Nous étudions plusieurs problémes reliés aux propriétés de transport dans les systèmes corrélés. La thèse contient 3 parties distinctes, chacune d'entre elles décrivant un aspect particulier. Nous avons obtenu dans chacun des cas des résultats qui permettent une meilleure compréhension du transport. Nous étudions l'effet de la dissipation et d'une perturbation extérieure dépendant du temps sur le diagramme de phases d'un systèmes à N corps à température nulle et à température finie. En présence de perturbation dépendant du temps, la dissipation joue un rôle important dans l'évolution vers un état stable indépendant du temps. Nous utilisons le formalisme de Keldysh dans l'approximation adiabatique qui permet d'étudier le diagramme de phases du système en fonction de parameter et de la température. Dans la 2ième partie, nous étudions un concept important pour la physique des systèmes métalliques à plusieurs bandes, le concept d'hybridation, et la façon dont l'hybridation affecte la supraconductivité du métal. De façon générale, une hybridation dépendante ou non du vecteur d'onde k a tendance à détruire la supraconductivité. Nous montrons dans ce chapitre qu'une hybridation antisymétrique a l'effet inverse et renforce la supraconductivité. Nous montrons que si l'hybridation est antisymétrique, la supraconductivité a des propriétés non-triviales. Nous proposons que dans un tel système, il puisse exister des fermions de Majorana, même en l'absence de couplage spin-orbite. Le dernier chapitre de la thèse porte sur les effets du couplage spin-orbite sur le transport dans les nanostructures magnétiques. Dans les nanostructures, le couplage spin-orbite joue un rôle important en raison de la brisure de symmétrie à la surface ou aux interfaces. En particulier, nous étudions l'effet de l'interaction Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM) sur le transport de spin dans un système tri-couche. Nous montrons qu'il existe une interaction DM entre les moments des couches et les électrons de conduction, et l'influence de cette interaction sur le transport est étudiée dans un modèle simplifié ou chaque couche est représentée par un point. / We study some important problems related to the transport properties of many body systems. It is divided in three parts, each one focusing in a specific topic. We obtain relevant results that improve our understanding of these systems. We investigate the effect of dissipation and time-dependent external sources, in the phase diagram of a many body system at zero and finite temperature. In the presence of time-dependent perturbations, dissipation is essential for the system to attain a steady, time independent state. In order to treat this time dependent problem, we use a Keldysh approach within an adiabatic approximation that allows us to study the phase diagram of this system as a function of the parameters of the system and temperature. We also discuss the nature of the quantum phase transitions of the system. Next, we study an important concept in the physics of metallic multi-band systems, that of hybridization, and how it affects the superconducting properties of a material. A constant or symmetric $k$-dependent hybridization in general act in detriment of superconductivity. We show here that when hybridization between orbitals in different sites assumes an anti-symmetric character having odd-parity it {it{enhances}} superconductivity. The antisymmetric hybridization in a problem study in this thesis (present in Chapter 3) allow us to propose a new system where it is possible to investigate Majorana fermions, even in absence of spin-orbit interactions. In the last part of this thesis we study the effect of spin-orbit coupling (SOC) on transport properties in magnetic nanostructures. In this system SOC plays an important role, because surfaces (or interfaces) introduce symmetry breaking which is a source of spin-orbit interaction. We study the role of Dzyaloshinshkii-Moriya (DM) interaction on spin-transport in a 3 layer system. We show that there is a DM interaction between magnetics ions in the layers and spin of conduction electrons. We study the influence of this DM interaction on transport within a simple model where each layer is represented by a point.

