Mott insulator

Mott insulator

Mott insulators are a class of materials that should conduct electricity under conventional band theories, but are insulators when measured (particularly at low temperatures). This effect is due to electron-electron interactions which are not considered in conventional band theory.

The bandgap in a Mott insulator exists between bands of like character, such as 3d character, while the bandgap in charge transfer insulators exists between anion and cation states (see lecture slides ), such as between O 2p and Ni 3d bands in NiO. [1]

Contents

History

Although the band theory of solids had been very successful in describing various electrical properties of materials, in 1937 Jan Hendrik de Boer and Evert Johannes Willem Verwey pointed out that a variety of transition metal oxides predicted to be conductors by band theory (because they have an odd number of electrons per unit cell) are insulators.[2] Nevill Mott and R. Peierls then (also in 1937) predicted that this anomaly can be explained by including interactions between electrons.[3]

In 1949, in particular, Mott proposed a model for NiO as an insulator, where conduction is based on the formula[4]

(Ni2+O2−)2 → Ni3+O2− + Ni1+O2−.

In this situation, the formation of an energy gap preventing conduction can be understood as the competition between the Coulomb potential U between 3d electrons and the transfer integral t of 3d electrons between neighboring atoms (the transfer integral is a part of the tight-binding approximation). The total energy gap is then

Egap = U − 2zt,

where z is the number of nearest-neighbor atoms.

In general, Mott insulators occur when the repulsive Coulomb potential U is large enough to create an energy gap. One of the simplest theories of Mott insulators is the 1963 Hubbard model. The crossover from a metal to a Mott insulator as U is increased can be predicted within the so-called Dynamical Mean Field Theory.

Mottness

Mottness denotes the additional ingredient, aside from antiferromagnetic ordering, which is necessary to fully describe a Mott Insulator. In other words, we might write

antiferromagnetic order + mottness = Mott insulator

Thus, mottness accounts for all of the properties of Mott insulators that cannot be attributed simply to antiferromagnetism.

There are a number of properties of Mott insulators, derived from both experimental and theoretical observations, which cannot be attributed to antiferromagnetic ordering and thus constitute mottness. These properties include

  • Spectral weight transfer on the Mott scale [5][6]
  • Vanishing of the single particle Green function along a connected surface in momentum space in the first brillouin zone [7]
  • Two sign changes of the Hall coefficient as electron doping goes from n = 0 to n = 2 (band insulators have only one sign change at n = 1)
  • The presence of a charge 2e (with e < 0 the charge of an electron) boson at low energies [8][9]
  • A pseudogap away from half-filling (n = 1) [10]

Applications

Mott insulators are of growing interest in advanced physics research, and are not yet fully understood. They have applications in thin-film magnetic heterostructures and high-temperature superconductivity, for example.[11]

