Structural ordering driven anisotropic magnetoresistance, anomalous Hall resistance and its topological overtones in full-Heusler Co2MnSi thin films

We report the evolution of crystallographic structure, magnetic ordering and electronic transport in thin films of full-Heusler alloy Co$_2$MnSi deposited on (001) MgO with annealing temperatures ($T_A$). By increasing the $T_A$ from 300$^\circ$C to 600$^\circ$C, the film goes from a disordered nanocrystalline phase to $B2$ ordered and finally to the $L2_1$ ordered alloy. The saturation magnetic moment improves with structural ordering and approaches the Slater-Pauling value of $\approx 5.0 \mu_B$ per formula unit for $T_A$ = 600$^\circ$C. At this stage the films are soft magnets with coercive and saturation fields as low as $\approx$ 7 mT and 350 mT, respectively. Remarkable effects of improved structural order are also seen in longitudinal resistivity ($\rho_{xx}$) and residual resistivity ratio. A model based upon electronic transparency of grain boundaries illucidates the transition from a state of negative $d\rho/dT$ to positive $d\rho/dT$ with improved structural order. The Hall resistivity ($\rho_{xy}$) derives contribution from the normal scattering of charge carriers in external magnetic field, the anomalous effect originating from built-in magnetization and a small but distinct topological Hall effect in the disordered phase. The carrier concentration ($n$) and mobility ($\mu$) have been extracted from the high field $\rho_{xy}$ data. The highly ordered films are characterized by $n$ and $\mu$ of 1.19$\times$ 10$^{29}$ m$^{-3}$ and 0.4 cm$^2V^{-1}s^{-1}$ at room temperature. The dependence of $\rho_{xy}$ on $\rho_{xx}$ indicates the dominance of skew scattering in our films, which shows a monotonic drop on raising the $T_A$. The topological Hall effect is analyzed for the films annealed at 300$^\circ$C. ......Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, 1 tabl

Structural Basis for the Anomalously Low Spontaneous Polarisation Values of the Polar Phase of Sr1-xCaxTiO3 (x=0.02, 0.04): Evidence for a Ferrielectric Ordering

Full pattern Le-Bail refinement using x-ray powder diffraction profiles of Sr1-xCaxTiO3 for x=0.02, 0.04 in the temperature range 12 to 300 K reveals anomalies in the unit cell parameters at 170, 225 K due to an antiferrodistortive (cubic to tetragonal I4/mcm) phase transition and at ~32, ~34 K due to a transition to a polar phase (tetragonal I4/mcm to orthorhombic Ic2m), respectively. The lower transition temperatures obtained by us are in excellent agreement with those reported on the basis of the dielectric studies by Bednorz and Muller, [10] who attributed these to ferroelectric transition. Rietveld analysis of the diffraction profiles of the polar phase reveals off-centre displacements of both Sr2+/Ca2+ and Ti4+ ions in the X-Y plane along pseudocubic directions, in agreement with the experimentally reported direction of easy polarization by Bednorz and Muller, but the resulting dipole moments are shown to be ferrielectrically coupled in the neighbouring (001) planes along the [001] direction leading to anomalously low values of the spontaneous polarization at 12K.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures and 1 tabl

Oscillating magnetoresistance due to fragile spin structure in metallic GdPd3_3

Studies on the phenomenon of magnetoresistance (MR) have produced intriguing and application-oriented outcomes for decades--colossal MR, giant MR and recently discovered extremely large MR of millions of percents in semimetals can be taken as examples. We report here the investigation of oscillating MR in a cubic intermetallic compound GdPd$_3$, which is the only compound that exhibits MR oscillations between positive and negative values. Our study shows that a very strong correlation between magnetic, electrical and magnetotransport properties is present in this compound. The magnetic structure in GdPd$_3$ is highly fragile since applied magnetic fields of moderate strength significantly alter the spin arrangement within the system--a behavior that manifests itself in the oscillating MR. Intriguing magnetotransport characteristics of GdPd$_3$ are appealing for field-sensitive device applications, especially if the MR oscillation could materialize at higher temperature by manipulating the magnetic interaction through perturbations caused by chemical substitutions.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures. A slightly modified version is published in Scientific Report

Formation of double ring patterns on Co2MnSi Heusler alloy thin film by anodic oxidation under scanning probe microscope

Double ring formation on Co2MnSi (CMS) films is observed at electrical breakdown voltage during local anodic oxidation (LAO) using atomic force microscope (AFM). Corona effect and segregation of cobalt in the vicinity of the rings is studied using magnetic force microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. Double ring forma-tion is attributed to the interaction of ablated material with the induced magnetic field during LAO. Steepness of forward bias transport characteristics from the unperturbed region of the CMS film suggest a non equilibrium spin contribution. Such mesoscopic textures in magnetic films by AFM tip can be potentially used for memory storage applications.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

