Temperature behavior of bound magnetic polarons in antiferromagnetic chain

Abstract The behavior of a one-dimensional antiferromagnetic (AF) chain doped by non-magnetic donor impurities is analyzed, in the limit of low impurity density n. The doping leads to the formation of ferromagnetically correlated regions localized near impurities (bound magnetic polarons or ferrons). The temperature evolution of the chain is calculated using an approximate variational method, and a Monte Carlo simulation. Both these methods give the similar results. The analysis of correlation functions for neighboring local spins demonstrates that the ferromagnetic correlations inside a ferron are significant even at high temperatures. The AF correlations in the rest part of the chain decay much faster with temperature. So, the ferron is a stable object that does not disappear even above the Neel temperature T N . At rather small values of the electron–impurity coupling energy V (for V lower then the electron hopping integral t), the bound ferron depins from impurity retaining its magnetic structure. Such a depinning occurs at T ∼ V .