Unconventional superconductivity continues to be one of the most striking chapters in condensed matter physics, by posing challenges to our theoretical understanding of its origin. During the last three decades a large number of unconventional superconductors with exotic properties have been found arising great interest, such as the heavy fermion systems, high Tc cuprates as well as the Iron based superconductors etc. Sr2RuO4, the material I have studied, can be considered as an exemplary case in this regard. In spite of more than two decades of comprehensive research, Sr2RuO4 remains one of the most compelling superconductors till date. Various experimental results give evidence that the superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 is chiral: including measurements of the Kerr effect, sound velocities, critical currents across junctions, and muon spin relaxation(μSR), the experimental technique at the heart of this dissertation. Recent NMR Knight shift measurements suggests that the pairing is most likely spin-singlet, and in the tetragonal lattice of Sr2RuO4, the combination of singlet pairing and chirality compels consideration of an seemingly unlikely order parameter: dxz ± idyz. It is unlikely because it comes along with a horizontal line node at kz = 0, whereas Sr2RuO4 has a very low c-axis conductivity. And that makes the question whether or not the superconductivity of Sr2RuO4 is chiral, of great importance. This calls for an unique scenario in regard to our understanding of unconventional superconductivity, as the presence of chirality in Sr2RuO4 might imply a new form of pairing, which is yet to be firmly determined. Chiral superconductors break time reversal symmetry by definition, and in general time-reversal-symmetry breaking (TRSB) superconductivity indicates complex two component order parameters. Probing Sr2RuO4 under uniaxial pressure offers the possibility to lift the degeneracy between such components. However, despite strenuous efforts, a splitting of the superconducting and TRSB transitions under uniaxial pressure has not been observed so far. In this thesis, I report muon spin relaxation measurements on Sr2RuO4 samples, placed under uniaxial stress. The relatively large sample size suitable for μSR demanded for a customized uniaxial pressure cell in order to perform our experiments. It has been a technically challenging task to have a fully fledged uniaxial pressure cell with stringent requirements, that is suitable for time restricted facility experiments like μSR. The technical advancement has been documented thoroughly in this thesis. Using the dedicated uniaxial pressure cell, we observed the much awaited stress induced splitting between the onset temperatures of superconductivity and time reversal symmetry breaking, consistent with the qualitative expectations for a chiral order parameter in Sr2RuO4. In addition to that, we report the appearance of a bulk magnetic order in Sr2RuO4 under higher uniaxial stress for the first time, above the critical pressure at which a Lifshitz transition is known to occur. The signal in the state appearing at high stress qualitatively differs from that in the TRSB state in unstressed Sr2RuO4, which provides evidence that the enhanced muon spin relaxation at lower stresses is not a consequence of conventional magnetism. As a whole, our results strongly support the idea of two-component superconducting order parameter in Sr2RuO4, that breaks time-reversal symmetry.

Within condensed matter physics, systems with strong electronic correlations give rise to fascinating phenomena which characteristically require a physical description beyond a one-electron theory, such as high temperature superconductivity, or Mott metal-insulator transitions. In this thesis, a class of strongly correlated electron systems is considered. These systems exhibit fractionally charged excitations with charge +e/2 or -e/2 in two dimensions (2D) and three dimensions (3D), a consequence of both strong correlations and the geometrical frustration of the interactions on the underlying lattices. Such geometrically frustrated systems are typically characterized by a high density of low-lying excitations, leading to various interesting physical effects. This thesis constitutes a study of a model of spinless fermions on the geometrically frustrated kagome lattice. Focus is given in particular to the regime in which nearest-neighbour repulsions V are large in comparison with hopping t between neighbouring sites, the regime in which excitations with fractional charge occur. In the classical limit t = 0, the geometric frustration results in a macroscopically large ground-state degeneracy. This degeneracy is lifted by quantum fluctuations. A low-energy effective Hamiltonian is derived for the spinless fermion model for the case of 1/3 filling in the regime where |t| << V . In this limit, the effective Hamiltonian is given by ring-exchange of order ~ t^3/V^2, lifting the degeneracy. The effective model is shown to be equivalent to a corresponding hard-core bosonic model due to a gauge invariance which removes the fermionic sign problem. The model is furthermore mapped directly to a Quantum Dimer model on the hexagonal lattice. Through the mapping it is determined that the kagome lattice model exhibits plaquette order in the ground state and also that fractional charges within the model are linearly confined. Subsequently a doped version of the effective model is studied, for the case where exactly one spinless fermion is added or subtracted from the system at 1/3 filling. The sign of the newly introduced hopping term is shown to be removable due to a gauge invariance for the case of hole doping. This gauge invariance is a direct result of the bipartite nature of the hole hopping and is confirmed numerically in spectral density calculations. For further understanding of the low-energy physics, a derivation of the model gauge field theory is presented and discussed in relation to the confining