99 research outputs found
Magnetism and Charge Dynamics in Iron Pnictides
In a wide variety of materials, such as copper oxides, heavy fermions,
organic salts, and the recently discovered iron pnictides, superconductivity is
found in close proximity to a magnetically ordered state. The character of the
proximate magnetic phase is thus believed to be crucial for understanding the
differences between the various families of unconventional superconductors and
the mechanism of superconductivity. Unlike the AFM order in cuprates, the
nature of the magnetism and of the underlying electronic state in the iron
pnictide superconductors is not well understood. Neither density functional
theory nor models based on atomic physics and superexchange, account for the
small size of the magnetic moment. Many low energy probes such as transport,
STM and ARPES measured strong anisotropy of the electronic states akin to the
nematic order in a liquid crystal, but there is no consensus on its physical
origin, and a three dimensional picture of electronic states and its relations
to the optical conductivity in the magnetic state is lacking. Using a first
principles approach, we obtained the experimentally observed magnetic moment,
optical conductivity, and the anisotropy of the electronic states. The theory
connects ARPES, which measures one particle electronic states, optical
spectroscopy, probing the particle hole excitations of the solid and neutron
scattering which measures the magnetic moment. We predict a manifestation of
the anisotropy in the optical conductivity, and we show that the magnetic phase
arises from the paramagnetic phase by a large gain of the Hund's rule coupling
energy and a smaller loss of kinetic energy, indicating that iron pnictides
represent a new class of compounds where the nature of magnetism is
intermediate between the spin density wave of almost independent particles, and
the antiferromagnetic state of local moments.Comment: 4+ pages with additional one-page supplementary materia
Reversible temperature regulation of electrical and thermal conductivity using liquid–solid phase transitions
Reversible temperature tuning of electrical and thermal conductivities of materials is of interest for many applications, including seasonal regulation of building temperature, thermal storage and sensors. Here we introduce a general strategy to achieve large contrasts in electrical and thermal conductivities using first-order phase transitions in percolated composite materials. Internal stress generated during a phase transition modulates the electrical and thermal contact resistances, leading to large contrasts in the electrical and thermal conductivities at the phase transition temperature. With graphite/hexadecane suspensions, the electrical conductivity changes 2 orders of magnitude and the thermal conductivity varies up to 3.2 times near 18 °C. The generality of the approach is also demonstrated in other materials such as graphite/water and carbon nanotube/hexadecane suspensions
Electronic correlations in the iron pnictides
In correlated metals derived from Mott insulators, the motion of an electron
is impeded by Coulomb repulsion due to other electrons. This phenomenon causes
a substantial reduction in the electron's kinetic energy leading to remarkable
experimental manifestations in optical spectroscopy. The high-Tc
superconducting cuprates are perhaps the most studied examples of such
correlated metals. The occurrence of high-Tc superconductivity in the iron
pnictides puts a spotlight on the relevance of correlation effects in these
materials. Here we present an infrared and optical study on single crystals of
the iron pnictide superconductor LaFePO. We find clear evidence of electronic
correlations in metallic LaFePO with the kinetic energy of the electrons
reduced to half of that predicted by band theory of nearly free electrons.
Hallmarks of strong electronic many-body effects reported here are important
because the iron pnictides expose a new pathway towards a correlated electron
state that does not explicitly involve the Mott transition.Comment: 10 page
Kinetic frustration and the nature of the magnetic and paramagnetic states in iron pnictides and iron chalcogenides
The iron pnictide and chalcogenide compounds are a subject of intensive
investigations due to their high temperature superconductivity.\cite{a-LaFeAsO}
They all share the same structure, but there is significant variation in their
physical properties, such as magnetic ordered moments, effective masses,
superconducting gaps and T. Many theoretical techniques have been applied
to individual compounds but no consistent description of the trends is
available \cite{np-review}. We carry out a comparative theoretical study of a
large number of iron-based compounds in both their magnetic and paramagnetic
states. We show that the nature of both states is well described by our method
and the trends in all the calculated physical properties such as the ordered
moments, effective masses and Fermi surfaces are in good agreement with
experiments across the compounds. The variation of these properties can be
traced to variations in the key structural parameters, rather than changes in
the screening of the Coulomb interactions. Our results provide a natural
explanation of the strongly Fermi surface dependent superconducting gaps
observed in experiments\cite{Ding}. We propose a specific optimization of the
crystal structure to look for higher T superconductors.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures with a 5-page supplementary materia
Metal-insulator transition in vanadium dioxide nanobeams: probing sub-domain properties of strongly correlated materials
Many strongly correlated electronic materials, including high-temperature
superconductors, colossal magnetoresistance and metal-insulator-transition
(MIT) materials, are inhomogeneous on a microscopic scale as a result of domain
structure or compositional variations. An important potential advantage of
nanoscale samples is that they exhibit the homogeneous properties, which can
differ greatly from those of the bulk. We demonstrate this principle using
vanadium dioxide, which has domain structure associated with its dramatic MIT
at 68 degrees C. Our studies of single-domain vanadium dioxide nanobeams reveal
new aspects of this famous MIT, including supercooling of the metallic phase by
50 degrees C; an activation energy in the insulating phase consistent with the
optical gap; and a connection between the transition and the equilibrium
carrier density in the insulating phase. Our devices also provide a
nanomechanical method of determining the transition temperature, enable
measurements on individual metal-insulator interphase walls, and allow general
investigations of a phase transition in quasi-one-dimensional geometry.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, original submitted in June 200
A Microscopic View on the Mott transition in Chromium-doped V2O3
V2O3 is the prototype system for the Mott transition, one of the most
fundamental phenomena of electronic correlation. Temperature, doping or
pressure induce a metal to insulator transition (MIT) between a paramagnetic
metal (PM) and a paramagnetic insulator (PI). This or related MITs have a high
technological potential, among others for intelligent windows and field effect
transistors. However the spatial scale on which such transitions develop is not
known in spite of their importance for research and applications. Here we
unveil for the first time the MIT in Cr-doped V2O3 with submicron lateral
resolution: with decreasing temperature, microscopic domains become metallic
and coexist with an insulating background. This explains why the associated PM
phase is actually a poor metal. The phase separation can be associated with a
thermodynamic instability near the transition. This instability is reduced by
pressure which drives a genuine Mott transition to an eventually homogeneous
metallic state.Comment: Paper plus supplementary materia
Superconductivity at the Border of Electron Localization and Itinerancy
The superconducting state of iron pnictides and chalcogenides exists at the
border of antiferromagnetic order. Consequently, these materials could provide
clues about the relationship between magnetism and unconventional
superconductivity. One explanation, motivated by the so-called bad-metal
behaviour of these materials, proposes that magnetism and superconductivity
develop out of quasi-localized magnetic moments which are generated by strong
electron-electron correlations. Another suggests that these phenomena are the
result of weakly interacting electron states that lie on nested Fermi surfaces.
