12,569 research outputs found
Anomalous infrared spectra of hybridized phonons in type-I clathrate BaGaGe
The optical conductivity spectra of the rattling phonons in the clathrate
BaGaGe are investigated in detail by use of the terahertz
time-domain spectroscopy. The experiment has revealed that the lowest-lying
vibrational mode of a Ba(2) ion consists of a sharp Lorentzian peak at
1.2 THz superimposed on a broad tail weighted in the lower frequency regime
around 1.0 THz. With decreasing temperature, an unexpected linewidth broadening
of the phonon peak is observed, together with monotonic softening of the phonon
peak and the enhancement of the tail structure. These observed anomalies are
discussed in terms of impurity scattering effects on the hybridized phonon
system of rattling and acoustic phonons.Comment: Submitted to JPS
Cage-size control of guest vibration and thermal conductivity in Sr8Ga16Si30-xGex
We present a systematic study of thermal conductivity, specific heat,
electrical resistivity, thermopower and x-ray diffraction measurements
performed on single-crystalline samples of the pseudoquaternary type-I
clathrate system Sr8Ga16Si30-xGex, in the full range of 0 < x < 30. All the
samples show metallic behavior with n-type majority carriers. However, the
thermal conductivity and specific heat strongly depend on x. Upon increasing x
from 0 to 30, the lattice parameter increases by 3%, from 10.446 to 10.726 A,
and the localized vibrational energies of the Sr guest ions in the
tetrakaidekahedron (dodecahedron) cages decrease from 59 (120) K to 35 (90) K.
Furthermore, the lattice thermal conductivity at low temperatures is largely
suppressed. In fact, a crystalline peak found at 15 K for x = 0 gradually
decreases and disappears for x > 20, evolving into the anomalous glass-like
behavior observed for x = 30. It is found that the increase of the free space
for the Sr guest motion directly correlates with a continuous transition from
on-center harmonic vibration to off-center anharmonic vibration, with
consequent increase in the coupling strength between the guest's low-energy
modes and the cage's acoustic phonon modes.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, submitted to PR
Direct observation of Fe spin reorientation in single crystalline YbFe6Ge6
We have grown single crystals of YbFe6Ge6 and LuFe6Ge6 and characterized
their anisotropic behaviour through low field magnetic susceptibility,
field-dependent magnetization, resistivity and heat capacity measurements. The
Yb+3 valency is confirmed by LIII XANES measurements. YbFe6Ge6 crystals exhibit
a field-dependent, sudden reorientation of the Fe spins at about 63 K, a unique
effect in the RFe6Ge6 family (R = rare earths) where the Fe ions order
anti-ferromagnetically with Neel temperatures above 450 K and the R ions'
magnetism appears to behave independently. The possible origins of this unusual
behaviour of the ordered Fe moments in this compound are discussed.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted in J. Phys.: Cond. Matte
Unions, Wage Gaps, and Wage Dispersion: New Evidence from the Americas
Using a common methodology, the effects of unions on wage levels and wage dispersion are estimated for two neighboring countries, Bolivia and Chile, and for the U.S. The analysis shows that unions have broadly similar effects on the wage distribution within these three economies. The findings suggest that the political economy of unions, coupled with market constraints on labor costs, produce commonality in union wage effects that transcend other economic and institutional differences
Anomalously strong pinning of the filling factor nu=2 in epitaxial graphene
We explore the robust quantization of the Hall resistance in epitaxial
graphene grown on Si-terminated SiC. Uniquely to this system, the dominance of
quantum over classical capacitance in the charge transfer between the substrate
and graphene is such that Landau levels (in particular, the one at exactly zero
energy) remain completely filled over an extraordinarily broad range of
magnetic fields. One important implication of this pinning of the filling
factor is that the system can sustain a very high nondissipative current. This
makes epitaxial graphene ideally suited for quantum resistance metrology, and
we have achieved a precision of 3 parts in 10^10 in the Hall resistance
quantization measurements
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