quantum electrodynamic in two dimensions. Exact diagonalization calculations illustrate the nature of the fractional charge confinement in terms of the string tension between a bound pair of defects. The calculations employ topological symmetries that exist for the manifold of ground-state configurations. Dynamical calculations of the spectral densities are considered for the full spinless fermion Hamiltonian and compared in the strongly correlated regime with the doped effective Hamiltonian. Calculations for the effective Hamiltonian are then presented for the strongly correlated regime where |t| << V . In the limit g << |t|, the fractional charges are shown to be effectively free in the context of the finite clusters studied. Prominent features of the spectral densities at the Gamma point for the hole and particle contributions are attributed to approximate eigenfunctions of the spinless fermion Hamiltonian in this limit. This is confirmed through an analytical derivation. The case of g ~ t is then considered, as in this case the confinement of the fractional charges is observable in the spectral densities calculated for finite clusters. The bound states for the effectively confined defect pair are qualitatively estimated through the solution of the time-independent Schroedinger equation for a potential which scales linearly with g. The double-peaked feature of spectral density calculations over a range of g values can thus be interpreted as a signature of the confinement of the fractionally charged defect pair. Furthermore, the metal-insulator transition for the effective Hamiltonian is studied for both t > 0 and t < 0. Exact diagonalization calculations are found to be consistent with the predictions of the effective model. Further calculations confirm that the sign of t is rendered inconsequential due to the gauge invariance for g in the regime |t| << V . The charge-order melting metal-insulator transition is studied through density-matrix renormalization group calculations. The opening of the energy gap is found to differ for the two signs of t, reflecting the difference in the band structure at the Fermi level in each case. The qualitative nature of transition in each case is discussed. As a step towards a realization of the model in experiment, density-density correlation functions are introduced and such a calculation is shown for the plaquette phase for the effective model Hamiltonian at 1/3 filling in the absence of defects. Finally, the open problem of statistics of the fractional charges is discussed.

This PhD thesis focuses on the mutual interplay of frustration and quenched disorder in magnetic insulators. Frustrated quantum magnets are known to host a plethora of interesting many-body phenomena ranging from noncollinear N\'el ordering to spin liquid phases. In this thesis, the consequences of the breakdown of translation symmetry, a widely occurring phenomenon in real materials, are studied in several examples of frustrated spin systems. The thesis is split into two parts dedicated to different kinds of frustrated magnets and the effects of quenched random perturbations in them. In the first part, bond randomness in frustrated noncollinear ordering is considered. Noncollinear magnetic orders originating from the spontaneous breakdown of continuous spin rotation symmetries at zero temperature are found to be unstable in the presence of exchange randomness. It is shown that in this case, the frustrated N\'{e}el ordering is destroyed for any magnitude of random exchange disorder. The resulting disordered ground states, however, possess interesting distinctions depending on the precise nature of the broken spin rotation symmetry. For SU(2) Heisenberg spins, it is demonstrated that the weak disordered ground describes a classical spin glass at zero temperature with a finite correlation length. At higher disorder, enhanced quantum fluctuations are predicted to modify that ground state into a random-singlet-like form. On the other hand, for noncollinear XY spin systems with U(1) or SO(2) symmetry which have stable integer-valued vortex topological defects, it is instead found that the weak disorder and the strong disorder ground states are distinct even at the classical level. The former has a quasi-long range order spin arrangement, while the latter exhibits a truly short-range ordered state. These two phases are shown to be separated by a Kosterlitz-Thouless-like phase transition point where vortex unbinding takes place. The spontaneously broken chiral degeneracy of noncollinear N\'el ordering is witnessed to be robust up to the point of the vortex-driven phase transition. In the second part of the thesis, the focus is switched to the effects of quenched disorder on quantum spin liquids. These are quantum disordered phases of matter with long-range entanglement, topological order, and fractionalised excitations that often arise in frustrated spin systems. The U(1) Dirac spin liquid with its magnetic monopole excitations has been identified as a parent state for N\'{e}el, valence-bond solid, and algebraic spin liquid phases. In this thesis, the fate of this state is studied in the presence of quenched random perturbations. It is demonstrated that a wide class of random perturbations induce monopole-driven confinement of the fractionalised quasi-particles of the spin liquid, leading to the onset of a spin glass-like order. Finally, dilution effects in the $\rm Z_2$ spin liquid phase of the Kitaev model are discussed in the presence of generic symmetry allowed interactions. The spin-liquid state remains stable when the non-Kitaev perturbations and dilution are small. However, the low-energy properties of the ground state are altered. It is shown that the degeneracies from the Majorana zero modes, which are known to localise at defect sites of the Kitaev spin liquid, are generically lifted by the non-Kitaev perturbations. Consequently, a dilution-tuned impurity band with a finite density of states is found to emerge.

