2,832 research outputs found
Quantum limit transport and destruction of the Weyl nodes in TaAs
Weyl fermions are a new ingredient for correlated states of electronic
matter. A key difficulty has been that real materials also contain non-Weyl
quasiparticles, and disentangling the experimental signatures has proven
challenging. We use magnetic fields up to 95 tesla to drive the Weyl semimetal
TaAs far into its quantum limit (QL), where only the purely chiral 0th Landau
levels (LLs) of the Weyl fermions are occupied. We find the electrical
resistivity to be nearly independent of magnetic field up to 50 tesla: unusual
for conventional metals but consistent with the chiral anomaly for Weyl
fermions. Above 50 tesla we observe a two-order-of-magnitude increase in
resistivity, indicating that a gap opens in the chiral LLs. Above 80 tesla we
observe strong ultrasonic attenuation below 2 kelvin, suggesting a
mesoscopically-textured state of matter. These results point the way to
inducing new correlated states of matter in the QL of Weyl semimetals
Electronic in-plane symmetry breaking at field-tuned quantum criticality in CeRhIn5
Electronic nematics are exotic states of matter where electronic interactions
break a rotational symmetry of the underlying lattice, in analogy to the
directional alignment without translational order in nematic liquid crystals.
Intriguingly such phases appear in the copper- and iron-based superconductors,
and their role in establishing high-temperature superconductivity remains an
open question. Nematicity may take an active part, cooperating or competing
with superconductivity, or may appear accidentally in such systems. Here we
present experimental evidence for a phase of nematic character in the heavy
fermion superconductor CeRhIn5. We observe a field-induced breaking of the
electronic tetragonal symmetry of in the vicinity of an antiferromagnetic (AFM)
quantum phase transition at Hc~50T. This phase appears in out-of-plane fields
of H*~28T and is characterized by substantial in-plane resistivity anisotropy.
The anisotropy can be aligned by a small in-plane field component, with no
apparent connection to the underlying crystal structure. Furthermore no
anomalies are observed in the magnetic torque, suggesting the absence of
metamagnetic transitions in this field range. These observations are indicative
of an electronic nematic character of the high field state in CeRhIn5. The
appearance of nematic behavior in a phenotypical heavy fermion superconductor
highlights the interrelation of nematicity and unconventional
superconductivity, suggesting nematicity to be a commonality in such materials
Observation of two-dimensional Fermi surface and Dirac dispersion in YbMnSb
We present the crystal structure, electronic structure, and transport
properties of the material YbMnSb, a candidate system for the investigation
of Dirac physics in the presence of magnetic order. Our measurements reveal
that this system is a low-carrier-density semimetal with a 2D Fermi surface
arising from a Dirac dispersion, consistent with the predictions of density
functional theory calculations of the antiferromagnetic system. The low
temperature resistivity is very large, suggesting scattering in this system is
highly efficient at dissipating momentum despite its Dirac-like nature.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Equilibrium shapes and energies of coherent strained InP islands
The equilibrium shapes and energies of coherent strained InP islands grown on
GaP have been investigated with a hybrid approach that has been previously
applied to InAs islands on GaAs. This combines calculations of the surface
energies by density functional theory and the bulk deformation energies by
continuum elasticity theory. The calculated equilibrium shapes for different
chemical environments exhibit the {101}, {111}, {\=1\=1\=1} facets and a (001)
top surface. They compare quite well with recent atomic-force microscopy data.
Thus in the InP/GaInP-system a considerable equilibration of the individual
islands with respect to their shapes can be achieved. We discuss the
implications of our results for the Ostwald ripening of the coherent InP
islands. In addition we compare strain fields in uncapped and capped islands.Comment: 10 pages including 6 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev. B. Related
publications can be found at http://www.fhi-berlin.mpg.de/th/paper.htm
{Rearrangement of the antiferromagnetic ordering at high magnetic fields in SmFeAsO and SmFeAsOF single crystals
The low-temperature antiferromagnetic state of the Sm-ions in both
nonsuperconducting SmFeAsO and superconducting SmFeAsOF single
crystals was studied by magnetic torque, magnetization, and magnetoresistance
measurements in magnetic fields up to 60~T and temperatures down to 0.6~K. We
uncover in both compounds a distinct rearrangement of the antiferromagnetically
ordered Sm-moments near ~T. This is seen in both, static and pulsed
magnetic fields, as a sharp change in the sign of the magnetic torque, which is
sensitive to the magnetic anisotropy and hence to the magnetic moment in the
-plane, ({\it i.e.} the FeAs-layers), and as a jump in the magnetization
for magnetic fields perpendicular to the conducting planes. This rearrangement
of magnetic ordering in ~T is essentially temperature independent and
points towards a canted or a partially polarized magnetic state in high
magnetic fields. However, the observed value for the saturation moment above
this rearrangement, suggests that the complete suppression of the
antiferromagnetism related to the Sm-moments would require fields in excess of
60~T. Such a large field value is particularly remarkable when compared to the
relatively small N\'{e}el temperature ~K, suggesting very
anisotropic magnetic exchange couplings. At the transition, magnetoresistivity
measurements show a crossover from positive to negative field-dependence,
indicating that the charge carriers in the FeAs planes are sensitive to the
magnetic configuration of the rare-earth elements. This is indicates a finite
magnetic/electronic coupling between the SmO and the FeAs layers which are
likely to mediate the exchange interactions leading to the long range
antiferromagnetic order of the Sm ions.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev.
