Introduction to magnetism in condensed matter physics

F. Mila Institute of Theoretical Physics Ecole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne Switzerland

First part: atoms and metals

Atomic magnetism in condensed matter Orbital moment, spin, crystal field, spin-orbit coupling Magnetism of itinerant electrons Orbital effects: De Haas-Van Alphen oscillations, Quantum Hall effects Spin effects: Pauli susceptibility, Stoner ferromagnetism, spin-density waves

Second part: localized moments

Localized moments in metals: Kondo, RKKY, Mott insulators Magnetic interactions: Heisenberg, dipolar, Low temperature phases of Heisenberg model Long-range order Algebraic order (1D) Spin liquids

Electron in a magnetic field

Vector potential H=r A Electrostatic potential Relativistic spin-orbit coupling

Orbital effects Electron=charged particle

Zeeman coupling Electron=spin-1/2 particle

Atomic magnetism in a crystal

Uniform magnetic field: A= (r H)
Total magnetic moment coupled to the field Larmor diamagnetism

Spherical potential of ion + distortion by surrounding ions crystal field

Transition metals: Cu, Ni, V,

Crystal field spin-orbit

Effective spin Anisotropies + sometimes (single ion, g-tensor,..) orbital degeneracy

Crystal field effects of d-electrons

Low-spin states
Ex: Co4+ 3d5 with crystal field Hunds rule

S=5/2

S=1/2 + orbital degeneracy

S=1/2 No orbital degeneracy

Rare earths: Ce, Pr, Gd,

Crystal field spin-orbit

Lifts the degeneracy effective multiplet

Effective moment + Lande gL factor

Orbital effects in metals and semiconductors: Landau levels

Free electron in a uniform magnetic field

Landau levels

Consequences
3D metals: De Haas Van Alphen oscillations of m as a function of 1/H extremal sections of Fermi surface ? H 2D electron gas: Quantum Hall effect plateaux of Hall conductance (see lecture by J. Smet)

Spin effects in metal

Zeeman term shift of up and down Fermi seas m/H Pauli susceptibility

Magnetic instabilities
Hubbard model
Kinetic energy

Electron-electron interactions

instability q=0: ferromagnetism (Stoner) q0: spin-density wave

Localized moments in metals

Kondo effect: screening of impurities by electron gas resistivity minimum RKKY interactions: effective interaction between moments mediated by electron gas J / cos(2kFr)/r3 Heavy fermions: periodic arrangement of localized moments flat band at Fermi level due to hybridization to electron gas

Mott insulators
Band theory
Odd number of e-/unit cell

Metal

Strong on-site repulsion U Small bandwidth W J=4t2/U W=4t

Insulator
Spin fluctuations

E =U-W>0

Heisenberg model

Exchange mechanisms
Kinetic exchange: virtual hops from one Wannier function to neighbors J = 4 t2/U > 0 antiferromagnetic Superexchange: kinetic exchange through ligands antiferromagnetic Hunds rule between orthogonal ligand orbitals ferromagnetic

Anderson-Goodenough-Kanamori rules

High temperature susceptibility

1/ antiferromagnet paramagnet (Curie) ferromagnet T

/ 1/(T+) / j Jij

: Curie-Weiss constant >0: AF <0: Ferro

Other interactions
Dipolar interactions Magnetic domains, hysteresis in ferromagnets Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interactions

Canting, torque, ESR linewidth, Four-spin interactions (higher order in t/U) nematic order, spin liquids

Heisenberg model

Important parameters
Sign of exchange integrals Ferromagnetic Antiferromagnetic Dimensionality of space

1D 2D 3D !

Magnitude of spins

S=1/2 S=1 S=3/2

Topology of exchange integrals Simple topology: Nearest-neigbour on bipartite lattice

Complex topologies: - Next-nearest couplings, - Non-bipartite lattices: triangular, kagome,

Classical spins on bipartite lattice

J>0
Ground-state: Nel

order

(Antiferromagnetism) Finite temperature: molecular-field

theory

Ordering at TN / J, flat susceptibility below TN

Quantum spins
Usual situation
Some kind of helical long-range order

up to TN>0 in 3D, at T=0 in 2D

Quantum fluctuations: Large S

Fluctuations around classical GS = bosons Holstein-Primakoff

Linear spin-wave theory I

1) Only keep terms of order S2 and S

Opposite quantization axis on sublattices A and B 2) Fourier transformation 3) Bogolioubov transformation

Linear spin-wave theory II

Anderson, 52 Kubo, 52

Bosons
Quantum Fluctuations

Physical consequences
Inelastic Neutron Scattering Spin-wave dispersion

(see lecture by H. Ronnow) La2CuO4

(Coldea et al, PRL 2001)

Specific heat: Cv / T D

Domain of validity
Fluctuations around

Thermal Fluctuations (T>0)

diverges in 1D and 2D

No LRO at T>0 in 1D and 2D (Mermin-Wagner theorem)

Quantum Fluctuations (T=0)

diverges in 1D No magnetic long-range order in 1D antiferromagnets Ground-state and excitations in 1D?

Spin gap
If excitations are spin waves, there must be a spin gap to produce an infrared cut-off in the integral

First example: spin 1 chain (Haldane, 1981) Recent example: spin 1/2 ladders

Spin ladders
SrCu2O3
(Azuma, PRL 94)

: spin gap

Magnetization of spin ladders

CuHpCl

Chaboussant et al, EPJB 98

Recent developments: TlCuCl3 (Regg et al, 2002-2006)

Origin of spin gap in ladders

Review: Dagotto and Rice , Science 96

Strong coupling
J J

J=0 JJ
Weak coupling

=J =J+O(J)

JJ

weakly coupled chains

Algebraic order
If the spectrum is gapless, low-lying excitations cannot be spin-waves Can the spectrum be gapless in 1D?

