On the basis of the two-site polaron problem, which we solve by exact diagonalization, we analyze the spectral properties of polaronic systems in view of discerning localized from itinerant polarons and bound polaron pairs from an ensemble of single polarons. The corresponding experimental techniques for that concern photoemission and inverse photoemission spectroscopy. The evolution of the density of states as a function of concentration of charge carriers and strength of the electron-phonon interaction clearly shows the opening up of a gap between single-polaronic and bipolaronic states, in analogy to the Hubbard problem for strongly correlated electron systems. In studying the details of the intricately linked dynamics of the charge carriers and of the molecular deformations which surround them, we find that in general the dynamical delocalization of the charge carriers helps to strengthen the phase coherence for itinerant polaronic states, except for the crossover regime between adiabatic and antiadiabatic small polarons. The crossover between these two regimes is triggered by two characteristic time scales: the renormalized electron hopping rate and the renormalized vibrational frequency becoming equal. This crossover regime is then characterized by temporarily alternating self-localization and delocalization of the charge carriers which is accompanied by phase slips in the charge and molecular deformation oscillations and ultimately leads to a dephasing between these two dynamical components of the polaron problem. We visualize these features by a study of the temporal evolution of the charge redistribution and the change in molecular deformations. The spectral and dynamical properties of polarons discussed here are beyond the applicability of the standard Lang-Firsov approach to the polaron problem.
On the basis of the two-site polaron problem, which we solve by exact diagonalization, we analyze the spectral properties of polaronic systems in view of discerning localized from itinerant polarons and bound polaron pairs from an ensemble of single polarons. The corresponding experimental techniques for that concern photoemission and inverse photoemission spectroscopy. The evolution of the density of states as a function of concentration of charge carriers and strength of the electron-phonon interaction clearly shows the opening up of a gap between single-polaronic and bipolaronic states, in analogy to the Hubbard problem for strongly correlated electron systems. In studying the details of the intricately linked dynamics of the charge carriers and of the molecular deformations which surround them, we find that in general the dynamical delocalization of the charge carriers helps to strengthen the phase coherence for itinerant polaronic states, except for the crossover regime between adiabatic and antiadiabatic small polarons. The crossover between these two regimes is triggered by two characteristic time scales: the renormalized electron hopping rate and the renormalized vibrational frequency becoming equal. This crossover regime is then characterized by temporarily alternating self-localization and delocalization of the charge carriers which is accompanied by phase slips in the charge and molecular deformation oscillations and ultimately leads to a dephasing between these two dynamical components of the polaron problem. We visualize these features by a study of the temporal evolution of the charge redistribution and the change in molecular deformations. The spectral and dynamical properties of polarons discussed here are beyond the applicability of the standard Lang-Firsov approach to the polaron problem.
Many-polaron systems with finite charge-carrier density are often encountered experimentally. However, until recently, no satisfactory theoretical description of these systems was available even in the framework of simple models such as the one-dimensional spinless Holstein model considered here. In this work, previous results obtained using numerical as well as analytical approaches are reviewed from a unified perspective, focussing on spectral properties which reveal the nature of the quasiparticles in the system. In the adiabatic regime and for intermediate electron-phonon coupling, a carrier-density driven crossover from a polaronic to a rather metallic system takes place. Further insight into the effects due to changes in density is gained by calculating the phonon spectral function, and the fermion-fermion and fermion-lattice correlation functions. Finally, we provide strong evidence against the possibility of phase separation.
The phonon spectral function of the one-dimensional Holstein model is obtained within weak and strong-coupling approximations based on analytical self-energy calculations.The characteristic excitations found in the limit of small charge-carrier density are related to the known (electronic) spectral properties of Holstein polarons such as the polaron band dispersion.Particular emphasis is laid on the different physics occurring in the adiabatic and antiadiabatic regimes, respectively.Comparison is made with a cluster approach exploiting exact numerical results on small systems to yield an approximation for the thermodynamic limit.This method, similar to cluster perturbation theory, confirms the analytical findings, and yields accurate results also in the intermediate-coupling regime.
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.
A dynamical mean-field theory of the small polaron problem is presented, which becomes exact in the limit of infinite dimensions. The ground-state properties and the one-electron spectral function are obtained for a single electron interacting with Einstein phonons by a mapping of the lattice problem onto a polaronic impurity model. The one-electron propagator of the impurity model is calculated through a continued fraction expansion, at both zero and finite temperature, for any electron-phonon coupling and phonon energy. In contrast to the ground-state properties, such as the effective polaron mass, which show a continuous behavior as the coupling is increased, spectral properties exhibit a sharp qualitative change at low enough phonon frequency: beyond a critical coupling, one energy gap and then more open in the density of states at low energy, while the high-energy part of the spectrum is broad and can be qualitatively explained by a strong coupling adiabatic approximation. As a consequence, narrow and coherent low-energy subbands coexist with an incoherent featureless structure at high energy. The subbands denote the formation of quasiparticle polaron states. Also, divergencies of the self-energy may occur in the gaps. At finite temperature such an effect triggers an important damping and broadening of the polaron subbands. On the other hand, in the large phonon frequency regime such a separation of energy scales does not exist and the spectrum always has a multipeaked structure.
Polaronic features of dopant-induced charge carriers are manifest in recent experiments on ${\mathrm{La}}_{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$SrxCuO4+y and ${\mathrm{La}}_{2\mathrm{\ensuremath{-}}\mathit{x}}$NixCuO4+y. To study the formation of hole (bi)polarons in such systems exhibiting strong Coulomb interactions, the Holstein t-J model is examined by means of a variational diagonalization technqiue for a wide range of phonon frequencies and electron-phonon (EP) couplings on finite square lattices, up to 18 effective sites in size. Including static displacement field, polaron, and squeezing effects, our approach allows for the description of nearly free polarons in the weak-coupling limit as well as for adiabatic Holstein polarons and nonadiabatic Lang-Firsov polarons in the case of strong EP interactions. At low doping levels and low phonon frequencies we demonstrate that antiferromagnetic spin correlations and EP interactions reinforce each other to the effect of lowering the threshold for polaronic self-localization in a strongly distorted lattice. This is contrasted with the nonadiabatic regime, where we observe the formation of Lang-Firsov polarons with moderate polaronic mass enhancement in a nearly undistorted lattice. In the case of two doped holes, the hole binding energy is analyzed in detail and we find that hole binding is enhanced as a dynamical (static) effect of a rather weak (extremely strong) EP interaction for delocalized (self-trapped) polarons. At quarter-filling we notice, in the adiabatic regime, a sequence of transitions as the EP coupling increases from nearly free mobile polarons to a polaronic superlattice and finally to a charge-separated state. The ordering of polarons disappears at higher phonon frequencies.
An exact-diagonalization technique is used to investigate the low-lying excited polaron states in the Holstein model for the infinite one-dimensional lattice. For moderate values of the adiabatic ratio, a comprehensive picture, involving three excited (coherent) polaron bands below the phonon threshold, is obtained. The coherent contribution of the excited states to both the single-electron spectral density and the optical conductivity is evaluated and, due to the invariance of the Hamiltonian under the space inversion, the two are shown to contain complementary information about the single-electron system at zero temperature. The chosen method reveals the connection between the excited bands and the renormalized local phonon excitations of the adiabatic theory, as well as the regime of parameters for which the electron self-energy has notable nonlocal contributions. Finally, it is shown that the hybridization of two polaron states allows a simple description of the ground and first excited states in the crossover regime.