Scale-invariant magnetic anisotropy in RuCl at high magnetic fields
In RuCl, inelastic neutron scattering and Raman spectroscopy reveal a
continuum of non-spin-wave excitations that persists to high temperature,
suggesting the presence of a spin liquid state on a honeycomb lattice. In the
context of the Kitaev model, magnetic fields introduce finite interactions
between the elementary excitations, and thus the effects of high magnetic
fields - comparable to the spin exchange energy scale - must be explored. Here
we report measurements of the magnetotropic coefficient - the second derivative
of the free energy with respect to magnetic field orientation - over a wide
range of magnetic fields and temperatures. We find that magnetic field and
temperature compete to determine the magnetic response in a way that is
independent of the large intrinsic exchange interaction energy. This emergent
scale-invariant magnetic anisotropy provides evidence for a high degree of
exchange frustration that favors the formation of a spin liquid state in
RuCl.Comment: arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1901.09245.
Nature Physic
Interplay of composition, structure, magnetism, and superconductivity in SmFeAs1-xPxO1-y
Polycrystalline samples and single crystals of SmFeAs1-xPxO1-y were
synthesized and grown employing different synthesis methods and annealing
conditions. Depending on the phosphorus and oxygen content, the samples are
either magnetic or superconducting. In the fully oxygenated compounds the main
impact of phosphorus substitution is to suppress the N\'eel temperature TN of
the spin density wave (SDW) state, and to strongly reduce the local magnetic
field in the SDW state, as deduced from muon spin rotation measurements. On the
other hand the superconducting state is observed in the oxygen deficient
samples only after heat treatment under high pressure. Oxygen deficiency as a
result of synthesis at high pressure brings the Sm-O layer closer to the
superconducting As/P-Fe-As/P block and provides additional electron transfer.
Interestingly, the structural modifications in response to this variation of
the electron count are significantly different when phosphorus is partly
substituting arsenic. Point contact spectra are well described with two
superconducting gaps. Magnetic and resistance measurements on single crystals
indicate an in-plane magnetic penetration depth of 200 nm and an anisotropy of
the upper critical field slope of 4-5. PACS number(s): 74.70.Xa, 74.62.Bf,
74.25.-q, 81.20.-nComment: 36 pages, 13 figures, 2 table
Modeling of Covalent Bonding in Solids by Inversion of Cohesive Energy Curves
We provide a systematic test of empirical theories of covalent bonding in
solids using an exact procedure to invert ab initio cohesive energy curves. By
considering multiple structures of the same material, it is possible for the
first time to test competing angular functions, expose inconsistencies in the
basic assumption of a cluster expansion, and extract general features of
covalent bonding. We test our methods on silicon, and provide the direct
evidence that the Tersoff-type bond order formalism correctly describes
coordination dependence. For bond-bending forces, we obtain skewed angular
functions that favor small angles, unlike existing models. As a
proof-of-principle demonstration, we derive a Si interatomic potential which
exhibits comparable accuracy to existing models.Comment: 4 pages revtex (twocolumn, psfig), 3 figures. Title and some wording
(but no content) changed since original submission on 24 April 199
Risk of infections transmitted by arthropods and rodents in forestry workers.
One hundred and fifty-one forestry workers and 151 matched office clerks were compared as to the presence of antibodies against Borelia burgdorferi, tick-borne encephalitis virus, Puumalavirus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Their occupational risks of being infected by Borrelia was fourfold and significant, by Puumalavirus and lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus was increased but not significant. No seropositivity has been established against tick-borne encephalitis virus
Th substituted SmFeAsO: structural details and superconductivity with Tc above 50 K
Superconducting poly- and single-crystalline samples of Sm1-xThxFeAsO with
partial substitution of Sm3+ by Th4+ were synthesized and grown under high
pressure and their structural, magnetic and transport properties are studied.
The superconducting Tc reaches values higher than 50 K. Bulk superconducting
samples (x = 0.08, 0.15, 0.3) do not show any signs of a phase transition from
tetragonal to orthorhombic crystal structure at low temperatures. With Th
substitution the unit cell parameters a and c shrink and the fractional atomic
coordinate of the As site zAs remains almost unchanged, while that of Sm/Th
zSm/Th increases. Upon warming from 5 K to 295 K the expansion of the FeAs
layer thickness is dominant, while the changes in the other structural building
blocks are smaller by a factor of 1/5, and they compensate each other, since
the As-Sm/Th distance appears to contract by about the same amount as the
O-Sm/Th expands. The poly- and single-crystalline samples are characterized by
a full diamagnetic response in low magnetic field, by a high intergrain
critical-current density for polycrystalline samples, and by a critical current
density of the order of 8 x 105 A/cm2 for single crystals at 2 K in fields up
to 7 T. The magnetic penetration depth anisotropy {\gamma}{\lambda} increases
with decreasing temperature, a similar behavior to that of SmFeAsO1-xFy single
crystals. The upper critical field estimated from resistance measurements is
anisotropic with slopes of 5.4 T/K (H//ab plane) and 2.7 T/K (H//c axis), at
temperatures sufficiently far below Tc. The upper critical field anisotropy
{\gamma}H is in the range of 2, consistent with the tendency of a decreasing
{\gamma}H with decreasing temperature, already reported for SmFeAsO1-xFy single
crystals.Comment: 30 pages, 2 tables, 15 figure
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