See also

References

  1. ^ P. Kuiper, G. Gruizinga, J. Ghijsen, G.A. Sawatzky, H. Verweij (1987). "Character of Holes in LixNi1-xO2". Physical Review Letters 62 (2): 221–224. Bibcode 1989PhRvL..62..221K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.62.221. PMID 10039954. 
  2. ^ de Boer, J. H.; Verwey, E. J. W. (1937). "Semi-conductors with partially and with completely filled 3d-lattice bands". Proceedings of the Physical Society of London 49 (4S): 59. doi:10.1088/0959-5309/49/4S/307. 
  3. ^ Mott, N. F.; Peierls, R. (1937). "Discussion of the paper by de Boer and Verwey". Proceedings of the Physical Society of London 49 (4S): 72. Bibcode 1937PPS....49...72M. doi:10.1088/0959-5309/49/4S/308. 
  4. ^ Mott, N. F. (1949). "The basis of the electron theory of metals, with special reference to the transition metals". Proceedings of the Physical Society of London Series A 62 (7): 416. Bibcode 1949PPSA...62..416M. doi:10.1088/0370-1298/62/7/303. 
  5. ^ Philip Phillips, "Mottness," http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0702348
  6. ^ M.B.J. Meinders, H. Eskes, and G.A. Sawatzky, Phys. Rev. B 48 3916 (1993)
  7. ^ Tudor D. Stanescu, Philip Phillips, and Ting-Pong Choy, "Theory of the Luttinger surface in doped Mott insulators," Phys. Rev. B 75 104503 (2007)
  8. ^ Robert G. Leigh, Philip Phillips, and Ting-Pong Choy, "Hidden Charge 2e Boson in Doped Mott Insulators: Field Theory of Mottness," to be published in Phys. Rev. Lett., http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0612130v3 (2007)
  9. ^ Ting-Pong Choy, Robert G. Leigh, Philip Phillips, and Philip D. Powell, "Exact Integration of the High Energy Scale in Doped Mott Insulators," http://arxiv.org/abs/0707.1554
  10. ^ Tudor D. Stanescu and Philip Phillips, "Pseudogap in Doped Mott Insulators is the Near-neighbour Analogue of the Mott Gap," Phys. Rev. Lett. 91, 017002 (2003), http://arxiv.org/abs/cond-mat/0209118
  11. ^ Kohsaka, Y.; Taylor, C.; Wahl, P.; et al. (August 28, 2008). "How Cooper pairs vanish approaching the Mott insulator in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ". Nature 454 (7208): 1072–1078. Bibcode 2008Natur.454.1072K. doi:10.1038/nature07243. PMID 18756248. 

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.

Игры ⚽ Нужно решить контрольную?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • Insulator — may refer to:* Insulator (genetics) * Insulator (electrical) * Thermal insulation * Building insulation * Mott insulator See also * Insulation …   Wikipedia

  • Mott-Isolator — Als Mott Isolatoren werden Materialien bezeichnet, die nach dem Bändermodell eigentlich elektrisch leitend sein sollten, sich aber im Experiment als Isolatoren erweisen. Die Bezeichnung geht auf den britischen Physiker Sir Nevill F. Mott zurück,… …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Insulator (electrical) — Ceramic insulator at railways Conducting copper wire insulate …   Wikipedia

  • Mott Criterion — The Mott criterion describes the critical point of the metal insulator transition. The criterion is Where is the electron density of the material and the effective bohr radius. If the criterion is satisfied the material becomes conductive (metal) …   Wikipedia

  • Mott transition — A Mott transition is a metal nonmetal transition in condensed matter. Due to electric field screening the potential energy becomes much sharper (exponentially) peaked around the equilibrium position of the atom and electrons become localized and… …   Wikipedia

  • Mott , Sir Nevill Francis — (1905–1996) British physicist Born in Leeds, Mott studied at Cambridge University, gaining his bachelor s degree in 1927 and his master s in 1930. He never pursued a doctorate, but from 1930 until 1933 was a lecturer and fellow of Gonville and… …   Scientists

  • Metal–insulator transition — Metal insulator transitions are transitions from a metal (material with good electrical conductivity of electric charges) to an insulator (material where conductivity of charges is quickly suppressed). These transitions can be achieved by tuning… …   Wikipedia

  • Nevill Francis Mott — Born 30 September 1905(1905 09 30) Leeds …   Wikipedia

  • Nevill F. Mott — Sir Nevill Francis Mott (* 30. September 1905 in Leeds; † 8. August 1996 in Milton Keynes) war ein englischer Physiker. Inhaltsverzeichnis 1 Leben und Wirken 2 Ehrungen 3 Werke …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Nevill Francis Mott — und halb verdeckt Werner Heisenberg, 1952 in London. Sir Nevill Francis Mott (* 30. September 1905 in Leeds; † 8. August 1996 in Milton Keynes) war ein englischer Physiker. Inhaltsverzeichnis …   Deutsch Wikipedia

Share the article and excerpts

Direct link
Do a right-click on the link above
and select “Copy Link”