The Iso-electronic Series $Ca_{2-x}Sr_{x}RuO_{4}$: Structural Distortion, Effective Dimensionality, Spin Fluctuations and Quantum Criticality

TL;DR

This study investigates the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of the iso-electronic series $Ca_{2-x}Sr_{x}RuO_{4}$, revealing a crossover from Hund's metal to Mott insulator driven by structural distortions and identifying a quantum critical point with associated spin fluctuations.

Contribution

The paper provides a detailed theoretical analysis of the phase diagram of $Ca_{2-x}Sr_{x}RuO_{4}$ using advanced many-body techniques, highlighting the role of structural distortions and critical spin fluctuations.

Findings

Identification of a structural distortion-driven crossover from Hund's metal to Mott insulator.

Discovery of a critical end point at $x=0.5$ with conformally invariant spin fluctuations.

Proposal of a modified magnetic phase diagram with a quantum critical fan region.

Abstract

The iso-electronic $d^{4}$ compounds of the $4d$ series show rich phase diagrams due to competing spin, charge and orbital degrees of freedom in presence of strong correlations and structural distortions. One such iso-electronic series, $Ca_{2-x}Sr_{x}RuO_{4}$, is studied within the GGA (and spin-orbit coupled GGA) plus DMFT formalism using the hybridization expansion of continuous time Quantum Monte Carlo solver. While the local dynamical correlations make $Sr_{2}RuO_{4}$ a Hund's metal, they drive $Ca_{2}RuO_{4}$ to a Mott insulating ground state. We study the dynamic and static single-particle and local irreducible vertex-corrected two-particle responses at three different points ($x = 2.0, 0.5, 0.0$) to understand the anomalous cross-over from Hund's metal ($x = 2.0 $) to a Mott insulator ($x = 0 $) and find that a structural distortion is likely to be responsible for the cross-over. Further, dynamical correlations reveal that the band-width ($W$) of the Hund's metal is larger than its effective local Hubbard $U$, and a finite Hund's coupling $J_{H}$ helps it remain in a bad metallic and nearly spin-frozen state over a large temperature range. $Ca_{2}RuO_{4}$, on the other hand, is intrinsically driven to the proximity of a Mott transition due to narrowing of band width ($U/W > 1.5$), though its finite temperature excitations indicate bad metallicity. We show that there is a critical end point of second-order structural transition at $x = 0.5$, where spin fluctuations become critically singular and follow the exact scaling of conformally invariant boundary field theory. The critical end point of quasi-$3D$ nature is associated with an effective dimensional cross-over between the $x = 2.0$ and $x=0.0$ quasi-$2D$ structures. Finally we draw a modified magnetic phase diagram of the material, showing a fan-like region starting from the quantum critical end point at $x = 0.5.$