Competing interactions of spin and lattice in the Kondo lattice model

TL;DR

This paper explores how competing spin and lattice interactions in a one-dimensional Kondo lattice model lead to inhomogeneities resembling Griffiths phases, affecting spin order and resulting in mesoscopic patterns.

Contribution

It introduces an extended Kondo lattice model including electron-lattice and Coulomb interactions, revealing inhomogeneities and their impact on spin structure.

Findings

Intrinsic inhomogeneities with Griffiths phase properties emerge.

Phonons enhance inhomogeneity formation and disrupt spin order.

Inhomogeneities occur on specific length scales, forming mesoscopic patterns.

Abstract

The magnetic properties of a system of coexisting localized spins and conduction electrons are investigated within an extended version of the one dimensional Kondo lattice model in which effects stemming from the electron-lattice and on-site Coulomb interactions are explicitly included. After bosonizing the conduction electrons, is it observed that intrinsic inhomogeneities with the statistical scaling properties of a Griffiths phase appear, and determine the spin structure of the localized impurities. The appearance of the inhomogeneities is enhanced by appropriate phonons and acts destructively on the spin ordering. The inhomogeneities appear on well defined length scales, can be compared to the formation of intrinsic mesoscopic metastable patterns which are found in two-fluid systems.