1,949 research outputs found
Electronic structure study by means of X-ray spectroscopy and theoretical calculations of the "ferric star" single molecule magnet
The electronic structure of the single molecule magnet system
M[Fe(L)2]3*4CHCl3 (M=Fe,Cr; L=CH3N(CH2CH2O)2) has been studied using X-ray
photoelectron spectroscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, soft X-ray emission
spectroscopy, and density functional calculations. There is good agreement
between theoretical calculations and experimental data. The valence band mainly
consists of three bands between 2 eV and 30 eV. Both theory and experiments
show that the top of the valence band is dominated by the hybridization between
Fe 3d and O 2p bands. From the shape of the Fe 2p spectra it is argued that Fe
in the molecule is most likely in the 2+ charge state. Its neighboring atoms
(O,N) exhibit a magnetic polarisation yielding effective spin S=5/2 per iron
atom, giving a high spin state molecule with a total S=5 effective spin for the
case of M = Fe.Comment: Fig.2 replaced as it will appear in J. Chem. Phy
Electron irradiation effects on superconductivity in PdTe: an application of a generalized Anderson theorem
Low temperature ( 20~K) electron irradiation with 2.5 MeV relativistic
electrons was used to study the effect of controlled non-magnetic disorder on
the normal and superconducting properties of the type-II Dirac semimetal
PdTe. We report measurements of longitudinal and Hall resistivity, thermal
conductivity and London penetration depth using tunnel-diode resonator
technique for various irradiation doses. The normal state electrical
resistivity follows Matthiessen rule with an increase of the residual
resistivity at a rate of 0.77cm/. London penetration depth and thermal
conductivity results show that the superconducting state remains fully gapped.
The superconducting transition temperature is suppressed at a non-zero rate
that is about sixteen times slower than described by the Abrikosov-Gor'kov
dependence, applicable to magnetic impurity scattering in isotropic,
single-band -wave superconductors. To gain information about the gap
structure and symmetry of the pairing state, we perform a detailed analysis of
these experimental results based on insight from a generalized Anderson theorem
for multi-band superconductors. This imposes quantitative constraints on the
gap anisotropies for each of the possible pairing candidate states. We conclude
that the most likely pairing candidate is an unconventional
state. While we cannot exclude the conventional and the triplet
, we demonstrate that these states require additional assumptions about
the orbital structure of the disorder potential to be consistent with our
experimental results, e.g., a ratio of inter- to intra-band scattering for the
singlet state significantly larger than one. Due to the generality of our
theoretical framework, we think that it will also be useful for irradiation
studies in other spin-orbit-coupled multi-orbital systems.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figure
The catalytic subunit of Plasmodium falciparum casein kinase 2 is essential for gametocytogenesis
Casein kinase 2 (CK2) is a pleiotropic kinase phosphorylating substrates in different cellular compartments in eukaryotes. In the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum, PfCK2 is vital for asexual proliferation of blood-stage parasites. Here, we applied CRISPR/Cas9-based gene editing to investigate the function of the PfCK2alpha catalytic subunit in gametocytes, the sexual forms of the parasite that are essential for malaria transmission. We show that PfCK2alpha localizes to the nucleus and cytoplasm in asexual and sexual parasites alike. Conditional knockdown of PfCK2alpha expression prevented the transition of stage IV into transmission-competent stage V gametocytes, whereas the conditional knockout of pfck2a completely blocked gametocyte maturation already at an earlier stage of sexual differentiation. In summary, our results demonstrate that PfCK2alpha is not only essential for asexual but also sexual development of P. falciparum blood-stage parasites and encourage studies exploring PfCK2alpha as a potential target for dual-active antimalarial drugs
Structure of self-organized Fe clusters grown on Au(111) analyzed by Grazing Incidence X-Ray Diffraction
We report a detailed investigation of the first stages of the growth of
self-organized Fe clusters on the reconstructed Au(111) surface by grazing
incidence X-ray diffraction. Below one monolayer coverage, the Fe clusters are
in "local epitaxy" whereas the subsequent layers adopt first a strained fcc
lattice and then a partly relaxed bcc(110) phase in a Kurdjumov-Sachs epitaxial
relationship. The structural evolution is discussed in relation with the
magnetic properties of the Fe clusters.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Physical Review B September 200
Time-reversal symmetry breaking in superconducting low-carrier-density quasi-skutterudite Lu3Os4Ge13
The complex structure of the Remeika phases, the intriguing quantum states
they display, and their low carrier concentrations are a strong motivation to
study the nature of their superconducting phases. In this work, the microscopic
properties of the superconducting phase of single-crystalline
LuOsGe are investigated by muon-spin relaxation and rotation
(SR) measurements. The zero-field SR data reveal the presence of
spontaneous static or quasi-static magnetic fields in the superconducting
state, breaking time-reversal symmetry; the associated internal magnetic field
scale is found to be exceptionally large ( 0.18~mT). Furthermore,
transverse-field SR measurements in the vortex state of
LuOsGe imply a complex gap function with significantly different
strengths on different parts of the Fermi surface. While our measurements do
not completely determine the order parameter, they strongly indicate that
electron-electron interactions are essential to stabilizing pairing in the
system, thus, demonstrating its unconventional nature.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure
Broken time-reversal symmetry in cubic skutterudite-like superconductor YRuGe
The microscopic properties of superconducting cubic skutterudite-like
material YRuGe are investigated using muon spin relaxation and
rotation (SR) measurements. Zero-field SR measurements reveal the
presence of a spontaneous internal field with a magnitude of 0.18~mT
below the superconducting transition temperature, indicating broken
time-reversal symmetry in the ground state. In line with previous experiments,
transverse-field SR measurements are consistent with a fully developed
superconductivity gap in YRuGe. Our observations point towards
the relevance of electronic correlations beyond electron-phonon coupling as
origin and indicate that spin-orbit coupling is likely not the key driving
force behind the spontaneous breaking of time-reversal symmetry in this system.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure
Kondo screening of the spin and orbital magnetic moments of Fe impurities in Cu
We use x-ray magnetic circular dichroism to evidence the effect of correlations on the local impurity magnetic moment in an archetypal Kondo system, namely, a dilute Cu:Fe alloy. Applying the sum rules on the Fe L2,3 absorption edges, the evolution of the spin and orbital moments across the Kondo temperature are determined separately. The spin moment presents a crossover from a nearly temperature-independent regime below the Kondo temperature to a paramagneticlike regime above. Conversely, the weak orbital moment shows a temperature-independent behavior in the whole temperature range, suggesting different Kondo screening temperature scales for the spin and orbital moments
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