32 research outputs found
Microstructure and Structural Defects in MgB2 Superconductor
We report a detailed study of the microstructure and defects in sintered
polycrystalline MgB2. Both TEM and x-ray data reveal that MgO is the major
second-phase in our bulk samples. Although MgB2 and MgO have different crystal
symmetries, being P6/mmm and Fm-3m, respectively, their stacking sequence of Mg
and B (or O) and lattice spacings in certain crystallographic orientations are
very similar. The size of MgO varies from 10~500nm, and its mismatch with the
MgB2 matrix can be a source for dislocations. Dislocations in MgB2 often have a
Burgers vector of . 1/3 and 1/3 partial dislocations and their
associated stacking faults were also observed. Since both dislocations and
stacking faults are located in the (001) basal plane, flux pinning anisotropy
is expected. Diffuse scattering analysis suggests that the correlation length
along the c-axis for defect-free basal planes is about 50nm. (001) twist
grain-boundaries, formed by rotations along the c-axis, are major grain
boundaries in MgB2 as a result of the out-of-plane weak bonding between Mg and
B atoms. An excess of Mg was observed in some grain boundaries. High-resolution
nano-probe EELS reveals that there is a difference in near edge structure of
the boron K-edge acquired from grain boundaries and grain interiors. The change
at the edge threshold may be suggestive of variation of the hole concentration
that would significantly alter boundary superconductivity.Comment: 20 pages and 12 figure
Synthesis and characterization of Na03RhO206H2O - a semiconductor with a weak ferromagnetic component
We have prepared the oxyhydrate Na03RhO206H2O by extracting Na+ cations from
NaRhO2 and intercalating water molecules using an aqueous solution of Na2S2O8.
Synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and
energy-dispersive x-ray analysis (EDX) reveal that a non-stoichiometric
Na03(H2O)06 network separates layers of edge-sharing RhO6 octahedra containing
Rh3+(4d6, S=0) and Rh4+ (4d5, S=1/2). The resistivities of NaRhO2 and
Na03RhO206H2O (T < 300) reveal insulating and semi-conducting behavior with
activation gaps of 134 meV and 7.8 meV, respectively. Both Na03RhO206H2O and
NaRhO2 show paramagnetism at room temperature, however, the sodium-deficient
sample exhibits simultaneously a weak but experimentally reproducible
ferromagnetic component. Both samples exhibit a temperature-independent Pauli
paramagnetism, for NaRhO2 at T > 50 K and for Na03RhO206H2O at T > 25 K. The
relative magnitudes of the temperature-independent magnetic susceptibilities,
that of the oxide sample being half that of the oxyhydrate, is consistent with
a higher density of thermally accessible electron states at the Fermi level in
the hydrated sample. At low temperatures the magnetic moments rise sharply,
providing evidence of localized and weakl -ordered electronic spins.Comment: 15 fages 5 figures Solid State Communications in prin
Unusual Ground State Properties of the Kondo-Lattice Compound Yb2Ir3Ge5
We report sample preparation, structure, electrical resistivity, magnetic
susceptibility and heat capacity studies of a new compound YbIrGe.
We find that this compound crystallizes in an orthorhombic structure with a
space group PMMN unlike the compound CeIrGe which crystallizes in
the tetragonal IBAM (UCoSi type) structure. Our resistivity
measurements indicate that the compound YbIrGe behaves like a
typical Kondo lattice system with no ordering down to 0.4 K. However, a
Curie-Weiss fit of the inverse magnetic susceptibility above 100 K gives an
effective moment of only 3.66 which is considerably less than the
theoretical value of 4.54 for magnetic Yb ions. The value of
= -15.19 K is also considerably higher indicating the presence of
strong hybridization. An upturn in the low temperature heat capacity gives an
indication that the system may order magnetically just below the lowest
temperature of our heat capacity measurements (0.4 K). The structure contains
two sites for Yb ions and the present investigation suggests that Yb may be
trivalent in one site while it may be significantly lower (close to divalent)
in the other.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures. submitted to Phys. Rev.
Antiferromagnetic ordering in the Kondo lattice system YbFeSi
Compounds belonging to the RFeSi series exhibit unusual
superconducting and magnetic properties. Although a number of studies have been
made on the first reentrant antiferromagnet superconductor TmFeSi,
the physical properties of YbFeSi are largely unexplored. In this
work, we attempt to provide a comprehensive study of bulk properties such as,
resistivity, susceptibility and heat-capacity of a well characterized
polycrystalline YbFeSi. Our measurements indicate that Yb
moments order antiferromagnetically below 1.7 K. Moreover, the system behaves
as a Kondo lattice with large Sommerfeld coefficient () of 0.5~J/Yb mol
K at 0.3 K, which is well below T. The absence of superconductivity
in YbFeSi down to 0.3 K at ambient pressure is attributed to the
presence of the Kondo effect.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figures, tex document. A fuller version has appeared in
PRB. Here we have omitted the figures showing the crystal structure and the
fitting of the X-ray pattern. Also the table with the lattice parameters
obtained from fitting has been remove
Glassy nature of stripe ordering in La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4)
We present the results of neutron-scattering studies on various aspects of
crystalline and magnetic structure in single crystals of
La(1.6-x)Nd(0.4)Sr(x)CuO(4) with x=0.12 and 0.15. In particular, we have
reexamined the degree of stripe order in an x=0.12 sample. Measurements of the
width for an elastic magnetic peak show that it saturates at a finite value
below 30 K, corresponding to a spin-spin correlation length of 200 A. A model
calculation indicates that the differing widths of magnetic and (previously
reported) charge-order peaks, together with the lack of commensurability, can
be consistently explained by disorder in the stripe spacing. Above 30 K, the
width of the nominally elastic signal begins to increase. Interpreting the
signal as critical scattering from slowly fluctuating spins, the temperature
dependence of the width is consistent with renormalized classical behavior of a
2-dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg antiferromagnet. Inelastic scattering
measurements show that incommensurate spin excitations survive at and above 50
K, where the elastic signal is neglible. We also report several results related
to the LTO-to-LTT transition.Comment: 13 pp, 2-col. REVTeX, 11 figures embedded with psfig; expanded
discussion of T-dep. of magnetic peak width; version to appear in Phys. Rev.
