Spin - Phonon Coupling in Nickel Oxide Determined from Ultraviolet Raman Spectroscopy

Nickel oxide (NiO) has been studied extensively for various applications ranging from electrochemistry to solar cells [1,2]. In recent years, NiO attracted much attention as an antiferromagnetic (AF) insulator material for spintronic devices [3-10]. Understanding the spin - phonon coupling in NiO is a key to its functionalization, and enabling AF spintronics' promise of ultra-high-speed and low-power dissipation [11,12]. However, despite its status as an exemplary AF insulator and a benchmark material for the study of correlated electron systems, little is known about the spin - phonon interaction, and the associated energy dissipation channel, in NiO. In addition, there is a long-standing controversy over the large discrepancies between the experimental and theoretical values for the electron, phonon, and magnon energies in NiO [13-23]. This gap in knowledge is explained by NiO optical selection rules, high Neel temperature and dominance of the magnon band in the visible Raman spectrum, which precludes a conventional approach for investigating such interaction. Here we show that by using ultraviolet (UV) Raman spectroscopy one can extract the spin - phonon coupling coefficients in NiO. We established that unlike in other materials, the spins of Ni atoms interact more strongly with the longitudinal optical (LO) phonons than with the transverse optical (TO) phonons, and produce opposite effects on the phonon energies. The peculiarities of the spin - phonon coupling are consistent with the trends given by density functional theory calculations. The obtained results shed light on the nature of the spin - phonon coupling in AF insulators and may help in developing innovative spintronic devices.Comment: 16 pages; 2 figure

Bose-Einstein Condensation of S = 1 Ni spin degrees of freedom in NiCl2-4SC(NH2)2

It has recently been suggested that the organic compound NiCl$_2$-4SC(NH$_2$)$_2$ (DTN) exhibits Bose-Einstein Condensation (BEC) of the Ni spin degrees of freedom for fields applied along the tetragonal c-axis. The Ni spins exhibit 3D XY-type antiferromagnetic order above a field-induced quantum critical point at $H_{c1} \sim 2$ T. The Ni spin fluid can be characterized as a system of effective bosons with a hard-core repulsive interaction in which the antiferromagnetic state corresponds to a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) of the phase coherent $S = 1$ Ni spin system. We have investigated the the high-field phase diagram and the occurrence of BEC in DTN by means of specific heat and magnetocaloric effect measurements to dilution refrigerator temperatures. Our results indicate that a key prediction of BEC is satisfied; the magnetic field-temperature quantum phase transition line $H_c(T)-H_{c1} \propto T^\alpha$ approaches a power-law at low temperatures, with an exponent $\alpha = 1.47 \pm 0.06$ at the quantum critical point, consistent with the BEC theory prediction of $\alpha = 1.5$.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Estimativa da energia cultural na cotonicultura arbórea no Nordeste brasileiro, comparando-se o Mocó tradicional com o precoce.

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Identificação de polimorfimos de base única (SNPs) em genes relacionados à taxa de ovulação em ovinos.

Resumo 708

Mendelian inheritance, linkage and genotypic disequilibrium in microsatellite loci isolated from Hymenaea courbaril (Leguminosae).

The Neotropical tree Hymenaea courbaril, locally known as Jatobá, is a valuable source of lumber and also produces comestible and medicinal fruit. We characterized Mendelian inheritance, linkage and genotypic disequilibrium at nine microsatellite loci isolated from H. courbaril, in order to determine if they would provide accurate estimates of population genetic parameters of this important Amazon species. The study was made on 250 open-pollinated offspring originated from 14 seed trees. Only one of nine loci presented significant deviation from the expected Mendelian segregation (1:1). Genotypic disequilibrium between pairwise loci was investigated based on samples from 55 adult and 56 juvenile trees. No genetic linkage between any paired loci was observed. After Bonferroni’s corrections for multiple tests, we found no evidence of genotypic disequilibrium between pairs of loci. We conclude that this set of loci can be used for genetic diversity/structure, mating system, gene flow, and parentage analyses in H. courbaril populations

Mendelian inheritance, linkage and genotypic disequilibrium in microsatellite loci isolated from Hymenaea courbaril (Leguminosae).

The Neotropical tree Hymenaea courbaril, locally known as Jatobá, is a valuable source of lumber and also produces comestible and medicinal fruit. We characterized Mendelian inheritance, linkage and genotypic disequilibrium at nine microsatellite loci isolated from H. courbaril, in order to determine if they would provide accurate estimates of population genetic parameters of this important Amazon species. The study was made on 250 open-pollinated offspring originated from 14 seed trees. Only one of nine loci presented significant deviation from the expected Mendelian segregation (1:1). Genotypic disequilibrium between pairwise loci was investigated based on samples from 55 adult and 56 juvenile trees. No genetic linkage between any paired loci was observed. After Bonferroni’s corrections for multiple tests, we found no evidence of genotypic disequilibrium between pairs of loci. We conclude that this set of loci can be used for genetic diversity/ structure, mating system, gene flow, and parentage analyses in H. courbaril populations

Modeling of polar clusters in disordered perovskites: The S-K model with tunneling

The polar clusters generated by random non-central impurities in quantum paraelectrics determine to a great extent the complex dielectric behaviour observed in systems like SCT, KTN or KTL. The competition between a quantum paraelectric phase and an impurity-driven ferroelectric or glass phase depends on the concentration and on the nature of the interaction between clusters. This work presents a simple model in which each cluster is represented by a quantum two level system involving an effective Ising dipolar moment and a tunneling energy A. The interactions between clusters are taken into account by following the guide-lines of the Sherrington-Kirkpatrick model for spin glasses. General expressions for the polarization (P) and the Edwards-Anderson order parameter (q) are given and the phase diagram involving temperature, the normalized mean interaction energy J0/J and tunneling energy A/J0 is built.This work was partially supported by Projecto Praxis XXI/2/2.1/FIS/26/9

Ergodicity breaking in stronium calcium titanate

This work reports experimental results obtained from series of measurements of pyroelectric currents in samples of strontium calcium titanate (SCT) corresponding to contents of Ca of x = 0.002, x = 0.005 and x = 0.011. Sequences of zero field cooling (zfc), field heating (fh), field cooling (fc) and zero field heating (zfh) runs, under different applied electric fields, allowed the observation of the temperature and field dependence of the electric polarization under different initial conditions. The results show the existence of a weak non-ergodic regime in the compositions x = 0.005 and x = 0.011 and allow the tracing of the corresponding Almeida–Thouless line in the T –E diagram. For the three compositions investigated, a small zero field polarization is detected and interpreted as due to defect induced internal fields.We thank gratefully Professor J G Bednorz for providing excellent single crystals. We are very much indebted to A Costa for his technical assistance in the dielectric and pyroelectric measurements. This work was partially supported by Projecto Praxis XXI/P/FIS/14287/9