Temperature Dependent Polarized XANES Spectra for Zn-doped LSCO system

The cuprates seem to exhibit statistics, dimensionality and phase transitions in novel ways. The nature of excitations [i.e. quasiparticle or collective], spin-charge separation, stripes [static and dynamics], inhomogeneities, psuedogap, effect of impurity dopings [e.g. Zn, Ni] and any other phenomenon in these materials must be consistently understood. Zn-doped LSCO single crystal were grown by TSFZ technique. Temperature dependent Polarized XANES [near edge local structure] spectra were measured at the BL13-B1 [Photon Factory] in the Flourescence mode from 10 K to 300 K. Since both stripes and nonmagnetic Zn impurities substituted for Cu give rise to inhomogeneous charge and spin distribution it is interesting to understand the interplay of Zn impurities and stripes. To understand these points we have used Zn-doping and some of the results obtained are as follows: The spectra show a strong dependence with respect to the polarization angle, $\theta$, as is evident at any temperature by comparing the spectra where the electric field vector is parallel with ab-plane to the one where it is parallel to the c-axis. By using the XANES [temperature] difference spectra we have determined T* [experimentally we find, T* $\approx$ 160-170 K] for this sample. The XANES difference spectra shows that the changes in XANES features are larger in the ab-plane than the c-axis, this trend is expected since zinc is doped in the ab-plane at the copper site. Our study also complements the results in literature namely that zinc doping does not affect the c-axis transport.Comment: To appear in Physica C [ISS2001 Special Issue], related talk presented at ISS2001 as PC-16, 10 pages revtex and 7 pages of figures (pdf

Ordering of localized moments in Kondo lattice models

We describe the transition from a ferromagnetic phase, to a disordered para- magnetic phase, which occurs in one-dimensional Kondo lattice models with partial conduction band filling. The transition is the quantum order-disorder transition of the transverse-field Ising chain, and reflects double-exchange ordered regions of localized spins being gradually destroyed as the coupling to the conduction electrons is reduced. For incommensurate conduction band filling, the low-energy properties of the localized spins near the transition are dominated by anomalous ordered (disordered) regions of localized spins which survive into the paramagnetic (ferromagnetic) phase. Many interesting properties follow, including a diverging susceptibility for a finite range of couplings into the paramagnetic phase. Our critical line equation, together with numerically determined transition points, are used to determine the range of the double-exchange interaction. Models we consider are the spin 1/2 Kondo lattices with antiferromagnetic (Kondo) coupling, with ferromagnetic (Hund's rule) coupling, and the Kondo lattice with repulsive interactions between the conduction electrons.Comment: 18 pages, 6 embedded eps figures. To appear in Phys Rev

Tunneling and rattling in clathrate crystal

We present tunneling and rattling motions of an off-center guest atom in cage referring to a clathrate crystal La_3Pd_{20}Ge_6. The elastic constant C_{44} of La_3Pd_{20}Ge_6 shows a Debye-type dispersion around 20 K obeying a relaxation time tau = tau_0exp(E/k_{B}T) with an attempt time tau_0 = 2.0*10^{-12} sec and an activation energy E = 197 K. At low temperatures below 3 K down to 20 mK, the C_{44} shows a softening of C_{44} = C_{44}^0(T-T_C^0)/(T-Theta) with T_C^0 = -337.970 mK and Theta = -338.044 mK. These facts are attributed to two different types of the off-center motions with Gamma_5 symmetry in 4a-site cage of La_3Pd_{20}Ge_6, a thermally activated rattling motion over the potential hill and a tunneling motion through the potential hill at low temperatures.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published Phys. Rev.

Phase transition in the one-dimensional Kondo lattice model with attractive electron-electron interaction

The one-dimensional Kondo lattice model with attractive interaction among the conduction electrons is analyzed in the case of half-filling. It is shown that there are three distinct phases depending on the coupling constants of the model. Two phases have a spin and charge gap. While one shows a clear separation of the spin and charge excitation spectrum the other phase may be characterized as a band insulator type where both excitations are due to two-particle states. The third phase is gapless in both channels and has quasi long-range order in the spin and charge density wave correlation. In this phase the spin and charge excitations have again a clearly separated spectrum. For the analysis we discuss first two limiting cases. Then a density matrix renormalization group calculation on finite systems is applied to determine the phase diagram and the correlation functions in the gapped and gapless phase for general couplding constants.Comment: 9 pages, 7 Postscript figures, REVTe