PHYSICAL REVIEW B

VOLUME 54, NUMBER 19

15 NOVEMBER 1996-I

Charge and spin response of the spin-polarized electron gas

K. S. Yi
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 and Department of Physics, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, Korea

J. J. Quinn
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996 and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831 Received 29 March 1996; revised manuscript received 24 July 1996 The charge and spin response of a spin-polarized electron gas is investigated including terms beyond the random-phase approximation. We evaluate the charge response, the longitudinal and transverse spin response, and the mixed spin-charge response self-consistently in terms of the susceptibility functions of a noninteracting system. Exchange-correlation effects between electrons of spin and are included following Kukkonen and Overhauser, by using spin-polarization-dependent generalized Hubbard local-eld factors G and G . The general condition for charge-density and spin-density-wave excitations of the system is discussed. S0163-1829 96 08040-X

Response functions relate the induced charge and spin densities to the strength of an external disturbance and play an important role in the understanding of many-body systems. The spin-polarized electron gas SPEG is an n-electron system with n electrons of spin and n electrons of spin embedded in a uniform positive charge background. The volume of the system is taken to be unity in this work. Previous investigations of the response of the spin-polarized electron system were limited in scope. Some focused on the paramagnetic response1 or on the charge and spin-density uctuations of a ferromagnetic electron gas within the Hartree-Fock HF approximation.2 Others used the random-phase approximation RPA ,3 local spin-densityfunctional theory,4 or were limited to the innitesimally polarized electron liquid.5 However, the role of correlations beyond the RPA in the charge-spin response has never been examined explicitly for the case of arbitrary spin polarization 0 1, where (n n )/(n n ). The purpose of this paper is to present a treatment of charge and spin response in a unied way. The selfconsistent effective potential experienced by an electron of spin s is expressed in terms of the charge-density uctuation n and the spin-density uctuation m . The exchangecorrelation interactions between electrons of the same spin (ss) or of opposite spins (ss ) are included by employing Hubbard-type spin-dependent local-eld factors G s and G . The self-consistent linear response method of Kuks konen and Overhauser6 is extended to a SPEG by generalizing the local-eld factor. The charge and spin response to an arbitrary electric and magnetic disturbance is derived and compared with the existing theories. We consider an electron gas in the presence of a uniform positive charge background. The imbalance in the populations of up and down spins forming a system of SPEG is caused by an effective dc magnetic eld, the origin of which need not be specied in detail. Any degree of spin polarization can be obtained by adjusting the value of the
0163-1829/96/54 19 /13398 4 /$10.00 54

effective magnetic eld B. We assume the SPEG is disturbed by an innitesimal external electric potential v ext(r ) and 0 magnetic eld b 0 (r ,t). In response to these external electric and magnetic disturbances, charge and spin uctuations are set up in the system, and the Hamiltonian for an electron with spin s can be approximated as H H0 Hs , 1 1

where H 0 is the Hamiltonian of a single quasiparticle of the SPEG in the absence of the external disturbance. H s is the 1 spin-dependent self-consistent effective perturbation. The and eigenstates and eigenvalues of H 0 are given by k , (k). In this work we assume the spin splitting is much greater than the Landau level splitting and ignore any degree of orbital quantization. Since the most general disturbance can be decomposed into its Fourier components, we choose the disturbances v ext , b 0 , and H s to vary as e i t iq r . The 0 1 self-consistent magnetic disturbance b is the sum of b 0 and 4 m , where m is the induced magnetization. The Fourier component of the most general H s (r ,t) can be written as7 1 H s q, 1
0 s b

v ext v q 0

n 1 Gs

s mGs .

