Nature of the insulating phases in the half-filled ionic Hubbard model

We investigate the ground-state phase diagram of the one-dimensional 'ionic' Hubbard model with an alternating periodic potential at half-filling by numerical diagonalization of finite systems with the Lanczos and density matrix renormalization group methods. We identify an insulator–insulator phase transition from a band to a correlated insulator with simultaneous charge and bond-charge order. The transition point is characterized by the vanishing of the optical excitation gap while simultaneously the charge and spin gaps remain finite and equal. Indications for a possible second transition into a Mott-insulator phase are discussed.