Raman scattering near a quantum critical point

Abstract

Electronic Raman scattering experiments in a wide variety of materials (ranging from mixed-valence materials to Kondo insulators to high-temperature superconductors) show anomalous behavior in the B_{1g} channel when the system is on the insulating side of the metal-insulator transition. Here we provide an exact solution for B_{1g} Raman scattering in the Falicov-Kimball model, show how these theoretical results are universal near the metal-insulator transition and show how they produce the two main features seen in experiments near a quantum critical point: (i) the rapid appearance of low-energy spectral weight as T is increased from 0 and (ii) the existence of an isosbestic point (where the Raman response is independent of T at a characteristic frequency).