433 research outputs found
Effect of pressure cycling on Iron: Signatures of an electronic instability and unconventional superconductivity
High pressure electrical resistivity and x-ray diffraction experiments have
been performed on Fe single crystals. The crystallographic investigation
provides direct evidence that in the martensitic
transition at 14 GPa the become the directions. During a pressure cycle, resistivity shows a
broad hysteresis of 6.5 GPa, whereas superconductivity, observed between 13 and
31 GPa, remains unaffected. Upon increasing pressure an electronic instability,
probably a quantum critical point, is observed at around 19 GPa and, close to
this pressure, the superconducting and the isothermal resistivity
(K) attain maximum values. In the superconducting pressure domain,
the exponent of the temperature power law of resistivity and its
prefactor, which mimics , indicate that ferromagnetic fluctuations may
provide the glue for the Cooper pairs, yielding unconventional
superconductivity
Probing the extended non-Fermi liquid regimes of MnSi and Fe
Recent studies show that the non-Fermi liquid (NFL) behavior of MnSi and Fe
spans over an unexpectedly broad pressure range, between the critical pressure
p_c and around 2p_c. In order to determine the extension of their NFL regions,
we analyze the evolution of the resistivity rho(T) A(p)T^n at higher pressures.
We find that in MnSi the n=3/2 exponent holds below 4.8 GPa=3 p_c, but it
increases above that pressure. At 7.2 GPa we observe the low temperature Fermi
liquid exponent n=2 whereas for T>1.5 K, n=5/3. Our measurements in Fe show
that the NFL behavior rho T^{5/3} extends at least up to 30.5 GPa, above the
entire superconducting (SC) region. In the studied pressure range, the onset of
the SC transition reduces by a factor 10 down to T_c^onset(30.5 GPa)=0.23 K,
while the A-coefficient diminishes monotonically by around 50%.Comment: 2 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings SCES 200
Exploring high temperature magnetic order in CeTi_1-xSc_xGe
Most of magnetic transitions related to Ce ordering are found below
T_ord~12K. Among the few cases exceeding that temperature, two types of
behaviors can be distinguished. One of them is related to the rare cases of Ce
binary compounds formed in BCC structures, with a quartet ground state, whose
degeneracy is reduced by undergoing different types of transitions mostly
structural. The other group shows evidences of itinerant character with the
outstanding example of CeRh_3B_2 showing the highest T_ord=115K. The second
highest ordering temperature has been reported for CeScGe with T_ord=47K, but
the nature of this magnetic state has not been investigated very deeply. In
order to shed more light into this unusual high temperature ordering we studied
the structural, magnetic, transport and thermal properties of CeTi_1-xSc_xGe
alloys in the stability range of the CeScSi-type structure 0.25<x<1 This system
presents a rich variety of magnetic behaviors along this concentration range,
with the magnetic ordering growing from ferromagnetic (FM) T_C~7K up to an
antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition at T_N=47K. The different regions show the
following characteristics: i) on the Ti rich side (0.25<x<0.50) it exhibits a
FM ground state (GS) with large saturation magnetization values M_sat up to
~1.15 mu_B. ii) Around x=0.60, the first crystal electric field excited doublet
starts to contribute to the GS magnetic properties. Furthermore an AFM
component with a connected metamagnetic transition appears. iii) At x=0.65 a
clear change in the GS nature is associated to a critical point above which the
GS properties can be described like for an itinerant system (with decreasing
M_sat) and an effective GS degeneracy N_eff=4. iv) For x>0.65, the magnetic
phase boundary splits into two transitions, with an intermediate phase
presenting incommensurate spin density waves features.Comment: 8 pages, 10 figure
Lattice specific heat for the RMIn (R = Gd, La, Y, M = Co, Rh) compounds: non-magnetic contribution subtraction
We analyze theoretically a common experimental process used to obtain the
magnetic contribution to the specific heat of a given magnetic material. In the
