Magnetic properties of Yb2Mo2O7 and Gd2Mo2O7 from rare earth Mossbauer measurements

Using 170-Yb and 155-Gd Mossbauer measurements down to 0.03K, we have examined the semiconducting pyrochlore Yb2Mo2O7 where the Mo intra-sublattice interaction is anti-ferromagnetic and the metallic pyrochlore Gd2Mo2O7 where this interaction is ferromagnetic. Additional information was obtained from susceptibility, magnetisation and 172-Yb perturbed angular correlation measurements. The microscopic measurements evidence lattice disorder which is important in Yb2Mo2O7 and modest in Gd2Mo2O7. Magnetic irreversibilities occur at 17K in Yb2Mo2O7 and at 75K in Gd2Mo2O7 and below these temperatures the rare earths carry magnetic moments which are induced through couplings with the Mo sublattice. In Gd2Mo2O7, we observe the steady state Gd hyperfine populations at 0.027K are out of thermal equilibrium, indicating that Gd and Mo spin fluctuations persist at very low temperatures. Frustration is thus operative in this essentially isotropic pyrochlore where the dominant Mo intra-sublattice interaction is ferromagnetic.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Evidence for two distinct energy scales in the Raman spectra of YBa2(CuNi)O6.95

We report low energy electronic Raman scattering from Ni-substituted YBa2Cu3O6.95 single crystals with Tc ranging from 92.5 K to 78 K. The fully symmetrical A1g channel and the B1g channel which is sensitive to the dx2-y2 gap maximum have been explored. The energy of the B1g pair-breaking peak remains constant under Ni doping while the energy of the A1g peak scales with Tc (EA1g/Tc=5). Our data show that the A1g peak tracks the magnetic resonance peak observed in inelastic neutron scattering yielding a key explanation to the long-standing problem of the origin the A1g peak.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures and 1 tabl

Anomalously slow spin dynamics and short-range correlations in the quantum spin ice systems Yb2Ti2O7 and Yb2Sn2O7

We report a positive muon spin relaxation and rotation (\muSR) study of the quantum spin ice materials Yb2Ti2O7 and Yb2Sn2O7 focusing on the low field response. In agreement with earlier reports, data recorded in small longitudinal fields evidence anomalously slow spin dynamics in the microsecond range below the temperature T_c at which the specific heat displays an intense peak, namely T_c = 0.24 K and 0.15 K, respectively, for the two systems. We found that slow dynamics extends above T_c up to at least 0.7 K for both compounds. The conventional dynamical Gaussian Kubo-Toyabe model describes the \muSR spectra recorded above T_c. At lower temperatures a published analytical extension of the Gaussian Kubo-Toyabe model provides a good description, consistent with the existence of short-range magnetic correlations. While the physical response of the two systems is qualitatively the same, Yb2Ti2O7 exhibits a much larger local magnetic susceptibility than Yb2Sn2O7 below T_c. Considering previously reported ac susceptibility, neutron scattering and \muSR results, we suggest the existence of anomalously slow spin dynamics to be a common physical property of pyrochlore magnetic materials. The possibility of molecular spin substructures to be associated to the slow dynamics and therefore the short-range correlations is mentioned. The slow spin dynamics observed under field does not exclude the presence of much faster dynamics detected in extremely low or zero field.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figure

Total suppression of superconductivity by high magnetic fields in YBa2 Cu3O6.6

We have studied in fields up to 60T the variation of the transverse magnetoresistance (MR) of underdoped YBCO6.6 crystals either pure or with Tc reduced down to 3.5K by electron irradiation. We evidence that the normal state MR is restored above a threshold field H'c(T), which is found to vanish at T'c>>Tc. In the pure YBCO6.6 sample a 50 Tesla field is already required to completely suppress the superconducting fluctuations at Tc. While disorder does not depress the pseudogap temperature, it reduces drastically the phase coherence established at Tc and weakly H'c(0), T'c and the onset Tnu of the Nernst signal which are more characteristic of the 2D local pairing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Nernst effect and disorder in the normal state of high-T_{c} cuprates

We have studied the influence of disorder induced by electron irradiation on the Nernst effect in optimally and underdoped YBa2Cu3O(7-d) single crystals. The fluctuation regime above T_{c} expands significantly with disorder, indicating that the T_{c} decrease is partly due to the induced loss of phase coherence. In pure crystals the temperature extension of the Nernst signal is found to be narrow whatever the hole doping, contrary to data reported in the low-T_{c} cuprates families. Our results show that the presence of "intrinsic" disorder can explain the enhanced range of Nernst signal found in the pseudogap phase of the latter compounds.Comment: revised version. to be published in Physical Review Letter

Hole and Electron Contributions to the Transport Properties of Ba(Fe_(1-x)Ru_x)_2As_2 Single Crystals

We report a systematic study of structural and transport properties in single crystals of Ba(Fe_(1-x)Ru_x)_2As_2 for x ranging from 0 to 0.5. The isovalent substitution of Fe by Ru leads to an increase of the a parameter and a decrease of the c parameter, resulting in a strong increase of the AsFeAs angle and a decrease of the As height above the Fe planes. Upon Ru substitution, the magnetic order is progressively suppressed and superconductivity emerges for x > 0.15, with an optimal Tc ~ 20K at x = 0.35 and coexistence of magnetism and superconductivity between these two Ru contents. Moreover, the Hall coefficient RH which is always negative and decreases with temperature in BaFe2As2, is found to increase here with decreasing T and even change sign for x > 0.15. For x_Ru = 0.35, photo-emission studies have shown that the number of holes and electrons are similar with n_e = n_h ~ 0.11, that is twice larger than found in BaFe2As2 [1]. Using this estimate, we find that the transport properties of Ba(Fe_0.65Ru_0.35)_2As_2 can be accounted for by the conventional multiband description for a compensated semi-metal. In particular, our results show that the mobility of holes is strongly enhanced upon Ru addition and overcomes that of electrons at low temperature when x_Ru > 0.15.Comment: new version with minor correction