Electric-field control of magnetization promises to substantially enhance the energy efficiency of device applications ranging from data storage to solid-state cooling. However, the intrinsic linear magnetoelectric effect is typically small in bulk materials. In thin films, electric-field tuning of spin-orbit-interaction phenomena (e.g., magnetocrystalline anisotropy) has been reported to achieve a partial control of the magnetic state. Here we explore the piezomagnetic effect (PME), driven by frustrated exchange interactions, which can induce a net magnetization in an antiferromagnet and reverse its direction via elastic strain generated piezoelectrically. Our ab initio study of PME in Mn-based antiperovskite nitrides identified an extraordinarily large PME in ${\mathrm{Mn}}_3\mathrm{SnN}$ available at room temperature. We explain the magnitude of PME based on features of the electronic structure and show an inverse proportionality between the simulated zero-temperature PME and the magnetovolume effect at the magnetic (Néel) transition measured by Takenaka et al. in nine antiferromagnetic ${\mathrm{Mn}}_3\mathrm{AN}$ systems.

The recent discovery of superconductivity under high pressure in the ladder compound ${\mathrm{BaFe}}_2{\mathrm{S}}_3$ has opened a new field of research in iron-based superconductors with focus on quasi-one-dimensional geometries. In this publication, using the density matrix renormalization group technique, we study a two-orbital Hubbard model defined in one-dimensional chains. Our main result is the presence of hole binding tendencies at intermediate Hubbard $U$ repulsion and robust Hund coupling $J_H/U=0.25$. Binding does not occur either in weak coupling or at very strong coupling. The pair-pair correlations that are dominant near half-filling, or of similar strength as the charge and spin correlation channels, involve hole-pair operators that are spin singlets, use nearest-neighbor sites, and employ different orbitals for each hole. The Hund coupling strength, presence of robust magnetic moments, and antiferromagnetic correlations among them are important for the binding tendencies found here.

We study the statistical and dynamical aspects of a translation-invariant Hamiltonian, without quench disorder, as an example of the manifestation of the phenomenon of many-body localization. This is characterized by the breakdown of thermalization and by information preservation of initial preparations at long times. To realize this, we use quasiperiodic long-range interactions, which are now achievable in high-finesse cavity experiments, to find evidence suggestive of a divergent time-scale in which charge inhomogeneities in the initial state survive asymptotically. This is reminiscent of a glassy behavior, which appears in the ground state of this system, being also present at infinite temperatures.

Transient quantum dynamics in an interacting fermion-phonon system are investigated with a focus on a charge order (CO) melting after a short optical-pulse irradiation and the roles of the quantum phonons in the transient dynamics. A spinless-fermion model in a one-dimensional chain coupled with local phonons is analyzed numerically. The infinite time-evolving block decimation algorithm is adopted as a reliable numerical method for one-dimensional quantum many-body systems. Numerical results for the photoinduced CO melting dynamics without phonons are well interpreted by the soliton picture for the CO domains. This interpretation is confirmed by numerical simulation of an artificial local excitation and the classical soliton model. In the case of large phonon frequencies corresponding to the antiadiabatic condition, CO melting is induced by propagations of the polaronic solitons with the renormalized soliton velocity. On the other hand, in the case of small phonon frequencies corresponding to the adiabatic condition, the first stage of the CO melting dynamics occurs due to the energy transfer from the fermionic to phononic systems, and the second stage is brought about by the soliton motions around the bottom of the soliton band. The analyses provide a standard reference for photoinduced CO melting dynamics in one-dimensional many-body quantum systems.

Among all transition metals, palladium (Pd) has the highest density of states at the Fermi energy at low temperatures yet does not fulfill the Stoner criterion for ferromagnetism. However, close proximity to magnetism renders it a nearly ferromagnetic metal, which hosts paramagnons, strongly damped spin fluctuations. Here we compare the total and the differential conductance of monoatomic contacts consisting of single Pd and cobalt (Co) atoms between Pd electrodes. Transport measurements reveal a conductance for Co of $1G_0$, while for Pd we obtain $2G_0$. The differential conductance of monoatomic Pd contacts shows a reduction with increasing bias, which gives rise to a peculiar $\mathrm{\Lambda }$-shaped spectrum. Supported by theoretical calculations, we correlate this finding with the lifetime of hot quasiparticles in Pd, which is strongly influenced by paramagnon scattering. In contrast to this, Co adatoms locally induce magnetic order, and transport through single cobalt atoms remains unaffected by paramagnon scattering, consistent with theory.

Recent experimental investigations by M. Aßmann et al. [Nat. Mater. 15, 741 (2016)] on the spectrum of magnetoexcitons in cuprous oxide revealed the statistics of a Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE). The model of F. Schweiner et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 118, 046401 (2017)], which includes the complete cubic valence band structure of the solid, can explain the appearance of GUE statistics if the magnetic field is not oriented in one of the symmetry planes of the cubic lattice. However, it cannot explain the experimental observation of GUE statistics for all orientations of the field. In this paper we investigate the effect of quasiparticle interactions or especially the exciton-phonon interaction on the level statistics of magnetoexcitons and show that the motional Stark field induced by the exciton-phonon interaction leads to the occurrence of GUE statistics for arbitrary orientations of the magnetic field in agreement with experimental observations. Importantly, the breaking of all antiunitary symmetries can be explained only by considering both the exciton-phonon interaction and the cubic crystal lattice.