Matériaux dans lesquels les électrons responsables des propriétés de basse énergie son soumis à fortes corrélations sont aujourd'hui très étudiés à la recherche de nouvelles phases émergentes aux propriétés surprenantes et/ou utiles.Les supraconducteurs à base de fer (IBSC) sont maintenant considérés dans cette classe de composés. En utilissant des techniques multi-corps nécessaires pour le traitement théorique de ces corrélations (théorie du champ moyen de spin esclave - SSMFT et théorie du champ moyen dynamique - DMFT - en conjonction avec la théorie du fonctionnelle de la densité, DFT), dans cette thèse, j'etudie plusieurs propriétés d'IBSC.D’abord, j'analyse les composés très dopés de la famille de IBSC, qui montrent expérimentalement certains comportements typiques des ``fermions lourds'', des composés typiquement des terres rares ou des actinides, où des électrons extrêmement corrélés coexistent avec des électrons moins corrélés. En particulier je me concentre sur la chaleur spécifique et le pouvoir thermoélectrique et je montre comment ces propriétés peuvent être comprises dans le paradigme récemment développé ``métaux de Hund''. En effet, l’échange intra-atomique (le ``couplage de Hund'') est responsable de ces matériaux à éléments métal de transition en montrant la physique des fermions lourds. Je montre aussi que les caractéristiques typiquement fermions-lourds du spectre d’excitation, connues car les singularités de Van Hove sont bien capturées par notre modélisation au sein de DFT+SSMFT. J'utilise ensuite DMFT dans un modèle afin d'étudier l'impact direct des singularités de Van Hove sur la force des corrélations.Dans une seconde partie, je montre comment FeSe, le IBSC actuellement le plus étudié, se trouve également dans une phase métal de Hund, mais il est amené à la frontière de cette phase par la pression. Cette frontière est liée à une augmentation de la compressibilité électronique qui est positivement corrélée à l’augmentation de la supraconductivité trouvée dans les expériences.Je réalise une étude analogue sur le détenteur du record pour la température supraconductrice critique la plus élevée, la monocouche FeSe où je trouve également une compressibilité augmentée. Cela appuie la récente proposition selon laquelle la frontière du métal de Hund favorise la supraconductivité à haute température.Enfin, j'étudie la nature du magnétisme dans une autre famille de IBSC, les germanides de fer. J'explore différents ordres magnétiques possibles avec des simulations DFT et leur concurrence (ce qui peut en principe favoriser la supraconductivité) dans plusieurs composés où différents substitutions sont appliquées au composé parent YFe2Ge2. J'étudie également l'effet de la pression chimique sur ce composé. / Materials where the electrons responsible for the low-energy properties experience strong correlations are today very investigated in search of emerging new phases with surprising and/or useful properties. Iron-based superconductors (IBSC) are now considered in this class of compounds. Using the many-body techniques necessary for the theoretical treatment of these correlations (slave-spin mean field theory - SSMFT- and dynamical mean field theory - DMFT- in conjunction with density functional theory, DFT), in this thesis I address several properties of IBSC.First I analyze the very hole-doped compounds in the IBSC family, that show experimentally some behaviors typical of the so-called “heavy fermions”, compounds typically of rare earth or actinides, where extremely correlated electrons coexist with others less correlated. In particular I focus on the specific heat and the thermoelectric power and show how these properties can be understood in the recently developed paradigm of “Hund’s metals”. Indeed the intra-atomic exchange (the “Hund’s coupling”) is responsible for these materials of transition metal elements showing heavy-fermionic physics. I show also that typical heavy-fermionic features of the excitation spectrum, known as Van Hove singularities are well captured by our modelization within DFT+SSMFT. I then use DMFT in a model in order to study the direct impact of the Van Hove singularities on the strength of correlations.In a second part I show how FeSe, the presently most studied IBSC, is also in a Hund’s metal phase, but it is brought to the frontier of this phase by pressure. This frontier is connected to an enhancement of the electronic compressibility which correlates positively then with the enhancement of superconductivity found in experiments. I perform an analogous study on the record holder for the highest critical superconducting temperature, the monolayer FeSe where I also find an enhanced compressibility. This supports the recent proposal that the frontier of a Hund's metal favors high-temperature superconductivity.Finally I study the nature of magnetism in another family of IBSC, the iron-germanides. I explore different possible magnetic orders with DFT simulations and study their competition (which can in principle favor superconductivity) in several compounds where different chemical substitutions are applied to the parent compound YFe2Ge2. I also study the effect of chemical pressure on this compound.

