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Evidences of a consolute critical point in the Phase Separation regime of La(5/8-y)Pr(y)Ca(3/8)MnO(3) (y = 0.4) single crystals
We report on DC and pulsed electric field sensitivity of the resistance of
mixed valent Mn oxide based La(5/8-y)Pr(y)Ca(3/8)MnO(3) (y = 0.4) single
crystals as a function of temperature. The low temperature regime of the
resistivity is highly current and voltage dependent. An irreversible transition
from high (HR) to a low resistivity (LR) is obtained upon the increase of the
electric field up to a temperature dependent critical value (V_c). The
current-voltage characteristics in the LR regime as well as the lack of a
variation in the magnetization response when V_c is reached indicate the
formation of a non-single connected filamentary conducting path. The
temperature dependence of V_c indicates the existence of a consolute point
where the conducting and insulating phases produce a critical behavior as a
consequence of their separation.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, corresponding author: C. Acha ([email protected]
Effect of impurities on quasi-2D quantum antiferromagnet
We have studied the static and dynamic properties of quasi-two-dimensional
quantum antiferromagnets (AF) diluted with spinless impurities using spin-wave
theory and -matrix approximation. We show that the spectrum of a 2D AF at
long wavelengths is overdamped at arbitrary concentration of spinless
impurities. The scattering leads to a new length scale , being impurity concentration and the lattice spacing,
beyond which the influence of impurities on the spectrum is dominant. Although
the dynamical properties are significantly modified we show that 2D is not the
lower critical dimension for this problem. Thus, in low-dimensional systems
with disorder the connection between static and dynamic quantities is not
straightforward. Our results are in quantitative agreement with the recent
Monte Carlo simulations and experimental data for , S=1, and . We
have also proposed experiments which can further test the results of our
theory.Comment: RevTeX, 3 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of the 46 Conference on
Magnetism and Magnetic Materials, Seattle 2001, to be published in J. Appl.
Phy
Colossal magnon-phonon coupling in multiferroic EuYMnO
We report the spectra of magnetically induced electric dipole absorption in
EuYMnO from temperature dependent far infrared
spectroscopy (10-250 cm). These spectra, which occur only in the
polarization, consist of two relatively narrow electromagnon features that
onset at K and a broad absorption band that persists to
temperatures well above K. The observed excitations account for the
step up of the static dielectric constant in the ferroelectric phase. The
electromagnon at 80 cm is observed to be strongly coupled to the nearby
lowest optical phonon which transfers more than 1/2 of its spectral weight to
the magnon. We attribute the origin of the broad background absorption to the
two magnon emission decay process of the phonon.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Resonant Inelastic X-Ray Scattering from Valence Excitations in Insulating Copper-Oxides
We report resonant inelastic x-ray measurements of insulating LaCuO
and SrCuOCl taken with the incident energy tuned near the Cu K
absorption edge. We show that the spectra are well described in a shakeup
picture in 3rd order perturbation theory which exhibits both incoming and
outgoing resonances, and demonstrate how to extract a spectral function from
the raw data. We conclude by showing {\bf q}-dependent measurements of the
charge transfer gap.Comment: minor notational changes, discussion of anderson impurity model
fixed, references added; accepted by PR
Fabrication and Characterization of Topological Insulator BiSe Nanocrystals
In the recently discovered class of materials known as topological
insulators, the presence of strong spin-orbit coupling causes certain
topological invariants in the bulk to differ from their values in vacuum. The
sudden change of invariants at the interface results in metallic, time reversal
invariant surface states whose properties are useful for applications in
spintronics and quantum computation. However, a key challenge is to fabricate
these materials on the nanoscale appropriate for devices and probing the
surface. To this end we have produced 2 nm thick nanocrystals of the
topological insulator BiSe via mechanical exfoliation. For crystals
thinner than 10 nm we observe the emergence of an additional mode in the Raman
spectrum. The emergent mode intensity together with the other results presented
here provide a recipe for production and thickness characterization of
BiSe nanocrystals.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (accepted for publication in Applied Physics
Letters
First-order nature of the ferromagnetic phase transition in (La-Ca)MnO_3 near optimal doping
Neutron scattering has been used to study the nature of the ferromagnetic
transition in single crystals of La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO_3 and La_0.8Ca_0.2MnO_3, and
polycrystalline samples of La_0.67Ca_0.33MnO_3 and La_5/8Ca_3/8MnO_3 where the
naturally occurring O-16 can be replaced with the O-18 isotope. Small angle
neutron scattering on the x=0.3 single crystal reveals a discontinuous change
in the scattering at the Curie temperature for wave vectors below ~0.065 A^-1.
