Date of Award

1993

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Physics and Astronomy

First Advisor

Joseph Callaway

Abstract

The spectral weight functions and the optical conductivity of a highly correlated electronic system described by a simple Hubbard model are studied. The calculations are carried out for a small system, a cubic cluster of eight sites, by means of exact diagonalization using symmetrized basis functions. The spectral weight functions of a single hole (or electron) placed in an otherwise half-filled band are obtained. The density of states at different interaction strengths, ranging from weak to strong couplings, is studied. We observe the spreading of the spectral weight associated with some single-particle eigenstates over a large range of energies, and the appearance of satellite structure at higher excitation energies. The nature of band narrowing is also discussed. The frequency dependent (optical) conductivity is studied for the cases of a half-filled band, and for one hole and two hole dopings away from half filling. The interaction strength is varied between the weak- and strong-coupling limits. The formation of a Hubbard gap is observed. Results are related to aspects of the metal-insulator transition in bulk systems.

Pages

168

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.5598

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