4,985 research outputs found
Magnetocaloric effect in manganites: metamagnetic transitions for magnetic refrigeration
We present a study of the magnetocaloric effect in La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3
(y=0.3) and Pr0.5Ca0.09Sr0.41MnO3 manganites. The low temperature state of both
ystems is the result of a competition between the antiferromagnetic and
ferromagnetic phases. The samples display magnetocaloric effect evidenced in an
adiabatic temperature change during a metamagnetic transition from an
antiferromagnetic to a ferromagnetic phase . As additional features,
La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 exhibits phase separation characterized by the coexistence
of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic phases and Pr0.5Ca0.09Sr0.41MnO3
displays inverse magnetocaloric effect in which temperature decreases while
applying an external magnetic field. In both cases, a significant part of the
magnetocaloric effect appears from non-reversible processes. As the traditional
thermodynamic description of the effect usually deals with reversible
transitions, we developed an alternative way to calculate the adiabatic
temperature change in terms of the change of the relative ferromagnetic
fraction induced by magnetic field. To evaluate our model, we performed direct
measurement of the sample's adiabatic temperature change by means of a
differential thermal analysis. An excellent agreement has been obtained between
experimental and calculated data. These results show that metamagnetic
transition in manganites play an important role in the study of magnetic
refrigeration.Comment: Acepted to be published in Applied Physics Letter
Coupled magnetic and elastic properties in LaPr(CaSr)MnO manganites
We investigate a series of manganese oxides, the
La0.225Pr0.4(Ca1-xSrx)0.375MnO3 system. The x = 0 sample is a prototype
compound for the study of phase separation in manganites, where ferromagnetic
and charge ordered antiferromagnetic phases coexist. Replacing Ca2+ by Sr2+
gradually turns the system into a homogeneous ferromagnet. Our results show
that the material structure plays a major role in the observed magnetic
properties. On cooling, at temperatures below 100 K, a strong contraction of
the lattice is followed by an increase in the magnetization. This is observed
both through thermal expansion and magnetostriction measurements, providing
distinct evidence of magneto-elastic coupling in these phase separated
compounds
Abrupt field-induced transition triggered by magnetocaloric effect in phase-separated manganites
The occurrence at low temperatures of an ultrasharp field-induced transition
in phase separated manganites is analyzed. Experimental results show that
magnetization and specific heat step-like transitions below 5 K are correlated
with an abrupt change of the sample temperature, which happens at a certain
critical field. This temperature rise, a magnetocaloric effect, is interpreted
as produced by the released energy at the transition point, and is the key to
understand the existence of the abrupt field-induced transition. A qualitative
analysis of the results suggests the existence of a critical growing rate of
the ferromagnetic phase, beyond which an avalanche effect is triggered.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures included. Acepted for publication in Phys. Rev.
Gains from the upgrade of the cold neutron triple-axis spectrometer FLEXX at the BER-II reactor
The upgrade of the cold neutron triple-axis spectrometer FLEXX is described.
We discuss the characterisation of the gains from the new primary spectrometer,
including a larger guide and double focussing monochromator, and present
measurements of the energy and momentum resolution and of the neutron flux of
the instrument. We found an order of magnitude gain in intensity (at the cost
of coarser momentum resolution), and that the incoherent elastic energy widths
are measurably narrower than before the upgrade. The much improved count rate
should allow the use of smaller single crystals samples and thus enable the
upgraded FLEXX spectrometer to continue making leading edge measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, 5 table
Conformal mapping of ultrasonic crystals: confining ultrasound and cochlear-like wave guiding
Conformal mapping of a slab of a two-dimensional ultrasonic crystal generate
a closed geometrical arrangement of ultrasonic scatterers with appealing
acoustic properties. This acoustic shell is able to confine ultrasonic modes.
Some of these internal resonances can be induced from an external wave source.
