text:
# Coherently photo-induced ferromagnetism in diluted magnetic semiconductors

## Abstract

Ferromagnetism is predicted in undoped diluted magnetic semiconductors illuminated by intense sub-bandgap laser radiation . The mechanism for photo-induced ferromagnetism is coherence between conduction and valence bands induced by the light which leads to an optical exchange interaction. The ferromagnetic critical temperature TC depends both on the properties of the material and on the frequency and intensity of the laser and could be above $`1\mathrm{K}`$.

Information processing in electronic devices is based on control of charge flow in semiconductor materials, whereas non-volatile information storage exploits ferromagnetism, spontaneous alignment of the spins of many electrons. Spintronics Spintronics  aims to achieve a merger of these technologies, motivating interest in new ferromagnetic semiconductors like (Ga,Mn)As and other (III,Mn)V compounds Ohno , and in diluted magnetic semiconductors (DMS) like (Cd,Mn)Te and other (II,Mn)VI materials NatureMollenkamp  with free moments that can be aligned by external fields. The optical properties of these semiconductors are particularly interesting in this respect, because laser radiation can control both charge and spin dynamicsopticS . The possibility of optically controlling semiconductors with dilute magnetic elements is now being explored actively opticDMS .

In this paper we predict a qualitatively new effect, photo-induced ferromagnetism, in which magnetic order is induced in an otherwise paramagnetic (II,Mn)VI DMS by laser light that is below the absorption edge. The influence of the laser field on the electronic system is reactive, rather than dissipative and follows ultimately from a change in the effective electronic Hamiltonian analogous to those that yield dipole forces in atomic physics. The II-VI parent compounds are intrinsic semiconductors with states of $`p`$ character at the top of the valence band and of $`s`$ character at the bottom of the conduction band Furdyna . They have a sizable interband optical matrix element, $`\stackrel{}{d}_{cv}=v|e\stackrel{}{r}|c`$. In (II,Mn)VI alloys, Mn substitutes for the group-II atoms. The electronic structure of the external $`s,p`$ shells of Mn and group II atoms is very similar, so that the conduction and valence band are barely affected by moderate Mn doping. However, the $`d`$ shell of each Mn atom is only half full, in contrast to the full shells of the atoms for which they substitute, and forms a local moment with spin $`S=\frac{5}{2}`$. These magnetic moments are the only low energy electronic degrees of freedom in ideal (II,Mn)VI materials.

The magnetic moment of a Mn $`d`$ shell interacts with the spins of electrons in both conduction and valence bands through the exchange coupling

$$_{\mathrm{exch}}=\underset{i,b}{}J_b\stackrel{}{M}_i\stackrel{}{S}_b(\stackrel{}{R}_i),$$
(1)
where $`\stackrel{}{M}_i`$ refers to the Mn atom located at $`\stackrel{}{R}_i`$, the spin density of the $`b=e`$ conduction electrons and $`b=h`$ valence band holes is $`\stackrel{}{S}_\mathrm{b}(\stackrel{}{R}_i)`$, and $`J_b`$ are the exchange coupling constants Furdyna . When the Mn atoms are spin-polarized this interaction leads, in a mean field and virtual crystal approximation (MFVCA) whose approximate validity is well established Furdyna ; Dietl , to an effective magnetic field $`g\mu _B\stackrel{}{B}^{\mathrm{eff}}J_{e,h}c_{\mathrm{Mn}}\stackrel{}{}`$ experienced by the spins of the carriers, where $`c_{\mathrm{Mn}}`$ is the density of Mn atoms and $`\stackrel{}{}`$ is their average magnetization. This leads to band spin-splittings as large as 100 meV, evident in optical spectra and known as giant Zeeman splittings Furdyna .

In doped systems band electrons mediate RKKY interactions between Mn spins. On the other hand, virtual fluctuations in the Mn valence lead to short range superexchange antiferromagnetic interactions which couple only nearest neighbors. In a sample with a fraction $`x`$ of Mn randomly located at the cation sites, $`x_{\mathrm{eff}}x(1x)^{12}`$ is the fraction of sites containing Mn atoms without a magnetic first neighbor. Consequently, samples with a low Mn concentration ($`x0.01`$) and no band carriers are paramagnetic.

It has been shown ORKKY  that two localized spins in a semiconductor can interact via the virtual carriers created in the (otherwise empty) bands by a laser of frequency smaller than the band gap. The effective interaction is a ferromagnetic Heisenberg coupling which we shall call optical RKKY (ORKKY). It is our contention that the ORKKY interaction can drive a diluted magnetic semiconductor into a ferromagnetic phase at low temperatures. In this paper, we develop a microscopic theory for this new type of ferromagnetism and we explore its properties.

When the material is illuminated by a laser with electric field $`E_\alpha `$, and frequency $`\omega _L`$ below the semiconductor band gap, $`E_g`$, a reactive dipolar energy is stored in the semiconductor:

$$=\underset{\alpha \beta }{}\chi _{\alpha \beta }^{}(\omega _L)E_\alpha E_\beta $$
(2)
where $`\chi _{\alpha \beta }^{}(\omega _L)`$ is the real part of the retarded optical response function. In this case, as in many others where direct absorption processes are negligible, the laser field acts like a new tunable thermodynamic variable which changes the properties of the system. $`\chi _{\alpha \beta }^{}(\omega )`$ depends on the inter-band transition energies which, due to the exchange interaction (1), depend in turn on the collective magnetization $`\stackrel{}{}`$. In an illuminated sample, $``$ does depend on $`\stackrel{}{}`$. As we show below, $``$ is minimized when the Mn spins are fully polarized and the system is ferromagnetic. Importantly, because $`\mathrm{}\omega _L<E_g`$, the dissipative part $`\chi _{\alpha \beta }^{\prime \prime }(\omega _L)`$ of the response function is zero, so that no real electron-hole pairs are created, and heating is strongly suppressed.

We now derive $``$ starting from the microscopic Hamiltonian. The relevant degrees of freedom are the electrons in the conduction band, holes in the valence band and the Mn spins. The exchange interaction (1) is included in the VCMFA, which results in a spin splitting of the bands when the Mn spins are polarized Furdyna ; Dietl . For simplicity, we have neglected the important spin-orbit interaction influence on the valence bands; although these interactions do not change the qualitative physics, they do introduce a characteristic dependence on the laser light polarization that we do not discuss here. A classical laser field couples the valence and conduction bands. We only consider here the case of unpolarized laser light, where the two optically active (OA) interband transitions are driven with equal strength. We use the selection rule for the heavy holes at $`k=0`$ so that an electron with spin $`\sigma `$ is promoted from the valence band to the conduction band. The resultant magnetization comes from the cooperative effects of the Mn spins through their interactions with the carriers, unlike optical orientation effects that can be induced by polarized light in these materials.

The Hamiltonian reads $`H=H_c+H_v+H_L+V_C`$ with:

$`H_c`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma ,\stackrel{}{k}}{}}\left[ϵ_\stackrel{}{k}^e{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{2}}J_ec_{Mn}|\stackrel{}{}|\right]c_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }^{}c_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }`$
$`H_v`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \underset{\sigma ,\stackrel{}{k}}{}}\left[ϵ_\stackrel{}{k}^h{\displaystyle \frac{\sigma }{2}}J_hc_{Mn}|\stackrel{}{}|\right]d_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }^{}d_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }`$
$`H_L`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{\mathrm{\Omega }}{2}}{\displaystyle c_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }^{}e^{i\omega _Lt}d_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }^{}}+h.c.`$
$`V_C`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2𝒱}}{\displaystyle \underset{\stackrel{}{q}}{}}V(\stackrel{}{q})\rho (\stackrel{}{q})\rho (\stackrel{}{q})`$ (3)
where we have chosen the spin quantization axis along the collective magnetization axis $`\stackrel{}{}`$. The conduction and valence band dispersions are $`ϵ_\stackrel{}{k}^e`$ and $`ϵ_\stackrel{}{k}^h`$ respectively. The strength of the light matter coupling is quantified by the Rabi energy, $`\mathrm{\Omega }=d_{cv}E_0`$ where $`E_0`$ is the amplitude of the electric field of the laser. The last term accounts for the Coulomb interaction in the dominant term approximation with $`\rho (q)=\rho _e(q)\rho _h(q)`$, $`\rho _e(q)=_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }c_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }^{}c_{\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{q},\sigma }`$ $`\rho _h(q)=_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }d_{\stackrel{}{k},\sigma }^{}d_{\stackrel{}{k}+\stackrel{}{q},\sigma }`$, $`V(q)=\frac{4\pi }{ϵq^2}`$ and $`𝒱`$ stands for the volume of the sample.

The dynamics of the carrier density matrix under the influence of Hamiltonian (3) in the spinless case with $`J_{e,h}=0`$ has been studied previously by a number of authors, who treat Coulomb interactions in the Hartree Fock (HF) approximation SR ; Comte ; Zimmermann . Numerical solution of the dynamical equations Zimmermann  show that the density matrix reaches a steady state due to the inhomogeneous broadening provided by the different $`k`$ states. Spontaneous emission and other phenomena will also contribute to the damping of the density matrix dynamics in a time scale $`T_2`$ which is in the picosecond range. The HF steady state can be described as the vacuum of a dressed Hamiltonian Comte  and resembles very much a BCS state for excitons, where $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and the electron hole (eh) interaction act as the pairing force and $`\delta _0E_g\omega _L`$ plays the role of the chemical potential. When $`\delta _0`$ is positive and sufficiently large, the average density of band carriers vanishes identically when the laser is switched off. In that limit, the wave function of the ground state of the dressed Hamiltonian can be mapped to a coherent state of non-interacting bosonic excitons SR  with binding energy $`ϵ_x`$, Bohr radius $`a_B`$ and ground state wave function $`\psi _{1s}(r)`$ corresponding to the electron hole Coulomb potential $`V(q)`$ above. A crossover to the incoherent region, in which the density of carriers can be non zero when the laser is switched off occurs when $`\delta _0`$ decreases towards smaller or even negative values.