YES!

Example: S=1/2 chain (Bethe, 1931) Correlation function: decays algebraically

Nature of excitations? Spinons!

S=1

Spinons

Excitation spectrum
A spin 1 excitation = 2 spinons

continuum

Early theory Des Cloiseaux Pearson PRB 62 Stone et al, PRL 03

Unified framework
When to expect spin-waves, and when to expect spinons?

Haldane, 1981 Integer spins: gapped spin-waves Half-integer spins: spinons

Field theory approach

Haldane, PRL 88 Path integral formulation

Evolution operator Spin coherent state

Berry phase

Solid angle of path (mod 4)

Field theory approach

In 1D antiferromagnets 1 (S integer) 1 (S -integer)
Pontryagin index (integer)

Destructive interferences for -integer spins

Spin liquids
Shastry-Sutherland, 1981

even at T=0 ! No magnetic long-range order Example: spin-1/2 ladders

Spin liquids in 2D?

Basic idea diverges in 2D as soon as or

since

Competing interactions

Classical GS: helix with pitch vector Q Dispersion

Frustrated magnets
Frustration = infinite degeneracy of classical ground state

J1-J2 model (J2>J1/2)

Kagome lattice

J1 J2

Exotic ground states?

Symmetries

SU(2) U(1) spin rotation around z + spatial symmetries (translations and point group)

Standard cases
Magnetic long-range order: broken SU(2) Spontaneous dimerization: broken translation Integer spin/unit cell: no broken symmetry (e.g. spin 1 chain, spin-1/2 ladders)

Alternatives?

More exotic alternatives

Broken SU(2) symmetry without magnetic LRO: quadrupolar order RVB spin liquids with half-integer spin per unit cell: topological order

More exotic alternatives

Broken SU(2) symmetry without magnetic LRO: quadrupolar order
RVB spin liquids with half-integer spin per unit cell: topological order

Broken SU(2) => magnetic LRO?

(if purely local order parameter) Any linear combination of l > and l - > can be obtained by a certain rotation of l > around some axis <S>=1/2 for a certain direction Any local state is magnetic

S=1/2: YES

Spin 1: NO!
Consider

True for any

Broken SU(2) symmetry

Not magnetic

Quadrupole states and directors

Rotation of l Sz=0>

director

S=1 with biquadratic interaction

Quadrupolar Hamiltonian

Pure quadrupolar Hamiltonian for J1=J2/2 Quadrupolar order Order parameter: rank 2 tensor

S=1 on triangular lattice

Antiferroquadrupolar Directors mutually perpendicular on 3 sublattices

(see also Tsunetsugu-Arikawa, 06)

Ferroquadrupolar
A. Luchli, FM, K. Penc, PRL (2006)

Parallel directors

NiGa2S4
S. Nakatsuji et al, Science 2005

Cv/ T2 No Bragg peaks Quadrupolar order?

More exotic alternatives

Broken SU(2) symmetry without magnetic LRO: quadrupolar order

RVB spin liquids with half-integer spin per unit cell: topological order

RVB spin liquids

Question: with one spin per unit cell, can we preserve SU(2) without breaking translation?
Anderson, 1973

GS =

Restore translational invariance with resonances between valence-bond configurations

Quantum Dimer Models

Rokhsar-Kivelson, 1988

Assume dimer configurations are orthogonal Broken translation Degenerate GS

Rokhsar-Kivelson 1988; Leung et al, 1996

QDM on triangular lattice

Moessner and Sondhi, 01

No broken translational symmetry RVB spin liquid

Low-lying excitation on a cylinder?

Topological sectors
Number of dimers cutting a given line

N=1

N=3

Parity conserved 2 topological sectors (N even or N odd) Cylinder: two topological sectors Torus: four topological sectors (two cuts)

Topological degeneracy
Topological sectors
Portions of Hilbert space not connected by local operators like the Hamiltonian

Topological degeneracy (Wen, 1988-90)

GS of topological sectors degenerate

Numerical proof in RVB phase of QDM

Greens function Quantum Monte Carlo
A. Ralko, M. Ferrero, F. Becca, D. Ivanov, FM, PRB 2005

Topological degeneracy broken symmetry

Example: spin-Peierls 4 ground states

Strong bond

Non-degenerate ground state

Topological order
No local order parameter: no local operator can have different expectation values in the two GS Non-local string order parameter:

nl =1 if bond occupied, 0 if bond empty

Elementary excitations = `visons

Dual lattice (-1)# dimers = -1 (-1)# dimers = 1

li>=

Periodic boundary conditions: pairs of visons fractional excitations

Read-Chakraborty 89, Senthil-Fisher 00,01

Applications of topological degeneracy?

Topological degeneracy EGS(even) = EGS(odd) h even j j odd i =0 for any local operator

Well protected qubits

Kitaev, 97; Ioffe et al, 01

Further topical problems

Doped Mott insulator Interplay of magnetism and superconductivity (see lectures by Keimer and Hinkov) Spin Hall effect Magnetization plateaux Orbital degeneracy Multiferroics

Conclusions/Perspectives
Solid state magnetism: amazingly rich field! Fundamental aspects: Fantastic playground for theoretical physicists New systems and properties regularly discovered Applications: lots of ideas to be further investigated and developed