Here we address the issue by comparing the newly discovered alkaline iron
selenide superconductors, which exhibit no Fermi-surface nesting, to their iron
pnictide counterparts. We show that the strong-coupling approach leads to
similar pairing amplitudes in these materials, despite their different Fermi
surfaces. We also find that the pairing amplitudes are largest at the boundary
between electronic localization and itinerancy, suggesting that new
superconductors might be found in materials with similar characteristics.Comment: Version of the published manuscript prior to final journal-editting.
Main text (23 pages, 4 figures) + Supplementary Information (14 pages, 7
figures, 3 tables). Calculation on the single-layer FeSe is added.
Enhancement of the pairing amplitude in the vicinity of the Mott transition
is highlighted. Published version is at
http://www.nature.com/ncomms/2013/131115/ncomms3783/full/ncomms3783.htm
Strain engineering and one-dimensional organization of metal-insulator domains in single-crystal VO2 beams
Spatial phase inhomogeneity at the nano- to microscale is widely observed in
strongly-correlated electron materials. The underlying mechanism and
possibility of artificially controlling the phase inhomogeneity are still open
questions of critical importance for both the phase transition physics and
device applications. Lattice strain has been shown to cause the coexistence of
metallic and insulating phases in the Mott insulator VO2. By continuously
tuning strain over a wide range in single-crystal VO2 micro- and nanobeams,
here we demonstrate the nucleation and manipulation of one-dimensionally
ordered metal-insulator domain arrays along the beams. Mott transition is
achieved in these beams at room temperature by active control of strain. The
ability to engineer phase inhomogeneity with strain lends insight into
correlated electron materials in general, and opens opportunities for designing
and controlling the phase inhomogeneity of correlated electron materials for
micro- and nanoscale device applications.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, with supplementary informatio
Magnetism and its microscopic origin in iron-based high-temperature superconductors
High-temperature superconductivity in the iron-based materials emerges from,
or sometimes coexists with, their metallic or insulating parent compound
states. This is surprising since these undoped states display dramatically
different antiferromagnetic (AF) spin arrangements and Nel
temperatures. Although there is general consensus that magnetic interactions
are important for superconductivity, much is still unknown concerning the
microscopic origin of the magnetic states. In this review, progress in this
area is summarized, focusing on recent experimental and theoretical results and
discussing their microscopic implications. It is concluded that the parent
compounds are in a state that is more complex than implied by a simple Fermi
surface nesting scenario, and a dual description including both itinerant and
localized degrees of freedom is needed to properly describe these fascinating
materials.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, Review article, accepted for publication in
Nature Physic
Antenna-assisted picosecond control of nanoscale phase transition in vanadium dioxide
Nanoscale devices in which the interaction with light can be configured using external control signals hold great interest for next-generation optoelectronic circuits. Materials exhibiting a structural or electronic phase transition offer a large modulation contrast with multi-level optical switching and memory functionalities. In addition, plasmonic nanoantennas can provide an efficient enhancement mechanism for both the optically induced excitation and the readout of materials strategically positioned in their local environment. Here, we demonstrate picosecond all-optical switching of the local phase transition in plasmonic antenna-vanadium dioxide (VO2) hybrids, exploiting strong resonant field enhancement and selective optical pumping in plasmonic hotspots. Polarization- and wavelength-dependent pump-probe spectroscopy of multifrequency crossed antenna arrays shows that nanoscale optical switching in plasmonic hotspots does not affect neighboring antennas placed within 100 nm of the excited antennas. The antenna-assisted pumping mechanism is confirmed by numerical model calculations of the resonant, antenna-mediated local heating on a picosecond time scale. The hybrid, nanoscale excitation mechanism results in 20 times reduced switching energies and 5 times faster recovery times than a VO2 film without antennas, enabling fully reversible switching at over two million cycles per second and at local switching energies in the picojoule range. The hybrid solution of antennas and VO2 provides a conceptual framework to merge the field localization and phase-transition response, enabling precise, nanoscale optical memory functionalities
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