When the spin degree of freedom is included, the equations for the two optically active channels decouple in the HF approximation spinfac  for an unpolarized laser. The two sets of equations for the carrier density matrix of the two OA channels, $`+`$ and $``$, are identical to those of the spinless case SR ; Zimmermann ; Comte  except for the detuning, which acquires a spin dependent magnetic shift. It proves useful to define a detuning renormalized by the excitonic effects, $`\delta \delta _0ϵ_x`$ and a spin dependent detuning

$$\delta _\pm \left(\right)=E_g\omega _Lϵ_x\pm 𝒥\left(\right)\delta \pm 𝒥\left(\right)$$
(4)
with $`𝒥()(J_hJ_e)c_{\mathrm{Mn}}\frac{}{2}`$. As a result of the magnetization, the detuning in one channel increases whereas in the other it decreases. For $`=0`$ the coherent region (no absorption) occurs for $`\delta >0`$ Zimmermann . In order to keep the semiconductor transparent in the ferromagnetic phase, we need $`\delta >𝒥\left(\right)`$. For the DMS considered below, the magnetic shift is large enough so that the system is in the non-interacting exciton situation for which analytical results are available SR . For instance, the density of virtual excitons in each channel reads:

$$n_\pm a_B^3=\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{(\delta _\pm )^2}$$
(5)
This result is valid provided that $`n_\sigma a_B^3<0.1`$, which is the case for all the results presented below. This condition imposes both a lower bound for $`\delta `$, which must be larger than $`\delta _{\mathrm{min}}=|𝒥(=S)|=J_{max}`$, and an upper bound for $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$, which must be smaller than $`\mathrm{\Omega }_{\mathrm{max}}=1.12\times (\delta \delta _{\mathrm{min}})`$. The former is the condition for the material to remain non-absorbing in the ferromagnetic phase, whereas the latter is the limit for the validity of the independent exciton approximation. In this limit the reactive dipolar energy stored in the semiconductor because of the interaction with the laser reads:

$$()=\frac{𝒱\mathrm{\Omega }^2|\psi _{1s}(0)|^2}{4}\left[\frac{1}{\delta _+}+\frac{1}{\delta _{}}\right]$$
(6)
which should be compared with (2). Formally eq. (6) is the ground state energy of the dressed Hamiltonian, in the non-interacting exciton limit. To explore the collective properties of the Mn magnetic moments under the influence of the laser, we assume that the magnetic degrees of freedom are in thermal equilibrium and that their internal energy $``$ is given by Eq. (6). The magnetization is determined by the competition between the dipolar energy density $`𝒢_{}\frac{1}{𝒱}()`$ and the entropy density in $`𝒢_S=c_{Mn}k_bT𝒮()`$, where $`𝒮()`$ is the entropy per spin as a function of the magnetization jfr-sham . When the paramagnetic to ferromagnetic phase transition is continuous, we can expand $`G\left(\right)`$ around $`=0`$ to obtain an analytical formula for the Curie Temperature:

$$k_BT_C=\frac{S(S+1)}{3}(J_eJ_h)^2c_{\mathrm{Mn}}\frac{|\psi _{1s}(0)|^2\mathrm{\Omega }^2}{4\delta ^3}.$$
(7)
We note that the same equation can be derived from the mean field theory using the effective Heisenberg interaction defined by the optical exchange coupling derived in ref. ORKKY, . From equation (7) and the numerical evaluation of $`T_C`$ shown below, we conclude that the important factors to achieve sizable Curie Temperature are compact excitons (small $`a_B`$) and large Rabi energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$. From this point of view, (Zn,Mn)S and (Zn,Mn)Se seem to be the most promising in the II-VI family, due to their small Bohr radii.

In figure 1 we plot $`𝒢_{}()`$ and $`𝒢_S()`$ for bulk Zn0.988Mn0.012S ($`x_{\mathrm{eff}}=0.01`$) under the influence of a laser with Rabi energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }=`$ 5 meV and a detuning $`\delta =41`$ meV note2 . For this concentration, the magnetic shift for the fully polarized case is $`J_{\mathrm{max}}=`$21 meV. The upper panel of figure 1-a shows $`𝒢_S()`$, which favours magnetic disorder ($``$=0). In the middle panel of figure 1-a we see how the dipolar energy is minimized for a maximal magnetic order $`M=5/2`$. In figure 1-b we plot the total Landau functional $`G\left(\right)=𝒢_{}+𝒢_S`$, for a set of temperatures between 105 and 115 mK. For each temperature, the order parameter $``$ is obtained by minimization of $`G\left(\right)`$ (magenta points in figure 1b). The curve $`(T)`$ so generated is shown in the lower panel of figure 1-a. A discontinuous phase transition from paramagnetic ($`=0`$) to ferromagnetic ($`0`$) occurs at $`T_C=114`$ mK. In that panel we also show $`(T)`$ for some other detunings, $`\delta =26`$ meV ($`T_C=`$778 mK), $`\delta =71`$ meV ($`T_C=`$22 mK). We see that $`T_C`$ is a decreasing function of $`\delta `$ and that the shape of the $`(T/T_C)`$ curve varies: our model predicts continuous and discontinuous phase transitions in different regions of the phase diagram. Conveniently, equation (7) remains a good approximation for $`T_C`$ even when the transition is discontinuous.

The Curie temperature as a function of $`\delta `$ and $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ is shown in figure 2-A for Zn0.988Mn0.012S. From figure 2B it is apparent that ferromagnetism can be switched on and off, at a given temperature, by adjusting the intensity or the frequency of the laser. For a laser field with Rabi energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }=10`$ meV and $`\delta =30.5`$ meV our theory predicts $`T_C=1.5`$ Kelvin. Continuous wave laser excitation with Rabi splitting $`\mathrm{\Omega }=0.2`$ meV has been achieved smallrabi  which would yield $`T_c`$ 50 mK for bulk Zn0.988Mn0.012S and $`\delta =21.6`$ meV note3 . In the opposite limit, values of $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ as large as 1.5 eV can be achieved with 5 femtosecond laser pulses largerabi . However, in order to observe ferromagnetic order the laser pulse must be longer than the transition switching time, which should presumably have the same order of magnitude as $`T_1`$, the Mn longitudinal relaxation time. In the absence of laser driven interactions, this quantity depends strongly on $`x`$, the Mn concentration, indicating that the superexchange interactions are the dominant relaxation mechanism T1 . For $`x0.01`$, the laser driven interaction is dominant and presumably as efficient as the superexchange interactions in samples with larger Mn concentrations, where $`T_1`$ can be of the order of $`0.2`$ ns opticDMS ; T1 . In contrast, the ferromagnetic interactions will switch on and off as fast as the laser pulse, on a femtosecond time scale with state of the art laser techniques.

The full phase diagram in $`T`$ and $`\delta `$ would have six distinct regimes (see figure 2C). For $`\delta >J_{\mathrm{max}}`$ the semiconductor is always transparent and the system can undergo the purely coherent ferromagnetic phase transition at a $`T_C`$ close to the estimates plotted in figure 2A. For 0$`<\delta <J_{\mathrm{max}}`$, the system is transparent and paramagnetic at high temperature, but has the potential to become ferromagnetic and absorbing at low temperatures. In this situation, the system might return to the paramagnetic phase, because of heating, or might be ferromagnetic (due to the standard RKKY interaction mediated by the real photocarriers). Finally, for negative detuning the system is always absorbing, and photo-induced carriers can lead to ferromagnetism through the same mechanisms that apply for equilibrium carriers, leading to a transition at $`k_BT_C=\frac{S(S+1)}{3}\frac{2n^{1/3}c_{\mathrm{Mn}}}{\mathrm{}^2(3\pi ^2)^{(2/3)}}\left(J_{sd}^2m_c+J_{pd}^2m_v\right)`$ where $`n`$ is the density of photocarriers. Ferromagnetism induced by (real) photocarriers has been observed in (Cd,Mn)Te heterostructures at 2 Kelvin Boukari

In summary, we propose that a diluted magnetic semiconductor exposed to a laser below the absorption threshold will undergo a ferromagnetic phase transition at low temperatures. The ferromagnetism takes place because the reactive dipolar energy induced in the semiconductor is minimized by the ferromagnetic configuration. Microscopically, the spins interact with each other via an optical RKKY interaction mediated by virtual carriers ORKKY . The ferromagnetic interactions are switched on and off as fast as the laser. The mechanism of this laser induced ferromagnetism relies on interband optical coherence and is radically different from other types of carrier mediated ferromagnetism.

We thank T. Dietl for fruitful discussions. This work has been supported by the Welch Foundation, the Office of Naval Research under grant N000140010951, DARPA/ONR N0014-99-1-1096, NSF DMR 0099572, DMR-0312491 and Ramón y Cajal program (MCYT). This has been partly funded by FEDER funds. Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnolog a, MAT2003-08109-C02-01.

CAPTION Figure 1

Energy contributions as a function of $``$. Figure 1-A. Upper panel: $`𝒢_S()`$ for two different temperatures. Middle panel: $`\frac{()}{V}`$ for $`\delta =41`$ meV and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=5`$ meV. Lower panel: $`(T/T_c)`$ for $`\mathrm{\Omega }=5`$ meV and three different values of $`\delta `$. Figure 1-B: total Landau energy $`𝒢()`$ for the Mn, for a set of temperatures nearby $`T_c`$ for $`\delta =41`$ meV and $`\mathrm{\Omega }=5`$ meV.

CAPTION Figure 2

(A). Contour map for transition temperature as a function of the Rabi energy $`\mathrm{\Omega }`$ and the detuning $`\delta `$, for (Zn0.99,Mn0.01)S. White region: outside validity range of linear response. (B) $`(\mathrm{\Omega },\delta )`$ at a fixed temperature, $`k_BT`$=0.5 Kelvin for Zn0.988Mn0.012S. (C) Schematic ($`k_BT`$, $`\delta /J_{\mathrm{max}}`$) phase diagram, for fixed laser intensity. In the left region ($`\delta <0`$) (right region ($`\delta >J_{\mathrm{max}}`$) ) the system is always absorbing (coherent). The red line in the coherent side signals the ferromagnetic instability described in this work. The red line in the absorbing part corresponds to photocarrier mediated ferromagnetism $`T_c`$ Dietl ; Boukari . The middle region shows a possible transition from a paramagnetic-coherent towards a ferromagnetic-absorbing phase.

Figure 1


format: text

text:
# 1 Introduction

## 1 Introduction

Polarization experiments have been proven to be a powerful tool to study the properties of strong interaction in general and to test the validity of popular models in particular. Great achievements have been made in the last years by studying the spin-dependent structure functions, the single-spin left-right asymmetries, hyperon polarizations etc, both experimentally and theoretically. In this talk, I would like to bring your attention to another series of polarization experiments which may also provide useful information on strong interaction.

The experiments which I mention are the measurements of vector meson polarization in high energy reaction. I emphasize here in particular the following: (1) Vector meson polarization can be studied experimentally by measuring the angular distribution of the decay products. (2) Compared with other spin non-zero hadrons such as the hyperons, the production rate of a vector meson is usually higher and the origin is simpler due to the much smaller contribution from the decay of heavier hadrons. This implies less theoretical uncertainties in calculations and better statistics in experiments. Therefore, the study of polarization of the vector mesons may provide us important information to understand the role of spin in hadronic reactions.

The polarization of a vector meson is described by the spin density matrix $`\rho `$ or its element $`\rho _{m,m^{}}`$, where $`m`$ and $`m^{}`$ label the spin component along the quantization axis, usually the $`z`$-axis of the frame. The diagonal elements $`\rho _{11}`$, $`\rho _{00}`$ and $`\rho _{11}`$ for the unit-trace matrix are the relative intensities of meson spin component $`m`$ to take the values $`1`$, $`0`$, and $`1`$ respectively. In experiment, $`\rho _{00}`$ can be measured from the angular distribution of its decay products and a deviation of $`\rho _{00}`$ from $`1/3`$ indicates spin alignment. In the helicity basis, i.e., in the case that the $`z`$-axis is chosen as the moving direction of the vector meson, the matrix is usually called helicity density matrix and $`\rho _{00}`$ represents the probability of the vector meson to be in the helicity zero state. Measurements have been carried out in different reactions. We see in particular that data with high accuracy have been obtained in $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation at LEP recently . The data show that $`\rho _{00}`$ is significantly larger than $`1/3`$ in particular in the large $`z`$ (here $`z`$ is the fractional momentum carried by the vector meson of the whole system) region.

Being not aware of what we can learn from these data, we made an analysis by taking the spins of the vector mesons as the sum of the spin of the fragmenting quark and that of the anti-quark which is created in the hadronization and combine with the fragmenting quark to form the vector meson. We found out that the data imply a significant polarization of the anti-quark in the opposite direction of the fragmenting quark. We extended the calculations to other reactions to make predictions for future experiments. We also studied the situation in unpolarized hadron-hadron collisions and showed that the spin alignment of vector meson in such reactions should be closely related to the single-spin left-right asymmetries. I will summarize these results in the following. The material of this talk is taken from the recent publications carried out in collaboration with Dr. Xu Qing-hua and Dr. Liu Chun-xiu in Shandong University.