B (01Jun99
Synchrotron X-ray diffraction study of a charge stripe order in 1/8-doped LaBaSrCuO
Lattice distortions associated with charge stripe order in 1/8 hole-doped
LaBaSrCuO are studied using synchrotron X-ray
diffraction for and . The propagation wave vector and charge
order correlation lengths are determined with a high accuracy, revealing that
the oblique charge stripes in orthorhombic crystal are more
disordered than the aligned stripes in tetragonal crystal. The twofold
periodicity of lattice modulations along the c-axis is explained by long-range
Coulomb interactions between holes on neighboring CuO planes.Comment: 4pages, 4figures, Submitted to PR
Relationship between incommensurability and superconductivity in Peierls distorted charge-density-wave systems
We study the pairing potential induced by fluctuations around a
charge-density wave (CDW) with scattering vector Q by means of the Froehlich
transformation. For general commensurability M, defined as |k+M*Q>=|k>, we find
that the intraband pair scattering within the M subbands scales with M whereas
the interband pair scattering becomes suppressed with increasing CDW order
parameter. As a consequence superconductivity is suppressed when the Fermi
energy is located between the subbands as it is usually the case for nesting
induced CDW's, but due to the vertex renormalization it can be substantially
enhanced when the chemical potential is shifted sufficiently inside one of the
subbands. The model can help to understand the experimentally observed
dependence of the superconducting transition temperature from the stripe phase
incommensurability in the lanthanum cuprates.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Structural phase control of (LaNdSr)CuO thin films by epitaxial growth technique
Epitaxial growth of (LaNdSr)CuO thin films was
studied by pulsed-laser deposition technique on three different substrates,
SrTiO (100), LaSrAlO (001), and YAlO (001). The
(Nd,Sr,Ce)CuO-type structure appears at the initial growth stage on
SrTiO (100) when the film is deposited under the growth conditions
optimized for (La,Sr)CuO. This (Nd,Sr,Ce)CuO-type structure can
be eliminated by increasing the substrate temperature and the laser repetition
frequency. Films on LaSrAlO (001) maintain a LaCuO-type structure
as bulk samples, but those on YAlO (001) show phase separation into
LaCuO- and NdCuO-type structures. Such complicated results are
explained in terms of the competition between lattice misfit and thermodynamic
conditions. Interestingly the films with LaCuO-type structure prepared
on SrTiO and LaSrAlO show different surface structures and transport
properties. The results indicate the possibility of controlling charge stripes
of (LaNdSr)CuO as was demonstrated in
(La,Ba)CuO thin films by Sato et al. (Phys. Rev. B {\bf 62}, R799
(2000)).Comment: 5 pages, 6 EPS figure, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Magnetic Ordering and Superconductivity in the REIrGe (RE = Y, La-Tm, Lu) System
We find that the compounds for RE = Y, La-Dy, crystallize in the tetragonal
Ibam (UCoSi type) structure whereas the compounds for RE = Er-Lu,
crystallize in a new orthorhombic structure with a space group Pmmn. Samples of
HoIrGe were always found to be multiphase. The compounds for RE = Y
to Dy which adopt the Ibam type structure show a metallic resistivity whereas
the compounds with RE = Er, Tm and Lu show an anomalous behavior in the
resistivity with a semiconducting increase in as we go down in
temperature from 300K. Interestingly we had earlier found a positive
temperature coefficient of resistivity for the Yb sample in the same
temperature range. We will compare this behavior with similar observations in
the compounds RERuGe and REBiPt. LaIrGe and
YIrGe show bulk superconductivity below 1.8K and 2.5K respectively.
Our results confirm that CeIrGe shows a Kondo lattice behavior and
undergoes antiferromagnetic ordering below 8.5K. Most of the other compounds
containing magnetic rare-earth elements undergo a single antiferromagnetic
transition at low temperatures (T12K) while GdIrGe,
DyIrGe and NdIrGe show multiple transitions. The
T's for most of the compounds roughly scale with the de Gennes factor.
which suggests that the chief mechanism of interaction leading to the magnetic
ordering of the magnetic moments may be the RKKY interaction.Comment: 25 pages, 16 figure