356 research outputs found
Probing the Role of the Barrier Layer in Magnetic Tunnel Junction Transport
Magnetic tunnel junctions with a ferrimagnetic barrier layer have been
studied to understand the role of the barrier layer in the tunneling process -
a factor that has been largely overlooked until recently. Epitaxial oxide
junctions of highly spin polarized La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 and Fe3O4 electrodes with
magnetic NiMn2O4 (NMO) insulating barrier layers provide a magnetic tunnel
junction system in which we can probe the effect of the barrier by comparing
junction behavior above and below the Curie temperature of the barrier layer.
When the barrier is paramagnetic, the spin polarized transport is dominated by
interface scattering and surface spin waves; however, when the barrier is
ferrimagnetic, spin flip scattering due to spin waves within the NMO barrier
dominates the transport.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figure
Visualizing the emergence of the pseudogap state and the evolution to superconductivity in a lightly hole-doped Mott insulator
Superconductivity emerges from the cuprate antiferromagnetic Mott state with
hole doping. The resulting electronic structure is not understood, although
changes in the state of oxygen atoms appear paramount. Hole doping first
destroys the Mott state yielding a weak insulator where electrons localize only
at low temperatures without a full energy gap. At higher doping, the
'pseudogap', a weakly conducting state with an anisotropic energy gap and
intra-unit-cell breaking of 90\degree-rotational (C4v) symmetry appears.
However, a direct visualization of the emergence of these phenomena with
increasing hole density has never been achieved. Here we report atomic-scale
imaging of electronic structure evolution from the weak-insulator through the
emergence of the pseudogap to the superconducting state in Ca2-xNaxCuO2Cl2. The
spectral signature of the pseudogap emerges at lowest doping from a weakly
insulating but C4v-symmetric matrix exhibiting a distinct spectral shape. At
slightly higher hole-density, nanoscale regions exhibiting pseudogap spectra
and 180\degree-rotational (C2v) symmetry form unidirectional clusters within
the C4v-symmetric matrix. Thus, hole-doping proceeds by the appearance of
nanoscale clusters of localized holes within which the broken-symmetry
pseudogap state is stabilized. A fundamentally two-component electronic
structure11 then exists in Ca2-xNaxCuO2Cl2 until the C2v-symmetric clusters
touch at higher doping, and the long-range superconductivity appears.Comment: See the Nature Physics website for the published version available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/Nphys232
A momentum-dependent perspective on quasiparticle interference in Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+\delta}
Angle Resolved Photoemission Spectroscopy (ARPES) probes the momentum-space
electronic structure of materials, and provides invaluable information about
the high-temperature superconducting cuprates. Likewise, the cuprate
real-space, inhomogeneous electronic structure is elucidated by Scanning
Tunneling Spectroscopy (STS). Recently, STS has exploited quasiparticle
interference (QPI) - wave-like electrons scattering off impurities to produce
periodic interference patterns - to infer properties of the QP in
momentum-space. Surprisingly, some interference peaks in
Bi_{2}Sr_{2}CaCu_{2}O_{8+\delta} (Bi-2212) are absent beyond the
antiferromagnetic (AF) zone boundary, implying the dominance of particular
scattering process. Here, we show that ARPES sees no evidence of quasiparticle
(QP) extinction: QP-like peaks are measured everywhere on the Fermi surface,
evolving smoothly across the AF zone boundary. This apparent contradiction
stems from different natures of single-particle (ARPES) and two-particle (STS)
processes underlying these probes. Using a simple model, we demonstrate
extinction of QPI without implying the loss of QP beyond the AF zone boundary
Universality of pseudogap and emergent order in lightly doped Mott insulators
It is widely believed that high-temperature superconductivity in the cuprates
emerges from doped Mott insulators. The physics of the parent state seems
deceivingly simple: The hopping of the electrons from site to site is
prohibited because their on-site Coulomb repulsion U is larger than the kinetic
energy gain t. When doping these materials by inserting a small percentage of
extra carriers, the electrons become mobile but the strong correlations from
the Mott state are thought to survive; inhomogeneous electronic order, a
mysterious pseudogap and, eventually, superconductivity appear. How the
insertion of dopant atoms drives this evolution is not known, nor whether these
phenomena are mere distractions specific to hole-doped cuprates or represent
the genuine physics of doped Mott insulators. Here, we visualize the evolution
of the electronic states of (Sr1-xLax)2IrO4, which is an effective spin-1/2
Mott insulator like the cuprates, but is chemically radically different. Using
spectroscopic-imaging STM, we find that for doping concentration of x=5%, an
inhomogeneous, phase separated state emerges, with the nucleation of pseudogap
puddles around clusters of dopant atoms. Within these puddles, we observe the
same glassy electronic order that is so iconic for the underdoped cuprates.
