The Holstein Hubbard and Holstein t-J models are studied for a wide range of phonon frequencies, electron-electron, and electron-phonon interaction strengths on finite lattices with up to ten sites by means of direct Lanczos diagonalization. Previously the necessary truncation of the phononic Hilbert space caused serious limitations to either very small systems (four or even two sites) or to weak electron-phonon coupling, in particular in the adiabatic regime. Using parallel computers we were able to investigate the transition from ``large'' to ``small'' polarons in detail. By resolving the low-lying eigenstates of the Hamiltonian and by calculating the spectral function, we can identify a polaron band in the strong-coupling case, whose dispersion deviates from the free-particle dispersion at low and intermediate phonon frequencies. For two electrons (holes) we establish the existence of bipolaronic states and discuss the formation of a bipolaron band. For the two-dimensional Holstein t-J model, we demonstrate that the formation of hole polarons is favored by strong Coulomb correlations. Analyzing hole-hole correlation functions, we find that hole binding is enhanced as a dynamical effect of the electron-phonon interaction. \textcopyright{} 1996 The American Physical Society.
The evolution of the properties of a finite density electronic system as a function of the electron-phonon coupling is investigated in the Holstein model using the dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT) that becomes exact in infinite dimensions. We compare the spinless fermion case, in which only isolated polarons can be formed, with the spinful model in which the polarons can bind and form bipolarons. In the latter case, the bipolaronic binding occurs within DMFT as a metal-insulator transition. In the adiabatic regime in which the phonon energy is small with respect to the electron hopping we compare numerically exact DMFT results with an analytical scheme inspired by the Born-Oppenheimer procedure. Within the latter approach, a truncation of the phononic Hilbert space leads to a mapping of the original model onto an Anderson spin-fermion model. In the anti-adiabatic regime (where the phonon energy exceeds the electronic scales) the standard treatment based on Lang-Firsov canonical transformation allows one to map the original model on to an attractive Hubbard model in the spinful case. The separate analysis of the two regimes supports the numerical evidence that the presence of well-defined polaronic lattice displacements is not necessarily associated to a metal-insulator transition, which is instead due to pairing between the carriers. The finite-dimensionality effects neglected in DMFT may lead to a finite conductivity in the bipolaronic state which is, however, not always associated with polaronic distortions. At the polaron crossover the Born-Oppenheimer approximation is shown to break down due to the entanglement of the electron-phonon state.
In this work we investigate some aspects of the physics of strongly correlated systems by taking into account both electron-electron and electron-phonon interactions as basic mechanisms for reproducing electronic correlations in real materials. The relevance of the electron-electron interactions is discussed in the first part of this thesis in the framework of a self-consistent theoretical approach, named Composite Operator Method (COM), which accounts for the relevant quasi-particle excitations in terms of a set of composite operators that appear as a result of the modification imposed by the interactions on the canonical electronic fields. We show that the COM allows the calculation of all the relevant Green’s and correlation functions in terms of a number of unknown internal parameters to be determined self-consistently. Therefore, depending on the balance between unknown parameters and self-consistent equations, exact and approximate solutions can be obtained. By way of example, we discuss the application of the COM to the extended t-U- J-h model in the atomic limit, and to the two-dimensional single-band Hubbard model. In the former case, we show that the COM provides the exact solution of the model in one dimension. We study the effects of electronic correlations as responsible for the formation of a plethora of different charge and/or spin orderings. We report the phase diagram of the model, as well as a detailed analysis of both zero and finite temperature single-particle and thermodynamic properties. As far as the single-band Hubbard model is concerned, we illustrate an approximated selfconsistent scheme based on the choice of a two-field basis. We report a detailed analysis of many unconventional features that arise in single-particle properties, thermodynamics and system’s response functions. We emphasize that the accuracy of the COM in describing the effects of electronic correlations strongly relies