The mapping of a linear defect produces a wave-guide that exhibits a
spatial-frequency selection analogous to that characteristic of a synthetic
"cochlea". Both, experimental and theoretical results are reported here.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Nonlinear Schr\"odinger Equation with Spatio-Temporal Perturbations
We investigate the dynamics of solitons of the cubic Nonlinear Schr\"odinger
Equation (NLSE) with the following perturbations: non-parametric
spatio-temporal driving of the form , damping, and a
linear term which serves to stabilize the driven soliton. Using the time
evolution of norm, momentum and energy, or, alternatively, a Lagrangian
approach, we develop a Collective-Coordinate-Theory which yields a set of ODEs
for our four collective coordinates. These ODEs are solved analytically and
numerically for the case of a constant, spatially periodic force . The
soliton position exhibits oscillations around a mean trajectory with constant
velocity. This means that the soliton performs, on the average, a
unidirectional motion although the spatial average of the force vanishes. The
amplitude of the oscillations is much smaller than the period of . In
order to find out for which regions the above solutions are stable, we
calculate the time evolution of the soliton momentum and soliton
velocity : This is a parameter representation of a curve which is
visited by the soliton while time evolves. Our conjecture is that the soliton
becomes unstable, if this curve has a branch with negative slope. This
conjecture is fully confirmed by our simulations for the perturbed NLSE.
Moreover, this curve also yields a good estimate for the soliton lifetime: the
soliton lives longer, the shorter the branch with negative slope is.Comment: 21 figure
Lepton number violating four-body tau lepton decays
We study the four-body tau^+- -> nu_tau l^+- l^+- X^-+ decays where l=e or mu
and X=pi, K, rho and K^* mesons. These decay processes violate the total lepton
number (|Delta L|=2) and can be induced by the exchange of Majorana neutrinos.
We consider an scenario where these decays are dominated by the exchange of
only one heavy neutrino which produces an enhancement of the decay amplitude
via the resonant mechanism. Searches for these novel decay channels with
branching fractions sensitivities of (10^-7) can provide constraints on the
parameter space of the Majorana neutrinos which are stronger than the ones
obtained from Delta L=2 decays of charged pseudoscalar mesons.Comment: REVTeX, 14 pages, 6 figures, four references added. Version accepted
for publication in PR
Internal mode mechanism for collective energy transport in extended systems
We study directed energy transport in homogeneous nonlinear extended systems
in the presence of homogeneous ac forces and dissipation. We show that the
mechanism responsible for unidirectional motion of topological excitations is
the coupling of their internal and translation degrees of freedom. Our results
lead to a selection rule for the existence of such motion based on resonances
that explains earlier symmetry analysis of this phenomenon. The direction of
motion is found to depend both on the initial and the relative phases of the
two harmonic drivings, even in the presence of noise.Comment: Final version, to appear in Physical Review Letter
Spinon confinement in a quasi one dimensional anisotropic Heisenberg magnet
Confinement is a process by which particles with fractional quantum numbers
bind together to form quasiparticles with integer quantum numbers. The
constituent particles are confined by an attractive interaction whose strength
increases with increasing particle separation and as a consequence, individual
particles are not found in isolation. This phenomenon is well known in particle
physics where quarks are confined in baryons and mesons. An analogous
phenomenon occurs in certain magnetic insulators; weakly coupled chains of
spins S=1/2. The collective excitations in these systems is spinons (S=1/2). At
low temperatures weak coupling between chains can induce an attractive
interaction between pairs of spinons that increases with their separation and
thus leads to confinement. In this paper, we employ inelastic neutron
scattering to investigate the spinon confinement in the quasi-1D S=1/2 XXZ
antiferromagnet SrCo2V2O8. Spinon excitations are observed above TN in
quantitative agreement with established theory. Below TN the pairs of spinons
are confined and two sequences of meson-like bound states with longitudinal and
transverse polarizations are observed. Several theoretical approaches are used
to explain the data. A new theoretical technique based on Tangent-space Matrix
Product States gives a very complete description of the data and provides good
agreement not only with the energies of the bound modes but also with their
intensities. We also successfully explained the effect of temperature on the
excitations including the experimentally observed thermally induced resonance
between longitudinal modes below TN ,and the transitions between thermally
excited spinon states above TN. In summary, our work establishes SrCo2V2O8 as a
beautiful paradigm for spinon confinement in a quasi-1D quantum magnet and
provides a comprehensive picture of this process.Comment: 17 pages, 18 figures, submitted to PR
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