M. J. Calderon

The current spin on manganites

The manganites are pseudo-cubic oxides of manganese that show extremes of functional behavior. Diverse magnetic and electronic phases coexist on a wide range of length scales even within single crystals. This coexistence demonstrates a complexity that inspires ever deeper study. Yet even the basic nature of the coexisting phases remains controversial. Can the ferromagnetic metallic phase provide fully spin-polarized electrons for spin electronics? Does the superlattice in the highly insulating phase represent charge order? Here we highlight recent results that demonstrate a coexistence of opinions about a field in rude health.

Quantum control of donor electrons at the Si-SiO2 interface.

Prospects for the quantum control of electrons in the silicon quantum computer architecture are considered theoretically. In particular, we investigate the feasibility of shuttling donor-bound electrons between the impurity in the bulk and the Si-SiO2 interface by tuning an external electric field. We calculate the shuttling time to range from subpicoseconds to nanoseconds depending on the distance (approximately 10-50 nm) of the donor from the interface. Our results establish that quantum control in such nanostructure architectures could, in principle, be achieved.

Physical mechanisms of interface-mediated intervalley coupling in Si

The conduction band degeneracy in Si is detrimental to quantum computing based on spin qubits, for which a nondegenerate ground orbital state is desirable. This degeneracy is lifted at an interface with an insulator as the spatially abrupt change in the conduction band minimum leads to intervalley scattering. We present a theoretical study of the interface-induced valley splitting in Si that provides simple criteria for optimal fabrication parameters to maximize this splitting. Our work emphasizes the relevance of different interface-related properties to the valley splitting.

Low magnetization and anisotropy in the antiferromagnetic state of undoped iron pnictides.

We examine the magnetic phase diagram of iron pnictides using a five-band model. For the intermediate values of the interaction expected to hold in the iron pnictides, we find a metallic low moment state characterized by antiparallel orbital magnetic moments. The anisotropy of the interorbital hopping amplitudes is the key to understanding this low moment state. This state accounts for the small magnetization measured in undoped iron pnictides and leads to the strong exchange anisotropy found in neutron experiments. Orbital ordering is concomitant with magnetism and produces the large zx orbital weight seen at Γ in photoemission experiments.

Conductivity anisotropy in the antiferromagnetic state of iron pnictides.

Recent experiments on iron pnictides have uncovered a large in-plane resistivity anisotropy with a surprising result: The system conducts better in the antiferromagnetic x direction than in the ferromagnetic y direction. We address this problem by calculating the ratio of the Drude weight along the x and y directions, D(x)/D(y), for the mean-field Q=(π,0) magnetic phase diagram of a five-band model for the undoped pnictides. We find that D(x)/D(y) ranges between 0.2<D(x)/D(y)<1.7 for different interaction parameters. Large values of the orbital ordering favor an anisotropy opposite to the one found experimentally. On the other hand, D(x)/D(y) is strongly dependent on the topology and morphology of the reconstructed Fermi surface. Our results point against orbital ordering as the origin of the observed conductivity anisotropy, which may be ascribed to the anisotropy of the Fermi velocity.

External field control of donor electron exchange at the Si/SiO2 interface

We analyze several important issues for the single- and two-qubit operations in Si quantum computer architectures involving P donors close to a SiO2 interface. For a single donor, we investigate the donor-bound electron manipulation (i.e. 1-qubit operation) between the donor and the interface by electric and magnetic fields. We establish conditions to keep a donor-bound state at the interface in the absence of local surface gates, and estimate the maximum planar density of donors allowed to avoid the formation of a 2-dimensional electron gas at the interface. We also calculate the times involved in single electron shuttling between the donor and the interface. For a donor pair, we find that under certain conditions the exchange coupling (i.e. 2-qubit operation) between the respective electron pair at the interface may be of the same order of magnitude as the coupling in GaAs-based two-electron double quantum dots where coherent spin manipulation and control has been recently demonstrated (for example for donors ~10 nm below the interface and \~40 nm apart, J~10^{-4} meV), opening the perspective for similar experiments to be performed in Si.

Magnetic interactions in iron superconductors: A review

Abstract High-temperature superconductivity in iron pnictides and chalcogenides emerges when a magnetic phase is suppressed. The multi-orbital character and the strength of correlations underlie this complex phenomenology, involving magnetic softness and anisotropies, with Hunds coupling playing an important role. We review here the different theoretical approaches used to describe the magnetic interactions in these systems. We show that taking into account the orbital degree of freedom allows us to unify in a single phase diagram the main mechanisms proposed to explain the ( π , 0 ) order in iron pnictides: nesting-driven superconductivity, exchange between localised spins, and Hund-induced magnetic state with orbital differentiation. Comparison of theoretical estimates and experimental results helps locate the Fe superconductors in the phase diagram. In addition, orbital physics is crucial to address the magnetic softness, the doping-dependent properties, and the anisotropies.

Magnetic-Field Probing of an SU(4) Kondo Resonance in a Single-Atom Transistor

Semiconductor devices have been scaled to the point that transport can be dominated by only a single dopant atom. As a result, in a Si fin-type field effect transistor Kondo physics can govern transport when one electron is bound to the single dopant. Orbital (valley) degrees of freedom, apart from the standard spin, strongly modify the Kondo effect in such systems. Owing to the small size and the s-like orbital symmetry of the ground state of the dopant, these orbital degrees of freedom do not couple to external magnetic fields which allows us to tune the symmetry of the Kondo effect. Here we study this tunable Kondo effect and demonstrate experimentally a symmetry crossover from an SU(4) ground state to a pure orbital SU(2) ground state as a function of magnetic field. Our claim is supported by theoretical calculations that unambiguously show that the SU(2) symmetric case corresponds to a pure valley Kondo effect of fully polarized electrons.

Intervalley coupling for interface-bound electrons in silicon: An effective mass study

Orbital degeneracy of the electronic conduction band edge in silicon is a potential roadblock to the storage and manipulation of quantum information involving the electronic spin degree of freedom in this host material. This difficulty may be mitigated near an interface between Si and a barrier material, where intervalley scattering may couple states in the conduction ground state, leading to nondegenerate orbital ground and first excited states. The level splitting is experimentally found to have a strong sample dependence, varying by orders of magnitude for different interfaces and samples. The basic physical mechanisms leading to such coupling in different systems are addressed. We expand our recent study based on an effective mass approach, incorporating the full plane-wave expansions of the Bloch functions at the conduction band minima. Physical insights emerge naturally from a simple Si/barrier model. In particular, we present a clear comparison between ours and different approximations and formalisms adopted in the literature and establish the applicability of these approximations in different physical scenarios.

Effect of tetrahedral distortion on the electronic properties of iron pnictides

We study the dependence of the electronic structure of iron pnictides on the angle formed by the arsenic–iron bonds. Within a Slater–Koster tight binding model which captures the correct symmetry properties of the bands, we show that the density of states and the band structure are sensitive to the distortion of the tetrahedral environment of the iron atoms. This sensitivity is extremely strong in a two-orbital (dxz, dyz) model due to the formation of a flat band around the Fermi level. Inclusion of the dxy orbital destroys the flat band while keeping considerable angle dependence in the band structure.