In Eq. 2 , for the sake of brevity, the q and dependence of the local elds, uctuations, and disturbances has not been 1 displayed. The parameter 0 is given by 0 2 g * B with g * , B , s , and v (q) being the effective g factor, the Bohr magneton, the Pauli spin operator, and the Fourier transform of the bare Coulombic potential, respectively. Equation 2 is the generalization of the effective interaction Hamiltonian of the SPEG in the presence of innitesimal magnetic and electric disturbances. The local elds G s and G s are responsible for charge- and spin-induced correlation effects on an electron of spin s Ref. 6
13 398 1996 The American Physical Society

54

BRIEF REPORTS

13 399
1 2

Gs

c G xc G s ,G ss s s

xc G G c s , ss s

mm

q,

2 0

xc c where G xc (G ) and G s (G c s ) account for the parallel ss ss s s spin exchange-correlation and the antiparallel-spin correlation effects in linear response theory. The charge- and spin-density uctuations n(q, ), m i (q, ) (i z, , and ) are given, in terms of the selfconsistent effective perturbation H s (q, ), using the equa1 tion of motion of the density matrix.8 By taking the matrix element of the effective perturbation, Eq. 2 , with respect to eigenstates k ,s , then Fourier transforming the resulting expressions and combining the results with the denitions of charge- and spin-density uctuations, we obtain the coupled equations for s 1 H 1 s (q , ) s 2 in terms of the external charge and spin disturbances. We then solve the coupled equations for s 1 H s s 2 and substitute the 1 corresponding matrix elements back into the expressions of the uctuations. The charge-density uctuation n, longitudinal spin-density uctuation m z , and transverse spindensity uctuations m and m can then be expressed in terms of a susceptibility matrix as

1 2

vG

11

0 In Eqs. 6 11 , s 1 s 2 is the Lindhard-type electric (s 1 s 2 ) or spin (s 1 s 2 ) susceptibility.

0 s1s2

n0 q,
k s1

s1

k q
s2

n0 k

s2

k i , 12

k q

where n 0 s (k ) denotes the equilibrium distribution of quasiparticles having spin s. The D is given by D q,
1 2

1 2v 1 2v
1 2

1 G xc
0

c G

xc G G c

1 2v
0

xc 1 G G c c G

1 2v

G xc

0 0

13

e n
0

ee me

em mm

ext 0

mz

b 0z

and
0 0

m m

mm

0
mm

b0 b0

The various terms containing factors proportional to 0 in the expressions of susceptibilities have their origin in the use of the self-consistent magnetic disturbance. If we neglect the induced magnetization m , those terms disappear from the expressions for various susceptibilities. The spin-polarization dependent Fermi wave number of the majority minority electrons with spin ( ) is given by kF

5 k F0 1

1/3

14

Here b 0 b 0x ib 0y , and ext denotes the external electric 0 potential corresponding to the external disturbance e ext). The various susceptibilities are written as v ext( 0 0
ee

q,

e2 D 2v

0 0 0

16 G
0

0 0

,
0

em

q,

e 0 D

2v

, 7

me

q,

e 0 D

2v

, 8

mm

q,
0 2 0 0 0 0

2v

2 G
0

mm

q,

1 2

0 case. The expression of is obtained by replacing the quantities of spin indices in the expression of 0 by that 0 of . The 0 and appearing in Eqs. 10 and 11 are the susceptibility functions of the spin-ip processes. In the absence of the perturbation, the charge densities associated with the majority- and minority-spin electrons are spatially uniform but unequal. Hence they have only a nonvanishing q 0 Fourier component. However, in the SPEG a spatially varying electric or magnetic disturbance with nite wave number q induces electron density uctuation of each spin, n and n , and hence a nite spin-density uctuation m . The ee , mm , and mm are the ordinary charge susceptibility, longitudinal spin susceptibility, and transverse spin susceptibilities, respectively. The off-diagonal mixed susceptibilities em ( me ) correspond to the charge-density response to a magnetic disturbance the longitudinal spindensity response to an electric disturbance . The susceptibilities given by Eqs. 6 11 reduce to appropriate forms for the unpolarized or innitesimally polarized limits. If we set all the local elds G ss 0, we obtain the RPA susceptibili0 ties of the spin-polarized system. When 0, 0 mm and G G . In this case, ee and , respectively, reduce to the well-known expressions5