In the present work the Roth s two-pole approximation (Phys. Rev. 184, 451 (1969)) has been used to investigate the role of d− p hybridization in the normal and superconducting states of an extended d− p Hubbard model. Superconductivity with singlet dx2−y2 -wave pairing is treated by following Beenen and Edwards formalism (Phys. Rev. B 52, 13636 (1995)). In the first part of this work, the effects of the hybridization on the superconductivity, in the hole-doped regime, have been studied treating Roth s band shift within two different approximations. In the first one, the band shift has been calculated in the limit U →¥ (U is the Coulomb interaction), with zero temperature and without consider the superconducting effects. These regards, are restrict to the band shift. In the other parts of the problem, U, the temperature and the superconducting effects have been considered finites. In the second approximation, the Coulomb interaction, the temperature and the superconductivity have been considered in the calculation of some relevant correlation functions present in the Roth s band shift. The obtained results show that the hybridization acts in the sense of to suppresses the superconductivity. Also, it has been verified that the first approximation overstimates the effects of the hybridization on the superconductivity. In the second part of these work, hoppings to second-nearest-neighbors have been included in the model with the purpose of reproduces adequately the asymetries (mainly those related with the Fermi surface, band structure and phase diagram) between the hole- and electron-doped systems. Particularly, it is shown that the crossover from hole-like to electronlike Fermi surface is deeply affected by the d − p hybridization in the hole doping case. It has been verified that the effect of the hybridization is most pronounced around the saddle-points, where the superconducting gap is maximum in the particular case of dx2−y2 -wave symmetry. As a consequence, the critical temperature Tc is directly affected by the hibridization. Moreover, the obtained results suggest that in the hole doped regime, the hybridization may act on the transport properties of the system due to the sign changes of the Hall coefficient when the crossover of the Fermi surface occurs. In the electron doped case, the crossover in the Fermi surface is not verified. Nevertheless, as the hybridization suppresses the density of states near the Fermi level, the superconductivity is affected. The topology of the Fermi surface in the hole and electron doping regime agree with recent experimental ARPES results for La2−xSrxCuO4 (hole doping) and Nd2−xCexCuO4 (electron doping). / Neste trabalho, foi usada a aproximação de dois-pólos proposta por L. Roth (Phys. Rev. 184, 451 (1969)), para investigar os efeitos da hibridização no estado normal e no estado supercondutor de um modelo de Hubbard d − p. Para tratar supercondutividade com simetria dx2−y2 , usou-se o procedimento de fatorização proposto por Beenen e Edwards (Phys. Rev. B 52, 13636 (1995)). Na primeira parte do trabalho, os efeitos da hibridização sobre a upercondutividade, foram investigados considerando-se duas aproximações diferentes para calcular o deslocamento de banda. O deslocamento de banda surge quando tratamos as equações de movimento das funções de Green através do método de L. Roth. Na primeira aproximação o deslocamento foi calculado para U →¥ (U ´e a interação coulombiana), temperatura igual a zero, e sem incluir os efeitos da supercondutividade. É importante destacar que essas considerações foram feitas apenas no deslocamento, as outras partes do problema foram tratadas considerando finitas, as quantidades citadas acima. Na segunda aproximação, o deslocamento de banda foi estudado incluíndo-se os efeitos de U, da temperatura e da supercondutividade. Nos dois casos observou-se que a hibridização atua no sentido de suprimir a supercondutividade. Verificou-se também que na primeira aproximação considerada no cálculo do deslocamento de banda, os efeitos da hibridização sobre a supercondutividade, são superestimados. Isso ocorre porque certas funções correlação presentes no deslocamento de banda desaparecem no limite U →¥. Na segunda parte deste trabalho, incluiu-se no modelo, um termo de salto ( hopping ) para os segundos vizinhos de um sítio i. Esse termo foi ncluído com o objetivo de reproduzir adequadamente as assimetrias entre o regime de dopagem por buracos e o regime de dopagem por elétrons. No caso particular de dopagem por buracos, observou-se que a mudança na natureza da superfície de Fermi de buraco para elétron, profundamente afetada pela hibridização. Além disso, verificou-se que o efeito da hibridização ´e mais intenso nas regiões dos pontos de sela, nas quais o gap supercondutor ´e máximo devido à simetria dx2−y2 . Com isso, a temperatura crítica de transiçãoo (Tc) do estado normal para o estado supercondutor, também é afetada pela hibridização. Os resultados sugerem também, que no caso de dopagem por buracos, a hibridização interfere no valor de dopagem em que ocorre a mudança no sinal do coeficiente Hall, portanto deve afetar também as propriedades de transportes do sistema. No caso de dopagem por elétrons, não foi verificado nenhuma mudança na natureza da superf´ıcie de Fermi. No entanto, como a hibridização aumenta a largura das bandas e dimimui a densidade de estados no nível de Fermi, neste caso a supercondutividade também é afetada. A topologia da superfície de Fermi nos regimes de dopagen por buracos e por elétrons concorda bem com resultados experimentais de ARPES obtidos recentemente para o composto La2−xSrxCuO4 (dopado por buracos) e para o composto Nd2−xCexCuO4 (dopado por elétrons).

