382 Ch.

7 Itinerant Electron Magnetism

structure is approximately nesting (Fig. 7.4), and that is good enough

as an argument for a weak-coupling SDW. Postulating a q = 2kF mod-
ulation n,j N rnq(a)cos ( q j ) , we get f 2 k ~components of the effective
field, and the subsequent derivation is very much the same as in the
half-filled case. The results are qualitatively applicable to many quasi-
one-dimensional systems [ 1381.
For higher-dimensional systems, at less than half filling, the most
that can be expected is that there is approximate nesting over certain
regions of the Fermi surface. A weak SDW can gap away only the
flat parts of the Fermi surface, leaving behind a metal with a reduced
number of free carriers (we will describe some of the experimental conse-
quences in our discussion of chromium in Sec. 7.7). We need a treatment
of metallic SDW systems.
There is no reason why the simplest two-sublattice order specified
in (7.51) could not be tried at less-than (or more-than) half-filling. Suf-
ficiently close to half-filling, the spin order is expected to be approx-
imately alternating from site to site. Furthermore, some treatments
indicate that the two-sublattice state may survive inside a finite range
of band filling [118,419, 3081. It has been argued that in the weak cou-
pling limit, the two-sublattice state is the stable homogeneous ground
state3' in D 2 3. The one-dimensional illustration in Fig. 7.3 gives an
idea of the state of affairs in any dimension. For n < 1/2, kF lies inside
the new Brillouin zone, and the lower SDW band is only partially filled
(see the part drawn in thick line). For n > 1/2, one has to start filling
up the upper SDW band. The two-sublattice antiferromagnetic order
is not quite so stable as at half-filling, either because we do not utilize
all the states which have an energy lowering, or because we begin to
fill also states which have been raised. One consequence of this is that
the ordering is no longer an infinitesimal-U instability but one needs a
finite threshold value U,,to get a spin density wave. For simple lattice
structures, the transition is second-order, and the critical U,,is given by
the generalized Stoner criterion (7.45). Away from half-filling, all states
are metallic: we work in the band picture with partially filled bands.
The expectation of a two-sublattice ordering is well-founded for bi-
30However, phase segregation into an insulating antiferromagnet and a metallic
paramagnet gives a lower total energy. See p. 568 and p. 589.