Pattern Formation by Electric-Field Quench in a Mott Crystal.

The control of the Mott phase is intertwined with the spatial reorganization of the electronic states. Out-of-equilibrium driving forces typically lead to electronic patterns that are absent at equilibrium, whose nature is however often elusive. Here, we unveil a nanoscale pattern formation in the Ca2RuO4 Mott insulator. We demonstrate how an applied electric field spatially reconstructs the insulating phase that, uniquely after switching off the electric field, exhibits nanoscale stripe domains. The stripe pattern has regions with inequivalent octahedral distortions that we directly observe through high-resolution scanning transmission electron microscopy. The nanotexture depends on the orientation of the electric field; it is nonvolatile and rewritable. We theoretically simulate the charge and orbital reconstruction induced by a quench dynamics of the applied electric field providing clear-cut mechanisms for the stripe phase formation. Our results open the path for the design of nonvolatile electronics based on voltage-controlled nanometric phases.

Designing spin and orbital sources of Berry curvature at oxide interfaces.

Quantum materials can display physical phenomena rooted in the geometry of electronic wavefunctions. The corresponding geometric tensor is characterized by an emergent field known as the Berry curvature (BC). Large BCs typically arise when electronic states with different spin, orbital or sublattice quantum numbers hybridize at finite crystal momentum. In all the materials known to date, the BC is triggered by the hybridization of a single type of quantum number. Here we report the discovery of the first material system having both spin- and orbital-sourced BC: LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interfaces grown along the [111] direction. We independently detect these two sources and probe the BC associated to the spin quantum number through the measurements of an anomalous planar Hall effect. The observation of a nonlinear Hall effect with time-reversal symmetry signals large orbital-mediated BC dipoles. The coexistence of different forms of BC enables the combination of spintronic and optoelectronic functionalities in a single material.

Limited Ferromagnetic Interactions in Monolayers of MPS3 (M = Mn and Ni).

We present a systematic study of the electronic and magnetic properties of two-dimensional ordered alloys, consisting of two representative hosts (MnPS3 and NiPS3) of transition metal phosphorus trichalcogenides doped with 3d elements. For both hosts, our DFT + U calculations are able to qualitatively reproduce the ratios and signs of all experimentally observed magnetic couplings. The relative strength of all antiferromagnetic exchange couplings, both in MnPS3 and in NiPS3, can successfully be explained using an effective direct exchange model: it reveals that the third-neighbor exchange dominates in NiPS3 due to the filling of the t2g subshell, whereas for MnPS3, the first-neighbor exchange prevails, owing to the presence of the t2g magnetism. On the other hand, the nearest neighbor ferromagnetic coupling in NiPS3 can only be explained using a more complex superexchange model and is (also) largely triggered by the absence of the t2g magnetism. For the doped systems, the DFT + U calculations revealed that magnetic impurities do not affect the magnetic ordering observed in the pure phases, and thus, in general in these systems, ferromagnetism may not be easily induced by such a kind of elemental doping. However, unlike for the hosts, the first and second (dopant-host) exchange couplings are of similar order of magnitude. This leads to frustration in the case of antiferromagnetic coupling and may be one of the reasons of the observed lower magnetic ordering temperature of the doped systems.

Magnetic Instabilities in the Quasi-One-Dimensional K2Cr3As3 Material with Twisted Triangular Tubes.

The magnetic response of a frustrated K2Cr3As3 sample having triangular arrays of twisted tubes has been studied by means of dc magnetization measurements as a function of the magnetic field (H) at different temperatures ranging from 5 K up to 300 K. Looking at the magnetic hysteresis loops m(H), a diamagnetic behavior of the sample was inferred at temperatures higher than 60 K, whereas at lower temperatures the sample showed a hysteresis loop compatible with the presence of ferrimagnetism. Moreover, spike-like magnetization jumps, both positive and negative, were observed in a narrow range of the magnetic field around 800 Oe, regardless of the temperature considered and they were compared with the theoretical predictions on frustrated systems. The field position of the magnetization jumps was studied at different temperatures, and their distribution can be described by a Lorentzian curve. The analogies between the expected features and the experimental observations suggest that the jumps could be attributed to the magnetic frustration arising from the twisted triangular tubes present in the crystal lattice of this compound.

Dimensionality of the Superconductivity in the Transition Metal Pnictide WP.

We report theoretical and experimental results on the transition metal pnictide WP. The theoretical outcomes based on tight-binding calculations and density functional theory indicate that WP is a three-dimensional superconductor with an anisotropic electronic structure and nonsymmorphic symmetries. On the other hand, magnetoresistance experimental data and the analysis of superconducting fluctuations of the conductivity in external magnetic field indicate a weakly anisotropic three-dimensional superconducting phase.

Low energy bands and transport properties of chromium arsenide.