Further, we illuminate the genesis of this state using the unique possibility
to localize dopant atoms on topographs in these samples. At low doping, we find
evidence for much deeper trapping of carriers compared to the cuprates. This
leads to fully gapped spectra with the chemical potential at mid-gap, which
abruptly collapse at a threshold of around 4%. Our results clarify the melting
of the Mott state, and establish phase separation and electronic order as
generic features of doped Mott insulators.Comment: This version contains the supplementary information and small updates
on figures and tex
Spectroscopic scanning tunneling microscopy insights into Fe-based superconductors
In the first three years since the discovery of Fe-based high Tc
superconductors, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy have shed
light on three important questions. First, STM has demonstrated the complexity
of the pairing symmetry in Fe-based materials. Phase-sensitive quasiparticle
interference (QPI) imaging and low temperature spectroscopy have shown that the
pairing order parameter varies from nodal to nodeless s\pm within a single
family, FeTe1-xSex. Second, STM has imaged C4 -> C2 symmetry breaking in the
electronic states of both parent and superconducting materials. As a local
probe, STM is in a strong position to understand the interactions between these
broken symmetry states and superconductivity. Finally, STM has been used to
image the vortex state, giving insights into the technical problem of vortex
pinning, and the fundamental problem of the competing states introduced when
superconductivity is locally quenched by a magnetic field. Here we give a
pedagogical introduction to STM and QPI imaging, discuss the specific
challenges associated with extracting bulk properties from the study of
surfaces, and report on progress made in understanding Fe-based superconductors
using STM techniques.Comment: 36 pages, 23 figures, 229 reference
Factors predicting cessation of status epilepticus in clinical practice: Data from a prospective observational registry (SENSE).
To investigate the initial termination rate of status epilepticus (SE) in a large observational study and explore associated variables.
Data of adults treated for SE were collected prospectively in centers in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, during 4.5 years. Incident episodes of 1,049 patients were analyzed using uni- and multivariate statistics to determine factors predicting cessation of SE within 1 hour (for generalized convulsive SE [GCSE]) and 12 hours (for non-GCSE) of initiating treatment.
Median age at SE onset was 70 years; most frequent etiologies were remote (32%) and acute (31%). GCSE was documented in 43%. Median latency between SE onset and first treatment was 30 minutes in GCSE and 150 minutes in non-GCSE. The first intravenous compound was a benzodiazepine in 86% in GCSE and 73% in non-GCSE. Bolus doses of the first treatment step were lower than recommended by current guidelines in 76% of GCSE patients and 78% of non-GCSE patients. In 319 GCSE patients (70%), SE was ongoing 1 hour after initiating treatment and in 342 non-GCSE patients (58%) 12 hours after initiating treatment. Multivariate Cox regression demonstrated that use of benzodiazepines as first treatment step and a higher cumulative dose of anticonvulsants within the first period of treatment were associated with shorter time to cessation of SE for both groups.
In clinical practice, treatment guidelines were not followed in a substantial proportion of patients. This underdosing correlated with lack of cessation of SE. Our data suggest that sufficiently dosed benzodiazepines should be used as a first treatment step. ANN NEUROL 2019;85:421-432
Mechanistic origins of variability in phytoplankton dynamics. Part II: analysis of mesocosm blooms under climate change scenarios
Driving factors of phytoplankton spring blooms have been discussed since long, but rarely analyzed quantitatively. Here, we use a mechanistic size-based ecosystem model to reconstruct observations made during the Kiel mesocosm experiments (2005–2006). The model accurately hindcasts highly variable bloom developments including community shifts in cell size. Under low light, phytoplankton dynamics was mostly controlled by selective mesozooplankton grazing. Selective grazing also explains initial dominance of large diatoms under high light conditions. All blooms were mainly terminated by aggregation and sedimentation. Allometries in nutrient uptake capabilities led to a delayed, post-bloom dominance of small species. In general, biomass and trait dynamics revealed many mutual dependencies, while growth factors decoupled from the respective selective forces. A size shift induced by one factor often changed the growth dependency on other factors. Within climate change scenarios, these indirect effects produced large sensitivities of ecosystem fluxes to the size distribution of winter phytoplankton. These sensitivities exceeded those found for changes in vertical mixing, whereas temperature changes only had minimal impacts
How Cooper pairs vanish approaching the Mott insulator in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d
The antiferromagnetic ground state of copper oxide Mott insulators is
achieved by localizing an electron at each copper atom in real space (r-space).
Removing a small fraction of these electrons (hole doping) transforms this
system into a superconducting fluid of delocalized Cooper pairs in momentum
space (k-space). During this transformation, two distinctive classes of
electronic excitations appear. At high energies, the enigmatic 'pseudogap'
excitations are found, whereas, at lower energies, Bogoliubov quasi-particles
-- the excitations resulting from the breaking of Cooper pairs -- should exist.
To explore this transformation, and to identify the two excitation types, we
have imaged the electronic structure of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d in r-space and k-space
simultaneously. We find that although the low energy excitations are indeed
Bogoliubov quasi-particles, they occupy only a restricted region of k-space
that shrinks rapidly with diminishing hole density. Concomitantly, spectral
weight is transferred to higher energy r-space states that lack the
characteristics of excitations from delocalized Cooper pairs. Instead, these
states break translational and rotational symmetries locally at the atomic
scale in an energy independent fashion. We demonstrate that these unusual
r-space excitations are, in fact, the pseudogap states. Thus, as the Mott
insulating state is approached by decreasing the hole density, the delocalized
Cooper pairs vanish from k-space, to be replaced by locally translational- and
rotational-symmetry-breaking pseudogap states in r-space.Comment: This is author's version. See the Nature website for the published
versio
- …