Orientador: Eduardo Miranda / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-16T08:19:56Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Andrade_EricdeCastroe_D.pdf: 5537554 bytes, checksum: 1391d5fcc710b5e471f0814a4a6d484f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010 / Resumo: Sistemas eletrônicos fortemente correlacionados desordenados possuem dois mecanismos básicos para a localização eletrônica e a subsequente destruição do estado metálico: o de Mott (causado pela interação elétron-elétron) e o de Anderson (causado pela desordem). Nesta tese, estudamos como estes mecanismos competem dentro da fase metálica e também como afetam o comportamento crítico do sistema, empregando uma generalização para o caso desordenado do cenário de Brinkman-Rice para a transição de Mott. Investigamos os efeitos de desordem fraca e moderada sobre a transição metal-isolante de Mott a T = 0 em duas dimensões. Para desordem sucientemente baixa, a transição mantém sua característica do tipo Mott, na qual temos os pesos de quasipartícula Zi indo a zero na transição e uma forte blindagem da desordem na região crítica. Em contraste com o comportamento encontrado para d = 8 , no nosso caso as flutuações espaciais dos pesos de quasipartícula são fortemente amplificadas próximo à transição de Mott de tal forma que eles adquirem uma distribuição do tipo lei de potência P (Z) ~ Z a-1 ,com a --> 0 na transição. Tal comportamento altera completamente as características desta transição com relação ao caso limpo, e é um indício robusto da emergência de uma fase de Griffiths eletrônica precedendo a transição metal-isolante de Mott, com uma fenomenologia surpreendentemente similar àquela do "ponto fixo de desordem infinita" encontrada em magnetos quânticos. Uma consequência imediata dessas novas características introduzidas pela desordem é que estados eletrônicos próximos à superfície de Fermi tornam-se mais homogêneos na região crítica, ao passo que estados com maiores energias têm o comportamento oposto: eles apresentam uma grande inomogeneidade precisamente nas vizinhanças da transição de Mott. Sugerimos que uma desordem efetiva dependente da interação é uma característica comum a todos os sistemas de Mott desordenados. Estudamos também como os efeitos bem conhecidos das oscilações de longo alcance de Friedel são afetados por fortes correlações eletrônicas. Primeiramente, mostramos que sua amplitude e alcance são consideravelmente suprimidos em líquidos de Fermi fortemente renormalizados. Posteriormente, investigamos o papel dos espalhamentos elásticos e inelásticos na presença dessas oscilações. Em geral, nossos resultados analíticos mostram que um papel proeminente das oscilações de Friedel é relegado a sistemas fracamente interagentes. Abordamos, por m, os efeitos das interações sobre o isolante de Anderson em uma dimensão. Construímos a função de escala ß (g) e mostramos que a escala de "crossover" g *, que marca a transição entre o regime ôhmico e o localizado da condutância, é renormalizada pelas interações. Como consequência, embora não haja a emergência de estados verdadeiramente estendidos, o regime ôhmico de g estende-se agora por uma região consideravelmente maior do espaço de parâmetros. / Abstract: Disordered strongly correlated electronic systems have two basic routes towards localization underlying the destruction of the metallic state: the Mott route (driven by electron-electron interaction) and the Anderson route (driven by disorder). In this thesis, we study how these two mechanisms compete in the metallic phase, and also how they change the critical behavior of the system, within a generalization to the disordered case of the Brinkman-Rice scenario for the Mott transition. We investigate the effects of weak to moderate disorder on the Mott metal-insulator transition at T = 0 in two dimensions. For sufficiently weak disorder, the transition retains the Mott character, as signaled by the vanishing of the local quasiparticle weights Zi and strong disorder screening at criticality. In contrast to the behavior in d = 8, here the local spatial fluctuations of quasiparticle parameters are strongly enhanced in the critical regime, with a distribution function P(Z) ~ Z a-1 and a --> 0 at the transition. This behavior indicates the robust emergence of an electronic Griffiths phase preceding the MIT, in a fashion surprisingly reminiscent of the " Infinite Randomness Fixed Point" scenario for disordered quantum magnets. As an immediate consequence of these new features introduced by disorder, we have that the electronic states close to the Fermi energy become more spatially homogeneous in the critical region, whereas the higher energy states show the opposite behavior: they display enhanced spatial inhomogeneity precisely in the close vicinity to the Mott transition. We suggest that such energy-resolved disorder screening is a generic property of disordered Mott systems. We also study how well-known effects