In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Einfluß der reduzierten Translationssymmetrie auf die magnetischen Eigenschaften in dünnen Filmen und an Oberflächen auf der Basis des stark korrelierten Hubbard-Modells untersucht. Zunächst wird die Möglichkeit von spontanem Ferromagnetismus im Hubbard-Modell für translationssymmetrische Systeme diskutiert.Verschiedene Näherungsmethoden zur Lösung des Vielteilchenproblems des Hubbard-Modells werden detailliert beschrieben und mit Ergeb nissen von Quanten-Monte-Carlo-Rechnungen verglichen. Die Konsistenz mit exakten Resultaten über die grobe Struktur der Ein-Teilchen-Spektraldichte im Limes starker Coulomb- Wechselwirkung zwischen den Elektronen erweist sich als essentiell wichtig für eine qualitativ korrekte Beschreibung von spontanem Ferromagnetismus. Das Temperaturverhalten in der ferromagnetischen Phase wird anhand von Magnetisierungs kurven sowie mit Hilfe des spinabhängigen Quasiteilchenspekt rums ausführlich diskutiert. Ein genaues Verständnis der Physik des Volumensystems liefert die Basis für den Übergang zu Systemen mit reduzierter Translationssymmetrie. Es wird eine Methode vorgestellt mit der sich approximative Theorien für das translationssymmetrische Hubbard-Modell auf die Behandlung von Filmsystemen verallgemeinern lassen. Die magnetischen Eigenschaften dünner Hubbard-Filme werden mit Hilfe der lagenabhängigen Magnetisierung als Funktion der Temperatur sowie der Filmdicke diskutiert. Die Abhängigkeit der Curie-Temperatur von der Filmdicke wird untersucht. Insbesondere wird auf die Frage nach der magnetischen Stabilität an der Oberfläche eingegangen. In stark korrelierten Elektronensystemen ist für endliche Temperaturen die magnetische Stabilität an der Oberfläche reduziert im Vergleich zu den inneren Lagen, obwohl auf der Basis des bekannten Stoner-Bildes für Bandmagnetismus genau der gegenteilige Trend zu erwarten wäre. Es wird gezeigt,daß sich dieses Verhalten anhand einfacher Argumente versteh en läßt. Die magnetischen Eigenschaften der Hubbard-Filme lassen sich im Detail mit Hilfe der lokalen Quasiteilchenzus tandsdichte sowie der wellenvektorabhängigen Spektraldichte analysieren. Die elektronische Struktur zeigt eine ausgeprägte Spin-, Lagen- und Temperaturabhängigkeit. In einem weiteren Teil der Arbeit wird der temperaturgetrieb ene Reorientierungsübergang der Magnetisierungsrichtung in dünnen metallischen Filmen untersucht. Dazu müssen die die Hubbard-Filme um anisotrope Beiträge der Dipol-Wechselwir kung und der Spin-Bahn-Wechsel wirkung erweitert werden. Das Wechselspiel von Dipol- und Spin-Bahn-Anisotropie führt unter gewissen Bedingungen zu einem Reorientierungsübergang als Funktion der Temperatur. Im Rahmen des hier vorgestellten Zugangs lassen sich sowohl Reorientierungsüber gänge von einer senkrechten in eine parallele Position ("Fe-artig") als auch Reorientierungsübergänge von einer parallelen in eine senkrechte Position ("Ni-artig") der Magnetisierung qualitativ korrekt beschreiben. / In this work the influence of the reduced translational symmetry on the magnetic properties of thin itinerant-electr on films and surfaces is investigated within the strongly correlated Hubbard model. Firstly, the possibility of spontaneous ferromagnetism in the Hubbard model is discussed for the case of systems with full translational symmetry. Different approximation schemes for the solution of the many -body problem of the Hubbard model are introduced and discussed in detail. It is found that it is vital for a reasonable description of spontaneous ferromagnetism to be consistent with exact results concerning the general shape of the single-electron spectral density in the limit of strong Coulomb interaction between the electrons. The temperature dependence of the ferromagnetic solutions is discussed in detail by use of the magnetization curves as well as the spin-dependent quasiparticle spectrum. For the investigation of thin films and surfaces the approximation schemes for the bulk system have to be generalized to deal with the reduced translational symmetry. The magnetic behavior of thin Hubbard films is investigated by use of the layer-dependent magnetization as a function of temperature as well as the thickness of the film. The Curie-temperature is calculated as a function of the film thickness. Further, the magnetic stability at the surface is discussed in detail. Here it is found that for strong Coulomb interaction the magnetic stability at finite temperatures is reduced at the surface compared to the inner layers. This observation clearly contradicts the well-known Stoner picture of bandmagnetism and can be explained in terms of general arguments which are based on exact results in the limit of strong Coulomb interaction. The magnetic behavior of the Hubbard films can be analyzed in detail by inspecting the local quasiparticle density of states as well as the wave vector dependent spectral density. The electronic structure is found to be strongly spin-, layer-, and temperature- dependent. The last part of this work is concerned about the temperature-driven reorientation transition in thin metallic films. For the description of the magnetic anisotropy in thin films the dipole interaction as well as the spin-orbit interaction have to be included in the model. By calculating the temperature-dependence of the magnetic anisotropy energy it is found that both types of temperature-driven reorientation transitions, from out-of-plane to in-plane ("Fe-type") and from in-plane to out-of-plane ("Ni-type") magnetization are possible within the generalized Hubbard films.

