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Exploring Quantum Physics: Guest Lecture: Electron Spin

This document summarizes a guest lecture on electron spin and magnetism. It discusses how the Pauli exclusion principle results in an antisymmetric wavefunction for fermions like electrons upon particle exchange. This allows for a spatially symmetric wavefunction if the spin components are antisymmetric, forming singlet and triplet states. Electron spin exchange leads to an exchange energy that is much larger than direct magnetostatic energy. This exchange energy can cause a preferred spin orientation and magnetically ordered state at low temperatures in insulators, forming ferro- or antiferromagnets. In metals, the exchange splitting of the spin-dependent density of states can lead to spin polarization even in nonmagnetic systems.

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Alex Boncu
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45 views9 pages

Exploring Quantum Physics: Guest Lecture: Electron Spin

This document summarizes a guest lecture on electron spin and magnetism. It discusses how the Pauli exclusion principle results in an antisymmetric wavefunction for fermions like electrons upon particle exchange. This allows for a spatially symmetric wavefunction if the spin components are antisymmetric, forming singlet and triplet states. Electron spin exchange leads to an exchange energy that is much larger than direct magnetostatic energy. This exchange energy can cause a preferred spin orientation and magnetically ordered state at low temperatures in insulators, forming ferro- or antiferromagnets. In metals, the exchange splitting of the spin-dependent density of states can lead to spin polarization even in nonmagnetic systems.

Uploaded by

Alex Boncu
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Exploring Quantum Physics

Coursera, Spring 2013 Instructors: Charles W. Clark and Victor Galitski


Guest Lecture: Electron Spin
Part IV: Spin Exchange and Magnetism
Guest lecturer:
Prof. Ian Appelbaum, U. Maryland Physics Dept.
http://appelbaum.physics.umd.edu
Permutation symmetry
Pauli exclusion principle is the result of Fermion wavefunction antisymmetry upon
particle exchange
But the wavefunction includes spatial coordinates and spin!
Indistinguishability:
Electrons
(fermions):
But the wavefunction includes spatial coordinates and spin!
So we can include a spatially symmetric wavefunction if the spin components are
antisymmetric
singlet
triplet
(1)
(0)
(-1)
(0)
Exchange energy
(like in neutral He, where H
12
is Coulomb repulsion)
A generic example:
Exchange integral
Magnitude of exchange energy
Because it is coupled to electrostatic configuration, the exchange energy can be very large.
Much larger than direct magnetostatic energy:
Bohr magneton
Fine structure constant
Bohr radius
Fine structure constant
This is the same as the interaction between spin and the orbital moments: spin-orbit splitting!
Exchange Hamiltonian
(s are 2x2 matrices)
Kronecker product:
Eigenfunctions of Exchange
Remember:
-3J +J +J +J
diagonalization:
Our basis is
Remember:
singlet
triplet
Heisenberg model
i
Short-range interaction only:
Mean field
Zeeman energy with
The mean field caused by spin exchange causes a preferred spin orientation a
magnetically ordered state at lowtemperatures!
(J<0: Ferromagnet, J>0: Anti-Ferromagnet)
This was for localized moments in a lattice: an insulator. What about a metal?
(degenerate) electron gas: plane-waves
k
y
k
x
k
z
Pauli Exclusion
Energy Minimization
Spin degeneracy
Energy ~ |k|
2
Density of
states (DoS)
Spin
up
Spin
down
(filled up to
k
F
)
(filled up
to E
F
)
Metals in Equilibrium: A Review in One Slide
Questions:
1. How to transfer this spin asymmetry to nonmagnetic
systems?
2. What are the processes that govern relaxation back
to equilibrium?
3. How to manipulate spin asymmetry before
equilibriumis obtained?
4. How can we engineer devices with unique
applications, e.g. logic, interconnects etc.?
(Ferro)magnetic metal:
DoS
Spin
up
Spin
down
E
Spin
polarized:
Mean field splitting
Spin Electronics
Albert Fert Peter Gruenberg
Nobel Prize 2007

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