where k F 0 is the Fermi wave number for the unpolarized

1 2

vG

0 0

10
ee 0

q,

e2 1 v
0 0

0 0

q, 1 G

and

q,

15

13 400
2 0 0 0

BRIEF REPORTS

54

mm 0

q,
0

q,
vG

1
0

0 0 0

q,

,
0

16

where the coefcient depends, in general, on the degree of spin polarization of the system and reduces to
2

2 . The mixed responses vanwhere ish in the unpolarized system.6 But, they become nite and equal to each other in the case of innitesimally polarized 0 system,5 in which 0 G . However, since but G c c it is not necessary that G G in the system with nite spin polarization, we conjecture from Eqs. 7 and 8 that, for the most general case, the charge-spin cross susceptibilities em and me could be different. The inequality of the c cross-correlation local elds G c , G is expected from the (h) fact that the density n (r), associated with the exchangecorrelation hole around a given electron with spin located at the origin, and n (h) (r) around an electron with spin , are given in terms of the corresponding pair correlation functions g (r) by n
h

0 0

2m

6 5m

2 0k F

for the case of complete spin polarization, 1. The second term of Eq. 21 disappears as the spin polarization of the system vanishes. On the other hand, the general expression for the dispersion relation of the coupled longitudinal modes is given by the zeros of the D(q, ) dened by Eq. 13 : 0 1 v 4
v2
0 0 0 0

1 2G xc
0 0

1 v 8
0v

0 0

xc 1 2G 0

2 G

G 22

c 1 2G c 1 2G .

In RPA, the above expression reduces to 1

v
0

r r

n 1 g

n 1 g

r ,

17 18

0 0 0 .

16 v

0 0

0, 23

n h

n 1 g r

n 1 g r .

Equations 17 and 18 show that the n (h) (r) n (h) (r) in the SPEG. Within the HF or RPA-type approximations, c me even in the G c 0 G , hence, we have that em 2,3,9 In the local spin-density spin polarized system. approximation,4 Gunnarsson and Lundqvist observed that em me by keeping only the diagonal elements of the matrix C in their expressions for the off-diagonal charge-spin susceptibilities Eq. 69 in Ref. 4 . The matrix elements C s,s in Ref. 4 are directly related with the local elds G s( ) in the present work. In the same context, Eqs. 10 and s 11 suggest that, in general, the transverse spin response functions mm (q, ) and mm (q, ) could be different in the SPEG. Equations 6 11 can be considered as denitions of the wave-number- and frequency-dependent local elds G and G , in terms of the corresponding uctuations, in the SPEG. Within the HF approximation the local elds satG and, hence, the mixed charge-spin isfy the relation G me response functions become equal ( em ). Because the divergences in these response functions give the collective modes in the system, various susceptibility functions obtained here can be used to investigate the collective modes such as charge-density and spin-density wave excitations in the SPEG. The coupling of charge-density waves and spin-density waves is expected in the SPEG, and the conditions for the spin-ip transverse modes are written, from Eqs. 10 and 11 , by 1 and 1
1 2 1 2

One can expect from Eq. 23 coupled where modes of charge-density and spin-density wave excitations, with a long-wavelength limit dispersion relation given by q
PL PL

4n n 0 n2 e2 n2
2 q TF

n2 9 2 2 5n q TF 4n n 0 n2 e2

q 2, n2
2 q TF 1/2

24

PL

n2 9 2 5n 2 q TF

q. 25

vG

0 0

19

Here PL is the plasma frequency corresponding to the total electron density n n n and q TF ( ) is the Thomas-Fermi wave number10 of the majority minority electrons of spin ( ). The terms involving 0 have their origin in the selfconsistent magnetic responses and, especially, those terms containing 4n n result from the coupling of the electric and magnetic responses in Eq. 23 . The terms of n 2 and n 2 are due to the contribution to the noninteracting susceptibility of the extra kinetic energy in the SPEG Fermi sea. The minus sign in Eq. 25 indicates that, in the long-wavelength region, the slope of the dispersion of the mode is suppressed in the presence of the coupling between the oscillations of charge density and spin density of the SPEG. When 0, Eq. 22 reduces as 1 v
0 0

1 G

0 0

vG

0,

26

vG

0 mm

0.