procedure, the specific heat of a non-magnetic analog is measured and used to
subtract the non-magnetic contributions, which are generally dominated by the
lattice degrees of freedom in a wide range of temperatures. We calculate the
lattice contribution to the specific heat for the magnetic compounds GdMIn
(M = Co, Rh) and for the non-magnetic YMIn and LaMIn (M = Co, Rh),
using density functional theory based methods. We find that the best
non-magnetic analog for the subtraction depends on the magnetic material and on
the range of temperatures. While the phonon specific heat contribution of
YRhIn is an excellent approximation to the one of GdCoIn in the full
temperature range, for GdRhIn we find a better agreement with LaCoIn,
in both cases, as a result of an optimum compensation effect between masses and
volumes. We present measurements of the specific heat of the compounds
GdMIn (M = Co, Rh) up to room temperature where it surpasses the value
expected from the Dulong-Petit law. We obtain a good agreement between theory
and experiment when we include anharmonic effects in the calculations
Improved fertilization and implantation rates after non-touch zona pellucida microdrilling of mouse oocytes with a 1.48 ÎĽm diode laser beam
The safety of microdrilling the zona pellucida of moose oocytes with a 1.48 ÎĽm diode laser has been investigated by determining the ability of mouse oocytes to fertilize in vitro and develop in vivo. Mice born after transfer of control and zona pelludda-microdrilled embryos into foster mothers were submitted to anatomical and immunohisto-chemical investigations, and their aptitude to breed was assessed in two subsequent generations. Decolonization of the oocytes with hyaluronidase induced a reduction of the fertilization and implantation rates, which was attributed to a zona hardening phenomenon. After laser zona pellucida microdrilling, these rates were restored to those obtained with embryos derived from untreated oocyte-cumulus complexes. Pups derived from zona pellucida microdrilled embryos were comparable with those obtained from control embryos, confirming the lack of deleterious effects of the laser treatment In conclusion, the 1.48 ÎĽm diode laser allows safe microdrilling of the zona pellucida of mouse oocytes after decoronization with hyaluronidase. Based on the health of the F2 generation and the lack of neuroanatom-ical and neurochemical differences, we concluded that this technology may be investigated in the human, particularly when the zona pellucida represents the main impediment for fertilization or embryo hatchin
Quantum Criticality in doped CePd_1-xRh_x Ferromagnet
CePd_1-xRh_x alloys exhibit a continuous evolution from ferromagnetism (T_C=
6.5 K) at x = 0 to a mixed valence (MV) state at x = 1. We have performed a
detailed investigation on the suppression of the ferromagnetic (F) phase in
this alloy using dc-(\chi_dc) and ac-susceptibility (\chi_ac), specific heat
(C_m), resistivity (\rho) and thermal expansion (\beta) techniques. Our results
show a continuous decrease of T_C (x) with negative curvature down to T_C = 3K
at x*= 0.65, where a positive curvature takes over. Beyond x*, a cusp in cac is
traced down to T_C* = 25 mK at x = 0.87, locating the critical concentration
between x = 0.87 and 0.90. The quantum criticality of this region is recognized
by the -log(T/T_0) dependence of C_m/T, which transforms into a T^-q (~0.5) one
at x = 0.87. At high temperature, this system shows the onset of valence
instability revealed by a deviation from Vegard's law (at x_V~0.75) and
increasing hybridization effects on high temperature \chi_dc and \rho.
Coincidentally, a Fermi liquid contribution to the specific heat arises from
the MV component, which becomes dominant at the CeRh limit. In contrast to
antiferromagnetic systems, no C_m/T flattening is observed for x > x_cr rather
the mentioned power law divergence, which coincides with a change of sign of
\beta. The coexistence of F and MV components and the sudden changes in the T
dependencies are discussed in the context of randomly distributed magnetic and
Kondo couplings.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figure
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