on the choice of the basis, paving the way for possible multi-pole extensions to the twofield theory. To this purpose, we also study a three-field approach to the single-band Hubbard model, showing a significant step forward in the agreements with numerical data with respect to the two-pole results. The role of the electron-phonon interaction in the physics of strongly correlated systems is discussed in the second part of this thesis. We show that in highly polarizable lattices the competition between unscreened Coulomb and Fröhlich interactions results in a short-range polaronic exchange term Jp that favours the formation of local and light pairs of bosonic nature, named bipolarons, which condense with a critical temperature well in excess of hundred kelvins. These findings, discussed in the framework of the so-called polaronic t-Jp model, are further investigated in the presence of a finite on-site potential ~U , coming from the competition between on-site Coulomb and Fröhlich interactions. We discuss the role of ~U as the driving parameter for a small-to-large bipolaron transition, providing a possible explanation of the BEC-BCS crossover in terms of the properties of the bipolaronic ground state. Finally, we show that a hard-core bipolarons gas, studied as a charged Bose-Fermi mixture, allows for the description of many non Fermi liquid behaviours, allowing also for a microscopic explanation of pseudogap features in terms of a thermal-induced recombination of polarons and bipolarons, without any assumption on preexisting order or broken symmetries. [edited by Author]
We investigate the interaction of strongly correlated electrons with phonons in the frame of the Hubbard-Holstein model. The electron-phonon interaction is considered to be strong and is an important parameter of the model besides the Coulomb repulsion of electrons and band filling. This interaction with the nondispersive optical phonons has been transformed to the problem of mobile polarons by using the canonical transformation of Lang and Firsov. A new diagram technique is used in order to handle the strong Coulomb repulsion of the electrons, which leads to a closed set of integral equations for the irreducible on-site many-particle Green's functions. The coupling to the phonons leads to an essential renormalization of the one- and two-particle irreducible Green's functions. It also influences the parameters which control the metal-insulator or superconducting phase transition. In addition we find a collective mode of phonon clouds which surround the polarons. The physics of the emission and absorption of this mode by the polarons has been investigated.
In this paper we have studied the properties of a two-fermion system interacting with the phonon field in the framework of the Holstein Hubbard model in one, two and three dimensions. We have chosen the modified Lang-Firsov variational wave function with on-site and nearest-neighbour lattice distortion for the phonon subsystem to obtain an effective electronic Hamiltonian. This effective electronic Hamiltonian is then solved exactly to obtain the binding energy and effective mass of the bipolaron. We investigated the stability of the bipolaronic phase by comparing the ground-state energy of a bipolaron and two free polarons. We observed a critical repulsive on-site Hubbard interaction U c below which the bipolaronic phases are stable for a fixed electron-phonon coupling g . In the absence of on-site repulsion, bipolaronic phases are stable over the entire range of electron-phonon coupling for one dimension, whereas there is a critical electron-phonon coupling g c for formation of a stable bipolaron in two and three dimensions.
We investigate the interplay of electron–phonon (EP) coupling and strong electronic correlations in the frame of the two–dimensional (2D) Holstein t–J model (HtJM), focusing on polaronic ordering phenomena for the quarter–filled band case. The use of direct Lanczos diagonalization on finite lattices allows us to include the effects of quantum phonon fluctuations in the calculation of spin/charge structure factors and hole–phonon correlation functions. In the adiabatic strong coupling regime we found evidence for “self-localization ” of polaronic carriers in a (π, π) charge-modulated structure, a type of superlattice solidification reminiscent of those observed in the nickel perovskites La2−xSrxNiO4+y. Electron diffraction measurements on the nickel oxide analogue of the layered high–Tc 214 copper oxide compound, La2−xNixCuO4, reveal a (π, π)–superstructure spot at quarter filling, i.e. for x = 0.5, which has been interpreted as sign of a truly 2D polaron ordered phase [1]. To study charge – and spin–ordering phenomena in such systems, exhibiting besides a substantial EP interaction strong Coulomb correlations, let us consider the planar t-J model with an additional on-site Holstein hole-phonon coupling: