Bulk and surface localized states on a magnetic nonlinear impurity

TL;DR

This paper investigates localized spin-dependent states induced by a magnetic nonlinear impurity in a one-dimensional chain, revealing conditions for bulk and surface modes, their stability, and the influence of magnetic field and nonlinearity.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed analysis of localized modes at magnetic nonlinear impurities, highlighting differences between bulk and surface impurities and the effects of magnetic field and nonlinearity.

Findings

Bulk impurity always supports a localized vector mode.

Surface impurity requires minimum U and B for localized modes.

Surface presence destabilizes bulk modes, creating a forbidden parameter region.

Abstract

We study localized modes on a single magnetic impurity positioned in the bulk or at the surface of a one-dimensional chain, in the presence of a magnetic field $B$ acting at the impurity site. The strong on-site nonlinear interaction $U$ between two electrons of opposite spin at the impurity site, modelled here as a nonlinear local term, and the presence of the external field induce a strong correlation between parallel and anti-parallel spin bound states. We find that, for an impurity in the bulk, a localized vector mode (with up and down spin components) is always possible for any given value of $U$ and $B$, while for a surface impurity, a minimum value of both, $U$ and $B$ is needed to create a vector mode. In this case, up to two localized modes are possible, but only one of them is stable. The presence of the surface seems to destabilize the bulk mode in the parameter region U~B, creating a "forbidden strip" region in parameter space, bounded by U=B+V and U=B-V, approximately.