolarons, resonating valence bond model, anyon mechanism, marginal Fermi liquid, Luttinger liquid, etc.) – 74.25.Jb Electronic structure
The bound states of two electrons in the adiabatic Holstein-Hubbard model are studied numerically in one and two dimensions from the anticontinuous limit. This model involves a competition between a local electron-phonon coupling (with a classical lattice) which tends to form pairs of electrons and the repulsive Hubbard interaction U≥0 which tends to break them. In 1D, the ground-state always consists in a pair of localized polarons in a singlet state. They are located at the same site for U=0. Increasing U, there is a first order transition at which the bipolaron becomes a spin singlet pair of two polarons bounded by a magnetic interaction. The pinning mode of the bipolaron soften in the vicinity of this transition leading to a higher mobility of the bipolaron which is tested numerically. In 2D, and for any U, the electron-phonon coupling needs to be large enough in order to form small polarons or bipolarons instead of extended electrons. We calculate the phase diagram of the bipolaron involving first order transitions lines with a triple point. A pair of polarons can form three types of bipolarons: a) on a single site at small U, b) a spin singlet state on two nearest neighbor sites for larger U as in 1D and c) a new intermediate state obtained as the resonant combination of four 2-sites singlet states sharing a central site, called quadrisinglet. The breathing and pinning internal modes of bipolarons in 2D generally only weakly soften and thus, they are practically not mobile. On the opposite, in the vicinity of the triple point involving the quadrisinglet, both modes exhibit a significant softening. However, it was not sufficient for allowing the existence of a classical mobile bipolaron (at least in that model).
Motivated by aspects of layered high-temperature superconductors and related quasi-one-dimensional materials, we consider polaron structure, dynamics, and coherence in certain extended Peierls–Hubbard models. We emphasize the qualitative importance of electron–lattice interactions even in the presence of dominant electron–electron correlations, the signatures of polaron structure and dynamics in energy-resolved pair-distribution structure functions, and the effect of disorder on polaron propagation and stability. Introduction The formation and dynamics of polarons (and bipolarons), despite a halfcentury of theoretical and experimental study, remain fascinating topics in many-body physics, combining as they do (often competing) aspects of coupled fields with distinct natural time scales (e.g., electron–phonon, spin–phonon, exciton–phonon), electron–electron interactions, lattice discreteness, nonadiabaticity, collective quantum tunneling, thermal fluctuations, competitions between disorder and polaronic localization, etc. Direct observation of polarons through real-space imaging of any of the coupled fields is rare even with the advent of STEM , AFM techniques, etc. Likewise, global measurements such as that of electronic band-structure are insensitive to polaron features. Thus, experiments and theoretical techniques have had to focus on indirect effects on microscopic probes such as transport coefficients, electronic absorption, vibrational spectroscopy, and so forth. Our purpose here is to briefly review three qualitative effects in polaron physics that have arisen in modeling two components of the lattice structure of the layered cuprate superconductors [1] – namely, extended multi-band Peierls–Hubbard models of (a) the active CuO 2 planes and (b) polarizable Cu–O clusters in the axial direction (polarizable interplanar medium).
We analyze the transition temperature Tc of bipolaronic superconductivity in a bond Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (bond-SSH) model---also known as a bond Peierls model---where bond phonons modulate the electron hoppings. Using a semiclassical instanton approximation justifiable in the adiabatic limit of slow phonons, we find that the bipolaron mass is only weakly enhanced in contrast to the typically large mass enhancement found in models where the phonons couple to electron density. Strikingly, in the ``atomic'' limit, we find a bond bipolaron can freely slide within a continuously degenerate energy manifold, explaining the origin of the weak mass enhancement in the strong coupling limit. A gas of these bipolarons can undergo a superfluid transition at a critical temperature for which we obtain an upper bound. This bound is exponentially larger than that in the Holstein model. Our study provides an analytical understanding of the mechanism behind the high-Tc bipolaronic superconductivity numerically observed in [Phys. Rev. X 13, 011010 (2023)].
Light-mass bipolarons in off-diagonally coupled electron-phonon systems provide a potential route to bipolaronic high-Tc superconductivity. While there has been numerical progress in the physically relevant limit of slow phonons, more insights are needed to fully understand to what extent this mechanism survives at finite densities and in different regimes. We address these questions using advanced tensor-network methods applied to the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Studying both the spectral properties of isolated bipolarons as well as the pairing correlations at small finite densities, we find evidence that the conventional picture of bipolarons as molecular bound states which undergo Bose-Einstein condensation may need to be reconsidered. Instead, our findings suggest correlation-driven formation of a fragmented condensate with spatially separated polaron pairs, stabilized by strong repulsive electron-electron interactions at moderate values of the electron-phonon coupling. These spatially modulated charge clouds exhibit pairing with a typical length-scale set by the Fermi momentum.