Driving rate effects in avalanche-mediated, first-order phase transitions

We have studied the driving rate and temperature dependence of the power-law exponents that characterize the avalanche distribution in first-order phase transitions. Measurements of acoustic emission in structural transitions in Cu-Zn-Al and Cu-Al-Ni are presented. We show how the observed behaviour emerges within a general framework of competing time scales of avalanche relaxation, driving rate, and thermal fluctuations. We have confirmed our findings by numerical simulations of a prototype model.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Pressure-induced amorphization, crystal-crystal transformations and the memory glass effect in interacting particles in two dimensions

We study a model of interacting particles in two dimensions to address the relation between crystal-crystal transformations and pressure-induced amorphization. On increasing pressure at very low temperature, our model undergoes a martensitic crystal-crystal transformation. The characteristics of the resulting polycrystalline structure depend on defect density, compression rate, and nucleation and growth barriers. We find two different limiting cases. In one of them the martensite crystals, once nucleated, grow easily perpendicularly to the invariant interface, and the final structure contains large crystals of the different martensite variants. Upon decompression almost every atom returns to its original position, and the original crystal is fully recovered. In the second limiting case, after nucleation the growth of martensite crystals is inhibited by energetic barriers. The final morphology in this case is that of a polycrystal with a very small crystal size. This may be taken to be amorphous if we have only access (as experimentally may be the case) to the angularly averaged structure factor. However, this `X-ray amorphous' material is anisotropic, and this shows up upon decompression, when it recovers the original crystalline structure with an orientation correlated with the one it had prior to compression. The memory effect of this X-ray amorphous material is a natural consequence of the memory effect associated to the underlying martensitic transformation. We suggest that this kind of mechanism is present in many of the experimental observations of the memory glass effect, in which a crystal with the original orientation is recovered from an apparently amorphous sample when pressure is released.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev.

Field induced long-range-ordering in an S=1 quasi-one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet

We have measured the heat capacity and magnetization of the spin one one-dimensional Heisenberg antiferromagnet NDMAP and constructed a magnetic field versus temperature phase diagram. We found a field induced long-range magnetic ordering. We have been successful in explaining the phase diagram theoretically.Comment: 6 pages, 18 figure

Spin-Reorientation Transition of Field-Induced Magnetic Ordering Phases in the Anisotropic Haldane System

A possible spin-reorientation transition in field-induced magnetic ordering phases of the S=1 Haldane system with large easy-plane anisotropy is proposed, using an effective Lagrangian formalism as well as the density matrix renormalization group method. Such a spin-reorientation transition is predicted in the case where the applied magnetic field is inclined from the easy axis of the anisotropy. We point out that this transition has a close connection with a variation of the order parameter even at zero temperature, although it is different from a quantum analog of the so-called spin-flop transition proposed for the system having a strong easy axis anisotropy. In connection with a novel phase observed recently in the Haldane system at high fields, we discuss possible implications for the field-induced magnetic ordering.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Phase diagram and hidden order for generalized spin ladders

We investigate the phase diagram of antiferromagnetic spin ladders with additional exchange interactions on diagonal bonds by variational and numerical methods. These generalized spin ladders interpolate smoothly between the $S=1/2$ chain with competing nn and nnn interactions, the $S=1/2$ chain with alternating exchange and the antiferromagnetic $S=1$ chain. The Majumdar-Ghosh ground states are formulated as matrix product states and are shown to exhibit the same type of hidden order as the af $S=1$ chain. Generalized matrix product states are used for a variational calculation of the ground state energy and the spin and string correlation functions. Numerical (Lanczos) calculations of the energies of the ground state and of the low-lying excited states are performed, and compare reasonably with the variational approach. Our results support the hypothesis that the dimer and Majumdar-Ghosh points are in the same phase as the af $S=1$ chain.Comment: 23 pages, REVTEX, 7 figure