## 2 Spin alignment of vector mesons in $`e^+e^{}VX`$

We calculate the spin alignment of vector mesons in $`e^+e^{}q_f^0\overline{q}_f^0VX`$ by dividing them into the following two groups and considering them separately: (A) those which contain the fragmenting quark $`q_f^0`$; (B) those which don’t contain the fragmenting quark. The spin density matrix $`\rho ^V(z)`$ for the vector meson $`V`$ is given by:

$$\rho ^V(z)=\underset{f}{}\frac{n(z|A,f)}{n(z)}\rho ^V(A,f)+\frac{n(z|B)}{n(z)}\rho ^V(B),$$
(1)
where $`n(z|A,f)`$ and $`\rho ^V(A,f)`$ are respectively the average number and the spin density matrix of the vector mesons from group (A); $`n(z|B)`$ and $`\rho ^V(B)`$ are those from (B); $`n(z)=_fn(z|A,f)+n(z|B)`$, and $`z`$ is the momentum fraction of $`q_f^0`$ carried off by the vector meson $`V`$. Since $`n(z|A,f)`$ and $`n(z|B)`$ are independent of the spin properties they are calculated using an event generator based on a fragmentation model which gives a good description of the unpolarized data. We used generator $`\mathrm{pythia}`$ in our calculations.

There are many different possibilities to produce the vector mesons in group (B), we take them as unpolarized, i.e., $`\rho ^V(B)`$=1/3. For those vector mesons from group (A), i.e., those which contain $`q_f^0`$ and an anti-quark $`\overline{q}`$ created in the fragmentation, the spin is taken as the sum of the spins of $`q_f^0`$ and $`\overline{q}`$, thus the spin density matrix $`\rho ^V(A,f)`$ can be calculated from the direct product of the spin density matrix $`\rho ^{q_f^0}`$ for $`q_f^0`$ and $`\rho ^{\overline{q}}`$ for $`\overline{q}`$. Transforming the direct product, $`\rho ^{q_f^0\overline{q}}`$=$`\rho ^{q_f^0}`$$``$$`\rho ^{\overline{q}}`$, to the coupled basis $`|s,s_z`$ (where $`\stackrel{}{s}`$=$`\stackrel{}{s}^q`$+$`\stackrel{}{s}^{\overline{q}}`$), we can obtain $`\rho ^V(A,f)`$. In the helicity frame of $`q_f^0`$, i.e., $`z`$-axis is taken as the moving direction of $`q_f^0`$, $`\rho ^V(A,f)`$ is given by,

$$\rho ^V(A,f)=\frac{1}{3+P_fP_z}\left(\begin{array}{ccc}\left(1+P_f\right)\left(1+P_z\right)& \frac{1+P_f}{\sqrt{2}}\left(P_xiP_y\right)& 0\\ \frac{\left(1+P_f\right)}{2}\left(P_x+iP_y\right)& \left(1P_fP_z\right)& \frac{1P_f}{\sqrt{2}}\left(P_xiP_y\right)\\ 0& \frac{1P_f}{\sqrt{2}}\left(P_x+iP_y\right)& \left(1P_f\right)\left(1P_z\right)\end{array}\right),$$
(2)
where $`P_f`$ is the longitudinal polarizations of $`q_f^0`$ and $`\stackrel{}{P}=(P_x,P_y,P_z)`$ is the polarization vector of the anti-quark $`\overline{q}`$. Hence, the 00-component of the density matrix takes the following simple form,

$$\rho _{00}^V(A,f)=(1P_fP_z)/(3+P_fP_z),$$
(3)
where there is only one unknown variable $`P_z`$, the polarization of $`\overline{q}`$ along the moving or polarization direction of $`q_f^0`$.

Using Eqs.(1) and (3), we can determine $`P_z`$ in different cases by fitting the data in the $`e^+e^{}`$ annihilation at $`Z^0`$ pole for the production of different vector mesons. We found that, the data for different vector mesons can reasonably be fitted if we take,

$$P_z=\alpha P_f$$
(4)
where $`\alpha 0.5`$. As an example, we show $`\rho _{00}^K^{}`$ as a function of $`z`$ in Fig.1.

## 3 Spin alignment of vector mesons in $`ppXV`$ and $`lpl^{}VX`$ with polarized beams

We emphasize that the relation between $`P_z`$ and $`P_f`$ given in Eq.(4) is a consequence of $`e^+e^{}`$ data at LEP. It is unknown whether it is universal in the sense that it is also applicable to other energies and/or other reactions. If yes, it should contain useful information on the hadronization mechanism. We therefore extended the calculations to other reactions such as $`ppVX`$ or $`lpl^{}VX`$ with polarized beams in . The results obtained show that the spin alignments of vector mesons in these reactions are all quite significant and should be able to tested by future experiments such as those at RHIC and/or by COMPASS. I show, as examples, the results for $`ppVX`$ and $`\mu ^{}p\mu ^{}VX`$ in Fig.2 and Fig.3.

| Figure 2. $`\rho _{00}^V`$ in $`ppVX`$ for $`p_{}>13`$ GeV at $`\sqrt{s}=500`$GeV in the helicity frame when one beam is longitudinally polarized. The figure is taken from . | Figure 3.$`\rho _{00}^V`$ in the current region of $`\mu ^{}p`$$``$$`\mu ^{}VX`$ at $`E_\mu `$=500 GeV. The figure is taken from . |
| --- | --- |

## 4 Spin alignment of vector mesons in unpolarized hadron-hadron collisions

Another interesting phenomenon in this connection is the spin alignment of vector meson in unpolarized hadron-hadron collision. The situation here is quite similar to transverse hyperon polarization in unpolarized hadron-hadron collision. The quantization axis is chosen as the normal of the production plane and the data show that there is a significant spin alignment of vector meson at large $`x_F`$ and moderate $`p_{}`$.

We argued that the existence of the three classes of phenomena, i.e. the large left-right asymmetries $`A_N`$ in hadron-hadron collisions with transversely polarized beams, the large transverse polarization of hyperon $`P_H`$ in unpolarized $`hh`$ or $`hA`$ collisions, and significant spin alignment of vector mesons $`\rho _{00}^V`$ in unpolarized $`hh`$ collisions, are different manifestations of the same spin correlations of the type $`\stackrel{}{s}_q\stackrel{}{n}`$ in the reaction. \[Here, $`\stackrel{}{s}_q`$ is the spin of the fragmenting quark; $`\stackrel{}{n}(\stackrel{}{p}_{inc}\times \stackrel{}{p}_h)/|\stackrel{}{p}_{inc}\times \stackrel{}{p}_h|`$ is the unit vector in the normal direction of the production plane, $`\stackrel{}{p}_{inc}`$ and $`\stackrel{}{p}_h`$ are respectively the momentum of the incident hadron and that of the produced hadron.\] We demonstrated the close relation between $`A_N`$ and $`P_H`$, and that between $`A_N`$ and $`\rho _{00}^V`$ in unpolarized hadron-hadron collisions in the following way: We note that the three effects exist mainly in the fragmentation regions and hadrons produced in these regions are mainly products of the valence quarks combined with suitable anti-sea-quark or sea-diquarks. The existence of spin correlation $`\stackrel{}{s}_q\stackrel{}{n}`$ implies that the valence quark which combines with suitable anti-sea-quark (or quarks) to form the produced hadron was transversely polarized to the production plan. We use the results derived from the $`A_N`$ data for the strength of the above-mentioned $`\stackrel{}{s}_q\stackrel{}{n}`$ type of spin-correlation as input to calculate the polarization of the valence-quark before the hadronization. Using the result obtained as input, we calculated the hyperon polarization in  and spin alignment of the vector mesons in . The obtained results are consistent with the available data and predictions for future experiments are made.

For vector meson spin alignment in unpolarized $`hh`$ collisions, the results obtained are quite different for the vector mesons of the following two groups according to their flavor compositions: (1) those which have a valence quark of the same flavor as one of the valence quarks of the incident hadron; (2) those which have no valence quark in common with the incident hadron. The behavior of $`\rho _{00}^V(x_F)`$ as a function of $`x_F`$ for each group is similar but is quite different from each other. For those from group (1), $`\rho _{00}^V(x_F)`$ increases with increasing $`x_F`$. It starts from $`1/3`$ at $`x_F=0`$, increases monotonically with increasing $`x_F`$, and reach about $`0.42`$ as $`x_F1`$. A rough estimation of the shape of the $`x_F`$-dependence of $`\rho _{00}^V(x_F)`$ is made and the results are given in Fig.4. For those from group (2), we expect no significant spin alignment, i.e. $`\rho _{00}^V(x_F)1/3`$ for all $`x_F`$. All these can be checked by future experiments.

I thank the organizer for invitation. This work was supported in part by the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) and Education Ministry of China.


text:
# Effect of chemical inhomogeneity in the bismuth-based copper oxide superconductors

## I INTRODUCTION

The possible existence of nanoscale electronic inhomogeneity — the propensity of charge carriers doped into the CuO2 plane to form nanoscale structures — has drawn much attention in the field of high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ superconductivity. Neutron scattering studies on Nd co-doped La2-xSrxCuO4 (Nd-LSCO) neutron  and STM/STS studies on Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (Bi2212) STM  have led to suggestions that such self-organization may manifest itself as one-dimensional “stripes” in Nd-LSCO, or two-dimensional “patches” in Bi2212. In the former case, the inter-stripe spacing in the superconducting regime is reported to be approximately four times the in-plane lattice constant, about 1.5 nm, and in the latter case the patches are estimated to be 1-3 nm across. Many theoretical studies suggest that the spatial electronic inhomogeneity in the hole-doped CuO2 planes is an essential part of high-$`T_\mathrm{c}`$ physics Theory . However, at present, the importance of, or even the existence of generic nanoscale electronic inhomogeneity remains controversial controversy ; bobroff .

If nanoscale electronic inhomogeneity exists in the superconducting cuprates, the doped holes will distribute themselves in the CuO2 planes so as to minimize their total energy. In real materials, the CuO2 planes are usually inhomogeneous due to local lattice distortions and/or the random Coulomb potential resulting from chemical disorder, which differs from system to system. Therefore, even if electronic inhomogeneity may itself be a genuine property of doped CuO2 planes, the spatial variation of doped holes will likely depend on the details of each material. For example, in the framework of the stripe model neutron , incommensurate spin and charge correlations are stabilized in Nd-LSCO by the long-range distortion of the CuO6 octahedra in the low-temperature tetragonal phase, which creates one-dimensional potential wells. For Bi2212, it is argued that the random Coulomb potential caused by excess oxygen atoms in the BiO planes pins the doped holes, thus creating patch-shaped inhomogeneities STM . These observations suggest that electronic and chemical inhomogeneity are inseparable from each other, and that the understanding of the latter is imperative for an understanding of the former.

Motivated by this line of reasoning, we have examined the effects of chemical inhomogeneity in single-layer Bi2Sr2CuO6+δ (Bi2201) and double-layer Bi2212. Although widely used for surface sensitive measurements such as STM STM  and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) Andrea , a detailed understanding of their materials properties is very limited, when compared to other materials such as LSCO or YBa2Cu3O7-δ.

