Quantitative theory of magnetic properties of elemental praseodymium

Fuente: arXiv
Guardado en:
Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Pourovskii, Leonid V., Vishina, Alena, Eriksson, Olle, Katsnelson, Mikhail I.
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:
Etiquetas: Agregar Etiqueta
Sin Etiquetas, Sea el primero en etiquetar este registro!
_version_ 1866912690943819776
author Pourovskii, Leonid V.
Vishina, Alena
Eriksson, Olle
Katsnelson, Mikhail I.
author_facet Pourovskii, Leonid V.
Vishina, Alena
Eriksson, Olle
Katsnelson, Mikhail I.
contents Elemental Pr metal crystallizes in the double hexagonal close packed (dhcp) structure and is unique among rare-earth elements in featuring a localized partially filled 4f shell without ordered magnetism. Experimental evidence attributes this absence of magnetism to a singlet crystal-field (CF) ground state of the Pr 4f$^2$ configuration, which is energetically well isolated from excited magnetic doublets. Here, we construct a realistic effective magnetic Hamiltonian for dhcp Pr, by combining density-functional theory with dynamical mean-field theory, in the quasiatomic Hubbard-I approximation. Our calculations fully determine the CF potential and predict singlet CF ground states at both inequivalent sites of the dhcp lattice. The intersite exchange interactions, obtained from the magnetic force theorem, are found to be insufficient to close the CF gap to the magnetic doublets. Hence, ab-initio theory is demonstrated to explain the unusual, non-magnetic state of elemental Pr. Extending this analysis to the (0001) surface of Pr, we find that the singlet ground state remains robust preventing conventional magnetic orders. Nevertheless, the gap between the ground state and the lowest excited singlet is significantly reduced at the surface, opening the possibility for exotic two-dimensional multipolar orders to emerge within this two-singlet manifold.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_09585
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Quantitative theory of magnetic properties of elemental praseodymium
Pourovskii, Leonid V.
Vishina, Alena
Eriksson, Olle
Katsnelson, Mikhail I.
Strongly Correlated Electrons
Materials Science
Elemental Pr metal crystallizes in the double hexagonal close packed (dhcp) structure and is unique among rare-earth elements in featuring a localized partially filled 4f shell without ordered magnetism. Experimental evidence attributes this absence of magnetism to a singlet crystal-field (CF) ground state of the Pr 4f$^2$ configuration, which is energetically well isolated from excited magnetic doublets. Here, we construct a realistic effective magnetic Hamiltonian for dhcp Pr, by combining density-functional theory with dynamical mean-field theory, in the quasiatomic Hubbard-I approximation. Our calculations fully determine the CF potential and predict singlet CF ground states at both inequivalent sites of the dhcp lattice. The intersite exchange interactions, obtained from the magnetic force theorem, are found to be insufficient to close the CF gap to the magnetic doublets. Hence, ab-initio theory is demonstrated to explain the unusual, non-magnetic state of elemental Pr. Extending this analysis to the (0001) surface of Pr, we find that the singlet ground state remains robust preventing conventional magnetic orders. Nevertheless, the gap between the ground state and the lowest excited singlet is significantly reduced at the surface, opening the possibility for exotic two-dimensional multipolar orders to emerge within this two-singlet manifold.
title Quantitative theory of magnetic properties of elemental praseodymium
topic Strongly Correlated Electrons
Materials Science
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.09585