Magnetic properties of the lightly doped t-J model: A study through high-temperature expansions

From antiferromagnetic insulator to correlated metal in pressurized and doped LaMnPO

Widespread adoption of superconducting technologies awaits the discovery of new materials with enhanced properties, especially higher superconducting transition temperatures T(c). The unexpected discovery of high T(c) superconductivity in cuprates suggests that the highest T(c)s occur when pressure or doping transform the localized and moment-bearing electrons in antiferromagnetic insulators into itinerant carriers in a metal, where magnetism is preserved in the form of strong correlations. The absence of this transition in Fe-based superconductors may limit their T(c)s, but even larger T(c)s may be possible in their isostructural Mn analogs, which are antiferromagnetic insulators like the cuprates. It is generally believed that prohibitively large pressures would be required to suppress the effects of the strong Hund's rule coupling in these Mn-based compounds, collapsing the insulating gap and enabling superconductivity. Indeed, no Mn-based compounds are known to be superconductors. The electronic structure calculations and X-ray diffraction measurements presented here challenge these long held beliefs, finding that only modest pressures are required to transform LaMnPO, isostructural to superconducting host LaFeAsO, from an antiferromagnetic insulator to a metallic antiferromagnet, where the Mn moment vanishes in a second pressure-driven transition. Proximity to these charge and moment delocalization transitions in LaMnPO results in a highly correlated metallic state, the familiar breeding ground of superconductivity.

Numerical linked-cluster algorithms. II. t-J models on the square lattice

We discuss the application of a recently introduced numerical linked-cluster (NLC) algorithm to strongly correlated itinerant models. In particular, we present a study of thermodynamic observables: chemical potential, entropy, specific heat, and uniform susceptibility for the t-J model on the square lattice, with Jt=0.5 and 0.3. Our NLC results are compared with those obtained from high-temperature expansions (HTE) and the finite-temperature Lanczos method (FTLM). We show that there is a sizeable window in temperature where NLC results converge without extrapolations whereas HTE diverges. Upon extrapolations, the overall agreement between NLC, HTE, and FTLM is excellent in some cases down to 0.25t . At intermediate temperatures NLC results are better controlled than other methods, making it easier to judge the convergence and numerical accuracy of the method.

Magnetic response of nonmagnetic impurities in cuprates

A theory of the local magnetic response of a nonmagnetic impurity in a doped antiferromagnet, as relevant to the normal-state in cuprates, is presented. It is based on the assumption of the overdamped collective mode in the bulk system and on the evidence that equal-time spin correlations are only weakly renormalized in the vicinity of the impurity. The theory relates the Kondo-like behavior of the local susceptibility to the anomalous temperature dependence of the bulk magnetic susceptibility.

Incipient order in the t-J model at high temperatures

We analyze the high-temperature behavior of the susceptibilities towards a number of possible ordered states in the t-J-V model using the high-temperature series expansion. From all diagrams with up to ten edges, reliable results are obtained down to temperatures of order J, or (with some optimism) to J/2. In the unphysical regime, t<J, large superconducting susceptibilities are found which, moreover, increase with decreasing temperatures, but for t>J, these susceptibilities are small and decreasing with decreasing temperature; this suggests that the t-J model does not support high-temperature superconductivity. We also find modest evidence of a tendency toward nematic and d-density wave orders.

Scaling of the magnetic response in doped antiferromagnets

A theory of the anomalous omega/T scaling of the dynamic magnetic response in cuprates at low doping is presented. It is based on the memory function representation of the dynamical spin susceptibility in a doped antiferromagnet where the damping of the collective mode is constant and large, whereas the equal-time spin correlations saturate at low T. Exact diagonalization results within the t-J model are shown to support assumptions. Consequences, for both the scaling function and the normalization amplitude, are well in agreement with neutron scattering results.