The Bi-based cuprates contain excess oxygens in BiO planes and one can change their carrier concentration by changing the amount, $`\delta `$. The excess oxygen would engender a random Coulomb potential in the CuO2 planes. Besides the oxygen nonstoichiometry in BiO planes, there exists another source of chemical inhomogeneity which inherently exists in typical samples. Although referred to as Bi2201 and Bi2212, it is empirically known that stoichiometric Bi2.0Sr2.0CuO6+δ and Bi2.0Sr2.0CaCu2O8+δ are very difficult to synthesize Maeda ; lone\_pair , even in a polycrystalline form. In order to more easily form the crystal structure, one usually replaces Sr2+ ions by trivalent ions, such as excess Bi3+ ions or La3+ ions, forming Bi2+xSr2-xCuO6+δ, Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6+δ, and Bi2+xSr2-xCaCu2O8+δ. As listed up in Ref. Bi, , a typical Bi:Sr nonstoichiometry, $`x`$, for Bi2212 is around 0.1, which yields a $`T_c`$=89-91K. To our knowledge, the highest $`T_c`$ reported in the literature is 95K (Ref.Bi,  (g),(i)). For Bi2201, $`T_c`$ of Bi2+xSr2-xCuO6+δ is around 10K for $`x`$(Bi)$`=0.1`$, whereas La substituted Bi2201 (Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6+δ) has a higher $`T_c>`$30K for $`x`$(La)$`0.4`$ ando . Since the Sr atom is located next to the apical oxygen which is just above the Cu atoms, the effect of Sr site (also referred to as the A-site) cation inhomogeneity is expected to be stronger than that of the excess oxygens in BiO planes. Note that BiO planes are located relatively far away from CuO2 planes, with SrO planes in between.

In this study, we evaluate the effect of chemical inhomogeniety in the Bi-based cuprates. For Bi2201, we have grown a series of Bi2Sr1.6Ln0.4CuO6+δ crystals with various trivalent rare earth (Ln) ions. In this series, the magnitude of the local lattice distortion can be changed systematically by making use of the different ionic radii of the substituted Ln ions. We find that $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ monotonically decreases with increasing ionic radius mismatch. For Bi2212, a series of Bi2+xSr2-xCaCu2O8+δ crystals with varying values of $`x`$ were grown in order to evaluate the effect of Bi:Sr nonstoichiometry. In addition, we also have grown Bi2Sr2Ca1-yYyCu2O8+δ, and find that substitution of Y for Ca site helps to enforce Bi:Sr stoichiometry and to raise $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ to 96 K for $`y=0.08`$.

Our results demonstrate that the cation disorder, in particular that located at the Sr site, significantly affects the maximum attainable $`T_\mathrm{c}`$($`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$) in the Bi-based superconductors. In order to explain our results we use a conceptual hierarchy that classifies and ranks the principal kinds of chemical disorder possible in these systems. We then extend our arguments to other cuprates to examine whether a general trend exists in the hole-doped high-$`T_c`$ superconductors.

This paper is organized as follows: Section II contains detailed information about sample preparation and characterization. The experimental results are presented in Section III and discussed in Section IV, while the effects of disorder in other cuprates is addressed in Section V.

## II SAMPLE PREPARATION

Single crystals of Bi2201 and Bi2212 were grown using the travelling-solvent floating-zone technique, which is now the preferred method for synthesizing high-purity single crystals of many transition metal oxides. This technique allows for greater control of the growth conditions than is possible either by standard solid state reactions or by the flux method.

Powders of Bi2O3, SrCO3, CaCO3, Ln2O3 (Ln=La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Y), and CuO (all of 99.99% or higher purity) were well dried and mixed in the desired cation ratio (Bi:Sr:Ln:Cu=$`2:2x:x:1`$ for Bi2201 and Bi:Sr:Ca:Cu=$`2+x:2x:1:2`$ for Bi2212), and then repeatedly calcinated at about 800C with intermediate grinding. Eventually, the powder was finely ground and formed into a 100 mm long rod with a diameter of 5 mm. The crystal growth was performed using a Crystal Systems Inc. infrared radiation furnace equipped with four 150 W halogen lamps. Except for nearly-stoichiometric ($`x=0`$) Bi2212, the rods were premelted at 18 mm/h to form dense feed rods. The crystal growth was carried out without the use of a solvent and at a growth speed of 0.3-0.4 mm/h for Bi2201 and 0.15-0.2 mm/h for Bi2212. The growth atmospheres adopted for the Bi2212 growth are listed in Table 1. Bi2201 single crystals were grown in 1 atm of flowing O2.

The growth condition for the $`x=0`$ Bi2212 sample was more stringent than for the other samples. In order to obtain homogeneous polycrystalline feed rods, a mixture of starting powders with the stoichiometric ratio Bi:Sr:Ca:Cu=2:2:1:2 was calcinated in stages, at temperatures increasing from 770C to 870C in 10C increments, with intermediate grindings. The final calcination temperature (870C) was set to be just below the composition’s melting temperature (875C). The duration of each calcination was about 20 hours. To avoid possible compositional fluctuation in the feed rod, instead of premelting, the feed rod was sintered four times in the floating-zone furnace at a speed of 50 mm/h. This process allowed us to obtain dense feed rods, approximately 95% of the ideal density. The atmosphere required for stable crystal growth was $`7\pm \mathrm{\hspace{0.33em}3}\%`$ O2, a range much narrower than for nonstoichiometric or Y-doped Bi2212. The grown crystal rod contained small amounts of a single-crystalline SrCuO2 secondary phase, indicating that the sample still suffers from Bi:Sr nonstoichiometry. Single-phase Bi2212 single crystals could be cleaved from the grown rod. No traces of impurity phases were found in other compositions.

Inductively coupled plasma (ICP) spectroscopy was carried out to determine the chemical compositions of the crystals. Additional electron-probe microanalysis (EPMA) was also carried out on the Bi2201 crystals. The results confirm that the actual compositions follow the nominal compositions, as listed in Table 1 for Bi2212. Hereafter, we basically denote the samples by nominal composition to avoid confusion. In order to determine the maximum $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ for each cation composition (i.e., to achieve optimal hole concentration), the Bi2212 samples were annealed at various temperatures and oxygen partial pressures using a tube furnace equipped with an oxygen monitor and a sample transfer arm, which allowed us to rapidly quench the annealed samples from high temperatures within a closed environment. This procedure ensures that the variation of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ among the samples is primarily due to cation nonstoichiometry and not due to differing hole concentrations. Annealing conditions for obtaining optimal (OP), and typical underdoped (UD) and overdoped (OD) samples are listed in Table 1. The results for Bi2201 are on the as-grown crystals and accordingly may not exactly reflect $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$. However, by carrying out a series of annealing studies, we have confirmed that the systematic change of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ among our samples is not due to different hole concentrations, but due to the different Ln ions.

Superconducting transition temperatures were determined by AC susceptibility measurements using a Quantum Design Physical Properties Measurement System (PPMS). The transition temperatures reported here correspond to the onset of a diamagnetic signal. We note that the different definition of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$(such as the interecept between the superconducting transition slope and the $`\chi =0`$ axis) does not affect our conclusions due to the sharp superconducting transition (less than 2K for most samples), as shown below. Although it is hard to determine the exact superconducting fraction due to the demagnetization factor of the plate-shaped crystals, the magnitude of the superconducting signal suggests the bulk superconductivity of the grown samples. No appreciable differences were observed between different samples from the same growth, or between different crystals prepared under identical conditions, an indication of the macroscopic homogeneity of the crystals and the reproducibility of our sample growth process.

## III EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS

### III.1 Results for Bi2201

We have grown a series of Ln3+ substituted Bi2Sr1.6Ln0.4CuO6+δ single crystals with Ln = La, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Bi. The ionic radius of Ln3+ ions, $`R_{Ln}`$, decreases monotonically with increasing atomic number, 1.14 Å (La3+), 1.06 Å (Pr3+), 1.04 Å (Nd3+), 1.00 Å (Sm3+), 0.98 Å (Eu3+), 0.97 Å (Gd3+), and 0.96 Å (Bi3+)ionic\_radius . Accordingly, by introducing different Ln ions, we can systematically change the ionic radius mismatch between Sr2+ (1.12 Å) and Ln3+. We use this mismatch, defined as $`\mathrm{\Delta }R|R_{Sr}R_{Ln}|`$, to quantify the magnitude of the local lattice distortion around Ln3+ ions.

In Fig. 1(a), we show magnetic susceptibility data for a series of Ln3+ substituted samples grown under the same conditions. The $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ of the La-doped sample was 33 K with a transition width of less than 1 K, a reasonable result for an as-grown crystal with this composition ando . As shown in Fig. 1(b), $`T_c`$ decreases monotonically with increasing $`\mathrm{\Delta }R`$, yielding 29 K (Pr3+), 27.5 K (Nd3+), 23 K (Sm3+), 18 K (Eu3+), and 12 K (Gd3+), respectively. There is no trace of superconductivity down to 1.8 K for the Bi-substituted sample. This is reasonable, since the ionic radius of Bi3+ is the smallest of the Ln ions, and the shape of the Bi3+ ion tends to be asymmetric due to the presence of a (6s)2 lone pair lone\_pair , which might cause additional local lattice distortions. These observations demonstrate the strong sensitivity of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ to Sr site substitution in Bi2201.

Although one can minimize the magnitude of the local lattice distortion through the choice of the La3+ ion, which has a radius similar to that of Sr2+, there remains another type of chemical disorder, that is, the random Coulomb potential caused by heterovalent ion substitution. For LSCO, 63Cu NQR spin-lattice relaxation rates experiments have revealed signatures for an electronic inhomogeniety and the results have been discussed in connection with the random distribution of Sr2+ ionsdirt . Considering that both LSCO and Bi2201 contain A-site chemical disorder, it seems likely that the disorder would affect the electronic properties of Bi2201 to a degree comparable to that observed in LSCO, and much more strongly than for the structurally similar material Tl2Ba2CuO6+δ (Tl2201) which is believed to be essentially free of A-site disorder. We will discuss this issue in more detail below.

### III.2 Results for Bi2212

Since cation substitution at the Sr site has such a dramatic effect on $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ in Bi2201, in particular for Ln=Bi, one might expect to find similar results for Bi2212. To verify this, we have grown single crystals of Bi2+xSr2-xCaCu2O8+δ. By adopting the methods described in Sec. II, we have managed to grow single crystals over the range $`0.0<x0.2`$. In Figs. 2(a)-(c), we present magnetic susceptibility data for three different crystals with compositions $`x=0.2`$, 0.04, and $``$ 0, respectively ($`ϵ`$ in the chemical formula for the nominal $`x=0`$ sample (Fig. 2 (c)) implies the presence of residual nonstoichiometry in our sample, as discussed in the previous section). In the figures, OP indicates optimally-doped samples, which possess $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ for a given cation composition. Representative data for underdoped (UD) and overdoped (OD) samples, which were obtained by reducing and oxidizing OP samples, are also plotted to demonstrate successful control of the hole concentration over a wide range.

As the Bi:Sr ratio approaches 1:1, $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ increases from 82.4 K for $`x=0.2`$, to 91.4 K for $`x=0.07`$ (not shown), 92.6 K for $`x=0.04`$, and eventually to 94.0 K for the sample closest to the stoichiometric composition that we could grow. We note that most of the samples studied in the literature contain a nonstoichiometry of $`x0.1`$ with $`T_\mathrm{c}=8991`$ KBi , consistent with the present results.

