Magnetic correlations and quantum criticality in the insulating antiferromagnetic, insulating spin liquid, renormalized Fermi liquid, and metallic antiferromagnetic phases of the Mott system V2O3
W. Bao et al., Magnetic correlations and quantum criticality in the insulating antiferromagnetic, insulating spin liquid, renormalized Fermi liquid, and metallic antiferromagnetic phases of the Mott system V2O3, PHYS REV B, 58(19), 1998, pp. 12727-12748
Magnetic correlations in all four phases of pure and doped vanadium sesquio
xide (V2O3) have been examined by magnetic thermal-neutron scattering. Spec
ifically, we have studied the antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases of
metallic V2-yO3, the antiferromagnetic insulating and paramagnetic metallic
phases of stoichiometric V2O3, and the antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic
phases of insulating V1.944Cr0.056O3. While the antiferromagnetic insulator
can be accounted for by a localized Heisenberg spin model, the long-range
order in the antiferromagnetic metal is an incommensurate spin-density wave
, resulting from a Fermi surface nesting instability. Spin dynamics in the
strongly correlated metal are dominated by spin fluctuations with a "single
lobe'' spectrum in the Stoner electron-hole continuum. Furthermore, our re
sults in metallic V2O3 represent an unprecedentedly complete characterizati
on of the spin fluctuations near a metallic quantum critical point, and pro
vide quantitative support for the self-consistent renormalization theory fo
r itinerant antiferromagnets in the small moment limit. Dynamic magnetic co
rrelations for (h) over bar omega<k(B)T in the paramagnetic insulator carry
substantial magnetic spectral weight. However, they are extremely short-ra
nged, extending only to the nearest neighbors. The phase transition to the
antiferromagnetic insulator, from the paramagnetic metal and the paramagnet
ic insulator, introduces a sudden switching of magnetic correlations to a d
ifferent spatial periodicity which indicates a sudden change in the underly
ing spin Hamiltonian. To describe this phase transition and also the unusua
l short-range order in the paramagnetic state, it seems necessary to take i
nto account the orbital degrees of freedom associated with the degenerate d
orbitals at the Fermi level in V2O3. [S0163-1829(98)06443-1].