muSR study of the Cu-spin dynamics in the electron-doped high-Tc cuprate of Pr0.86LaCe0.14Cu1-y(Zn,Ni)yO4

Effects of the Zn- and Ni-substitution on the Cu-spin dynamics in the electron-doped Pr0.86LaCe0.14Cu1-y(Zn,Ni)yO4+a-d with y = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05 and different values of the reduced oxygen content d have been studied using zero-field muon-spin-relaxation (muSR) measurements at temperatures down to 2 K. For the as-grown sample (d = 0, y = 0) and the sample with a very small d value (d < 0.01, y = 0), a muon-spin precession due to long-range antiferromagnetic order has been observed. On the other hand, no precession has been observed for moderately oxygen-reduced samples (0.01 < d < 0.09). It has been found that for all the samples of 0.01 < d < 0.09 the asymmetry A(t) (muSR time spectrum) in the long-time region increases with decreasing temperature at low temperatures, suggesting possible slowing-down of the Cu-spin fluctuations. On the other hand, no significant difference between Zn- and Ni-substitution effects on the slowing down of the Cu-spin fluctuations has been observed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceeding of 10th muSR conference 2005, to be published in Physica

Local electronic structure of interstitial hydrogen in MgH2_2 inferred from muon study

Magnesium hydride has great potential as a solid hydrogen (H) storage material because of its high H storage capacity of 7.6 wt%. However, its slow hydrogenation and dehydrogenation kinetics and the high temperature of 300 $^\circ$C required for decomposition are major obstacles to small-scale applications such as automobiles. The local electronic structure of interstitial H in MgH$_2$ is an important fundamental knowledge in solving this problem, which has been studied mainly based on density functional theory (DFT). However, few experimental studies have been performed to assess the results of DFT calculations. We have therefore introduced muon (Mu) as pseudo-H into MgH$_2$ and investigated the corresponding interstitial H states by analyzing their electronic and dynamical properties in detail. As a result, we observed multiple Mu states similar to those observed in wide-gap oxides, and found that their electronic states can be attributed to relaxed-excited states associated with donor/acceptor levels predicted by the recently proposed "ambipolarity model". This provides an indirect support for the DFT calculations on which the model is based via the donor/acceptor levels. An important implication of the muon results for improved hydrogen kinetics is that dehydrogenation, serving as a $reduction$ for hydrides, stabilizes the interstitial H$^-$ state.Comment: 14 pages, 9 figure

Absence of the impurity-induced magnetic order in the electron-doped high-T_c_ cuprates Pr_0.86_LaCe_0.14_Cu_1-y_(Zn, Ni)_y_O_4_

Zero-field muon-spin-relaxation measurements have been carried out in order to investigate the Zn- and Ni-substitution effects on the Cu-spin dynamics in the electron-doped Pr_0.86_LaCe_0.14_Cu_1-y_(Zn, Ni)_y_O_4+\alpa-\delta_ with y = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05 and different values of the reduced oxygen content \delta(\delta \le 0.09). For the samples with y = 0 and very small \delta values of \delta < 0.01, a muon-spin precession due to the formation of a long-range antiferromagnetic order has been observed at low temperatures below \~ 5 K. For the moderately oxygen-reduced samples of 0.01 \le \delta \le 0.09, on the contrary, no muon-spin precession has been observed and the temperature dependence of the spectra is similar to one another regardless of the y value. That is, no impurity-induced slowing down of the Cu-spin fluctuations has been detected, which is very different from the results of the hole-doped high-T_c_ cuprates. The reason is discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of ISS2004 (to be published in Physica C