Although $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ of Bi2212 can be raised by trying to enforce Bi:Sr stoichiometry, the preparation of nearly stoichiometric samples becomes much more difficult than when nonstoichiometry is allowed. This could be due to a greater stability of the crystal structure when it contains additional positive charges, which are usually introduced by allowing the Bi3+:Sr2+ ratio to be larger than one, as discussed in Ref. lone\_pair, . If this is indeed the case, one might expect to be able to synthesize higher-$`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ samples more easily by introducing extra positive charges via cation substitution that causes disorder less severe than substitution of Bi3+ ions at the Sr site.

In the case of Bi2201 we observed that the substitution of additional Ln atoms can eliminate excess Bi atoms from the unfavorable Sr site position, effectively lowering the magnitude of disorder and raising $`T_\mathrm{c}`$. In the double-layer material Bi2212, there is an additional crystallographic site, the Ca site located between the CuO2 planes, which can also accept trivalent dopant ions. One might expect Ln3+ ions at the Ca site to be a weaker type of disorder than Bi3+ ions at the Sr site, since there are no apical oxygens in the Ca planes that could couple to Cu atoms in the CuO2 planes.

To test this idea we have also grown Y-substituted Bi2Sr2Ca1-yYyCu2O8+δ crystals. We find that this compound is as easy to prepare as ordinary (nonstoichiometric) Bi2212, and that for Y-Bi2212 the Bi:Sr ratio indeed tends to be stoichiometric. Furthermore, as shown in Fig. 2(d), $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ for the $`y=0.08`$ sample was increased to 96.0 K, a value higher than for any other Bi2212 sample reported in the literature.Bi  We also grew $`y=0.10`$ and $`y=0.12`$ samples and confirmed that $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$$`>95`$ K in both cases.

## IV DISCUSSION

The effect on $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ of structural distortions associated with cation substitution has been extensively studied in LSCO-based materials buckling , and it is established that $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ strongly depends on the A-site (La site) ionic radius mismatch. For instance, Attfield et al. used simultaneous co-substitution of several alkaline earth and Ln ions to hold the average A-site ionic radius constant while systematically controlling the variance of the A-site ionic radius, and found that $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ is affected not just by the average radius, but also by the degree of disorder (the variance) at that crystallographic site. Our study of single-layer Bi2201 continues this line of inquiry to a different superconducting material and demonstrates a similar sensitivity of $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ to A-site disorder. We note that our results qualitatively agree with those of a previous study on polycrystalline Bi2201 samplessyono .

One can see the same trend in Bi2212 crystals with varying degrees of chemical inhomogeniety. As expected, we find that $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ is strongly dependent on the A-site disorder introduced by the Bi:Sr nonstoichiometry. Furthermore, we also demonstrate that by the seemingly counter-intuitive method of introducing additional Y3+ ions, and hence a new type of disorder, we can raise $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ to 96 K while minimizing A-site disorder. This suggests that, although the minimization of chemical disorder is important for raising $`T_\mathrm{c}`$, different types of disorder are not equally harmful. This is consistent with the observation Iyo  that by carefully controlling disorder in the triple-layer material TlBa2Ca2Cu3O9+δ (Tl1223) $`T_c`$ can be raised from $`120`$ K to 133.5 K, a new record for that system, and that Ba site (the A-site in this system) cation disorder(deficiency) has the strongest effect on $`T_\mathrm{c}`$.

Numerous experiments on Bi2212 have suggested non-uniformity in its electronic properties. These include broad linewidths seen in inelastic neutron scattering experiments Keimer , residual low-energy excitations in the superconducting state observed in penetration depth measurements penetration , finite spin susceptibility at low temperatures observed in NMR studies Takigawa , and short quasiparticle lifetimes detected by complex conductivity experiments Orenstein . The most recent of these are STM/STS measurements STM  that purport to directly image patch-shaped, electronically inhomogeneous regions. The Bi:Sr nonstoichiometry which inherently exists in most samples may be partially responsible for these experimental observations.

Although the present results do not directly prove the presence of nanoscale electronic inhomogeneity, they can be taken as a circumstantial supporting evidence, since they successfully prove the existence of nanoscale chemical inhomogeneity which potentially pins down electronic inhomogeneity. To explain their STM/STS results, Pan et al.STM  attribute the source of pinning centers to excess oxygen in the BiO planes. Although the overall framework addressed by Pan et al. should still hold, we consider that the Bi ions on the Sr site are more effective as pinning centers since they are closer to the CuO2 planes and affect $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ more directly. Indeed, assuming a random distribution of Bi ions on the Sr site and a nonstoichiometry of $`x=0.10`$, the average separation between Bi ions is $`12`$ nm, comparable with the length scale observed in the STM/STS studies.

Recent 89Y NMR experiments on YBCO indicate that the spatial inhomogeniety in this system is much less severe than in LSCO or Bi2212 bobroff . This is reasonable since the latter two systems exhibit a much higher degree of disorder located at the A-site (La site (LSCO) and Sr site (Bi2212)), whereas YBCO (Ba site) is thought to be free from such cation disorder. Indeed, recent penetration depth measurements on the YBCO variant Nd1+xBa2-xCu3O7-δ, with cationic disorder at the Ba site, demonstrate that the superconducting properties of this system change quite sensitively with the degree of Nd/Ba nonstoichiometry salluzzo .

## V DISORDER EFFECTS IN THE CUPRATES

The two main lessons to be learned from our Bi2201 and Bi2212 case studies are that (1) chemical inhomogeneity affects $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ and that (2) the effect of disorder differs depending on its location. In the following, we attempt to classify the various sites at which chemical disorder is possible and categorize other superconducting families on the basis of which kind of disorder is prevalent in each system.

In Fig. 3, we classify 25 cuprate superconductors based on the pattern of the chemical disorder and the number of CuO2 planes in the unit cell. zoology  In the first row, we illustrate three possible locations of chemical disorder relative to the CuO5 pyramids in multilayer materials, or to the CuO6 octahedra in single-layer materials. Pattern (a) corresponds to the Bi:Sr nonstoichiometry in Bi2201 and Bi2212, or Sr2+ ions doped into the La site in LSCO, referred to as A-site disorder so far. The disorder is located next to the apical oxygen. Pattern (b) corresponds to Y3+ substitution for Ca2+ in Bi2212 and represents disorder located next to the CuO2 plane, but at a position where there are no apical oxygen atoms with which to bond. There is no corresponding (b) site in single-layer materials. Pattern (c) disorder is further away from the CuO2 plane. We include excess oxygen $`\delta `$ in Bi- and Tl-based cuprates, oxygen defects in CuO chains in YBa2Cu3O7-δ, and Hg deficiency $`y`$ as well as excess oxygen $`\delta `$ in Hg1-yBa2Can-1CunO2n+2+δ in this category. We note that the materials are catalogued based on the $`primary`$ form of disorder that they are believed to exhibit.

As demonstrated in the present case study, the effect of the chemical disorder is expected to be stronger for pattern (a) than for pattern (b), which is reasonable considering the role of the apical oxygen atom in passing on the effect of disorder to nearby Cu atoms. First, the random Coulomb potential caused by type (a) disorder changes the energy levels of the apical oxygen orbitals, which can be transmitted to CuO2 planes through the hybridization between the apical O(2pz) orbital and the Cu(3d$`_{r^23z^2}`$) orbital. Second, the displacement of the apical oxygen caused by type (a) disorder brings about a local lattice distortion to the CuO2 planes. The effect of pattern (c) disorder is expected to be weakest since the disorder is located relatively far away from the CuO2 plane.

The number of CuO2 planes per unit cell may be regarded as another parameter that, in effect, determines the magnitude of the chemical disorder. As demonstrated in Bi2212, multilayer materials can accommodate heterovalent ions by making use of type (b) substitution whose effect on $`T_\mathrm{c}`$ was seen to be weaker than type (a) substitution. Furthermore, the space between the CuO2 planes forming a multilayer may buffer the impact of the disorder. For instance, in single-layer materials, any displacement of the “upper” apical oxygen in a CuO6 octahedron creates stress in the CuO2 plane because the motion of the octahedron is constrained by the “lower” apical oxygen. Double-layer materials contain CuO5 pyramids rather than CuO6 octahedra, and the separation between CuO2 planes relieves this stress, reducing the effects of type (a) disorder. This buffer zone between the outer CuO2 planes is further increased in triple-layer materials, with the additional benefit that the middle layer is somewhat “protected” from the direct effects of pattern (a) (and (c)) disorder.

Cursory examination of Fig. 3 reveals that $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ generally increases both across the rows and down the columns of the chart. Indeed, there is no material in (a-1) which possesses a $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ higher than 50 K. Furthermore, Bi2201 in column (a) has a lower $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ than Tl2201 in column (c), despite their similar crystal structures. Similarly, $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$of TlBa1+xLa1-xCuO5 (Tl1201) is lower than that of HgBa2CuO4+δ (Hg1201).

This trend is closely obeyed when one concentrates on the variation within a single family of materials, each denoted by a different color in the chart. For example, across the first row, oxygen-intercalated La2CuO4+δ located in (c-1) has higher $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ than Sr-substituted La2CuO4 (a-1). Down the column, $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ of the bilayer La-based system La2-xSrxCaCu2O6 (a-2) is higher than that of its single-layer cousin. The classification suggests a negative correlation between the effective magnitude of chemical disorder and $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$. Additional remarks are made in Ref.s remark2, ; remark3, ; remark4, .

We note that one may also have to consider other factors which characterize the global materials properties and are likely to play a significant role as well in determining $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$, such as Madelung potentialMadelung , bond valence sumbvs , band structure band , block layer blocklayer , multi layer multilayer  etc. Although the present scheme is somewhat oversimplified and does not take account of these parameters, we believe it serves as a useful framework within which to consider the chemical disorder effects prevalent in these materials, at least some of which, if ignored, have the potential to lead to the misinterpretation of experimental data. Finally, similar to previous work on Tl1223 Iyo  and to the present work on Bi2212, it might be possible to raise $`T_{\mathrm{c},\mathrm{max}}`$ of certain other cuprates by minimizing the effects of chemical disorder.

## VI SUMMARY

In summary, we present case studies of the effects of chemical disorder on the superconducting transition temperature of the single-layer and double-layer Bi-based cuprate superconductors. We find that the superconducting transition temperature of Bi2212 can be increased up to 96 K by lowering the impact of Sr site disorder, the primary type of disorder inherent to the bismuth family of materials, at the expense of Ca site disorder. Based on these experimental results, we present a qualitative hierarchy of possible disorder sites, and then proceed to categorize the hole-doped high-temperature superconductors on that basis.

###### Acknowledgements.

We thank G. Blumberg, J. Burgy, E. Dagotto, J. C. Davis, D. S. Dessau, T. H. Geballe, E. W. Hudson, A. Iyo, A. Kapitulnik, G. Kinoda, S. A. Kivelson, R. B. Laughlin, B. Y. Moyzhes, D. J. Scalapino, T. Timusk, and J. M. Tranquada for helpful discussions. This work was supported by the NEDO grant “Nanoscale phenomena of self-organized electrons in complex oxides-new frontiers in physics and devices”, by the U.S. DOE under contract nos. DE-FG03-99ER45773 and DE-AC-03-76SF00515, by NSF DMR9985067, DMR0071897, ONR N00014-98-0195 and by the DOE’s Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Material Science, Divison of Chemical Science, through the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL). H. Eisaki was supported by the Marvin Chodorow Fellowship in the Department of Applied Physics, Stanford University.


text:
# Small-scale Substructure in Dark Matter Haloes: Where Does Galaxy Formation Come to an End?

