3:1 magnetization plateau and suppression of ferroelectric polarization in an Ising chain multiferroic

Ferroelectric Ising chain magnet Ca$_3$Co$_{2-x}$Mn$_x$O$_6$ ($x\simeq$0.96) was studied in magnetic fields up to 33 T. Magnetization and neutron scattering measurements reveal successive metamagnetic transitions from the zero-field $\uparrow \uparrow \downarrow \downarrow$ spin configuration to the $\uparrow \uparrow \uparrow \downarrow$ state with a broad magnetization plateau, and then to the $\uparrow \uparrow \uparrow \uparrow$ state. The absence of hysteresis in these plateaus reveals an intriguing coupling between the intra-chain state and the three-dimensional geometrically frustrated magnetic system. Inversion symmetry, broken in the $\uparrow \uparrow \downarrow \downarrow$ state, is restored in the $\uparrow \uparrow \uparrow \downarrow$ state, leading to the complete suppression of the electric polarization driven by symmetric superexchange.Comment: accepted for publication as a Brief Report in Physical Review

Melting of Quasi-Two-Dimensional Charge Stripes in La5/3Sr1/3NiO4

Commensurability effects for nickelates have been studied by the first neutron experiments on La5/3Sr1/3NiO4. Upon cooling, this system undergoes three successive phase transitions associated with quasi-two-dimensional (2D) commensurate charge and spin stripe ordering in the NiO$_2$ planes. The two lower temperature phases (denoted as phase II and III) are stripe lattice states with quasi-long-range in-plane charge correlation. When the lattice of 2D charge stripes melts, it goes through an intermediate glass state (phase I) before becoming a disordered liquid state. This glass state shows short-range charge order without spin order, and may be called a "stripe glass" which resembles the hexatic/nematic state in 2D melting.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, 4 figures available on request to [email protected]

Charge Ordering Fluctuation and Optical Pseudogap in La1−x_{1-x}Cax_{x}MnO3_{3}

Optical spectroscopy was used to investigate the optical gap (2$\Delta$) due to charge ordering (CO) and related pseudogap developments with x and temperature (T) in La$_{1-x}$Ca$_{x}$MnO$_{3}$ (0.48 <= x <= 0.67). Surprisingly, we found 2$\Delta$/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$\Delta$ 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

Fabrication and Characterization of Topological Insulator Bi2_2Se3_3 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 Bi$_2$Se$_3$ 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 Bi$_2$Se$_3$ nanocrystals.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures (accepted for publication in Applied Physics Letters

Quantum secure direct communication network with superdense coding and decoy photons

A quantum secure direct communication network scheme is proposed with quantum superdense coding and decoy photons. The servers on a passive optical network prepare and measure the quantum signal, i.e., a sequence of the $d$-dimensional Bell states. After confirming the security of the photons received from the receiver, the sender codes his secret message on them directly. For preventing a dishonest server from eavesdropping, some decoy photons prepared by measuring one photon in the Bell states are used to replace some original photons. One of the users on the network can communicate any other one. This scheme has the advantage of high capacity, and it is more convenient than others as only a sequence of photons is transmitted in quantum line.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figur

Freezing of a Stripe Liquid

The existence of a stripe-liquid phase in a layered nickelate, La(1.725)Sr(0.275)NiO(4), is demonstrated through neutron scattering measurements. We show that incommensurate magnetic fluctuations evolve continuously through the charge-ordering temperature, although an abrupt decrease in the effective damping energy is observed on cooling through the transition. The energy and momentum dependence of the magnetic scattering are parametrized with a damped-harmonic-oscillator model describing overdamped spin-waves in the antiferromagnetic domains defined instantaneously by charge stripes.Comment: 4 2-col pages, including 5 figures; Final version, to be published in PR

Spin-phonon interactions and magnetoelectric coupling in Co4_4B2B_2O9_9 (BB = Nb, Ta)

In order to explore the consequences of spin-orbit coupling on spin-phonon interactions in a set of chemically-similar mixed metal oxides, we measured the infrared vibrational properties of Co$_4B_2$O$_9$ ($B$ = Nb, Ta) as a function of temperature and compared our findings with lattice dynamics calculations and several different models of spin-phonon coupling. Frequency vs. temperature trends for the Co$^{2+}$ shearing mode near 150 cm$^{-1}$ reveal significant shifts across the magnetic ordering temperature that are especially large in relative terms. Bringing these results together and accounting for noncollinearity, we obtain spin-phonon coupling constants of -3.4 and -4.3 cm$^{-1}$ for Co$_4$Nb$_2$O$_9$ and the Ta analog, respectively. Analysis reveals that these coupling constants derive from interlayer (rather than intralayer) exchange interactions and that the interlayer interactions contain competing antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic contributions. At the same time, beyond-Heisenberg terms are minimized due to fortuitous symmetry considerations, different than most other 4$d$- and 5$d$-containing oxides. Comparison with other contemporary oxides shows that spin-phonon coupling in this family of materials is among the strongest ever reported, suggesting an origin for magnetoelectric coupling

Local spin resonance and spin-Peierls-like phase transition in a geometrically frustrated antiferromagnet

Using inelastic magnetic neutron scattering we have discovered a localized spin resonance at 4.5 meV in the ordered phase of the geometrically frustrated cubic antiferromagnet $\rm ZnCr_2O_4$. The resonance develops abruptly from quantum critical fluctuations upon cooling through a first order transition to a co-planar antiferromagnet at $T_c=12.5(5)$ K. We argue that this transition is a three dimensional analogue of the spin-Peierls transition.Comment: 4 figures, revised and accepted in Phys. Rev. Let