135 research outputs found
The shear stiffness characteristics of four Eocene-to-Jurassic UK stiff clays
A large proportion of the southern UK is underlain by stiff clays. Improving their geotechnical characterisation is important for many current and future infrastructure projects. This paper presents an integrated study of the complex stiffness behaviour of four key medium-plasticity, highly overconsolidated strata: the Gault, Kimmeridge, Oxford and London clays. The latter were deposited between the Jurassic and the Eocene under broadly similar marine conditions. Coordinated programmes of advanced static and dynamic laboratory measurements have been undertaken on high-quality samples, concentrating on samples taken from similar depths at inland sites and including triaxial and hollow cylinder stress path experiments employing high-resolution local strain, multi-axial bender element and resonant column techniques. A new approach was employed to interpret the hollow cylinder experiments and the laboratory measurements are examined in combination with independent field shear wave data. The clays' stiffness characteristics are shown to be markedly anisotropic, pressure dependent and highly non-linear. Synthesis allows key conclusions to be drawn regarding: the relative reliability of alternative measurement approaches; the potential spread of stiffness behaviours between the clays; and whether the clays' varying geological ages and burial depths have any systematic influence on their stiffness characteristics. The results have important geotechnical engineering implications
Phenomenology of a-axis and b-axis charge dynamics from microwave spectroscopy of highly ordered YBa2Cu3O6.50 and YBa2Cu3O6.993
Extensive measurements of the microwave conductivity of highly pure and
oxygen-ordered \YBCO single crystals have been performed as a means of
exploring the intrinsic charge dynamics of a d-wave superconductor. Broadband
and fixed-frequency microwave apparatus together provide a very clear picture
of the electrodynamics of the superconducting condensate and its thermally
excited nodal quasiparticles. The measurements reveal the existence of very
long-lived excitations deep in the superconducting state, as evidenced by sharp
cusp-like conductivity spectra with widths that fall well within our
experimental bandwidth. We present a phenomenological model of the microwave
conductivity that captures the physics of energy-dependent quasiparticle
dynamics in a d-wave superconductor which, in turn, allows us to examine the
scattering rate and oscillator strength of the thermally excited quasiparticles
as functions of temperature. Our results are in close agreement with the
Ferrell-Glover-Tinkham sum rule, giving confidence in both our experiments and
the phenomenological model. Separate experiments for currents along the and directions of detwinned crystals allow us to isolate the role
of the CuO chain layers in \YBCO, and a model is presented that incorporates
both one-dimensional conduction from the chain electrons and two-dimensional
transport associated with the \cuplane plane layers.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figure
Microwave Conductivity due to Impurity Scattering in a d-wave Superconductor
The self-consistent t-matrix approximation for impurity scattering in
unconventional superconductors is used to interpret recent measurements of the
temperature and frequency dependence of the microwave conductivity of YBCO
crystals below 20K. In this theory, the conductivity is expressed in terms of a
fequency dependent single particle self-energy, determined by the impurity
scattering phase shift which is small for weak (Born) scattering and approaches
for unitary scattering. Inverting this process, microwave
conductivity data are used to extract an effective single-particle self-energy
and obtain insight into the nature of the operative scattering processes. It is
found that the effective self-energy is well approximated by a constant plus a
linear term in frequency with a small positive slope for thermal quasiparticle
energies below 20K. Possible physical origins of this form of self-energy are
discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
c-axis electrodynamics of ybco
New measurements of surface impedance in ybco show that the c-axis
penetration depth and conductivity below Tc exhibit behaviour different from
that observed in the planes. The c-axis penetration depth never has the linear
temperature dependence seen in the ab-plane. Instead of the conductivity peak
seen in the planes, the c-axis microwave conductivity falls to low values in
the superconducting state, then rises slightly below 20K. These results show
that c-axis transport remains incoherent below Tc, even though this is one of
the least anisotropic cuprate superconductors.Comment: 4-page
Microwave Spectroscopy of Thermally Excited Quasiparticles in YBa_2Cu_3O_{6.99}
We present here the microwave surface impedance of a high purity crystal of
measured at 5 frequencies between 1 and 75 GHz. This data
set reveals the main features of the conductivity spectrum of the thermally
excited quasiparticles in the superconducting state. Below 20 K there is a
regime of extremely long quasiparticle lifetimes, due to both the collapse of
inelastic scattering below and the very weak impurity scattering in the
high purity -grown crystal used in this study. Above 20 K, the
scattering increases dramatically, initially at least as fast as .Comment: 13 pages with 10 figures. submitted to Phys Rev
Absolute values of the London penetration depth in YBa2Cu3O6+y measured by zero field ESR spectroscopy on Gd doped single crystals
Zero-field electron spin resonance (ESR) of dilute Gd ions substituted for Y
in the cuprate superconductor YBaCuO is used as a novel
technique for measuring the absolute value of the low temperature magnetic
penetration depth . The Gd ESR spectrum of samples with
substitution was obtained with a broadband microwave technique
that measures power absorption bolometrically from 0.5 GHz to 21 GHz. This ESR
spectrum is determined by the crystal field that lifts the level degeneracy of
the spin 7/2 Gd ion and details of this spectrum provide information
concerning oxygen ordering in the samples. The magnetic penetration depth is
obtained by relating the number of Gd ions exposed to the microwave magnetic
field to the frequency-integrated intensity of the observed ESR transitions.