of the long-ranged Friedel oscillations are affected by strong electronic correlations. We first show that their range and amplitude are signifficantly suppressed in strongly renormalized Fermi liquids. We then investigate the interplay of elastic and inelastic scattering in the presence of these oscillations. In the singular case of two-dimensional systems, we show how the anomalous ballistic scattering rate is conned to a very restricted temperature range even for moderate correlations. In general, our analytical results indicate that a prominent role of Friedel oscillations is relegated to weakly interacting systems. Finally, we discuss the effects of correlations on the Anderson insulator in one dimension. We construct the scaling function ß(g) and we show that the crossover scaling g*, which marks the transition between the ohmic and the localized regimes of the conductance, is renormalized by the interactions. As a consequence, we show that, although truly extend states do not emerge, the ohmic regime covers now a considerably larger region in the parameter space. / Doutorado / Física da Matéria Condensada / Doutor em Ciências

Cette thèse porte principalement sur l'étude de modèles de fermions en interactions contenant un couplage spin-orbite. Ces modèles (i) peuvent décrire une classe de matériaux composés d'iridates sur le réseau en nid d'abeille ou (ii) pourraient être réalisés artificiellement dans des systèmes d’atomes froids. Nous avons étudié, dans un premier temps, le système à demi-remplissage avec l'interaction de Hubbard et un couplage spin-orbite anisotrope. Nous avons trouvé plusieurs phases: la phase isolant topologique pour de faibles corrélations, et deux phases avec des ordres magnétiques frustrés, l'ordre de Néel et l'ordre spiral, dans la limite de très fortes corrélations. La transition entre les régimes de faibles et de fortes corrélations est une transition de Mott dans laquelle les excitations électroniques se fractionnent en excitations de charge et de spin. Les charges sont localisées par l'interaction. Le secteur de spin présente de fortes fluctuations qui sont modélisées par un gaz d’instantons. Nous avons ensuite exploré la physique d'un système régi au demi-remplissage par le modèle de Kitaev-Heisenberg, qui présente une phase magnétique de type zig-zag. En dopant le système, autour du quart remplissage, la structure de bande présente de nouveaux centres de symétrie en plus de la symétrie d'inversion. Le couplage de spin de Kitaev-Heisenberg favorise alors la formation de paires de Cooper dans un état triplet autour de ces centres de symétrie. La condensation de ces paires de Cooper autour de ces vecteurs d'onde non triviaux se manifeste par une modulation spatiale du paramètre d'ordre supraconducteur, comme dans la supraconductivité de Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO). La dernière partie de la thèse propose et étudie une implémentation des phases topologiques dite de Haldane et de Kane-Mele dans un système avec deux espèces de fermions sur le réseau en nid d'abeille, stabilisée grâce à l’interaction RKKY médiée par l’espèce rapide et qui agit sur l’espèce lente. / This thesis is dedicated largely to the study of theoretical models describing interacting fermions with a spin-orbit coupling. These models (i) can describe a class of 2D iridate materials on the honeycomb lattice or (ii) could be realized artificially in ultra-cold gases in optical lattices. We have studied, in the first part, the half-filled honeycomb lattice model with on-site Hubbard interaction and anisotropic spin-orbit coupling. We find several different phases: the topological insulator phase at weak coupling, and two frustrated magnetic phases, the Néel order and spiral order, in the limit of strong correlations. The transition between the weak and strong correlation regimes is a Mott transition, through which electrons are fractionalized into spins and charges. Charges are localized by the interactions. The spin sector exhibits strong fluctuations which are modeled by an instanton gas. Then, we have explored a system described by the Kitaev-Heisenberg spin Hamiltonian at half-filling, which exhibits a zig-zag magnetic order. While doping the system around the quarter filling, the band structure presents novel symmetry centers apart from the inversion symmetry point. The Kitaev-Heisenberg coupling favors the formation of triplet Cooper pairs around these new symmetry centers. The condensation of these pairs around these non-trivial wave vectors is manifested by the spatial modulation of the superconducting order parameter, by analogy to the Fulde–Ferrell–Larkin–Ovchinnikov (FFLO) superconductivity. The last part of the thesis is dedicated to an implementation of the Haldane and Kane-Mele topological phases in a system composed of two fermionic species on the honeycomb lattice. The driving mechanism is the RKKY interaction induced by the fast fermion species on the slower one.