Using scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy (STM, STS), we report the electronic structures of self-assembled zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) and hexadecafluorinated zinc phthalocyanine $\left({\mathrm{F}}_{16}\mathrm{ZnPc}\right)$ monolayers on the Si(111)-B surface. We show that interfacial charge transfer occurs in the ${\mathrm{F}}_{16}\mathrm{ZnPc}$ monolayer, which gives rise to a pronounced spatial variation of the occupied molecular state across the molecular assembly, a feature not observed in the molecular states of the ZnPc overlayer without the presence of interfacial charge transfer. We attribute this observation to the inhomogeneous electrostatic screening of the intraorbital Coulomb interaction in molecular adsorbates arising from the substrate boron distribution. This study highlights the impact of the substrate electrostatic environment on molecular electronic structures, an essential aspect in the applications of organic and molecular electronic devices.

Spectral multipole resonances of parallelepiped-, pyramid-, and cone-like shaped silicon nanoparticles excited by linearly polarized light waves are theoretically investigated. The numerical finite element method is applied for the calculations of the scattering cross sections as a function of the nanoparticles geometrical parameters. The roles of multipole moments (up to the third order) in the scattering process are analyzed using the semianalytical multipole decomposition approach. The possibility of scattering pattern configuration due to the tuning of the multipole contributions to the total scattered waves is discussed and demonstrated. It is shown that cubic nanoparticles can provide a strong isotropic side scattering with minimization of the scattering in forward and backward directions. In the case of the pyramidal and conical nanoparticles the total suppression of the side scattering can be obtained. It was found that due to the shape factor of the pyramidal and conical nanoparticles their electric toroidal dipole resonance can be excited in the spectral region of the first electric and magnetic dipole resonances. The influence of the incident light directions on the optical response of the pyramidal and conical nanoparticles is discussed. The obtained results provide important information that can be used for the development of nanoantennas with improved functionality due to the directional scattering effects.

We present a theoretical study of correlated atomic wires deposited on substrates in two parts. In this first part, we propose lattice models for a one-dimensional quantum wire on a three-dimensional substrate and map them onto effective two-dimensional lattices using the Lanczos algorithm. We then discuss the approximation of these two-dimensional lattices by narrow ladder models that can be investigated with well-established methods for one-dimensional correlated quantum systems, such as the density-matrix renormalization group or bosonization. The validity of this approach is studied first for noninteracting electrons and then for a correlated wire with a Hubbard electron-electron repulsion using quantum Monte Carlo simulations. While narrow ladders cannot be used to represent wires on metallic substrates, they capture the physics of wires on insulating substrates if at least three legs are used. In the second part [Abdelwahab et al., following paper, Phys. Rev. B 96, 035446 (2017)], we use this approach for a detailed numerical investigation of a wire with a Hubbard interaction on an insulating substrate.

In the first part of our theoretical study of correlated atomic wires on substrates, we introduced lattice models for a one-dimensional quantum wire on a three-dimensional substrate and their approximation by quasi-one-dimensional effective ladder models [Abdelwahab et al., preceding paper, Phys. Rev. B 96, 035445 (2017)]. In this second part, we apply this approach to the case of a correlated wire with a Hubbard-type electron-electron repulsion deposited on an insulating substrate. The ground-state and spectral properties are investigated numerically using the density-matrix renormalization group method and quantum Monte Carlo simulations. As a function of the model parameters, we observe various phases with quasi-one-dimensional low-energy excitations localized in the wire, namely, paramagnetic Mott insulators, Luttinger liquids, and spin-$1/2$ Heisenberg chains. The validity of the effective ladder models is assessed for selected parameters by studying the dependence of results on the number of legs and comparing to the full three-dimensional model. We find that narrow ladder models accurately reproduce the quasi-one-dimensional excitations of the full three-dimensional model but predict only qualitatively whether excitations are localized around the wire or delocalized in the three-dimensional substrate.

We investigate the relation between the Fermi sea (FS) of zero-field carriers in two-dimensional systems and the FS of the corresponding composite fermions which emerge in a high magnetic field at filling $\nu =\frac{1}{2}$, as the kinetic energy dispersion is varied. We study cases both with and without rotational symmetry and find that there is generally no straightforward relation between the geometric shapes and topologies of the two FSs. In particular, we show analytically that the composite Fermi liquid (CFL) is completely insensitive to a wide range of changes to the zero-field dispersion which preserve rotational symmetry, including ones that break the zero-field FS into multiple disconnected pieces. In the absence of rotational symmetry, we show that the notion of “valley pseudospin” in many-valley systems is generically not transferred to the CFL, in agreement with experimental observations. We also discuss how a rotationally symmetric band structure can induce a reordering of the Landau levels, opening interesting possibilities of observing higher-Landau-level physics in the high-field regime.