This technique has allowed us to determine precise values of for
screening currents flowing in the three crystallographic orientations (, and ) in samples of GdYBaCuO of three different oxygen contents ( K), ( K) and
( K). The in-plane values are found to depart substantially from the
widely reported relation .Comment: 14 pages, 12 figures; version to appear in PR
Ground State Vortex Lattice Structures in d-wave Superconductors
We show in a realistic symmetry gap model for a cuprate
superconductor that the clean vortex lattice has discontinuous structural
transitions (at and near T=0), as a function of the magnetic field along
the c-axis. The transitions arise from the singular nonlocal and anisotropic
susceptibility of the superconductor to the perturbation
caused by supercurrents associated with vortices. The susceptibility, due to
virtual Dirac quasiparticle-hole excitation, is calculated carefully, and leads
to a ground state transition for the triangular lattice from an orientation
along one of the crystal axis to one at 45 to them, i.e, along the gap zero
direction. The field scale is seen to be 5 Tesla , where is the gap maximum, is the
nearest neighbour hopping, is the lattice constant, and is the
flux quantum. At much higher fields () there is a discontinuous
transition to a centred square structure. The source of the differences from
existing calculations, and experimental observability are discussed, the latter
especially in view of the very small (a few degrees per vortex) differences
in the ground state energy.Comment: To be published in Phys. Rev.
Phenomenological description of the microwave surface impedance and complex conductivity of high- single crystals
Measurements of the microwave surface impedance and
of the complex conductivity of high-quality, high- single
crystals of YBCO, BSCCO, TBCCO, and TBCO are analyzed. Experimental data of
and are compared with calculations based on a modified
two-fluid model which includes temperature-dependent quasiparticle scattering
and a unique temperature variation of the density of superconducting carriers.
We elucidate agreement as well as disagreement of our analysis with the salient
features of the experimental data. Existing microscopic models are reviewed
which are based on unconventional symmetry types of the order parameter and on
novel mechanisms of quasiparticle relaxation.Comment: 15 pages, 17 figures, 1 tabl
Superconducting Fluctuation investigated by THz Conductivity of LaSrCuO Thin Films
Frequency-dependent terahertz conductivities of LaSrCuO thin
films with various carrier concentrations were investigated. The imaginary part
of the complex conductivity considerably increased from far above a
zero-resistance superconducting transition temperature,
, because of the existence of the fluctuating
superfluid density with a short lifetime. The onset temperature of the
superconducting fluctuation is at most for
underdoped samples, which is consistent with the previously reported analysis
of microwave conductivity. The superconducting fluctuation was not enhanced
under a 0.5 T magnetic field. We also found that the temperature dependence of
the superconducting fluctuation was sensitive to the carrier concentration of
LaSrCuO, which reflects the difference in the nature of the
critical dynamics near the superconducting transition temperature. Our results
suggest that the onset temperature of the Nernst signal is not related to the
superconducting fluctuation we argued in this paper.Comment: J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. in pres
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