Les systèmes multiferroïques magnéto-électriques sont des matériaux multifonctionnels très importants du point de vue des applications dans le domaine de l’électronique ou de la spintronique puisqu’ils présentent simultanément des ordres électriques et magnétiques généralement couplés. Ils peuvent donc répondre à la fois à l’application d’un champ magnétique et d’un champ électrique. L’une des familles de multiferroïques magnéto-électriques les plus étudiées est la série RMn₂O₅ où R est une terre rare. Ma thèse porte sur le rôle de la terre rare sur le caractère multiferroïque et sur les propriétés magnétiques de ces composés. De nombreux travaux ont déjà été publiés mais très peu concernent les composés SmMn₂O₅ et GdMn₂O₅, difficiles à étudier aux neutrons. Pourtant ce sont des composés clés, à la frontière entre des composés à terres rares légères qui ne sont pas multiferroïques et ceux à terres rares lourdes qui le sont. Je me suis donc intéressé à ces composés. Grâce à une étude théorique basée sur une analyse de symétrie et des calculs numériques ab initio tenant compte du fort couplage spin-orbite, nous avons pu prévoir un modèle pour l’ordre magnétique stabilisé dans Sm et Gd. Nous avons en parallèle étudié expérimentalement les structures magnétiques pour ces deux composés par le biais d’une analyse des donnés de diffraction de neutrons sur poudre utilisant des matériaux isotopes de Sm et Gd. Ma thèse a permis d’une part de valider le mécanisme d’échange striction comme origine du couplage magnéto-électrique dans cette série importante de multiferroïques. Elle a permis d’autre part de mettre en évidence l’existence d’une interaction d’échange supplémentaire dans GdMn₂O₅, à l’origine de la forte polarisation électrique dans ce membre de la série. Ces résultats amènent plus de clarté à la compréhension de la multiferroïcité dans ces systèmes. / The magneto-electric multiferroic systems are multifunctional materials very important for applications in the field of electronics or spintronics since they present simultaneously electrical and magnetic orders, which are generally coupled. They can thus respond to both the application of a magnetic field and an electric field. One of the most studied magneto-electric multiferroic families is the RMn₂O₅ series where R is a rare earth. My thesis deals with the role of rare earth on the multiferroic and the magnetic properties of these compounds. Numerous works have already been published, but very few concern the compounds SmMn₂O₅ and GdMn₂O₅, difficult to study with neutrons. Yet these are key compounds, on the border between light rare earth compounds that are not multiferroic and heavy rare earths that are. This explains my interest for these compounds. Using a theoretical study based on a symmetry analysis and numerical calculations ab initio taking into account the strong spin-orbit coupling, we were able to predict a model for the stabilized magnetic order in Sm and Gd. We have experimentally studied the magnetic structures for these two compounds by means of an analysis of the powder neutron diffraction data using Sm and Gd isotopes. On one hand, my thesis allowed to validate the mechanism of exchange striction as origin of the magnetoelectric coupling in this important series of multiferroics. On the other hand, it has made it possible to demonstrate the existence of an additional exchange interaction in GdMn₂O₅, at the origin of the strong electrical polarization in this member of the series. These results provide greater clarity to the understanding of multiferroicity in these systems.

