Quantum spin dynamics

Abstract:

We show that strong electron-electron interactions in quantum materials can give rise to electronic transitions that couple strongly to cavity fields, and collective enhancement of these interactions can result in ultrastrong effective coupling strengths. As a paradigmatic example we consider a Fermi-Hubbard model coupled to a single-mode cavity and find that resonant electron-cavity interactions result in the formation of a quasi-continuum of polariton branches. The vacuum Rabi splitting of the two outermost branches is collectively enhanced and scales with USD g_{\text{eff}}\propto\sqrt{2L} USD, where USD L USD is the number of electronic sites, and the maximal achievable value for USD g_{\text{eff}} USD is determined by the volume of the unit cell of the crystal. We find that USD g_{\text{eff}} USD for existing quantum materials can by far exceed the width of the first excited Hubbard band. This effect can be experimentally observed via measurements of the optical conductivity and does not require ultrastrong coupling on the single-electron level. Quantum correlations in the electronic ground state as well as the microscopic nature of the light-matter interaction enhance the collective light-matter interaction compared to an ensemble of independent two-level atoms interacting with a cavity mode.

Abstract:

The Stoner-Wohlfarth model of a single-domain grain is applied to a complex situation: magnetization of a solid multigrain particle embedded in an elastic medium. In this situation, application of a magnetic field establishes a specific magnetomechanical process: polarization and switching of individual grains change the net energy of the particle and, as a result, make it rotate as a whole relative to the matrix. Because of that coupling, the magnetic hysteresis loop of a particle composed of highly coercive grains progressively shrinks with the increase of the matrix compliance. The effect is studied theoretically by numerical simulations on a particle comprising several hundred magnetically uniaxial grains with randomly oriented easy axes. The results of the model are discussed with regard to magnetic measurements performed on dispersions of spherical NdFeB microparticles in PDMS matrices of varied stiffness.

Abstract:

© 2019 American Physical Society. The interaction Hamiltonian (Formula Presented) Eq. (14) describing the interaction between the cavity and the electronic system was obtained by expanding the Peierls Hamiltonian in Eq. (A4) up to first order in the small parameter (Formula Presented) All results presented in the paper are consistent with this appro imate interaction Hamiltonian, leading to an effective Hamiltonian that depends quadratically on. However, it turns out that a straightforward improvement of the parameters entering the effective Hamiltonian in Eq. (26) can be obtained by including the second-order term in the Peierls Hamiltonian in Eq. (A4). This term gives rise to modifications of our results that are also of order through a renormalization of the nearest-neighbor hopping amplitude (Formula Presented) The authors would like to thank M. A. Sentef for bringing the importance of the second-order term in Eq. (A4) to our attention.

Abstract:

We show that the macroscopic magnetic and electronic properties of strongly correlated electron systems can be manipulated by coupling them to a cavity mode. As a paradigmatic example we consider the Fermi-Hubbard model and find that the electron-cavity coupling enhances the magnetic interaction between the electron spins in the ground-state manifold. At half filling this effect can be observed by a change in the magnetic susceptibility. At less than half filling, the cavity introduces a next-nearest-neighbor hopping and mediates a long-range electron-electron interaction between distant sites. We study the ground-state properties with tensor network methods and find that the cavity coupling can induce a phase characterized by a momentum-space pairing effect for electrons.