Electrostatic- and Parallel Magnetic Field- Tuned Two Dimensional Superconductor-Insulator Transitions

The 2D superconductor-insulator transition in disordered ultrathin amorphous bismuth films has been tuned both by electrostatic electron doping using the electric field effect and by the application of parallel magnetic fields. Electrostatic doping was carried out in both zero and nonzero magnetic fields, and magnetic tuning was conducted at multiple strengths of electrostatically induced superconductivity. The transitions were analyzed using finite size scaling with critical exponent products nu*z = 0.65-0.7. The parallel critical magnetic field increased with electron transfer as (dn_c-dn)^0.33, where dn is the electron transfer and dn_c is its critical value, and the critical resistance decreased linearly with dn. However at lower temperatures, in the insulating regime, the resistance became larger than expected from extrapolation of its temperature dependence at higher temperatures, and scaling failed. These observations imply that although the electrostatic- and parallel magnetic field- tuned superconductor-insulator transitions would appear to belong to the same universality class and to be delineated by a robust phase boundary that can be crossed either by tuning electron density or magnetic field, in the case of the field-tuned transition at the lowest temperatures, some different type of physical behavior turns on in the insulating regime.Comment: About 11 pages, with 14 figures. To be submitted to Phys Rev

Optical conductivity of a granular metal at not very low temperatures

We study the finite-temperature optical conductivity, sigma(omega,T), of a granular metal using a simple model consisting of a array of spherical metallic grains. It is necessary to include quantum tunneling and Coulomb blockade effects to obtain the correct temperature dependence of sigma(omega, T), and to consider polarization oscillations to obtain the correct frequency dependence. We have therefore generalized the Ambegaokar-Eckern-Schoen (AES) model for granular metals to obtain an effective field theory incorporating the polarization fluctuations of the individual metallic grains. In contrast to the DC conductivity, which is determined by inter-grain charge transfer and obeys an Arrhenius law at low temperature, the AC conductivity is dominated by a resonance peak for intra-grain polarization oscillations, which has a power-law tail at low frequencies. More importantly, although the resonance frequency agrees with the classical prediction, the resonance width depends on intergrain quantum tunneling and Coulomb blockade parameters, in addition to the classical Drude relaxation within the grain. This additional damping is due to inelastic cotunneling of polarization fluctuations to neighbouring grains and it qualitatively differs from the DC conductivity in its temperature dependence quite unlike the expectation from Drude theory.Comment: Added figures, published version, 16 pages, REVTe

Apparent Metallic Behavior at B = 0 of a two-dimensional electron system in AlAs

We report the observation of metallic-like behavior at low temperatures and zero magnetic field in two dimensional (2D) electrons in an AlAs quantum well. At high densities the resistance of the sample decreases with decreasing temperature, but as the density is reduced the behavior changes to insulating, with the resistance increasing as the temperature is decreased. The effect is similar to that observed in 2D electrons in Si-MOSFETs, and in 2D holes in SiGe and GaAs, and points to the generality of this phenomenon

Breakdown of the Korringa Law of Nuclear Spin Relaxation in Metallic GaAs

We present nuclear spin relaxation measurements in GaAs epilayers using a new pump-probe technique in all-electrical, lateral spin-valve devices. The measured T1 times agree very well with NMR data available for T > 1 K. However, the nuclear spin relaxation rate clearly deviates from the well-established Korringa law expected in metallic samples and follows a sub-linear temperature dependence 1/T1 ~ T^0.6 for 0.1 K < T < 10 K. Further, we investigate nuclear spin inhomogeneities.Comment: 5 pages, 4 (color) figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1109.633

Effect of granularity on the insulator-superconductor transition in ultrathin Bi films

We have studied the insulator-superconductor transition (IST) by tuning the thickness in quench-condensed $Bi$ films. The resistive transitions of the superconducting films are smooth and can be considered to represent "homogeneous" films. The observation of an IST very close to the quantum resistance for pairs, $R_{\Box}^N \sim h/4e^2$ on several substrates supports this idea. The relevant length scales here are the localization length, and the coherence length. However, at the transition, the localization length is much higher than the superconducting coherence length, contrary to expectation for a "homogeneous" transition. This suggests the invalidity of a purely fermionic model for the transition. Furthermore, the current-voltage characteristics of the superconducting films are hysteretic, and show the films to be granular. The relevant energy scales here are the Josephson coupling energy and the charging energy. However, Josephson coupling energies ($E_J$) and the charging energies ($E_c$) at the IST, they are found to obey the relation $E_J < E_c$. This is again contrary to expectation, for the IST in a granular or inhomogeneous, system. Hence, a purely bosonic picture of the transition is also inconsistent with our observations. We conclude that the IST observed in our experiments may be either an intermediate case between the fermioinc and bosonic mechanisms, or in a regime of charge and vortex dynamics for which a quantitative analysis has not yet been done.Comment: accepted in Physical Review

Effect of Tilted Magnetic Field on the Anomalous H=0 Conducting Phase in High-Mobility Si MOSFETs