Les matériaux corrélés offrent une richesse de nouveaux phénomènes, dont beaucoup ne sont pas encore - ou seulement partiellement - compris. Au centre de cette thèse sont des modèles multi-orbitalaires que j'etudie à travers une palette de méthodes, dont la théorie du champ moyen dynamique. Dans le modèle de Hubbard multi-orbitalaire proche de la transition de Mott, je mets en évidence un régime de mauvais métal induit par le couplage de Hund. Les propriétés de la transition de Mott dans ce système sont analysées. Dans un deuxèime temps, je traite un modèle élargi pour inclure des degrés de liberté des ligands dans les oxydes. Plus spécifiquement, cette thèse étudie les effets des interactions inter-couches entre orbitales corrélés d'un atome de métal de transition et les orbitales p des ligands. Une partie du travail est dédiée au développement de nouvelles méthodes dont une approche de rotateurs esclaves à ce problème. Le dernier chapitre concerne le domaine de la spintronique moléculaire, où j'étudie la physique du "spin-state switching" en fonction de l'hybridation d'un ion de métal de transition avec ses ligands dans les molecules organométalliques du type porphyrine de nickel. / The physics of correlated materials offers a wealth of new phenomena, many of which are not yet - or only partially - understood. In this thesis, we focus on multi-orbital models, which we study using various methods, including dynamical mean-field theory. We show that in the multi-orbital Hubbard model close to the Mott transition, Hund's coupling gives rise to a bad metal regime the properties of which we analyze. Furthermore, we consider a more general class of models that include oxygen ligands. More specifically, we study the effect of inter-shell interactions between correlated metal- and ligand p-orbitals. In this context, we develop and test a new slave-rotor approach to treat such interactions in an effective manner. The final chapter constitutes an excursion to the field of molecular spintronics, where we study the physics of the hybridization-induced spin-state switching in organometallic nickel porphyrin molecules.

Thermal conductivity and thermopower measurements in strongly correlated electron systems at low temperatures

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.

CeCu_2Si_2 was the first heavy-fermion compound showing signatures of bulk superconductivity (T_c = 0.5 K). Further observations have put in evidence the correlations between superconductivity, magnetic order, Kondo physics, and quantum critical phenomena. In spite of the interest generated, a systematic study of such correlations was hampered by strong sample dependences. Fortunately, the inherent complexity associated to the stoichiometric composition has been recently understood. The availability of single-crystals with well-defined properties has thus reignited the interest in CeCu_2Si_2 as a window to novel phenomena, such as unconventional superconductivity. The present work summarizes the results of my doctoral research. It exemplifies the importance not only of high-quality materials, but also of suitable experimental techniques. A first step in this project involved the design of angle-dependent techniques in the milli-kelvin range, namely: electrical resistivity and thermal conductivity. It comprised the development of a rotational stage, the construction of sample holders, and the implementation of controlling and measuring components. In the second part of the project, electrical- and thermal-transport measurements on CeCu_2Si_2 were performed. Power-law behavior below T_c in the thermal conductivity suggests the presence of lines of nodes in the gap function. Also, the non-vanishing extrapolated residual terms (k_00/T ) support the presence of a residual density of states. The nodes are broadened by potential scattering, which appears to be significant in CeCu_2Si_2. The scattering hinders the determination of the symmetry of the order parameter and might be responsible for the observed isotropic angle dependence of the thermal conductivity. In contrast, angle-dependent measurements of the upper critical field exhibit a four-folded behavior, which also points towards the presence of nodes. By comparing with a weak-coupling model including the effects of Pauli limiting and anisotropic Fermi velocity, the results point towards a d_xy-wave symmetry of the order parameter. Such results represent the first angle-dependent measurements supporting a d-wave symmetry in CeCu_2Si_2.