207 research outputs found
Low-temperature ordered phases of the spin- XXZ chain system CsCoCl
In this study the magnetic order of the spin-1/2 XXZ chain system
CsCoCl in a temperature range from 50 mK to 0.5 K and in applied
magnetic fields up to 3.5 T is investigated by high-resolution measurements of
the thermal expansion and the specific heat. Applying magnetic fields along a
or c suppresses completely at about 2.1 T. In addition, we find
an adjacent intermediate phase before the magnetization saturates close to 2.5
T. For magnetic fields applied along b, a surprisingly rich phase diagram
arises. Two additional transitions are observed at critical fields T and T, which we propose to
arise from a two-stage spin-flop transition.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Efficacy of Online Training for Improving Camp Staff Competency
Preparing competent staff is a critical issue within the camp community. This quasi-experimental study examined the effectiveness of an online course for improving staff competency in camp healthcare practices among college-aged camp staff and a comparison group (N = 55). We hypothesized that working in camp would increase competency test scores due to opportunities for staff to experientially apply knowledge learned online. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to analyse the cross-level effects of a between-individuals factor (assignment to experimental or comparison group) and within-individual effects of time (pre-test, post-test #1, and post-test #2) on online course test scores. At post-test #2, the difference in average test scores between groups was ~30 points, with the treatment group scoring lower on average than the comparison group. Factors that may have influenced these findings are explored, including fatigue and the limited durability of online learning. Recommendations for research and practice are discussed
The spin- XXZ chain system CsCoCl in a transverse magnetic field
Comparing high-resolution specific heat and thermal expansion measurements to
exact finite-size diagonalization, we demonstrate that CsCoCl for a
magnetic field along the crystallographic b axis realizes the
spin- XXZ chain in a transverse field. Exploiting both thermal as
well as virtual excitations of higher crystal field states, we find that the
spin chain is in the XY-limit with an anisotropy
substantially smaller than previously believed. A spin-flop Ising quantum phase
transition occurs at a critical field of T
before around 3.5 T the description in terms of an effective spin-
chain becomes inapplicable.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Fluctuation-induced first-order phase transition in Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya helimagnets
Two centuries of research on phase transitions have repeatedly highlighted
the importance of critical fluctuations that abound in the vicinity of a
critical point. They are at the origin of scaling laws obeyed by thermodynamic
observables close to second-order phase transitions resulting in the concept of
universality classes, that is of paramount importance for the study of
organizational principles of matter. Strikingly, in case such soft fluctuations
are too abundant they may alter the nature of the phase transition profoundly;
the system might evade the critical state altogether by undergoing a
discontinuous first-order transition into the ordered phase.
Fluctuation-induced first-order transitions have been discussed broadly and are
germane for superconductors, liquid crystals, or phase transitions in the early
universe, but clear experimental confirmations remain scarce. Our results from
neutron scattering and thermodynamics on the model Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya (DM)
helimagnet (HM) MnSi show that such a fluctuation-induced first-order
transition is realized between its paramagnetic and HM state with remarkable
agreement between experiment and a theory put forward by Brazovskii. While our
study clarifies the nature of the HM phase transition in MnSi that has puzzled
scientists for several decades, more importantly, our conclusions entirely
based on symmetry arguments are also relevant for other DM-HMs with only weak
cubic magnetic anisotropies. This is in particular noteworthy in light of a
wide range of recent discoveries that show that DM helimagnetism is at the
heart of problems such as topological magnetic order, multiferroics, and
spintronics.Comment: 19 pages, 9 figures, 2 table
Thermodynamic Properties of the One-Dimensional Extended Quantum Compass Model in the Presence of a Transverse Field
The presence of a quantum critical point can significantly affect the
thermodynamic properties of a material at finite temperatures. This is
reflected, e.g., in the entropy landscape S(T; c) in the vicinity of a quantum
critical point, yielding particularly strong variations for varying the tuning
parameter c such as magnetic field. In this work we have studied the
thermodynamic properties of the quantum compass model in the presence of a
transverse field. The specific heat, entropy and cooling rate under an
adiabatic demagnetization process have been calculated. During an adiabatic
(de)magnetization process temperature drops in the vicinity of a field-induced
zero-temperature quantum phase transitions. However close to field-induced
quantum phase transitions we observe a large magnetocaloric effect
Detection of Topological Spin Textures via Nonlinear Magnetic Responses