20

For example, the divergence of wavelength limit, to a mode 2

0B

leads us, in a long-

n 4 2

vG

q 2,

21

which is the product of the conditions of self-sustaining oscillations of charge and spin densities in a spin-unpolarized 0, Eq. system given by Eqs. 15 and 16 . For the case G 0 0 26 reduces to 1 v 0 1 4 0 0 0, which is the RPA result of an unpolarized system. The rst factor leads us to the well-known charge-density-wave excitation due to Coulomb interaction,10

54

BRIEF REPORTS

13 401

PL

9 q2 . 10 q TF2

On the other hand, the second factor gives us the spindensity-wave excitation, in response to the self-consistent magnetic disturbance of the spin-unpolarized Fermi sea,
0 2

PL

9 e2 1 5 0 q TF2

1/2

q.

For the case of complete spin polarization, 1, the frequency and wave-number dependence of various longitudinal susceptibilities given by Eqs. 6 9 becomes the same and the condition for the longitudinal collective modes is given by 1 If we set
0 0

Taking the external magnetic disturbance b 0 as our effective magnetic disturbance in Eq. 2 instead of the self-consistent eld b makes the factor 4 0 on the right-hand side of Eq. 28 disappear, and the expression reduces to the result of an innitesimally spin-polarized system.5 In summary, a unied treatment of the response of the spin-polarized electron gas is presented in this paper and general expressions for various susceptibility functions are derived. The present results reproduce exactly the known results for several simple situations. We believe that our results could be useful in understanding electric, magnetic, and optical properties of a number of spin-polarized systems such as ferromagnetics and dilute magnetic semiconductors. This work was supported in part by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, managed by Lockheed Martin Energy Research Corp. for the US Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC05-96OR22464. One of the authors K.S.Y. appreciates the support by the 1995 program of the Korea Research Foundation and in part by the BSRI-96-2412 program of the Ministry of Education, Korea. The authors would like to thank J. Cooke, G. F. Giuliani, A. W. Overhauser, and P. Vashishta for helpful comments.

v 1 2G xc

0.

27

0 0 0

but G
0 0

G , Eq. 22 becomes 1 G
vG
0 0 0

0 1 v 4v

1 G

28

P. Vashishta and K. S. Singwi, Solid State Commun. 13, 901 1973 . 2 D. J. Kim, B. B. Schwartz, and H. C. Praddaude, Phys. Rev. B 7, 205 1973 . 3 A. K. Rajagopal, J. Rath, and J. C. Kimball, Phys. Rev. B 7, 2657 1973 . 4 O. Gunnarsson and B. I. Lundqvist, Phys. Rev. B 13, 4274 1976 . 5 S. Yarlagadda and G. F. Giuliani, Phys. Rev. B 49, 7887 1994 .

C. A. Kukkonen and A. W. Overhauser, Phys. Rev. B 20, 550 1979 . 7 X. Zhu and A. W. Overhauser, Phys. Rev. B 33, 925 1986 . 8 M. P. Greene, H. J. Lee, J. J. Quinn, and S. Rodriguez, Phys. Rev. 177, 1019 1969 . 9 M. M. Pant and A. K. Rajagopal, Solid State Commun. 10, 1157 1971 . 10 A. L. Fetter and J. D. Walecka, Quantum Theory of ManyParticle Systems McGraw-Hill, New York, 1971 .