173 research outputs found
Domain excitations in spin-Peierls systems
We study a model of a Spin-Peierls material consisting of a set of
antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chains coupled with phonons and interacting among
them via an inter-chain elastic coupling. The excitation spectrum is analyzed
by bosonization techniques and the self-harmonic approximation. The elementary
excitation is the creation of a localized domain structure where the dimerized
order is the opposite to the one of the surroundings. It is a triplet
excitation whose formation energy is smaller than the magnon gap. Magnetic
internal excitations of the domain are possible and give the further
excitations of the system. We discuss these results in the context of recent
experimental measurements on the inorganic Spin-Peierls compound CuGeOComment: 5 pages, 2 figures, corrected version to appear in Phys. Rev.
On the soliton width in the incommensurate phase of spin-Peierls systems
We study using bosonization techniques the effects of frustration due to
competing interactions and of the interchain elastic couplings on the soliton
width and soliton structure in spin-Peierls systems. We compare the predictions
of this study with numerical results obtained by exact diagonalization of
finite chains. We conclude that frustration produces in general a reduction of
the soliton width while the interchain elastic coupling increases it. We
discuss these results in connection with recent measurements of the soliton
width in the incommensurate phase of CuGeO_3.Comment: 4 pages, latex, 2 figures embedded in the tex
Coupling between magnon and ligand-field excitations in magnetoelectric Tb3Fe5O12 garnet
The spectra of far-infrared transmission in Tb3Fe5O12 magnetoelectric single
crystals have been studied in the range between 15 and 100 cm-1, in magnetic
fields up to 10 T, and for temperatures between 5 and 150 K. We attribute some
of the observed infrared-active excitations to electric-dipole transitions
between ligand-field split states of Tb3+ ions. Anticrossing between the
magnetic exchange excitation and the ligand-field transition occurs at the
temperature between 60 and 80 K. The corresponding coupling energy for this
interaction is 6 cm-1. Temperature-induced softening of the hybrid IR
excitation correlates with the increase of the static dielectric constant. We
discuss the possibility for hybrid excitations of magnons and ligand-field
states and their possible connection to the magnetoelectric effect in
Tb3Fe5O12.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. B on May 15th, 201
Multiphase segregation and metal-insulator transition in single crystal La(5/8-y)Pr(y)Ca(3/8)MnO3
The insulator-metal transition in single crystal La(5/8-y)Pr(y)Ca(3/8)MnO3
with y=0.35 was studied using synchrotron x-ray diffraction, electric
resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and specific heat measurements. Despite
the dramatic drop in the resistivity at the insulator-metal transition
temperature Tmi, the charge-ordering (CO) peaks exhibit no anomaly at this
temperature and continue to grow below Tmi. Our data suggest then, that in
addition to the CO phase, another insulating phase is present below Tco. In
this picture, the insulator-metal transition is due to the changes within this
latter phase. The CO phase does not appear to play a major role in this
transition. We propose that a percolation-like insulator-metal transition
occurs via the growth of ferromagnetic metallic domains within the parts of the
sample that do not exhibit charge ordering. Finally, we find that the
low-temperature phase-separated state is unstable against x-ray irradiation,
which destroys the CO phase at low temperatures.Comment: 9 pages, 9 encapsulated eps figure
Thermal Conductivity of the Spin Peierls Compound CuGeO_3
The thermal conductivity of the Spin-Peierls (SP) compound CuGeO_3 was
measured in magnetic fields up to 16 T. Above the SP transition, the heat
transport due to spin excitations causes a peak at around 22 K, while below the
transition the spin excitations rapidly diminish and the heat transport is
dominated by phonons; however, the main scattering process of the phonons is
with spin excitations, which demonstrates itself in an unusual peak in the
thermal conductivity at about 5.5 K. This low-temperature peak is strongly
suppressed with magnetic fields in excess of 12.5 T.Comment: 6 pages, including 2 postscript figure
Structural Critical Scattering Study of Mg-Doped CuGeO3
We report a synchrotron x-ray scattering study of the diluted spin-Peierls
(SP) material Cu_(1-x)Mg_xGeO_3. We find that for x>0 the temperature T_m at
which the spin gap is established is significantly higher than the temperature
T_s at which the SP dimerization attains long-range order. The latter is
observed only for xx_c the SP correlation length
quickly decreases with increasing x. We argue that impurity-induced competing
interactions play a central role in these phenomena.Comment: 5 pages, 4 embedded eps figures, to appear in PR
Field-induced structural evolution in the spin-Peierls compound CuGeO: high-field ESR study
The dimerized-incommensurate phase transition in the spin-Peierls compound
CuGeO is probed using multifrequency high-resolution electron spin
resonance (ESR) technique, in magnetic fields up to 17 T. A field-induced
development of the soliton-like incommensurate superstructure is clearly
indicated as a pronounced increase of the ESR linewidth (magnon
excitations), with a at 13.8 T. The anomaly is
explained in terms of the magnon-soliton scattering, and suggests that the
soliton-like phase exists close to the boundary of the dimerized-incommensurate
phase transition. In addition, magnetic excitation spectra in 0.8% Si-doped
CuGeO are studied. Suppression of the anomaly observed in the
doped samples suggests a collapse of the long-range-ordered soliton states upon
doping, that is consistent with high-field neutron scattering experiments.Comment: Accepted to Phys. Rev.
Martensitic accommodation strain and the metal-insulator transition in manganites
In this paper, we report polarized optical microscopy and electrical
transport studies of manganese oxides that reveal that the charge ordering
transition in these compounds exhibits typical signatures of a martensitic
transformation. We demonstrate that specific electronic properties of
charge-ordered manganites stem from a combination of martensitic accommodation
strain and effects of strong electron correlations. This intrinsic strain is
strongly affected by the grain boundaries in ceramic samples. Consistently, our
studies show a remarkable enhancement of low field magnetoresistance and the
grain size effect on the resistivity in polycrystalline samples and suggest
that the transport properties of this class of manganites are governed by the
charge-disordered insulating phase stabilized at low temperature by virtue of
martensitic accommodation strain. High sensitivity of this phase to strains and
magnetic field leads to a variety of striking phenomena, such as unusually high
magnetoresistance (10^10 %) in low magnetic fields.Comment: Short paper, 4 figures, to appear in Rapid Communicatio
Thermodynamic Properties of the Incommensurate Phase of CuGeO_3
We present high resolution measurements of the specific heat and the thermal
expansion of the inorganic spin--Peierls cuprate CuGeO_3 in a magnetic field of
16 Tesla. At the transition from the incommensurate to the uniform phase both
quantities show pronounced anomalies, which allow to derive the uniaxial
pressure dependencies of the transition temperature. In high magnetic fields
the specific heat is dominated by magnetic excitations and follows a T^3 law at
low temperatures. The thermal expansion measurements show the occurrence of
spontaneous strains along all three lattice constants and yield high resolution
measurements of the temperature dependence of the incommensurate structural
distortion. The sizes of the spontaneous strains in the incommensurate phase
are significantly reduced, but both their anisotropy as well as their
temperature dependencies are very similar to those in zero field.Comment: 12 pages (Latex), 4 Figs. (PS), to appear in Phys. Rev. B54 (Vol.21
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