We investigate the manifestation of strong electronic correlations in the quasiparticle interference (QPI), arising from the scattering of conduction electrons from defects and impurities in an otherwise translationally-invariant host. The QPI may be measured experimentally as the Fourier transform of the spatial modulations in the host surface density of states that result, which are mapped using a scanning tunnelling microscope. We calculate the QPI for a range of physically relevant models, demonstrating the effect of strong local electronic correlations arising in systems of magnetic impurities adsorbed on the surface of non-interacting host systems. In the first instance the effect of these magnetic impurities is modelled via the single Anderson impurity model, treated via numerical renormalization group (NRG) calculations. The scattering of conduction electrons, and hence the QPI, demonstrate an array of characteristic signatures of the many-body state formed by the impurity, for example due to the Kondo effect. The effect of multiple impurities on the QPI is also investigated, with a numerically-exact treatment of the system of two Anderson impurities via state-of-the-art NRG calculations. Inter-impurity interactions are found to result in additional scattering channels and additional features in the QPI. The QPI is then investigated for the layered transition metal oxide Sr2RuO4, for which strong interactions in the host conduction electrons give rise to an unconventional triplet superconducting state at T_c &Tilde; 1.5K. The detailed mechanism for this superconductivity is still unknown, but electron-electron or electron-phonon interactions are believed to play a central role. We simulate the QPI in Sr₂RuO₄, employing an effective parametrized model consisting of three conduction bands derived from the Ru 4d t2g orbitals that takes into account spin orbit coupling and the anisotropy of the Ru t2g orbitals. Signatures of such interactions in the normal state are investigated by comparing these model calculations to experimental results. We also calculate the QPI in the superconducting state, and propose how experimental measurements may provide direct evidence of the anisotropy and symmetry of the superconducting gap, and thus offer insight into the pairing mechanism and the superconducting state.

Submitted by Irene Nascimento (irene.kessia@ufpe.br) on 2017-04-17T18:48:07Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação Mestrado.pdf: 3421668 bytes, checksum: 4a6d6f2568841028e0b66b952f2d15ba (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-04-17T18:48:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 1232 bytes, checksum: 66e71c371cc565284e70f40736c94386 (MD5) Dissertação Mestrado.pdf: 3421668 bytes, checksum: 4a6d6f2568841028e0b66b952f2d15ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-30 / Este trabalho é uma extensão de uma modelagem tight−binding de estados de Wannier com interação coulombiana de screening para a descrição de elétrons correlacionados nas camadas de CuO2 do La2CuO4. Na condição de banda semicheia e temperatura T = 0 K, esta modelagem é capaz de predizer um estado fundamental antiferromagnético isolante e um estado excitado paramagnético com pseudo-gap, cuja natureza ainda é debatido na literatura. Esses estados são obtidos no contexto de uma solução auto-consistente tipo Hartree-Fock na modelagem de uma banda efetiva de estados de Wannier, sob condições de quebra de simetria de translações espaciais e efeito de emaranhamento (entanglement) na estrutura espinorial dos estados eletrônicos. No regime dopado com buracos, esses estados ficam degenerados num ponto crítico de concentração de buracos igual a xc = 0.2, resultando em uma transição de fase quântica de segunda ordem para um estado paramagnético. A modelagem dá assim explicação à existência detectada experimentalmente desta transição de fase. Em nosso trabalho generalizamos o termo cinético da modelagem acima mencionada através da inclusão de hopping entre segundos vizinhos, de acordo com observações experimentais. De fato, a inclusão deste novo termo cinético resulta em melhor concordância da previsão da modelagem e as observações experimentais da evolução da superfície de Fermi com dopagem de buracos. Em particular, enquanto na modelagem restrita a primeiros vizinhos não podemos conciliar a transição de fase quântica observada a xc = 0.2 com as características experimentais da evolução da superfície de Fermi, isto torna-se possível com a inclusão do hopping de segundos vizinhos com amplitude