We apply a method that combines the tight-binding approximation and the Löwdin down-folding procedure to evaluate the electronic band structure of the newly discovered pressure-induced superconductor CrAs. By integrating out all low-lying arsenic degrees of freedom, we derive an effective Hamiltonian model describing the Cr d bands near the Fermi level. We calculate and make predictions for the energy spectra, the Fermi surface, the density of states and transport and magnetic properties of this compound. Our results are consistent with local-density approximation calculations and they also show good agreement with available experimental data for resistivity and the Cr magnetic moment.

Spin-orbital coupling in a triplet superconductor-ferromagnet junction.

We study the interplay of spin and orbital degrees of freedom in a triplet superconductor-ferromagnet junction. Using a self-consistent spatially dependent mean-field theory, we show that increasing the angle between the ferromagnetic moment and the triplet vector order parameter enhances or suppresses the p-wave gap close to the interface, according to whether the gap antinodes are parallel or perpendicular to the boundary, respectively. The associated change in condensation energy establishes an orbitally dependent preferred orientation for the magnetization. When both gap components are present, as in a chiral superconductor, first-order transitions between different moment orientations are observed as a function of the exchange field strength.

Nematic order in a degenerate Hubbard model with spin-orbit coupling.

Using Bogoliubov's inequality we rigorously show that the multiorbital Hubbard model with narrow bands, even in the presence of spin-orbit coupling, does not exhibit long-range nematic order, in low dimensions. This result holds at any finite temperature for both repulsive and attractive Coulomb interactions, with and without spin-orbit coupling.

Magnetic intragap states and mixed parity pairing at the edge of spin-triplet superconductors.

We show that a spontaneous magnetic moment may appear at the edge of a spin-triplet superconductor if the system allows for pairing in a subdominant channel. To unveil the microscopic mechanism behind such an effect, we combine numerical solution of the Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations for a tight-binding model with nearest-neighbor attraction, and the symmetry based Ginzburg-Landau approach. We find that a potential barrier modulating the electronic density near the edge of the system leads to a nonunitary superconducting state close to the boundary where spin-singlet pairing coexists with the dominant triplet superconducting order. We demonstrate that the spin polarization at the edge appears due to the inhomogeneity of the nonunitary state and originates in the lifting of the spin degeneracy of the Andreev bound states.

Is the nature of itinerant ferromagnetism playing a role in the competition between spin polarization and singlet pair correlations?

We consider the competition between spin singlet pairing and itinerant ferromagnetism whose magnetization is yielded by a relative shift of the bands with opposite spin polarization or by asymmetric spin-dependent bandwidths. Within the framework of the exact solution of an extended version of the reduced BCS model, the structure of the coexisting state is shown to have general features that are not related to the character of the ferromagnetism. The role of different types of ferromagnet is then investigated for the proximity effect in a system made of a bilayer junction with a spin singlet superconductor interfaced with a ferromagnet in the clean limit. We show that the qualitative behaviour of the proximity effect does not depend on the nature of the ferromagnetism. Differences emerge at the borderline with the half-metallic regime. For the spin-dependent bandwidth type of ferromagnetism the pairing amplitude exhibits an oscillating behaviour until the density of the minority spin carrier becomes almost zero. The crossover from an oscillating to an exponentially damped profile occurs away from the half-metallic limit when a spin exchange type ferromagnet is considered.

Exact solution for a trapped Fermi gas with population imbalance and BCS pairing.

The problem of a two-component Fermi gas in a harmonic trap, with an imbalanced population and a pairing interaction of zero total momentum, is mapped onto the exactly solvable reduced BCS model. For a one-dimensional trap, the complete ground state diagram is determined with various topological features in ground state energy spectra. In addition to the conventional two-shell density profile of a paired core and polarized outer wings, a three-shell structure as well as a double-peak superfluid distribution are unveiled.

High-spin magnetic states in the two-orbital Hubbard model on a tetrahedron.

We present a study of the two-orbital degenerate Hubbard model in which the exact numerical solution on a regular tetrahedron is obtained via suitable implementation of the symmetries generated by the spin, the pairing and the orbital pseudospin operators. In particular, we show that a large variety of high-spin magnetic ground states can develop away from half filling, depending on the values of the electron density and the parameters of the model. As the tetrahedron is the simplest finite-size cluster where hopping processes connect all pairs of sites with constant probability, the study is extended by providing the exact analytical solution of the model on an infinite lattice in the unconstrained hopping limit.

Coexistence of ferromagnetism and singlet superconductivity via kinetic exchange.

We propose a novel mechanism for the coexistence of metallic ferromagnetism and singlet superconductivity assuming that the magnetic instability is due to kinetic exchange. Within this scenario, the unpaired electrons which contribute to the magnetization have a positive feedback on the gain of the kinetic energy in the coexisting phase by undressing the effective mass of the carriers involved in the pairing. The evolution of the magnetization and pairing amplitude and the phase diagram are first analyzed for a generic kinetic exchange model and then are determined within a specific case with spin dependent bond-charge occupation.