Quantum melting of incommensurate domain walls in two dimensions

Abstract

Quantum fluctuations of periodic domain-wall arrays in two-dimensional incommensurate states at zero temperature are investigated using the elastic theory in the vicinity of the commensurate-incommensurate transition point. Both stripe and honeycomb structures of domain walls with short-range interactions are considered. It is revealed that the stripes melt and become a stripe liquid in a large-wall-spacing (low-density) region due to dislocations created by quantum fluctuations. This quantum melting transition is of second order and characterized by the three-dimensional XY universality class. Zero-point energies of the stripe and honeycomb structures are calculated. As a consequence of these results, phase diagrams of the domain-wall solid and liquid phases in adsorbed atoms on graphite are discussed for various domain-wall masses. Quantum melting of stripes in the presence of long-range interactions that fall off as power laws is also studied. These results are applied to incommensurate domain walls in two-dimensional adsorbed atoms on substrates and in doped antiferromagnets, e.g. cuprates and nickelates.

11 pages, 5 figures

References in corpus (3)

• Quantum Theory of a Nematic Fermi Fluid
• Static magnetic correlations near the insulating-superconducting phase boundary in La${}_{2-x}$Sr${}_x$CuO${}_4$
• Pinning of stripes in cuprate superconductors

Cited by in corpus (1)

• Stripe order, depinning, and fluctuations in La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.125}$CuO${}_4$ and La${}_{1.875}$Ba${}_{0.075}$Sr${}_{0.050}$CuO${}_4$