## 1. Introduction

This goal of this panel session was to assess the problems faced by cold dark matter (CDM). I will discuss one of these in particular, the apparent conflict between theory and observations on sub-galactic scales, known variously as the substructure problem or the dwarf galaxy problem. In the standard CDM picture of galaxy formation, dark matter haloes are the sites for gas cooling and star formation, so there should be a close correspondence between luminous galaxies and individual dark matter haloes or ‘subhaloes’, the bound remnants of haloes that have merged into larger virialised systems. Theory and simulations predict that by $`z=0`$ the halo and subhalo mass functions should be relatively steep power laws on mass scales smaller than galaxy clusters. Galaxies, on the other hand, appear to have a limited range of luminosities and masses. The galaxy luminosity function can only be sampled down to its faintest limit in the very nearby universe, but it generally appears to be flat or slowly rising. Assuming a monotonic relation between average galaxy luminosity and halo mass, this leaves two possibilities; either CDM models are incorrect and there is little small-scale structure in the universe, or the net efficiency of galaxy formation (in the broadest sense of the amount of stellar light produced within an individual halo for a given halo mass) must decrease dramatically on small scales.

There is also increasing observational evidence that the faint-end slope of the galaxy luminosity function varies systematically with environment (e.g. the talk by Tully and the poster by Roberts in these proceedings). Whatever mechanism suppresses the formation of dwarf galaxies, it must also reproduce this environmental dependence. Of course the dependence may not be primordial; effects such as galaxy harassment and ram-pressure stripping could have modified the luminosity function differently in different environments. The trend is the reverse of what one would naively expect, however - there are more dwarf galaxies per giant galaxy in high-density environments, where harassment and stripping might be expected to reduce their relative number.

On large scales there is now strong observational support for a cosmological model whose matter density is dominated by a dark, non-baryonic component (Spergel, these proceedings). It would be possible to reproduce most of these observations with variants of CDM in which structure is reduced on small scales, such as warm, annihilating or collisional dark matter, or CDM with a truncated power spectrum; thus resolving substructure problem. There are tentative indications from recent lensing observations that dark substructure has now been detected, however, so modifying CDM may be the wrong solution to the problem. In what follows I will assume the CDM picture of structure formation is correct on all scales, and discuss what the small-scale distribution of dark matter can then tell us about galaxy formation.

## 2. A Brief History of the Dwarf Galaxy Problem

The discrepancy between the field luminosity function and the predictions of hierarchical models was noted before the modern conception of CDM itself (White and Rees 1978). Kauffmann, White and Guiderdoni (1993) made the more specific observation that satellite galaxies should far outnumber the dozen dwarf companions seen around each giant galaxy in the Local Group. They proposed several possible solutions to the problem, but could not conclude definitively on the role of dynamics in disrupting dwarfs. It took high-resolution numerical simulations (Klypin et al. 1999; Moore et al. 1999) to prove convincingly that large numbers of subhaloes would survive in a system like the Milky Way.

In their analysis, Moore et al. (1999) assumed that the observed dwarfs trace out the full depth of their surrounding dark matter potential, and thus that the velocity dispersion of their stellar component is roughly $`1/\sqrt{2}`$ times the peak circular velocity of the corresponding dark matter structure. This led to an overall discrepancy of a factor of 50 between the number of dwarfs and the number of subhaloes that could host them. Subsequently, White (2000) pointed out that the stars in observed dwarfs might be condensed systems within much larger potential wells. Detailed modelling (Stoehr et al. 2002; Hayashi et al. 2003) confirmed that the satellites of the Milky Way could in fact reside in the most massive subsystems within its halo without this being apparent from their velocity dispersion profiles.

These two different pictures of the suppression of galaxy formation on small scales are illustrated schematically in Fig. 1. In the first case (left-hand panel), visible satellites are rare objects (only one subhalo in 100 on the smallest scales), but the masses inferred from rotation curves (red line) are close to the total mass for each system (black curve). In the second case (right-hand panel), dwarfs form with widely varying efficiency in the dozen most massive subsystems, and galaxy formation stops altogether below some fairly high mass cutoff. These two scenarios imply very different underlying regulatory mechanisms; a simple one depending only on the mass or circular velocity of halo (e.g. Dekel & Silk 1986; Stoehr et al. 2002) in the case of the latter model , or one based on some other property of the system such as its age (Bullock, Kravtsov, & Weinberg 2000; Benson et al. 2002) in the case of the former. Frustratingly, even very detailed observations of dwarf luminosities and kinematics may not be able to distinguish between these possibilities (Stoehr et al. 2002). Additional information is needed.

## 3. Modelling Substructure: Do We Know Overmerging is Over?

Given the complex non-linear dynamics involved in structure formation, self-consistent numerical simulations are the preferred method for studying CDM halo formation and halo substructure. Simulations suffer from one serious drawback, however – their results are least reliable in the densest parts of the halo, where the dynamical timescale is shortest and artificial heating has the greatest effect. The artificial smoothing of the density distribution in these regions is referred to as ‘overmerging’ (for a review of the problem see Moore 2000).

In early simulations of the formation of galaxy clusters, overmerging erased substructure completely (e.g. White 1976). When simulations reached sufficient resolution to resolve roughly as many subsystems as there are galaxies in a cluster, the problem was considered ‘solved’ (e.g. Ghigna et al. 2000), although the scale invariance of halo properties quickly lead to an excess dwarf satellite problem in galaxy haloes. Interestingly enough, the assumption that the overmerging problem is now solved has not been fully tested. At current mass and force resolution, simulations converge on the properties of massive subhaloes in the outermost regions of a halo (e.g. Stoehr 2002). Convergence tests in the innermost regions, where overmerging should be strongest, have not been presented. These regions contain only a small fraction of the total substructure in any given mass range, so central overmerging would not be apparent in convergence tests averaged over the whole halo; for applications such as lensing, however, central substructure is crucially important.

As an independent test of overmerging, we have compared the substructure in several high-resolution simulations of CDM haloes with the subhalo populations predicted by a semi-analytic model of halo formation (Taylor & Babul 2001, 2003; Taylor 2001). Fig. 2 compares the spatial distribution of subhaloes in the semi-analytic (upper solid lines) and numerical (lower lines with error bars). In the outer regions, the two techniques agree on the normalisation of the halo mass function. In the inner regions, the semi-analytic model, which should not be affected by overmerging, predicts up to ten times more subhaloes. It is not clear which of these results is correct – the disruption rate in the semi-analytic model could be artificially low. Increasing the resolution of the simulations (three panels, from right to left) increases the amount of central substructure, however, with no sign of convergence in the simulations presented here. This suggests that the simulations probably still underestimate the amount of central substructure in haloes, while the semi-analytic model may provide a more reliable estimate.

The existence of small-scale structure can be confirmed observationally by detecting its gravitational effects in lensing systems. Small structures in the halo of a lens can produce flux ratios between pairs or sets of images that cannot be explained by a smooth potential (Schneider, these proceedings). The analysis of several systems has already produced evidence for halo substructure amounting to 1–2% of the projected mass density of the inner parts of lensing systems (Dalal & Kochanek 2002), but these estimates may be affected by stellar microlensing or other complicating effects. Future observations of the bending of background radio jets (Metcalf 2002) or spectrally resolved flux anomalies (Metcalf et al. 2003) will clarify the situation.

## 4. Satellites vs. Subhaloes

I will now discuss the average properties of substructure in a set of 144 semi-analytic haloes, generated in a Lambda-CDM cosmology with parameters consistent with recent WMAP results (Spergel, these proceedings). The haloes have a final mass of $`1.6\times 10^{12}M_{}`$ and their merger histories are resolved down to $`5\times 10^7M_{}`$ (given the typical mass loss of subhaloes, this means the final substructure mass function is mostly complete down to a few million solar masses) and back to $`z=30`$. I will consider whether dwarf galaxies can be associated with the subhaloes as a function of their original mass (before tidal stripping in larger systems), their original circular velocity, or their age.

### 4.1. The Clustering of Satellites

Fig. 3 shows the cumulative radial distribution of the dozen subhaloes with the greatest original masses, normalised to the present-day virial radius of the halo, and averaged over the full set of trees. The dotted lines indicate the 10% and 90% contours of the distribution. The solid line and triangles show the distribution of satellites for the Milky Way, assuming a virial radius of 314 kpc, corresponding to a mass of $`1.6\times 10^{12}M_{}`$. If this normalisation is correct, then the satellites of the Milky Way are clearly more clustered than the most massive subhaloes in its halo should be.

To illustrate the statistical strength of this conclusion more clearly, Fig. 4 shows histograms of the normalised radius containing the innermost 8 of the 11 most massive satellites, for all 144 model haloes. The different line colours show results for different values for the Coulomb logarithm, the mass-loss parameter or the mean orbital circularity in the semi-analytic model (see Taylor & Babul 2003). The vertical line indicates the value for the Milky Way. No more than 1–2 of the 144 trees (depending on the model assumed) are as clustered as the satellites of the Milky Way. Thus, the visible satellites of the Milky Way are more clustered than its most massive subhaloes at a $`3`$-$`\sigma `$ level.

### 4.2. Satellite Kinematics

There is at least one important complication in the preceding analysis. The halo of the Milky Way could be less massive than assumed, and therefore have a smaller virial radius and a less extended population of satellites. In this case, the normalisation of the radii used in Figs. 3 & 4 would be incorrect. Reducing the virial radius of the Milky Way by 20–30% would bring the observed distribution into perfect agreement with the predictions for massive subhaloes; this would imply a total halo mass of $`8\times 10^{11}M_{}`$, which is still within the range of estimates for the Milky Way (e.g. Klypin, Zhao, & Somerville 2002).

This possibility can be tested by looking at satellite kinematics. The local flow around the halo of the Milky Way is quite quiet; its satellites have large radial velocities because they have been accelerated by its potential. If the mass of the halo is smaller, the satellites will have lower radial velocities. Fig. 5 shows radial velocity versus radius, for the luminous satellites of the Milk Way (large filled circles with error bars) and for all the subhaloes over some (original) circular velocity limit (open symbols), selected from each of a small set of semi-analytic haloes. The symbol types indicate the merger epoch $`z_\mathrm{m}`$ of the subhalo; triangles for $`z_\mathrm{m}<2`$, squares for $`z_\mathrm{m}=`$2–4, pentagons for $`z_\mathrm{m}=`$4–6, hexagons for $`z_\mathrm{m}=`$6–8, and circles for $`z_\mathrm{m}>8`$. The thick lines give a rough envelope for the distribution of subhaloes.

The left-hand panel shows the results for massive systems. Several points are worth noting. First, the observed satellites are concentrated at smaller radii than the most massive subhaloes (left-hand plot), as discussed previously. On the other hand, the observed scatter in radial velocity is consistent with the model, which assumes a total halo mass of $`1.6\times \mathrm{\hspace{0.17em}10}^{12}M_{}`$. Reducing this by a factor of 2 would reduce the velocity dispersion by 20-30%, which is incompatible with the observed velocity of several satellites, notably the LMC. In fact even assuming this mass for the halo, there is no object like Leo I among the most massive subhaloes. Leo I has such a large radial velocity away from the Milky Way that it must have passed through the potential of its halo on a very radial orbit. Even in this case, however, if it had been massive it would have lost a substantial amount of orbital energy through dynamical friction. Thus Leo I cannot be a massive system.

