Ising critical exponents | EPFL Graph Search

This article lists the critical exponents of the ferromagnetic transition in the Ising model. In statistical physics, the Ising model is the simplest system exhibiting a continuous phase transition with a scalar order parameter and \mathbb{Z}_2 symmetry. The critical exponents of the transition are universal values and characterize the singular properties of physical quantities. The ferromagnetic transition of the Ising model establishes an important universality class, which contains a variety of phase transitions as different as ferromagnetism close to the Curie point and critical opalescence of liquid near its critical point. From the quantum field theory point of view, the critical exponents can be expressed in terms of scaling dimensions of the local operators \sigma,\epsilon,\epsilon' of the conformal field theory describing the phase transition (In the Ginzburg–Landau description, these are the operators normally called \phi,\phi^2,\phi^4

Etude par microscopie électronique à transmission à haute résolution de l'élargissement thermique des parois de domaines ferroélectriques dans un système de premier ordre

The macroscopic properties of ferroelectric materials depend directly on the domain configuration and the structure of the domain boundaries. For this reason, their study is of great scientific and technological interest. Several models have been developed to describe the properties of domain walls (structure, thickness, stress at the interface, mobility, …). However, few quantitative experimental observations of ferroelectric domain walls at an atomic scale have been reported, and even less results exist at higher temperatures. The ferroelectric domain-wall thickness is an important parameter whose behavior as a function of temperature is directly related to the order of the phase transition. In a second-order system, the temperature dependence of the domain-wall thickness follows a power law L ~ (Tc - T)-ω where ω is the critical exponent characterizing the divergence of L near the critical temperature Tc The predictions concerning the numerical value of are different depending on the theoretical model considered. Nevertheless, the majority of ferroelectric materials are known to undergo a first-order transition. In these systems the domain-wall thickness increases when the transition temperature is approached, but without diverging as for a second-order phase transition. The major objective of this work was to measure this broadening predicted by the theory for the first time at the approach of the phase transition temperature. We have shown that high resolution transmission electron microscopy is powerful technique for the study of ferroelectric domain walls not only at room temperature but also at higher temperatures. This method allows a direct and local observation of interfaces at an atomic scale which is a considerable advantage over diffraction techniques (X-ray, neutron, electron) and most of the other electron microscopy methods. However, the requirements of this method concerning the performance of the optical system of the microscope, the quality of the specimen and its stability in the column are very high, and today high resolution microscopy at high temperature remains a major challenge. The domain-wall thickness is obtained from the measurement of the crystal lattice distortion near the interface using two different numerical techniques of image analysis. The first method is based on the accurate determination of the center of bright peaks which appear on high resolution images for a judicious choice of the experimental parameters (delocalization and crystal thickness) and which represent the crystal lattice nodes. The second technique consists in selecting a circular region of the power spectrum around a reflection peak, centering the Fourier space on this reflection and performing the inverse Fourier transform. The information about the local displacement of atomic planes corresponding to the selected reflection is extracted form the phase component of the obtained complex image. Both techniques have been successfully applied to the measurement of the thickness of the 90° ferroelectric domain walls in PbTiO3 single crystals. This perovskite presents a first order phase transition at Tc = 492.2°C. which corresponds to the transformation of the crystal from the high-temperature paraelectric cubic phase to the low-temperature ferroelectric tetragonal phase. For the first time, the thermal broadening of domain walls has been measured quantitatively using HRTEM. The results are compared with the predictions made by phenomenological theories. We find that the domain wall thickness increases continuously from 0.7 nm at room temperature up to 5.5 nm near the transition temperature. Our results are consistent with those obtained by other authors at room temperature and those of a very recent study performed at higher temperatures using weak-beam microscopy. The measured domain-wall broadening is greater than the one predicted by a three-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau model where the polarization which is the primary order parameter is coupled to the elastic strain which plays the role of secondary order parameter. Our results are better described by a one-dimensional Ginzburg-Landau model without secondary order parameter. In this case the gradient coupling coefficient κ of the Ginzburg-Landau free energy is found to be 1.3 · 10-10 m3F-1. The methods developed for the measurement of the domain-wall thickness can by applied not only to other first-order ferroelectric crystals but also to ferroelectric systems presenting a second-order phase transition thus allowing the determination of the critical exponent ω. Characteristics only present in 2-D systems could also be detected by studying very thin specimens. Moreover, the same techniques can be adapted to the study of domain walls in purely ferroelastic materials.

EPFL2000

A quantum magnetic analogue to the critical point of water

Kazimierz Conder, Ellen Fogh, Julio Antonio Larrea Jiménez, Frédéric Mila, Bruce Normand, Henrik Moodysson Rønnow, Ludger Weber, Mohamed Zayed

At the liquid-gas phase transition in water, the density has a discontinuity at atmospheric pressure; however, the line of these first-order transitions defined by increasing the applied pressure terminates at the critical point(1), a concept ubiquitous in statistical thermodynamics(2). In correlated quantum materials, it was predicted(3) and then confirmed experimentally(4,5) that a critical point terminates the line of Mott metal-insulator transitions, which are also first-order with a discontinuous charge carrier density. In quantum spin systems, continuous quantum phase transitions(6) have been controlled by pressure(7,8), applied magnetic field(9,10) and disorder(11), but discontinuous quantum phase transitions have received less attention. The geometrically frustrated quantum antiferromagnet SrCu2(BO3)(2) constitutes a near-exact realization of the paradigmatic Shastry-Sutherland model(12-14) and displays exotic phenomena including magnetization plateaus(15), low-lying bound-state excitations(16), anomalous thermodynamics(17) and discontinuous quantum phase transitions(18,19). Here we control both the pressure and the magnetic field applied to SrCu2(BO3)(2) to provide evidence of critical-point physics in a pure spin system. We use high-precision specific-heat measurements to demonstrate that, as in water, the pressure-temperature phase diagram has a first-order transition line that separates phases with different local magnetic energy densities, and that terminates at an Ising critical point. We provide a quantitative explanation of our data using recently developed finite-temperature tensor-network methods(17,20-22). These results further our understanding of first-order quantum phase transitions in quantum magnetism, with potential applications in materials where anisotropic spin interactions produce the topological properties(23,24) that are useful for spintronic applications.

2021

Spin-liquid behaviour and the interplay between Pokrovsky-Talapov and Ising criticality in the distorted, triangular-lattice, dipolar Ising antiferromagnet

Frédéric Mila, Andrew James Smerald

We study the triangular-lattice Ising model with dipolar interactions, inspired by its realisation in artificial arrays of nanomagnets. We show that a classical spin-liquid forms at intermediate temperatures, and that its behaviour can be tuned by temperature and/or a small lattice distortion between a string Luttinger liquid and a domain-wall-network state. At low temperature there is a transition into a magnetically ordered phase, which can be first-order or continous with a crossover in the critical behaviour between Pokrovsky-Talapov and 2D-Ising universality. When the Pokrovsky-Talapov criticality dominates, the transition is essentially of the Kasteleyn type.

2018

Etude par microscopie électronique à transmission à haute résolution de l'élargissement thermique des parois de domaines ferroélectriques dans un système de premier ordre

EPFL2000

A quantum magnetic analogue to the critical point of water

Kazimierz Conder, Ellen Fogh, Julio Antonio Larrea Jiménez, Frédéric Mila, Bruce Normand, Henrik Moodysson Rønnow, Ludger Weber, Mohamed Zayed

2021