Strong relaxation effects are observed for this domain scattering, for the
magnetic order parameter, and for the quasielastic scattering, demonstrating
that the transition is not continuous in nature. There is a large oxygen
isotope effect observed for the T_C in the polycrystalline samples. For the
optimally doped x=3/8 sample we observed T_C(O-16)=266.5 K and T_C(O-18)=261.5
K at 90% O-18 substitution. The temperature dependence of the spin-wave
stiffness is found to be identical for the two samples despite changes in T_C.
Hence, T_C is not solely determined by the magnetic subsystem, but instead the
ferromagnetic phase is truncated by the formation of polarons which cause an
abrupt transition to the paramagnetic, insulating state. Application of
uniaxial stress in the x=0.3 single crystal sharply enhances the polaron
scattering at room temperature. Measurements of the phonon density-of-states
show only modest differences above and below T_C and between the two different
isotopic samples.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
An Assessment of Risk of Iodine Deficiency Among Pregnant Women in Sarawak, Malaysia
Previous findings from a state-wide Iodine Deficiency Disorders (IDD) study among pregnant women (PW) in Sarawak indicated that PW are at risk of IDD and further assessment is needed. This paper describes the methodology used in conducting this study for an assessment of risk of iodine deficiency among pregnant women in Sarawak, Malaysia. A total of 30 maternal child health care clinics (MCHCs) were selected using probability proportional to population size (PPS) sampling technique. The PW sample size was calculated based on 95% confidence interval (CI), relative precision of 5%, design effect of 2, anticipated IDD prevalence of 65.0% and non-response rate of 20%. Thus, the total sample size required was 750 (25 respondents per selected MCHC). The WHO Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) surveys approach was used to randomly select the first respondent and subsequent respondents were chosen until the required number of PW was met. The required data were obtained through: face-to-face interviews (socio-demographic and food frequency questionnaire), clinical assessments (thyroid size, and hyper/hypothyroidism) and biochemical analysis (urine and blood serum). A total of 677 PW responded in the study with a response rate of 90.2%. Majority of the PW were at second gravida, aged 25-29 years old and of Malay ethnicity. The methodology used in this study was based on International guidelines which may provide state's estimates. All the necessary steps were taken into consideration to ensure valid and reliable findings on current iodine status among PW
Helical spin-waves, magnetic order, and fluctuations in the langasite compound Ba3NbFe3Si2O14
We have investigated the spin fluctuations in the langasite compound
Ba3NbFe3Si2O14 in both the ordered state and as a function of temperature. The
low temperature magnetic structure is defined by a spiral phase characterized
by magnetic Bragg peaks at q=(0,0,tau ~ 1/7) onset at TN=27 K as previously
reported by Marty et al. The nature of the fluctuations and temperature
dependence of the order parameter is consistent with a classical second order
phase transition for a two dimensional triangular antiferromagnet. We will show
that the physical properties and energy scales including the ordering
wavevector, Curie-Weiss temperature, and the spin-waves can be explained
through the use of only symmetric exchange constants without the need for the
Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction. This is accomplished through a set of
``helical" exchange pathways along the c direction imposed by the chiral
crystal structure and naturally explains the magnetic diffuse scattering which
displays a strong vector chirality up to high temperatures well above the
ordering temperature. This illustrates a strong coupling between magnetic and
crystalline chirality in this compound.Comment: 16 pages, 16 figures, submitted to Physical Review
Charge Ordering Fluctuation and Optical Pseudogap in LaCaMnO
Optical spectroscopy was used to investigate the optical gap (2) due
to charge ordering (CO) and related pseudogap developments with x and
temperature (T) in LaCaMnO (0.48 <= x <= 0.67).
Surprisingly, we found 2/k_{B}T_{CO} is as large as 30 for x ~0.5, and
decreases rapidly with increasing x. Simultaneously, the optical pseudogap,
possibly starting from T^* far above T_{CO} becomes drastically enhanced near
x=0.5, producing non-BCS T-dependence of 2 with the large magnitude
far above T_{CO}, and systematic increase of T^* for x~0.5. These results
unequivocally indicate systematically-enhanced CO correlation when x approaches
0.5 even though T_{CO} decreases.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures embedded, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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