We present a systematic comparison between guided modes supported by slab waveguides and Bloch surface waves (BSWs) propagating at the surface of truncated periodic multilayers. We show that, contrary to common belief, the best surface field enhancement achievable for guided modes in a slab waveguide is comparable to that observed for BSWs. At the same time, we demonstrate that if one is interested in maximizing the electromagnetic energy density at a generic point of a dielectric planar structure, BSWs are often preferable to modes in which light is confined uniquely by total internal reflection. Since these results are wavelength independent and have been obtained by considering a very wide range of refractive indices of the structure constituent materials, we believe they can prove helpful in the design of future structures for the control and the enhancement of the light-matter interaction.

We investigate the topological protection of surface states in Weyl and nodal-line semimetals by characterizing them as evanescent states when the band structure is extended to complex momenta. We find in this way a sequence of exceptional points—that is, branch points with zero energy in the complex spectrum—allowing us to identify the set of surface states with complex momentum signaling the decay into the 3D semimetal. From this point of view, Weyl and nodal-line semimetals can be classified in two types depending on the way surface states decay. Type A semimetals have surface states with smaller penetration length and oscillating decay while type B semimetals have longer simple exponential decays. The difference between both types reflects in the way the branch cuts in the spectrum accommodate in the complex plane. The stability of the surface states stems in this approach from the complex structure that develops around the exceptional points, with a topological protection which is based on the fact that the branch cuts cannot be closed by small perturbations. We check this property when nodal-line semimetals are placed under circularly polarized light, where we observe that the exceptional points survive the effect of such a perturbation, though appropriate boundary conditions for zero-energy surface states cannot be satisfied in general due to the breakdown of time-reversal invariance by the radiation field.

We investigate second-harmonic generation from anisotropic or longitudinal epsilon-near-zero materials. We find conversion efficiencies well above their isotropic counterparts owing to additional field intensity enhancement provided by the anisotropy. At the same time, anisotropic epsilon-near-zero materials are also less sensitive to the material's losses compared to the isotropic ones. In turn, these improvements become pivotal for epsilon-near-zero materials that do not possess bulk dipole-allowed quadratic nonlinearities. We predict that second-harmonic generation from a Dy:CdO/Si multilayer with longitudinal epsilon-near-zero properties can exceed the conversion efficiency of a homogeneous Dy:CdO slab of equivalent thickness by at least 20 times for almost any angle of incidence.

A density-matrix formalism within the length gauge is developed to calculate the nonlinear response of both doped and undoped biased bilayer graphene at terahertz frequencies. Employing a tight-binding model, we derive an effective two-band Hamiltonian with which we calculate the conduction and valence band dispersion, as well as their respective Bloch states. We then solve for the dynamic equations of the density-matrix elements, allowing for the calculation of the intraband and interband current densities and the transmitted and reflected terahertz fields. We find that the third harmonic amplitude generated for undoped biased bilayer graphene with a gap size of 4 meV is larger than that for monolayer graphene or unbiased bilayer graphene for an incident 1 THz single-cycle pulse with a field amplitude of 2.0 kV/cm. We also find for doped biased bilayer graphene that, although the dispersion becomes highly nonparabolic as a bias is applied, the third harmonic is a maximum when there is no bias and diminishes with an increase in bias.

Considering Rashba quantum wires with a proximity-induced superconducting gap as physical realizations of Majorana bound states and quantum dots, we calculate the overlap of the Majorana wave functions with the local wave functions on the dot. We determine the spin-dependent tunneling amplitudes between these two localized states and show that we can tune into a fully spin polarized tunneling regime by changing the distance between dot and Majorana bound state. Upon directly applying this to the tunneling model Hamiltonian, we calculate the effective magnetic field on the quantum dot flanked by two Majorana bound states. The direction of the induced magnetic field on the dot depends on the occupation of the nonlocal fermion formed from the two Majorana end states which can be used as a readout for such a Majorana qubit.

We study the long-time decay of fourth-order electron spin correlation functions for an isolated singly charged semiconductor quantum dot. The electron spin dynamics is governed by the applied external magnetic field as well as the hyperfine interaction. While the long-time coherent oscillations in the correlation functions can be understood within a semiclassical approach treating the Overhauser field as frozen, the field dependent decay of its amplitude reported in different experiments cannot be explained by the central-spin model indicating the insufficiency of such a description. By incorporating the nuclear Zeeman splitting and the strain induced nuclear-electric quadrupolar interaction, we find the correct crossover from a fast decay in small magnetic fields to a slow exponential asymptotic in large magnetic fields. It originates from a competition between the quadrupolar interaction inducing an enhanced spin decay and the nuclear Zeeman term that suppressed the spin-flip processes. We are able to explain the magnetic field dependency of the characteristic long-time decay time $T_2$ depending on the experimental setups. The calculated asymptotic values of $T_2=3–4\mu \mathrm{s}$ agree qualitatively well with the experimental data.