The suppression by a magnetic field of the anomalous H=0 conducting phase in high-mobility silicon MOSFETs is independent of the angle between the field and the plane of the 2D electron system. In the presence of a parallel field large enough to fully quench the anomalous conducting phase, the behavior is similar to that of disordered GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures: the system is insulating in zero (perpendicular) field and exhibits reentrant insulator-quantum Hall effect-insulator transitions as a function of perpendicular field. The results demonstrate that the suppression of the low-T phase is related only to the electrons' spin.Comment: 4 pages, including 3 figures. We corrected several typos in the figures and caption

Defects in correlated metals and superconductors

In materials with strong local Coulomb interactions, simple defects such as atomic substitutions strongly affect both macroscopic and local properties of the system. A nonmagnetic impurity, for instance, is seen to induce magnetism nearby. Even without disorder, models of such correlated systems are generally not soluble in 2 or 3 dimensions, and so few exact results are known for the properties of such impurities. Nevertheless, some simple physical ideas have emerged from experiments and approximate theories. Here, we first review what we can learn about this problem from 1D antiferromagnetically correlated systems. We then discuss experiments on the high Tc cuprate normal state which probe the effect of impurities on local charge and spin degrees of freedom, and compare with theories of single impurities in correlated hosts, as well as phenomenological effective Kondo descriptions. Subsequently, we review theories of impurities in d-wave superconductors including residual quasiparticle interactions, and compare with experiments in the superconducting state. We argue that existing data exhibit a remarkable similarity to impurity-induced magnetism in the 1D case, implying the importance of electronic correlations for the understanding of these phenomena, and suggesting that impurities may provide excellent probes of the still poorly understood ground state of the cuprates.Comment: 66 pages, 48 figures, review articl

X-Ray Fluorescence Determination of Major Elements in Powder Chromium Ore Samples Prepared as Pressed Pellets

Предложен способ рентгенофлуоресцентного определения основных элементов (Cr, Fe, Si, Al, Mg), а также Mn и Ti в порошковых пробах хромовых руд. Измерения проводили на волноводисперсионном рентгенофлуоресцентном спектрометре S 4 Pioneer (Bruker AXS). Подготовка проб включала дополнительное измельчение порошков калибровочных образцов и анализируемых проб, которое обеспечивало размер частиц порошка менее 50 мкм. Для измерения готовили таблетки прессованием порошков на подложке из борной кислоты. Дополнительное измельчение позволило уменьшить влияние гранулометрического состава порошков на погрешность определения главных полезных компонентов: хрома и железа. В качестве калибровочной функции использовали эмпирическое уравнение Лукаса-Туса, имеющееся в опциях программного обеспечения спектрометра. Отклонения результатов рентгенофлуоресцентного анализа от результатов химического анализа с фотометрическим или атомно-абсорбционным окончанием для четырех контрольных проб составили менее: 0.34 % мас. для Cr2O3 (в диапазоне 18–56 % мас.), 0.16 % мас. для Fe2O3 (в диапазоне 10–26 % мас.), 0.29 % мас. для Al2O3 (в диапазоне 5–20 % мас.), 0.013 % мас. для MnO (в диапазоне 0.1–0.2 % мас.), 0.03 % мас. для TiO2 (в диапазоне 0.09–0.67 % мас.). Для MgO (в диапазоне 14–32 % мас.) и SiO2 (в диапазоне 2–22 % мас.) погрешность определения может быть более 1 % мас., что превышает допустимую для количественного определенияX‑ray fluorescence techniques is proposed for the determination of the main elements (Cr, Fe, Si, Al, Mg), as well as Mn and Ti, in powder samples of chromium ores. The measurements were carried out using wavelength- dispersive X‑ray fluorescence spectrometer S 4 Pioneer (Bruker AXS). Sample preparation included additional grinding of calibration and analyzed samples, which ensured a powder particle size of less than 50 μm. Pellets were prepared for measurements by pressing powders on a boric acid substrate. Additional grinding made it possible to reduce the influence of the granulometric composition of powders on the error in determining the main useful components: chromium and iron. The available in the software options of the spectrometer empirical Lucas- Tooth equation was used as a calibration function. Deviations between X‑ray fluorescence and chemical analysis (photometry or atomic absorption spectrometry) results for four test samples were less than: 0.34 wt.% for Cr2O3 (in the range of 18–56 wt.%), 0.16 wt.% for Fe2O3 (in the range of 10–26 wt.%), 0.29 wt.% for Al2O3 (in the range of 5–20 wt.%), 0.013 wt.% for MnO (in the range of 0.1–0.2 wt.%), 0.03 wt.% for TiO2 (in the range of 0.09–0.67 wt.%). For the MgO (in the range of 14–32 wt.%) and SiO2, (in the range of 2–22 wt.%), the error can be more than 1 wt.% that exceeds the allowable error for quantitative determinatio

The renormalization group for interacting fermions: from Fermi liquids to quantum dots

The renormalization group approach as developed by the author for Fermi liquids is applied to clean Fermi liquids and ballistic quantum dots. In the former case Landau theory is shown to be a fixed point and in the latter the Universal Hamiltonian is shown to be a fixed point for weak coupling. The strong coupling phase is analyzed using large N and Random Matrix methods.Comment: Lectures given at the Fifteenth Chris Engelbrecht Summer School South Africa, January 2004. 6 eps figs and springer style file (svmult