The right-hand panel shows the same comparison for the less massive satellites. One again, the envelope matches the observed scatter in radial velocities, suggesting the assumed mass of the halo is roughly correct. Now there are a few systems like Leo I; as before, they have passed close to the centre of the halo and are heading out on very radial orbits, but now their velocities are higher as they have not experienced as much frictional drag. While the subhaloes are still located at larger radii than the luminous satellites on average, there is a strong trend in the distribution with merger epoch. Selecting systems which merged into the halo before a redshift of 4–6 (pentagons, hexagons or circles) produces the roughly the same degree of clustering as observed for the luminous satellites.

## 5. Summary

The predictions of large amounts of small-scale structure and substructure in CDM cosmologies is perhaps startling, but it is not in and of itself a reason to reject CDM. Galaxy formation is unlikely to be a simple process, particularly on small scales where many regulatory mechanisms might limit its efficiency. Thus, if we fail to see large numbers of dwarf galaxies in the nearby universe, this may be telling us more about galaxy formation than it does about CDM. Assuming CDM substructure exists, its properties can provide important constraints on the process of dwarf galaxy formation.

Simulations and semi-analytic models of halo substructure agree on its properties in the outer parts of haloes; in the inner regions, simulations may still suffer from overmerging, the artificial disruption of substructure due to numerical effects. Interestingly, the amount of central substructure seen in the semi-analytic haloes considered here is consistent with the amount of substructure inferred from strong lensing experiments. Thus the semi-analytic haloes may provide a more accurate picture of the spatial distribution of substructure around galaxies.

Comparing this distribution to the observed location of the Milky Way’s luminous satellites, it is clear that observed satellites are more clustered than the most massive subhaloes should be, at a $`3\sigma `$ level. Satellite radial velocities strengthen this conclusion further, partly by constraining the mass of the halo and partly through specific examples such as Leo I. This appears to rule out models of feedback where only the most massive subhaloes host dwarf galaxies, and favours models in which the oldest subhaloes do instead. More generally, it should also rule out many proposed alternatives to CDM, such as warm or interacting dark matter. Almost all of these scenarios would destroy the smallest subhaloes and those in the centre of the main system preferentially, which is the exact opposite of the pattern observed.

#### Acknowledgments.

I gratefully acknowledge support from the Leverhulme Trust during the course of this work.

## References

Benson A. J., Lacey C. G., Baugh C. M., Cole S., Frenk C. S., 2002, MNRAS, 333, 156

Bullock J. S., Kravtsov A. V., Weinberg D. H., 2000, ApJ, 539, 517

Dalal N. , Kochanek C. S., 2002, ApJ, 572, 25

Dekel, A. & Silk, J. 1986, ApJ, 303, 39

Ghigna S., Moore B., Governato F., Lake G., Quinn T., Stadel J., 2000, ApJ, 544, 616

Hayashi E., Navarro J. F., Taylor J. E., Stadel J., & Quinn T. 2003, ApJ, 584, 541

Kauffmann G., White S.D.M., Guiderdoni B., 1993, MNRAS, 264, 201

Klypin A., Gottlöber S., Kravtsov A. V., Khokhlov A. M., 1999, ApJ, 516, 530

Klypin A., Zhao H., Somerville R. S., 2002, ApJ, 573, 597

Metcalf R. B., 2002, ApJ, 580, 696

Metcalf R. B., Moustakas L. A., Bunker A. J., Parry I. R. 2003 preprint (astro-ph/0309738)

Moore B. 2000, preprint (astro-ph/0009247)

Moore B., Governato F., Quinn T., Stadel J., Lake G., 1998, ApJ, 499, L5

Moore B., Ghigna S., Governato F., Lake G., Quinn T., Stadel J., Tozzi P., 1999, ApJ, 524, L19

Stoehr F., White S. D. M., Tormen G., Springel V., 2002, MNRAS, 335, L84

Taylor J. E., 2001, Ph.D. thesis (University of Victoria)

Taylor J. E., Babul A., 2001, ApJ, 559, 716

Taylor J. E., Babul A., 2003, MNRAS, submitted (astro-ph/0301612)

White S. D. M. 1976, MNRAS, 177, 717

White S. D. M. 2000, ITP conference presentation, (online.itp.ucsb.edu/online/galaxy\_c00/white)

White S. D. M. & Rees, M. J. 1978, MNRAS, 183, 341


text:
# 1 Problem

## 1 Problem

All electrostatic fields E (i.e., ones with no time dependence) can be derived from a scalar potential $`V`$ ($`𝐄=V`$) and hence obey $`\times 𝐄=0`$. The latter condition is sometimes considered to be a requirement for electrostatic fields. Show, however, that there can exist time-dependent electric fields for which $`\times 𝐄=0`$, which have been given the name “electrostatic waves”.

In particular, show that a plane wave with electric field E parallel to the wave vector k (a longitudinal wave) can exist in a medium with no time-dependent magnetic field if the electric displacement D is zero. This cannot occur in an ordinary dielectric medium, but can happen in a plasma. (Time-independent electric and magnetic fields could, of course, be superimposed on the wave field.) Compare the potentials for the “electrostatic wave” in the Coulomb and Lorentz gauges. Discuss energy density and flow for such a wave.

Deduce the frequency $`\omega `$ of the longitudinal wave in a hot, collisionless plasma that propagates transversely to a uniform external magnetic field $`𝐁_0`$ in terms of the (electron) cyclotron frequency,

$$\omega _B=\frac{eB_0}{mc},$$
(1)
(in Gaussian units), the (electron) plasma frequency,

$$\omega _P^2=\frac{4\pi Ne^2}{m},$$
(2)
and the electron temperature $`T`$, where $`e>0`$ and $`m`$ are the charge and mass of the electron, $`c`$ is the speed of light, and $`N`$ is the electron number density.

For a simplified analysis, you may assume that the positive ions are at rest, that all electrons have the same transverse velocity $`v_{}=\sqrt{2KT/m}`$, where $`K`$ is Boltzmann’s constant, $`T`$ is the temperature, and that the densities of the ions and unperturbed electrons are uniform. Then the discussion may proceed from an (approximate) analysis of the motion of an individual electron to the resulting polarization density and dielectric constant, etc.

Such waves are called electron Bernstein waves, following their prediction via an analysis based on the Boltzmann transport equation . Bernstein waves were first produced in laboratory plasmas in 1964 , following possible detection in the ionosphere in 1963. They are now being applied in plasma diagnostics where it is desired to propagate waves below the plasma frequency .

## 2 Solution

### 2.1 General Remarks

We first verify that Maxwell’s equations imply that when an electric field E has no time dependence, then $`\times 𝐄=0`$.

If $`𝐄/t=0`$, then the magnetic field B obeys $`^2𝐁/t^2=0`$, as follows on taking the time derivative of Faraday’s law, $`c\times 𝐄=𝐁/t`$ in Gaussian units. In principle, this is consistent with a magnetic field that varies linearly with time, $`𝐁(𝐫,t)=𝐁_0(𝐫)+𝐁_1(𝐫)t`$. However, this leads to arbitrarily large magnetic fields at early and late times, and is excluded on physical grounds. Hence, $`𝐄/t=0`$ implies that $`𝐁/t=0`$ also, and $`\times 𝐄=0`$ according to Faraday’s law.

We next consider some general properties of a longitudinal plane electric wave, taken to have the form

$$𝐄=E_x\widehat{𝐱}e^{i(kx\omega t)}.$$
(3)
This obeys $`\times 𝐄=0`$, and so can be derived from an electric potential, namely

$$𝐄=V\text{where}V=i\frac{E_x}{k}e^{i(kx\omega t)}.$$
(4)
The electric wave (3) has no associated magnetic wave, since Faraday’s law tells us that

$$0=\times 𝐄=\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝐁}{t},$$
(5)
and any magnetic field in the problem must be static.

It is well known that electromagnetic waves in vacuum are transverse. A longitudinal electric wave can only exist in a medium that can support a nonzero polarization density P (volume density of electric dipole moments). The polarization density implies an effective charge density $`\rho `$ given by

$$\rho =𝐏$$
(6)
which is consistent with the first Maxwell equation,

$$𝐄=4\pi \rho ,$$
(7)
only if

$$𝐏=\frac{𝐄}{4\pi },$$
(8)
in which case the electric displacement D of the longitudinal wave vanishes,

$$𝐃=𝐄+4\pi 𝐏=0.$$
(9)
Hence, the (relative) dielectric constant $`ϵ`$ also vanishes

Strictly speaking, eq. (8) could read $`𝐏=𝐄/4\pi +𝐏^{}`$, for any field $`𝐏^{}`$ that obeys $`𝐏^{}=0`$. However, since any magnetic field in the problem is static, the fourth Maxwell equation tells us that

$$\times 𝐁=\frac{4\pi }{c}\left(𝐉+\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{𝐄}{t}\right)$$
(10)
has no time dependence. Recalling that the polarization current is related by

$$𝐉=\frac{𝐏}{t},$$
(11)
we again find relation (8) with the possible addition of a static field $`𝐏^{}`$ that is associated with a truly electrostatic field $`𝐄^{}`$. In sum, a longitudinal electric wave described by eqs. (3), (8) and (9) can coexist with background electrostatic and magnetostatic fields of the usual type.

Maxwell’s equations alone provide no relation between the wave number $`k`$ and the wave frequency $`\omega `$ of the longitudinal wave, and hence the wave phase velocity $`\omega /k`$ is arbitrary. This suggests that purely longitudinal electric waves are best considered as limiting cases of more general waves, for which additional physical relations provide additional information as to the character of the waves.

### 2.2 Gauge Invariance

Since the electric wave (3) has no associated magnetic field, we can define its vector potential A to be zero, which is certainly consistent with the Coulomb gauge condition $`𝐀=0`$. Suppose, however, we prefer to work in the Lorentz gauge, for which

$$𝐀=\frac{1}{c}\frac{V}{t}.$$
(12)
Then, the vector potential will be nonzero, and the electric field is related by

$$𝐄=V\frac{1}{c}\frac{𝐀}{t}=E_x\widehat{𝐱}e^{i(kx\omega t)}.$$
(13)
Clearly the potentials have the forms

$$𝐀=A_x\widehat{𝐱}e^{i(kx\omega t)},V=V_0e^{i(kx\omega t)},$$
(14)
which are consistent with $`𝐁=\times 𝐀=0`$. From the Lorentz gauge condition (12) we have

$$kA_x=\frac{\omega }{c}V_0,$$
(15)
and from eq. (13) we find

$$E_x=ikV_0+i\frac{\omega }{c}A_x.$$
(16)
Hence,

$$𝐀=i\frac{\omega c}{\omega ^2+k^2c^2}E_x\widehat{𝐱}e^{i(kx\omega t)},V=i\frac{kc^2}{\omega ^2+k^2c^2}E_xe^{i(kx\omega t)}.$$
(17)
We could also derive the wave (3) from the potentials

$$𝐀=i\frac{c}{\omega }E_x\widehat{𝐱}e^{i(kx\omega t)},V=0.$$
(18)
Thus, an “electrostatic wave” is not necessarily associated with an “electrostatic” scalar potential.

### 2.3 Energy Considerations

A common expression for the electric field energy density is $`𝐄𝐃/8\pi `$. However, this vanishes for longitudinal electric waves, according to eq. (9). Further, since the longitudinal electric wave can exist with zero magnetic field, there is no Poynting vector $`𝐒=(c/4\pi )𝐄\times 𝐇`$ or momentum density $`𝐩_{\mathrm{field}}=𝐃\times 𝐁/4\pi c`$, according to the usual prescriptions.