GRB000301C with peculiar afterglow emission

The CCD magnitudes in Johnson V and Cousins R and I photometric passbands are determined for GRB 000301C afterglow starting ~ 1.5 day after the gamma-ray burst. In fact we provide the earliest optical observations for this burst. Light curves of the afterglow emissions in U, B, V, R, I, J and K' passbands are obtained by combining the present measurements with the published data. Flux decay shows a very uncommon variation relative to other well observed GRBs. Overall, there is a steepening of the optical and near-infrared flux decay caused by a geometric and sideways expanding jet. This is superimposed by a short term variability especially during early time (Delta t < 8 days). The cause of variability is not well understood, though it has occurred simultaneously with similar amplitude in all the filters. We derive the early and late time flux decay constants using jet model. The late time flux decay is the steepest amongst the GRB OTs observed so far with alpha ~ 3. Steepening in the flux decay seems to have started simultaneously around Delta t ~ 7.6 day in all passbands. The value of spectral index in the optical-near IR region is ~ -1.0. Redshift determination with z=2.0335 indicates cosmological origin of the GRB having a luminosity distance of 16.6 Gpc. Thus it becomes the second farthest amongst the GRBs with known distances. An indirect estimate of the fluence > 20 keV indicates, if isotropic,> =10^53 ergs of release of energy. The enormous amount of released energy will be reduced, if the radiation is beamed which is the case for this event. Using a jet break time of 7.6 days, we infer a jet opening angle of ~ 0.15 radian. This means the energy released is reduced by a factor of ~ 90 relative to the isotropic value.Comment: LaTeX file, 11 pages including 4 figures, uses psfig.sty, Bull. Astron. Society of India(accepted, Sept, 2000 issue

The effect of asymmetric disorder on the diffusion in arbitrary networks

Considering diffusion in the presence of asymmetric disorder, an exact relationship between the strength of weak disorder and the electric resistance of the corresponding resistor network is revealed, which is valid in arbitrary networks. This implies that the dynamics are stable against weak asymmetric disorder if the resistance exponent $\zeta$ of the network is negative. In the case of $\zeta>0$, numerical analyses of the mean first-passage time $\tau$ on various fractal lattices show that the logarithmic scaling of $\tau$ with the distance $l$, $\ln\tau\sim l^{\psi}$, is a general rule, characterized by a new dynamical exponent $\psi$ of the underlying lattice.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Premartensite to martensite transition and its implications on the origin of modulation in Ni2MnGa ferromagnetic shape memory alloy

We present here results of temperature dependent high resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction study of sequence of phase transitions in Ni2MnGa. Our results show that the incommensurate martensite phase results from the incommensurate premartensite phase, and not from the austenite phase assumed in the adaptive phase model. The premartensite phase transforms to the martensite phase through a first order phase transition with coexistence of the two phases in a broad temperature interval (~40K), discontinuous change in the unit cell volume as also in the modulation wave vector across the transition temperature and considerable thermal hysteresis in the characteristic transition temperatures. The temperature variation of the modulation wave vector q shows smooth analytic behaviour with no evidence for any devilish plateau corresponding to an intermediate or ground state commensurate lock-in phases. The existence of the incommensurate 7M like modulated structure down to 5K suggests that the incommensurate 7M like modulation is the ground state of Ni2MnGa and not the Bain distorted tetragonal L10 phase or any other lock-in phase with a commensurate modulation. These findings can be explained within the framework of the soft phonon model

Large Miscibility Gap in the Ba(Mn_xFe_{1-x})2As2 System

The compounds BaMn2As2 and BaFe2As2 both crystallize in the body-centered-tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type (122-type) structure at room temperature but exhibit quite different unit cell volumes and very different magnetic and electronic transport properties. Evidently reflecting these disparities, we have discovered a large miscibility gap in the system Ba(Mn_xFe_{1-x})2As2. Rietveld refinements of powder x-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements on samples slow-cooled from 1000 C to room temperature (RT) reveal a two-phase mixture of BaMn2As2 and Ba(Mn_{0.12}Fe_{0.88})2As2 phases together with impurity phases for x = 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6 and 0.8. We infer that there exists a miscibility gap in this system at 300 K with composition limits 0.12 < x < 1. For samples quenched from 1000 C to 77 K, the refinements of RT XRD data indicate that the miscibility gap at RT narrows at 1000 C to 0.2 < x < 0.8. Samples with x=0.4, 0.5 and 0.6 quenched from 1100-1400 C to 77 K contain a single 122-type phase together with significant amounts of Fe_{1-x}Mn_xAs and FeAs2 impurity phases. These results indicate that the system is not a pseudo-binary system over the whole composition range and that the 122-type phase has a significant homogeneity range at these temperatures. Magnetic susceptibility, electrical resistivity and heat capacity measurements versus temperature of the single-phase quenched polycrystalline samples with x = 0.2 and 0.8 and for lightly doped BaMn2As2 crystals are reported.Comment: 14 pages, 16 figures, 3 tables; published versio