sugerida pelos resultados experimentais. / This work is an extension of a tight - binding model of states of Wannier with screened Coulomb interaction to the description of correlated electrons in the layers of CuO2 of the La2CuO4. In condition of half-filled band and temperature T = 0 K, this model is able to predict a antiferromagnetic insulating ground state and a paramagnetic excited state with pseudo-gap, which nature is still debated in the literature. These states are obtained in the context of a self-consistent solution type Hartree-Fock in the model of an effective band of the Wannier states under breaking conditions of symmetry of space translations and entanglement effect in the spinor structure of the electronic states. In scheme doped with holes, these states are degenerate at critical point of hole concentration equal to xc = 0.2, resulting in a quantum phase transition of second order to paramagnetic state. The model thus gives explanation to the existence of this experimentally detected phase transition. In our work we generalize the kinetic term of above mentioned model by inclusion of hopping between seconds neighboring, according to experimental observations. In fact, the inclusion of this new kinetic term results in better agreement of the forecast of the model and experimental observations of the evolution of the Fermi surface with holes doping. In particular, while the model is restricted to the first neighbors can not reconcile quantum phase transition observed at xc = 0.2 with the experimental characteristics of the evolution of the Fermi surface, this becomes possible with the inclusion of hopping between second neighboring with ampliude suggested by experimental results.

The discovery of an unexpectedly large thermopower accompanied by low resistivity and low thermal conductivity in NaxCoO2 raised significant research interest in these materials and let to a number of experimental and theoretical investigations. This interest has strongly been reinforced by the discovery of superconductivity in the hydrated compound Na0.35CoO2 •1.3H2O in 2003, and thus, NaxCoO2 experiences an again increasing attention. The similarity of the Na cobaltates to the high temperature superconductors (HTSC) - both are transition metal oxides and adopt a layered crystal structure with quasi-two-dimensional (Cu,Co)O2 layers - is an important aspect of the research activities. In contrast to the HTSC cuprates however, the CoO2 layers consist of edge sharing CoO6 octahedra which are distorted in such a way that the resulting local symmetry is trigonal. The trigonal coordination of the Co sites results in geometric frustration which favours unconventional electronic ground states. The geometrically frustrated CoO2 sublattice also exists in the nonhydrated parent compound NaxCoO2, which has been investigated in this work. The intercalation of water into the parent compound is expected to have little effect on the Fermi surface beside the increase in two dimensionality due to the effect of expansion. Upon lowering the symmetry from cubic to trigonal, the t2g states split into states with eg_and a1g symmetry. Measurements of polarisation and temperature dependent soft X-ray absorption have been performed on a wide doping range of NaxCoO2 single crystals. Beside the Co L_2,3-edges, the O K-edge and the Na K-edge have been measured. These measurements show strong polarisation dependencies especially for the excitations into the lower lying a1g energy level. In addition to that, also an unexpected polarisation dependence for higher energies has been observed, which should be absent in trigonal symmetry. These results point towards a deviation of the local trigonal symmetry of the CoO6 octahedra, which is temperature independent in a temperature range between 25 K and 372 K. This deviation was found to be different for Co3+ and Co4+ sites, which leads to a polaronic electron transport. Furthermore, a strong hybridisation between the Co and O ions has been found. In order to shed further light on the electronic structure of NaxCoO2, the electronic spectrum of a CoO6 cluster has been calculated including all interactions between 3d orbitals as well as hopping processes between Co and O and O and O ions. The ground state for two electronic occupations in the cluster (i.e. Co3+ and Co4+) that correspond nominally to all O in the O−2 oxidation state, and Co+3 or Co+4 has been obtained. Then, all excited states obtained by promotion of a Co 2p electron to a 3d electron, and the corresponding matrix elements are