Multipole polaron roams the devil’s staircase

Journal Article · Thu Mar 31 00:00:00 EDT 2022 · Nature Materials

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-022-01218-0· OSTI ID:1922016

Zhu, Jian-Xin ^[1]

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1. Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

We report Electron–boson interaction (EBI) has an important role in the properties of materials. Electron–phonon interaction in good metals can give rise to superconductivity, where electrons flow without dissipation below a critical temperature. In ionic crystals such as organic semiconductors, the coupling of low-energy electrons (or holes) with the atomic vibrations can drive the formation of polarons — an electron dressed with a phonon cloud, with lower mobility and heavy effective mass. The same notion can be applied to strongly correlated electron systems. Electron–spin fluctuation coupling drives unconventional superconductivity in high-temperature cuprates, iron-based superconductors and heavy-fermion systems. Magnetic polarons can form around charged dopants in an otherwise antiferromagnetic background of a Mott insulator, while an electron–polaron is also possible, via electron–plasmon coupling, when a Kondo hole is introduced in a heavy-fermion material, similar to a plasmaron in doped graphene.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Science (SC). Office of Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
• Grant/Contract Number: 89233218CNA000001
• OSTI ID: 1922016
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-22-20984
• Journal Information: Nature Materials, Journal Name: Nature Materials Journal Issue: 4 Vol. 21; ISSN 1476-1122
• Publisher: Springer Nature - Nature Publishing Group
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
condensed-matter physics
theory and computation