184 research outputs found
Role of Dirac cones in magnetotransport properties of REFeAsO (RE=rare earth) oxypnictides
In this work we study the effect of the rare earth element in iron
oxypnictides of composition REFeAsO (RE=rare earth). On one hand we carry out
Density Functional Theory calculations of the band structure, which evidence
the multiband character of these compounds and the presence of Dirac cones
along the Y-{\Gamma} and Z-R directions of the reciprocal space. On the other
hand, we explore transport behavior by means of resistivity, Hall resistance
and magnetoresistance measurements, which confirm the dominant role of Dirac
cones. By combining our theoretical and experimental approaches, we extract
information on effective masses, scattering rates and Fermi velocities for
different rare earth elements.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures accepted for publication on European Journal of
Physics
Large phonon-drag enhancement induced by narrow quantum confinement at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface
The thermoelectric power of the two-dimensional electron system (2DES) at the
LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface is explored below room temperature, in comparison with
that of Nb-doped SrTiO3 single crystals. For the interface we find a region
below T =50 K where thermopower is dominated by phonon-drag, whose amplitude is
hugely amplified with respect to the corresponding bulk value, reaching values
~mV/K and above. The phonon-drag enhancement at the interface is traced back to
the tight carrier confinement of the 2DES, and represents a sharp signature of
strong electron-acoustic phonon coupling at the interface
Cu_{2}O as nonmagnetic semiconductor for spin transport in crystalline oxide electronics
We probe spin transport in Cu_{2}O by measuring spin valve effect in
La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_{3}/Cu_{2}O/Co and
La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_{3}/Cu_{2}O/La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_{3} epitaxial
heterostructures. In La_{0.7}Sr_{0.3}MnO_{3}/Cu_{2}O/Co systems we find that a
fraction of out-of-equilibrium spin polarized carrier actually travel across
the Cu_{2}O layer up to distances of almost 100 nm at low temperature. The
corresponding spin diffusion length dspin is estimated around 40 nm.
Furthermore, we find that the insertion of a SrTiO_{3} tunneling barrier does
not improve spin injection, likely due to the matching of resistances at the
interfaces. Our result on dspin may be likely improved, both in terms of
Cu_{2}O crystalline quality and sub-micrometric morphology and in terms of
device geometry, indicating that Cu_{2}O is a potential material for efficient
spin transport in devices based on crystalline oxides.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figure
Low-Temperature Rapid Synthesis and Superconductivity of Fe-Based Oxypnictide Superconductors
we were able to develop a novel method to synthesize Fe-based oxypnictide
superconductors. By using LnAs and FeO as the starting materials and a
ball-milling process prior to solid-state sintering, Tc as high as 50.7 K was
obtained with the sample of Sm 0.85Nd0.15FeAsO0.85F0.15 prepared by sintering
at temperatures as low as 1173 K for times as short as 20 min.Comment: 2 pages,2 figures, 1 tabl
Seebeck effect in the conducting LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} interface
The observation of metallic behavior at the interface between insulating
oxides has triggered worldwide efforts to shed light on the physics of these
systems and clarify some still open issues, among which the dimensional
character of the conducting system. In order to address this issue, we measure
electrical transport (Seebeck effect, Hall effect and conductivity) in
LaAlO_{3}/SrTiO_{3} interfaces and, for comparison, in a doped SrTiO_{3} bulk
single crystal. In these experiments, the carrier concentration is tuned, using
the field effect in a back gate geometry. The combined analysis of all
experimental data at 77 K indicates that the thickness of the conducting layer
is ~7 nm and that the Seebeck effect data are well described by a
two-dimensional (2D) density of states. We find that the back gate voltage is
effective in varying not only the charge density, but also the thickness of the
conducting layer, which is found to change by a factor of ~2, using an electric
field between -4 and +4MV/m at 77K. No enhancement of the Seebeck effect due to
the electronic confinement and no evidence for two-dimensional quantization
steps are observed at the interfaces.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure
Giant Oscillating Thermopower at Oxide Interfaces
Understanding the nature of charge carriers at the LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface is
one of the major open issues in the full comprehension of the charge
confinement phenomenon in oxide heterostructures. Here, we investigate
thermopower to study the electronic structure in LaAlO3/SrTiO3 at low
temperature as a function of gate field. In particular, under large negative
gate voltage, corresponding to the strongly depleted charge density regime,
thermopower displays record-high negative values of the order of 10^4 - 10^5
microV/K, oscillating at regular intervals as a function of the gate voltage.
The huge thermopower magnitude can be attributed to the phonon-drag
contribution, while the oscillations map the progressive depletion and the
Fermi level descent across a dense array of localized states lying at the
bottom of the Ti 3d conduction band. This study is the first direct evidence of
a localized Anderson tail in the two-dimensional (2D) electron liquid at the
LaAlO3/SrTiO3 interface.Comment: Main text: 28 pages and 3 figures; Supplementary information: 29
pages, 5 figures and 1 tabl
Roles of intrinsic anisotropy and pi-band pairbreaking effects on critical currents in tilted c-axis MgB2 films probed by magneto-optical and transport measurements
Investigations of MgB2 and Fe-based superconductors in recent years have
revealed many unusual effects of multiband superconductivity but manifestations
of anisotropic multiband effects in the critical current density Jc have not
been addressed experimentally, mostly because of the difficulties to measure Jc
along the c-axis. To investigate the effect of very different intrinsic
anisotropies of sigma and pi electron bands in MgB2 on current transport, we
grew epitaxial films with tilted c-axis (THETA ~ 19.5{\deg}), which enabled us
to measure the components of Jc both along the ab-plane and the c-axis using
magneto-optical and transport techniques. These measurements were combined with
scanning and transmission electron microscopy, which revealed terraced steps on
the surface of the c-axis tilted films. The measured field and temperature
dependencies of the anisotropic Jc(H) show that Jc,L parallel to the terraced
steps is higher than Jc,T perpendicular to the terraced steps, and Jc of
thinner films (50 nm) obtained from transport experiments at 0.1 T reaches ~10%
of the depairing current density Jd in the ab plane, while magneto-optical
imaging revealed much higher Jc at lower fields. To analyze the experimental
data we developed a model of anisotropic vortex pinning which accounts for the
observed behavior of Jc in the c-axis tilted films and suggests that the
apparent anisotropy of Jc is affected by current pairbreaking effects in the
weaker {\pi} band. Our results indicate that the out-of-plane current transport
mediated by the {\pi} band could set the ultimate limit of Jc in MgB2
polycrystals.Comment: 21 pges, 13 figure
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