Topologically nontrivial spin textures, such as skyrmions and dislocations, display emergent electrodynamics and can be moved by spin currents over macroscopic distances. These unique properties and their nanoscale size make them excellent candidates for the development of next-generation race-track memory and unconventional computing. A major challenge for these applications and the investigation of nanoscale magnetic structures in general is the realization of suitable detection schemes. We study magnetic disclinations, dislocations, and domain walls in FeGe and reveal pronounced responses that distinguish them from the helimagnetic background. A combination of magnetic force microscopy (MFM) and micromagnetic simulations links the response to the local magnetic susceptibility, that is, characteristic changes in the spin texture driven by the MFM tip. On the basis of the findings, which we explain using nonlinear response theory, we propose a read-out scheme using superconducting microcoils, presenting an innovative approach for detecting topological spin textures and domain walls in device-relevant geometries
Thermal Conductivity of Spin-1/2 Chains
We study the low-temperature transport properties of clean one-dimensional
spin-1/2 chains coupled to phonons. Due to the presence of approximate
conservation laws, the heat current decays very slowly giving rise to an
exponentially large heat conductivity, . As a result of an
interplay of Umklapp scattering and spinon-phonon coupling, the characteristic
energy scale turns out to be of order , where is
the Debye energy, rather than the magnetic exchange interaction -- in
agreement with recent measurements in SrCuO compounds. A large magnetic field
strongly affects the heat transport by two distinct mechanisms. First, it
induces a LINEAR spinon--phonon coupling, which alters the nature of the fixed point: the elementary excitations of the system are COMPOSITE
SPINON-PHONON objects. Second, the change of the magnetization and the
corresponding change of the wave vector of the spinons strongly affects the way
in which various Umklapp processes can relax the heat current, leading to a
characteristic fractal--like spiky behavior of when plotted as a
function of magnetization at fixed T.Comment: 16 pages, RevTex4, 2 figures included; revised refs. and some useful
comments on experimental relevance. On July 12 2005, added an appendix
correcting an error in the form of the phonon propagator. The main result is
unchange
Resistivity of MnFeSi single crystals: Evidence for quantum critical behavior
Resistivity measurements have been made on MnFeSi single crystals
between 2 and 300K for = 0, 0.05, 0.08, 0.12 and 0.15. Fe doping is found
to depress the magnetic ordering temperature from 30K for = 0 to below 2K
for = 0.15. Although Fe doping results in a large increase of the
low-temperature residual resistivity, the temperature dependence of the
resistivity above the magnetic transition remains practically unaffected by
increasing Fe content. An analysis of the temperature derivative of the
resistivity provides strong evidence for the existence of a non-Fermi-liquid
ground state near = 0.15 and thus for a quantum critical point tuned by Fe
content.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figures, Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Research
Workshop on Properties and Application of Thermoelectric Materials, Hvar,
Croatia, 21-26 September 200
From thermal rectifiers to thermoelectric devices
We discuss thermal rectification and thermoelectric energy conversion from
the perspective of nonequilibrium statistical mechanics and dynamical systems
theory. After preliminary considerations on the dynamical foundations of the
phenomenological Fourier law in classical and quantum mechanics, we illustrate
ways to control the phononic heat flow and design thermal diodes. Finally, we
consider the coupled transport of heat and charge and discuss several general
mechanisms for optimizing the figure of merit of thermoelectric efficiency.Comment: 42 pages, 22 figures, review paper, to appear in the Springer Lecture
Notes in Physics volume "Thermal transport in low dimensions: from
statistical physics to nanoscale heat transfer" (S. Lepri ed.
Wigner crystal physics in quantum wires
The physics of interacting quantum wires has attracted a lot of attention
recently. When the density of electrons in the wire is very low, the strong
repulsion between electrons leads to the formation of a Wigner crystal. We
review the rich spin and orbital properties of the Wigner crystal, both in the
one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional regime. In the one-dimensional Wigner
crystal the electron spins form an antiferromagnetic Heisenberg chain with
exponentially small exchange coupling. In the presence of leads the resulting
inhomogeneity of the electron density causes a violation of spin-charge
separation. As a consequence the spin degrees of freedom affect the conductance
of the wire. Upon increasing the electron density, the Wigner crystal starts
deviating from the strictly one-dimensional geometry, forming a zigzag
structure instead. Spin interactions in this regime are dominated by ring
exchanges, and the phase diagram of the resulting zigzag spin chain has a
number of unpolarized phases as well as regions of complete and partial spin
polarization. Finally we address the orbital properties in the vicinity of the
transition from a one-dimensional to a quasi-one-dimensional state. Due to the
locking between chains in the zigzag Wigner crystal, only one gapless mode
exists. Manifestations of Wigner crystal physics at weak interactions are
explored by studying the fate of the additional gapped low-energy mode as a
function of interaction strength.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures; v2: references adde
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