BJC News

Vol.1, No.1 - September 27, 1956. First issue of the Boone Junior College News.https://openspace.dmacc.edu/banner_news/1010/thumbnail.jp

On the peak in the far-infrared conductivity of strongly anisotropic cuprates

We investigate the far-infrared and submillimeter-wave conductivity of electron-doped La_(2-x)Ce_xCuO_4 tilted 1 degree off from the ab-plane. The effective conductivity measured for this tilt angle reveals an intensive peak at finite frequency (\nu ~ 50 cm{-1}) due to a mixing of the in-plane and out-of-plane responses. The peak disappears for the pure in-plane response and transforms to the Drude-like contribution. Comparative analysis of the mixed and the in-plane contributions allows to extract the c-axis conductivity which shows a Josephson plasma resonance at 11.7 cm{-1} in the superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures include

Charge transfer fluctuation, d−d-wave superconductivity, and the B1gB_{1g} Raman phonon in the Cuprates: A detailed analysis

The Raman spectrum of the $B_{1g}$ phonon in the superconducting cuprate materials is investigated theoretically in detail in both the normal and superconducting phases, and is contrasted with that of the $A_{1g}$ phonon. A mechanism involving the charge transfer fluctuation between the two oxygen ions in the CuO$_2$ plane coupled to the crystal field perpendicular to the plane is discussed and the resulting electron-phonon coupling is evaluated. Depending on the symmetry of the phonon the weight of different parts of the Fermi surface in the coupling is different. This provides the opportunity to obtain information on the superconducting gap function at certain parts of the Fermi surface. The lineshape of the phonon is then analyzed in detail both in the normal and superconducting states. The Fano lineshape is calculated in the normal state and the change of the linewidth with temperature below T$_{c}$ is investigated for a $d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$ pairing symmetry. Excellent agreement is obtained for the $B_{1g}$ phonon lineshape in YBa$_{2}$Cu$_{3}$O$_{7}$. These experiments, however, can not distinguish between $d_{x^{2}-y^{2}}$ and a highly anisotropic $s$-wave pairing.Comment: Revtex, 21 pages + 4 postscript figures appended, tp

Charge Ordering and Phase Competition in the Layered Perovskite Lasr2mn2o7

Charge-lattice fluctuations are observed in the layered perovskite manganite LaSr2Mn2O7 by Raman spectroscopy as high as 340 K and with decreasing temperature they become static and form a charge ordered (CO) phase below TCO=210 K. In the static regime, superlattice reflections are observed through neutron and x-ray diffraction with a propagation vector (h+1/4,k-1/4,l). Crystallographic analysis of the CO state demonstrates that the degree of charge and orbital ordering in this manganite is weaker than the charge ordering in three dimensional perovskite manganites. A TN=170K a type-A antiferromagnetism (AF) develops and competes with the charge ordering, that eventually melts below T*=100K. High resolution diffraction measurements suggest that that CO- and AF-states do not coincide within the same region in the material but rather co-exist as separate phases. The transition to type-A antiferromagnetism at lower temperatures is characterized by the competition between these two phases.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figure

Anomalous Self-Energy Effects of the B_1g Phonon in Y_{1-x}(Pr,Ca)_xBa_2Cu_3O_7 Films

In Raman spectra of cuprate superconductors the gap shows up both directly, via a redistribution of the electronic background, the so-called "2Delta peaks", and indirectly, e.g. via the renormalization of phononic excitations. We use a model that allows us to study the redistribution and the related phonon self-energy effects simultaneously. We apply this model to the B_1g phonon of Y_{1-x}(Pr,Ca)_xBa_2Cu_3O_7 films, where Pr or Ca substitution enables us to investigate under- and overdoped samples. While various self-energy effects can be explained by the strength and energy of the 2\Delta peaks, anomalies remain. We discuss possible origins of these anomalies.Comment: 6 pages including 4 figure

Infrared optical properties of Pr2CuO4

The ab-plane reflectance of a Pr2CuO4 single crystal has been measured over a wide frequency range at a variety of temperatures, and the optical properties determined from a Kramers-Kronig analysis. Above ~ 250 K, the low frequency conductivity increases quickly with temperature; the resistivity follows the form e^(E_a/k_BT), where E_a ~ 0.17 eV is much less than the inferred optical gap of ~ 1.2 eV. Transport measurements show that at low temperature the resistivity deviates from activated behavior and follows the form e^[(T_0/T)^1/4], indicating that the dc transport in this material is due to variable-range hopping between localized states in the gap. The four infrared-active Eu modes dominate the infrared optical properties. Below ~ 200 K, a striking new feature appears near the low-frequency Eu mode, and there is additional new fine structure at high frequency. A normal coordinate analysis has been performed and the detailed nature of the zone-center vibrations determined. Only the low-frequency Eu mode has a significant Pr-Cu interaction. Several possible mechanisms related to the antiferromagnetism in this material are proposed to explain the sudden appearance of this and other new spectral features at low temperature.Comment: 11 pages, 7 embedded EPS figures, REVTeX