Let us recall the origins of the standard lore. Namely, the rate of work done by the field E on current density J is

$$𝐉𝐄=\frac{𝐏}{t}𝐄=\frac{1}{4\pi }\frac{𝐄}{t}𝐄=\frac{E^2/8\pi }{t},$$
(19)
using eqs. (8) and (11). This work is done at the expense of the electric field energy density $`u_{\mathrm{field}}`$, which we therefore identify as

$$u_{\mathrm{field}}=\frac{E^2}{8\pi }=\frac{E_x^2}{8\pi }\mathrm{cos}^2(kx\omega t),$$
(20)
for the longitudinal wave (3). We readily interpret this energy density as moving in the $`+x`$ direction at the phase velocity $`v_p=\omega /k`$, even though the derivation of eq. (19) did not lead to a Poynting vector.

We should also note that energy is stored in the medium in the form of kinetic energy of the electrons (and, in general, ions as well) that contribute to the polarization,

$$𝐏=Ne(𝐱𝐱_0)=\frac{𝐄}{4\pi }.$$
(21)
Thus, the velocity of an electron is given by

$$𝐯=𝐯_0\frac{\dot{𝐄}}{4\pi Ne}=𝐯_0\frac{\omega E_x\widehat{𝐱}}{4\pi Ne}\mathrm{sin}(kx\omega t).$$
(22)
In squaring this to get the kinetic energy, we neglect the term in $`𝐯_0\widehat{𝐱}`$, assuming its average to be zero as holds for a medium that is at rest on average (and also holds for a plasma in a tokamak when $`x`$ is taken as the radial coordinate in a small volume). Then, we find the mechanical energy density to be

$$u_{\mathrm{mech}}=\frac{1}{2}Nmv^2=\frac{1}{2}Nmv_0^2+\frac{E_x^2}{8\pi }\frac{\omega ^2m}{4\pi Ne^2}\mathrm{sin}^2(kx\omega t)=u_{\mathrm{mech},0}+\frac{\omega ^2}{\omega _P^2}\frac{E_x^2}{8\pi }\mathrm{sin}^2(kx\omega t),$$
(23)
where $`\omega _P`$ is the (electron) plasma frequency (2). We again can interpret the additional term as an energy density that flows in the $`+x`$ direction at the phase velocity.

The total, time-averaged energy density associated with the longitudinal wave is

$$u_{\mathrm{wave}}=\frac{\omega ^2+\omega _P^2}{2\omega _P^2}\frac{E_x^2}{8\pi }.$$
(24)
If the wave frequency is less than the plasma frequency, as is the case for examples of Bernstein waves discussed in the sec. 2.5, the longitudinal electric field energy density is larger than that of the mechanical energy density of the wave.

### 2.4 Longitudinal Waves in a Cold, Unmagnetized Plasma

As a preliminary exercise we consider the case of a longitudinal wave,

$$𝐄=E_x\widehat{𝐱}\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t),$$
(25)
in a cold, unmagnetized plasma. An electron at $`𝐱_0`$ in the absence of the wave has coordinate $`𝐱=𝐱_0+\delta 𝐱`$ when in the wave, where only the $`x`$ component of the equation of motion is nontrivial:

$$m\delta \ddot{x}=eE_x\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t)eE_x\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t).$$
(26)
The approximation in eq. (26) is that the oscillations are small. Then we find,

$$\delta x\frac{e}{m\omega ^2}E_x\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t).$$
(27)
The resulting electric dipole moment density P is

$$𝐏=Ne\delta x\widehat{𝐱}=\frac{Ne^2}{m\omega ^2}𝐄=\frac{\omega _P^2}{4\pi \omega ^2}𝐄,$$
(28)
where $`\omega _P`$ is the (electron) plasma frequency (2).

For a longitudinal wave, the electric displacement must vanish according to eq. (9), so we find

$$0=𝐃=𝐄+4\pi 𝐏=\left(1\frac{\omega _P^2}{\omega ^2}\right)𝐄,$$
(29)
which requires that

$$\omega =\omega _P.$$
(30)
That is, the frequency of longitudinal electric waves can only be the plasma frequency in a cold, unmagnetized plasma.

### 2.5 Longitudinal Waves in a Hot, Magnetized Plasma

Turning now to the problem of plane waves in a magnetized plasma, we consider waves whose propagation vector k is transverse to the external magnetic field $`𝐁_0`$, and seek a solution where electric field vector E is parallel to k.

We adopt a rectangular coordinate system in which the external magnetic field $`𝐁_0`$ is along the $`+z`$ axis and the plane electric wave propagates along the $`+x`$ axis:

$$𝐄=E_x\widehat{𝐱}\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t).$$
(31)
The unperturbed ($`E=0`$) motion of an electron is on a helix of radius

$$r_B=\frac{v_{}}{\omega _B},$$
(32)
where $`v_{}=\sqrt{2KT/m}`$ for all electrons in our simplified analysis. Hence, we can write the general (nonrelativistic) motion as

$`x`$ $`=`$ $`x_0+r_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)+\delta x,`$ (33)
$`y`$ $`=`$ $`y_0+r_B\mathrm{sin}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)+\delta y,`$ (34)
$`z`$ $`=`$ $`z_0+v_zt+\delta z,`$ (35)
noting that the circular motion of a negatively charged electron is counterclockwise in the $`x`$-$`y`$ plane for an external magnetic field along the $`+z`$ axis. For an electron in the collisionless plasma, we consider the Lorentz force only from the wave electric field and the external magnetic field, $`e(𝐄+𝐯/c\times 𝐁_0)`$. The equations of motion are then

$`m[\omega ^2r_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)+\delta \ddot{x}]`$ $`=`$ $`eE_x\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t){\displaystyle \frac{eB_0}{c}}[\omega _Br_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)+\delta \dot{y}]`$ (36)
$`m[\omega ^2r_B\mathrm{sin}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)+\delta \ddot{y}]`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{eB_0}{c}}[\omega _Br_B\mathrm{sin}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)\delta \dot{x}]`$ (37)
$`m\delta \ddot{z}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (38)
Recalling eq. (1) for the cyclotron frequency, the equations of motion reduce to

$`\delta \ddot{x}+\omega _B\delta \dot{y}`$ $`=`$ $`{\displaystyle \frac{eE_x}{m}}\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t),`$ (39)
$`\delta \ddot{y}\omega _B\delta \dot{x}`$ $`=`$ $`0,`$ (40)
$`\delta \ddot{z}`$ $`=`$ $`0.`$ (41)
Equation (41) has the trivial solution $`\delta z=0`$, while eq. (40) integrates to

$$\delta \dot{y}=\omega _B\delta x.$$
(42)
With this, the remaining equation of motion becomes

$$\delta \ddot{x}+\omega _B^2\delta x=\frac{eE_x}{m}\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t),$$
(43)
To proceed, we must expand the factor $`\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t)`$, which we do as follows:

$`\mathrm{cos}(kx\omega t)`$ $`=`$ $`\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t+kr_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)+k\delta x)`$ (44)
$``$ $`\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t+kr_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0))`$
$``$ $`\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t)\mathrm{cos}(kr_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0))kr_B\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)\mathrm{sin}(kx_0\omega t)`$
$``$ $`\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{2}}k^2r_B^2\mathrm{cos}^2(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)\right)`$
$``$ $`\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{1}{4}}k^2r_B^2\right)=\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t)\left(1{\displaystyle \frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}}\right).`$
In the above we have supposed that $`\delta xr_B`$ in going from the first line to the second, that $`r_Bx_0`$ in going from the second line to the third, that $`kr_B1`$ and $`\mathrm{cos}(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)\mathrm{sin}(kx_0\omega t)`$ = 0 in going from the third line to the fourth, and that $`\mathrm{cos}^2(\omega _Bt+\varphi _0)=1/2`$ in going from the fourth line to the fifth. Perhaps the most doubtful assumption is that $`kr_B1`$.

The approximate equations of motion is now

$$\delta \ddot{x}+\omega _B^2\delta x=\frac{eE_x}{m}\left(1\frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}\right)\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t).$$
(45)
The solution to this is

$$\delta x=\frac{e}{m(\omega _B^2\omega ^2)}\left(1\frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}\right)E_x\mathrm{cos}(kx_0\omega t).$$
(46)
The resulting electric dipole moment density P is

$$𝐏=Ne\delta x\widehat{𝐱}=\frac{Ne^2}{m(\omega _B^2\omega ^2)}\left(1\frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}\right)𝐄=\frac{\omega _P^2}{4\pi (\omega _B^2\omega ^2)}\left(1\frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}\right)𝐄,$$
(47)
where $`\omega _P`$ is the (electron) plasma frequency (2).

For a longitudinal wave, the electric displacement must vanish according to eq. (9), so we find

$$0=𝐃=𝐄+4\pi 𝐏=\left[1+\frac{\omega _P^2}{\omega _B^2\omega ^2}\left(1\frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}\right)\right]𝐄,$$
(48)
which requires that

$$\omega ^2=\omega _B^2+\omega _P^2\left(1\frac{k^2v_{}^2}{4\omega _B^2}\right)=\omega _B^2+\omega _P^2\left(1\frac{k^2KT}{2m\omega _B^2}\right).$$
(49)
This result corresponds to keeping only the first term of Bernstein’s series expansion, eq. (50) of .

In the limit of a cold plasma, where $`v_{}=0`$, the frequency of the longitudinal wave is $`\sqrt{\omega _B^2+\omega _P^2}`$, which is the so-called upper hybrid resonance frequency. (This result is well-known to follow from the assumption of a cold plasma.)

In our model, the effect of nonzero temperature is to lower the frequency of the longitudinal wave, bringing it closer to the cyclotron frequency, $`\omega _B`$. The effect is greater for shorter wavelengths (larger wave number $`k`$). Our approximation implies that for wavelengths small compared to $`r_{}`$, the characteristic radius of the electron cyclotron motion at temperature $`T`$, the frequency of the wave approaches zero. However, our approximation becomes doubtful for $`kr_{}1`$. Bernstein finds that the wave frequency is restricted to a band around $`\omega _B`$, which result is only hinted at by our analysis.

If we evaluate the dispersion relation (47) at the cyclotron frequency, $`\omega =\omega _B`$, then we find the following representative values for parameters of a Bernstein wave:

$$k=\frac{2\omega _B}{v_{}}=\frac{2}{r_{}},\lambda =\pi r_{},\text{and}v_p=\frac{\omega _B}{k}=\frac{v_{}}{2}c.$$
(50)
While our analysis does not constrain the phase velocity, $`v_p=\omega /k`$, of the longitudinal wave, we do find a relation between $`v_p`$ and the group velocity, $`v_g=d\omega /dk`$:

$$v_g=\frac{d\omega }{dk}=\frac{\omega _P^2}{\omega _B^2}\frac{KT}{2mv_p}.$$
(51)
The longitudinal electric waves are negative group velocity waves! We have written elsewhere on a paradox associated with this latter phenomenon , where we found that a negative group velocity can have any magnitude without contradicting the insight of Einstein that signals must propagate at velocities less than or equal to $`c`$. Hence, the lack of a constraint on $`v_p`$ is not a fundamental flaw in the analysis.

The author thanks Brent Jones for bringing this problem to his attention. For a related discussion of magnetostatic waves, see .