Pressure Tuning of an Ionic Insulator into a Heavy Electron Metal: An Infrared Study of YbS

Optical conductivity [$\sigma(\omega)$] of YbS has been measured under pressure up to 20 GPa. Below 8 GPa, $\sigma(\omega)$ is low since YbS is an insulator with an energy gap between fully occupied 4$f$ state and unoccupied conduction ($c$) band. Above 8 GPa, however, $\sigma(\omega)$ increases dramatically, developing a Drude component due to heavy carriers and characteristic infrared peaks. It is shown that increasing pressure has caused an energy overlap and hybridization between the $c$ band and 4$f$ state, thus driving the initially ionic and insulating YbS into a correlated metal with heavy carriers

Infrared study of valence transition compound YbInCu4 using cleaved surfaces

Optical reflectivity R(w) of YbInCu4 single crystals has been measured across its first-order valence transition at T_v ~ 42 K, using both polished and cleaved surfaces. R(w) measured on cleaved surfaces Rc(w) was found much lower than that on polished surface Rp(w) over the entire infrared region. Upon cooling through T_v, Rc(w) showed a rapid change over a temperature range of less than 2 K, and showed only minor changes with further cooling. In contrast, Rp(w) showed much more gradual and continuous changes across T_v, similarly to previously reported data on polished surfaces. The present result on cleaved surfaces demonstrates that the microscopic electronic structures of YbInCu4 observed with infrared spectroscopy indeed undergo a sudden change upon the valence transition. The gradual temperature-evolution of Rp(w) is most likely due to the compositional and/or Yb-In site disorders caused by polishing.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, Fig.1(a) correcte

Possible Kondo resonance in PrFe4P12 studied by bulk-sensitive photoemission

Pr 4f electronic states in Pr-based filled skutterudites PrT4X12(T=Fe and Ru; X=P and Sb) have been studied by high-resolution bulk-sensitive Pr 3d-4f resonance photoemission. A very strong spectral intensity is observed just below the Fermi level in the heavy-fermion system PrFe4P12. The increase of its intensity at lower temperatures is observed. We speculate that this is the Kondo resonance of Pr, the origin of which is attributed to the strong hybridization between the Pr 4f and the conduction electrons.Comment: 4 pages(camera ready format), 4 figures, ReVTeX

Optical conductivity of the Kondo insulator YbB_12: Gap formation and low-energy excitations

Optical reflectivity experiments have been conducted on single crystals of the Kondo insulator YbB_12 in order to obtain its optical conductivity, \sigma(\omega). Upon cooling below 70 K, a strong supression of \sigma(\omega) is seen in the far-infrared region, indicating the opening of an energy gap of ~ 25 meV. This gap development is coincident with a rapid decrease in the magnetic susceptibility, which shows that the gap opening has significant influence on magnetic properties. A narrow, asymmetric peak is observed at ~40 meV in \sigma(\omega), which is attributed to optical transitions between the Yb 4f-derived states across the gap. In addition, a broad peak is observed at ~0.25 eV. This peak is attributed to transitions between Yb 4f-derived states and p-d band, and is reminiscent of similar peaks previously observed for rare-earth hexaborides.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Discordance between imaging and immunohistochemistry in unilateral primary aldosteronism

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139975/1/cen13442.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/139975/2/cen13442_am.pd

Bulk-sensitive Photoemission of Mn5Si3

We have carried out a bulk-sensitive high-resolution photoemission experiment on Mn5Si3. The measurements are performed for both core level and valence band states. The Mn core level spectra are deconvoluted into two components corresponding to different crystallographic sites. The asymmetry of each component is of noticeable magnitude. In contrast, the Si 2p spectrum shows a simple Lorentzian shape with low asymmetry. The peaks of the valence band spectrum correspond well to the peak positions predicted by the former band calculation.Comment: To be published in: Solid State Communication

Theory of Metal-Insulator Transition in PrRu4P12 and PrFe4P12

All symmetry allowed couplings between the 4f^2-electron ground state doublet of trivalent praseodymium in PrRu4P12 and PrFe4P12 and displacements of the phosphorus, iron or ruthenium ions are considered. Two types of displacements can change the crystal lattice from body-centred cubic to simple orthorhombic or to simple cubic. The first type lowers the point group symmetry from tetrahedral to orthorhombic, while the second type leaves it unchanged, with corresponding space group reductions Im3 --> Pmmm and Im3 --> Pm3 respectively. In former case, the lower point-group symmetry splits the degeneracy of the 4f^2 doublet into states with opposite quadrupole moment, which then leads to anti-quadrupolar ordering, as in PrFe4P12. Either kind of displacement may conspire with nesting of the Fermi surface to cause the metal-insulator or partial metal-insulator transition observed in PrFe4P12 and PrRu4P12. We investigate this scenario using band-structure calculations, and it is found that displacements of the phosphorus ions in PrRu4P12 (with space group reduction Im3 --> Pm3) open a gap everywhere on the Fermi surface.Comment: 6 page

酸化物ガラスの塩基度と XPS による O1s 化学シフトの相関に関する考察

O1s binding energy measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) is candidate as a new tool to determine a new scale of Lewis basicity of oxide ions in glass. Some mathematical expressions for the basicity or XPS chemical shift, such as charge parameter and optical basicity, were compared with the experimental O1s binding energy in binary alkali oxide glasses. The expressions so far in use needed some modification in parameters. A new empirical expression introduced in this paper gives a new concept and universal scale of basicity