Realization of the mean-field universality class in spin-crossover materials

In spin-crossover materials, the volume of a molecule changes depending on whether it is in the high-spin (HS) or low-spin (LS) state. This change causes distortion of the lattice. Elastic interactions among these distortions play an important role for the cooperative properties of spin-transition phenomena. We find that the critical behavior caused by this elastic interaction belongs to the mean-field universality class, in which the critical exponents for the spontaneous magnetization and the susceptibility are $\beta = 1/2$ and $\gamma = 1$, respectively. Furthermore, the spin-spin correlation function is a constant at long distances, and it does not show an exponential decay in contrast to short-range models. The value of the correlation function at long distances shows different size-dependences: $O(1/N)$, $O(1/\sqrt{N})$, and constant for temperatures above, at, and below the critical temperature, respectively. The model does not exhibit clusters, even near the critical point. We also found that cluster growth is suppressed in the present model and that there is no critical opalescence in the coexistence region. During the relaxation process from a metastable state at the end of a hysteresis loop, nucleation phenomena are not observed, and spatially uniform configurations are maintained during the change of the fraction of HS and LS. These characteristics of the mean-field model are expected to be found not only in spin-crossover materials, but also generally in systems where elastic distortion mediates the interaction among local states.Comment: 13 pages, 16 figure

Simulations of Spinodal Nucleation in Systems with Elastic Interactions

Systems with long-range interactions quenched into a metastable state near the pseudospinodal exhibit nucleation that is qualitatively different than the classical nucleation observed near the coexistence curve. We have observed nucleation droplets in our Langevin simulations of a two-dimensional model of martensitic transformations and have determined that the structure of the nucleating droplet differs from the stable martensite structure. Our results, together with experimental measurements of the phonon dispersion curve, allow us to predict the nature of the droplet. These results have implications for nucleation in many solid-solid transitions and the structure of the final state

Origin of the reduced exchange bias in epitaxial FeNi(111)/CoO(111) bilayer

We have employed Soft and Hard X-ray Resonant Magnetic Scattering and Polarised Neutron Diffraction to study the magnetic interface and the bulk antiferromagnetic domain state of the archetypal epitaxial Ni$_{81}$Fe$_{19}$(111)/CoO(111) exchange biased bilayer. The combination of these scattering tools provides unprecedented detailed insights into the still incomplete understanding of some key manifestations of the exchange bias effect. We show that the several orders of magnitude difference between the expected and measured value of exchange bias field is caused by an almost anisotropic in-plane orientation of antiferromagnetic domains. Irreversible changes of their configuration lead to a training effect. This is directly seen as a change in the magnetic half order Bragg peaks after magnetization reversal. A 30 nm size of antiferromagnetic domains is extracted from the width the (1/2 1/2 1/2) antiferromagnetic magnetic peak measured both by neutron and x-ray scattering. A reduced blocking temperature as compared to the measured antiferromagnetic ordering temperature clearly corresponds to the blocking of antiferromagnetic domains. Moreover, an excellent correlation between the size of the antiferromagnetic domains, exchange bias field and frozen-in spin ratio is found, providing a comprehensive understanding of the origin of exchange bias in epitaxial systems.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitte

On the athermal character of structural phase transitions

The significance of thermal fluctuations on nucleation in structural first-order phase transitions has been examined. The prototype case of martensitic transitions has been experimentally investigated by means of acoustic emission techniques. We propose a model based on the mean first-passage time to account for the experimental observations. Our study provides a unified framework to establish the conditions for isothermal and athermal transitions to be observed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted in Phys. Rev. Let

Microstructural characterization of AISI 431 martensitic stainless steel laser-deposited coatings

High cooling rates during laser cladding of stainless steels may alter the microstructure and phase constitution of the claddings and consequently change their functional properties. In this research, solidification structures and solid state phase transformation products in single and multi layer AISI 431 martensitic stainless steel coatings deposited by laser cladding at different processing speeds are investigated by optical microscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), orientation imaging microscopy (OIM), ternary phase diagram, Schaeffler and TTT diagrams. The results of this study show how partitionless solidification and higher solidification rates alter the microstructure and phase constitution of martensitic stainless steel laser deposited coatings. In addition, it is shown that while different cladding speeds have no effect on austenite–martensite orientation relationship in the coatings, increasing the cladding speed has resulted in a reduction of hardness in deposited coatings which is in contrast to the common idea about obtaining higher hardness values at higher cladding speeds.