Influence of magnetic field on the electronic ferroelectricity in the extended Falicov-Kimball model

Abstract

The density-matrix-renormalization-group method is used to study the influence of external magnetic field on the stability of the excitonic phase induced by local hybridization in the one-dimensional spin-1/2 Falicov-Kimball model. It is shown that a fine tuning of external magnetic field through the quantum critical point is able to induce significant changes (continuous as well as discontinuous) in the excitonic expectation average providing new set of physical properties and technological applications, like possibilities of faster switching ferroelectrics and controlling their optical properties with magnetic fields. Moreover, effects of some other interactions (which may be present in real d-f materials) on the stability of excitonic phase are examined and it is shown that the Hubbard interaction in the d-electron subsystem, the interband d-f Coulomb interaction, as well as the exchange d-f interaction stabilize significantly excitonic correlations below the quantum critical point, while the anisotropic spin-dependent interaction of the Ising type between f and d electrons as well as the f-electron hopping suppress the excitonic correlations for magnetic fields below as well as above the quantum critical point.