calculated. A fit of the observed experimental spectra is good and points out a large Co-O covalence and cubic crystal field effects, that result in low spin Co 3d configurations. The results indicate that the effective hopping between different Co atoms plays a major role in determining the symmetry of the ground state in the lattice. Remaining quantitative discrepancies with the XAS experiments are expected to come from composition effects of itineracy in the ground and excited states. Beside these points, results of photoemission spectroscopy, magnetisation measurements as well as resonant and non-resonant X-ray diffraction using high energy X-rays are shown and discussed. / Die Entdeckung unerwartet großer Thermokraft bei gleichzeitigem niedrigem Widerstand und niedriger thermischen Leitfähigkeit in NaxCoO2 führte zu einem großen wissenschaftlichem Interesse an diesen Materialien und zu einer großen Anzahl an experimentellen und theoretischen Arbeiten. Dieses Interesse steigerte sich noch einmal nach der Entdeckung von Supraleitung in der hydrierten Verbindung Na0.35CoO2 •1.3H2O im Jahre 2003. Die Ähnlichkeit der Na Kobaltate zu den Hochtemperatur-Supraleitern (HTSL) – beides sind Übergangsmetalloxide mit einer geschichteten Kristallstruktur in der quasi zwei dimensionale (Cu,Co)O2 Ebenen enthalten sind – ist ein wichtiger Aspekt moderner wissenschaftlicher Arbeiten. Im Gegensatz zu den HTSL Kupraten bestehen die CoO2 Ebenen aus CoO6 Oktaedern die über ihre Kanten verbunden sind und in der Art verzerrt sind, dass die resultierende Symmetrie trigonal ist. Die trigonale Anordnung der Co Plätze führt zu einer geometrischen Frustration und unkonventionellen elektronischen Grundzuständen. Diese geometrisch frustrierten CoO2 Untergitter existieren ebenfalls in den nicht hydrierten Mutterverbindungen NaxCoO2, welche in dieser Arbeit untersucht wurden. Interkalierung von Wasser in die Mutterverbindung hat nur einen kleinen Einfluss auf die Fermi Oberfläche und führt zu einem Anstieg des zwei dimensionalen Charakters durch den Effekt der Ausdehnung. Durch Verminderung der Symmetrie von kubisch zu trigonal splitten die vormals entarteten t2g Zustände auf in Zustände mit eg und a1g Symmetrie. Zur Bestimmung der elektronischen Struktur von NaxCoO2 wurden polarisations- und temperaturabhängige Messungen der Röntgenabsorption im weichen Röntgenbereich für einen großen Dotierungsbereich durchgeführt. Neben den Co L_2,3-Kanten wurden auch die O K-Kante und die Na K-Kante gemessen. Sie zeigen eine starke Polarisationsabhängigkeit speziell für Anregungen in die niederenergetischen a1g Level. Zusätzlich wurde eine unerwartete Polarisationsabhängigkeit bei höheren Energien gefunden, die für trigonalen Symmetrie so nicht auftauchen dürfte. Diese Ergebnisse weisen auf eine Abweichung von der lokalen trigonalen Symmetrie der CoO6 Oktaeder hin, welche Temperatur unabhängig ist in einem Temperaturbereich zwischen 25 und 372 Kelvin. Diese Abweichung ist unterschiedlich für Co3+ und Co4+ Ionen was wiederum auf einen polaronischen Transport hinweist. Zusätzlich wird deutlich, dass eine starke Co-O Hybridisierung existieren muss. Um weiteres Informationen über die elektronische Struktur von NaxCoO2 zu erhalten, wurde das elektronische Spektrum eines CoO6 Oktaeders berechnet in dem alle Wechselwirkungen zwischen 3d Orbitalen sowie Hüpfprozesse zwischen Co und O sowie O und O Ionen enthalten sind. Der Grundzustand für zwei elektronische Besetzungen in einem Cluster (d.h. Co3+ und Co4+) wurde bestimmt für O Ionen mit einer nominellen O-2 Oxidation sowie Co3+ und Co4+ Ionen. Im angeregten Zustand werden die entsprechenden Anregungen eines Co 2p Elektrons in einen unbesetzten 3d Zustand berücksichtigt und die entsprechenden Matrixelemente berechnet. Ein Fit an den experimentellen Daten ist gut und weist auf eine starke Co-O Kovalenz und auf einen starken Einfluss des kubischen Kristallfeldes hin, der zu einer Low-Spin Co 3d Konfiguration führt. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass ein effektives Hüpfen zwischen benachbarter Co Ionen eine große Rolle für die Symmetrie des Grundzustandes im Gitter spielt. Quantitative Unterschiede zwischen den experimentellen und theoretischen Daten kommen anscheinend von itineranten Effekten im Grund- und angeregten Zustand. Zusätzlich zu den oben kurz beschriebenen Ergebnissen werden in dieser Arbeit weitere Ergebnisse der Photoemissionsspektroskopie, der Magnetisierung sowie aus resonanter und nicht resonanter Röntgenbeugung mit harter Röntgenstrahlung gezeigt und diskutiert.

Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit wurden die Kondo-Gitter YbT2Si2 (T = Rh, Ir, Co) und CeTPO (T = Ru, Os, Fe, Co) untersucht. In diesen Systemen treten starke ferromagnetische Korrelationen der 4f-Momente zusammen mit ausgeprägter Kondo-Wechselwirkung auf, deren theoretische Beschreibung bislang sehr kontrovers diskutiert wird. Diese Arbeit liefert damit einen essentiellen experimentellen Beitrag zur Physik von ferromagnetischen Kondo-Gittern. So konnten qualitativ hochwertige Einkristalle von YbRh2Si2 hergestellt und erstmalig an einem Schwere-Fermion-System deren kritische Fluktuationen um den magnetischen Phasenübergang analysiert werden. Weiterhin konnte das bis dahin unverstandene Auftreten einer Elektron-Spin-Resonanz (ESR)-Linie in YbT2Si2 auf ferromagnetische Korrelationen zurückgeführt werden. Außerdem wurde mit CeFePO ein neues Schwere-Fermion-System mit starken ferromagnetischen Korrelationen entdeckt sowie mit dem isoelektronischen CeRuPO der seltene Fall eines ferromagnetisch geordneten Kondo-Gitters realisiert. / Within the context of this thesis the Kondo lattices YbT2Si2 (T = Rh, Ir, Co) and CeTPO (T = Ru, Os, Fe, Co) were investigated. In these systems strong ferromagnetic correlations of the 4f-moments together with pronounced Kondo interactions are present, whose theoretical description are pres-ently controversial discussed. Therefore, this work gives an essential experimental contribution to the physics of ferromagnetic Kondo lattices. The main results include the growth of high-quality single crystals of YbRh2Si2 and the first analysis of the critical fluctuations around the magnetic phase transition in a heavy fermion system. Furthermore, the unexpected observation of an electron spin resonance in YbT2Si2 could be ascribed to ferromagnetic correlations. Moreover, a new heavy fermion system CeFePO with strong ferromagnetic correlations was found and with the isoelec-tronic CeRuPO the rare case of a ferromagnetic Kondo-lattice discovered.

In this thesis, quantum cluster methods are used to calculate electronic properties of correlated-electron systems. A special focus lies in the determination of the ground state properties of a 3/4 filled triangular lattice within the one-band Hubbard model. At this filling, the electronic density of states exhibits a so-called van Hove singularity and the Fermi surface becomes perfectly nested, causing an instability towards a variety of spin-density-wave (SDW) and superconducting states. While chiral d+id-wave superconductivity has been proposed as the ground state in the weak coupling limit, the situation towards strong interactions is unclear. Additionally, quantum cluster methods are used here to investigate the interplay of Coulomb interactions and symmetry-breaking mechanisms within the nematic phase of iron-pnictide superconductors. The transition from a tetragonal to an orthorhombic phase is accompanied by a significant change in electronic properties, while long-range magnetic order is not established yet. The driving force of this transition may not only be phonons but also magnetic or orbital fluctuations. The signatures of these scenarios are studied with quantum cluster methods to identify the most important effects. Here, cluster perturbation theory (CPT) and its variational extention, the variational cluster approach (VCA) are used to treat the respective systems on a level beyond mean-field theory. Short-range correlations are incorporated numerically exactly by exact diagonalization (ED). In the VCA, long-range interactions are included by variational optimization of a fictitious symmetry-breaking field based on a self-energy functional approach. Due to limitations of ED, cluster sizes are limited to a small number of degrees of freedom. For the 3/4 filled triangular lattice, the VCA is performed for different cluster symmetries. A strong symmetry dependence and finite-size effects make a comparison of the results from different clusters difficult. The ground state in the weak-coupling limit is superconducting with chiral d+id-wave symmetry, in accordance to previous renormalization group approaches. In the regime of strong interactions SDW states are preferred over superconductivity and a collinaer SDW state with nonuniform spin moments on a quadrupled unit cell has the lowest grand potential. At strong coupling, inclusion of short-range quantum fluctuations turns out to favor this collinear state over the chiral phase predicted by mean-field theory. At intermediate interactions, no robust conclusion can be drawn from the results. Symmetry-breaking mechanisms within the nematic phase of the iron-pnictides are studied using a three-band model for the iron planes on a 4-site cluster. CPT allows a local breaking of the symmetry within the cluster without imposing long-range magnetic order. This is a crucial step beyond mean-field approaches to the magnetically ordered state, where such a nematic phase cannot easily be investigated. Three mechanisms are included to break the fourfold lattice symmetry down to a twofold symmetry. The effects of anisotropic magnetic couplings are compared to an orbital ordering field and anisotropic hoppings. All three mechanisms lead to similar features in the spectral density. Since the anisotropy of the hopping parameters has to be very large to obtain similar results as observed in ARPES, a phonon-driven transition is unlikely.