Metal-Insulator Transition Accompanied with a Charge Ordering in the One-dimensional t-J' Model

We study the metal-insulator transition accompanied with a charge ordering in the one-dimensional (1D) t-J' model at quarter filling by the density matrix renormalization group method. In this model the nearest-neighbor hopping energy t competes with the next-nearest-neighbor exchange energy J'. We have found that a metal-insulator transition occurs at a finite value of t/J'; (t/J')_C = 0.18 and the transition is of first order. In the insulating phase for small t/J', there is an alternating charge ordering and the system behaves as a 1D quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet. The metallic side belongs to the universality class of the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquids. The quantum phase transition is an example of melting of the 1D quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet.Comment: 4 pages, 6 Postscript figures, REVTeX, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Radiation Damage Effects on the Magnetic Properties of Pu(1-x)Am(x) (x=0.224)

Pu(Am) is stable in the fcc {delta}-phase from a few atomic percent to nearly 80 atomic percent Am, expanding the average interatomic separation as the alloy concentration of Am increases. Both Pu and Am spontaneously decay by {alpha}-emission creating self-damage in the lattice in the form of vacancy-interstitial pairs and their aggregates. At sufficiently low temperatures, the damage is frozen in place, but can be removed by thermal annealing at sufficiently high temperatures, effectively resetting the system to an undamaged condition. The magnetic susceptibility and magnetization are observed to increase systematically as a function of accumulated damage in the fcc {delta}-Pu{sub 1-x}Am{sub x} (x=0.224). Some results of these observations are reported here

Novel Methods for Binding Disparate Materials

This project was intended to advance the science of surface bonding in order to provide the functionality demanded by target fabrication requirements, as well as similar needs in other fields of importance to LLNL. We have developed and demonstrated a very powerful capability, i.e. 'single molecule force spectroscopy', that allows the strength of individual chemical bonds to be measured. This project focused on long chain molecules that are covalently bound to surfaces on one end and have complementary reactive groups that have the potential for bridging between surfaces. In biological systems, long chain tethers provide the mechanism for adhesion between dissimilar surfaces, e.g. bacteria adhesion to cells, and were found useful for developing the methodology. Polymer tethers offer the means to bridge across finite surface roughness and have the potential of forming thin, well-characterized bonds on a variety of surfaces

Electrical Resistivity and Thermal Expansion Measurements of URu2Si2 under Pressure

We carried out simultaneous measurements of electrical resistivity and thermal expansion of the heavy-fermion compound URu2Si2 under pressure using a single crystal. We observed a phase transition anomaly between hidden (HO) and antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordered states at TM in the temperature dependence of both measurements. For the electrical resistivity, the anomaly at TM was very small compared with the distinct hump anomaly at the phase transition temperature T0 between the paramagnetic state (PM) and HO, and exhibited only a slight increase and decrease for the I // a-axis and c-axis, respectively. We estimated each excitation gap of HO, Delta_HO, and AFM, Delta_AFM, from the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity; Delta_HO and Delta_AFM have different pressure dependences from each other. On the other hand, the temperature dependence of thermal expansion exhibited a small anomaly at T0 and a large anomaly at TM. The pressure dependence of the phase boundaries of T0 and TM indicates that there is no critical end point and the two phase boundaries meet at the critical point.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Magnetic Properties of Radiation Damage in Pu

First, we review earlier studies reporting possible magnetic characteristics for radiation defects in Pu. We then report, for {alpha}-Pu, two studies of the excess magnetic susceptibility (EMS) due to radiation damage, as a function of time and temperature. We have observed several annealing stages associated with the EMS of the accumulated self-damage and we report that annealing begins at {approx}31K, while below that temperature the displacement damage from self-irradiation of the Pu alpha particle emission and the U recoil are immobile. A detailed investigation was made of this EMS well below the first annealing stage as a function of temperature (2K < T < 15K) and time in a magnetic field of 2T. A linear increase in magnetic susceptibility is seen as a function of time for all isotherms. The excess susceptibility per alpha decay, determined from a linear fit of the slope of the time dependent EMS, is reasonably described with a Curie-Weiss law exhibiting a small negative Weiss temperature. We conclude by describing some future experiments in light of the present results

Phenomenological theory of a scalar electronic order: application to skutterudite PrFe4P12

By phenomenological Landau analysis, it is shown that a scalar order parameter with the point-group symmetry $\Gamma_{1g}$ explains most properties associated with the phase transition in PrFe$_4$P$_{12}$ at 6.5 K. The scalar-order model reproduces magnetic and elastic properties in PrFe$_4$P$_{12}$ consistently such as (i) the anomaly of the magnetic susceptibility and elastic constant at the transition temperature, (ii) anisotropy of the magnetic susceptibility in the presence of uniaxial pressure, and (iii) the anomaly in the elastic constant in magnetic field. An Ehrenfest relation is derived which relates the anomaly of the magnetic susceptibility to that of the elastic constant at the transition.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Inductively Heated Shape Memory Polymer for the Magnetic Actuation of Medical Devices

Presently there is interest in making medical devices such as expandable stents and intravascular microactuators from shape memory polymer (SMP). One of the key challenges in realizing SMP medical devices is the implementation of a safe and effective method of thermally actuating various device geometries in vivo. A novel scheme of actuation by Curie-thermoregulated inductive heating is presented. Prototype medical devices made from SMP loaded with Nickel Zinc ferrite ferromagnetic particles were actuated in air by applying an alternating magnetic field to induce heating. Dynamic mechanical thermal analysis was performed on both the particle-loaded and neat SMP materials to assess the impact of the ferrite particles on the mechanical properties of the samples. Calorimetry was used to quantify the rate of heat generation as a function of particle size and volumetric loading of ferrite particles in the SMP. These tests demonstrated the feasibility of SMP actuation by inductive heating. Rapid and uniform heating was achieved in complex device geometries and particle loading up to 10% volume content did not interfere with the shape recovery of the SMP

Neutron Scattering Study on Competition between Hidden Order and Antiferromagnetism in U(Ru_{1-x}Rh_x)_2Si_2 (x <= 0.05)

We have performed elastic and inelastic neutron scattering experiments on the solid solutions U(Ru_{1-x}Rh_x)_2Si_2 for the Ru rich concentrations: x=0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.025, 0.03, 0.04 and 0.05. Hidden order is suppressed with increasing x, and correspondingly the onset temperature T_m (~ 17.5 K at x=0) of weak antiferromagnetic (AF) Bragg reflection decreases. For x=0.04 and 0.05, no magnetic order is detected in the investigated temperature range down to 1.4 K. In the middle range, 0.02 <= x <= 0.03, we found that the AF Bragg reflection is strongly enhanced. At x=0.02, this takes place at ~ 7.7 K (=T_M), which is significantly lower than T_m (~ 13.7 K). T_M increases with increasing x, and seems to merge with T_m at x=0.03. If the AF state is assumed to be homogeneous, the staggered moment \mu_o estimated at 1.4 K increases from 0.02(2) \mu_B/U (x=0) to 0.24(1) \mu_B/U (x=0.02). The behavior is similar to that observed under hydrostatic pressure (\mu_o increases to ~ 0.25 \mu_B/U at 1.0 GPa), suggesting that the AF evolution induced by Rh doping is due to an increase in the AF volume fraction. We also found that the magnetic excitation observed at Q=(1,0,0) below T_m disappears as T is lowered below T_M.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to J. Phys. Soc. Jp