42,230 research outputs found
Complementarity of perturbations driving insulator-to-metal transition in a charge ordered manganite
Modulation of charge carrier dynamics and hence electrical conductivity of
solids by photoexcitation has been a rich field of research with numerous
applications. Similarly, electric and magnetic field assisted enhancement of
conductivity are of fundamental importance and technological use. Hole doped
manganites of the type (ABMnO, where A and B are rare and
alkaline earth metals respectively have the distinction of showing all three
effects. Here we establish the complementarity of the electric, magnetic and
photon fields in driving an insulator-metal transition in epitaxial thin films
of LaPrCaMnO whose electrical ground state
is insulating. Both pulsed and CW lasers cause a giant photon flux dependent
enhancement of conductivity. It is further observed that electric and magnetic
fields trigger the persistent enhancement of conductivity whose magnitude can
be accentuated by application of these fields in parallel.Comment: 17 pages 6 figure
Control of interface reactions in SIC/TI composites
The reaction between a 0.5 to 1.0 Al film and a thick Ti substrate to form TiAl3 occurs very rapidly on heating to 635 C and causes the Al to be confined to the surface region. After heating to 900 C Ti3Al is formed with little release of Al into alpha Ti. Further annealing at 900 C eventually causes the Ti3Al phase to decompose and a substantial amount of Al is released into alpha Ti. The interdiffusion coefficient for Al in alpha Ti at 900 C increases by less than one order of magnitude as Al is varied from 0 to 20 at %. These data were obtained from the (101) X-ray diffraction intensity band using polycrystalline samples. Improvements in the analysis of X-ray diffraction data for the determination of composition profiles are discussed
Absence of ferromagnetism in Mn- and Co-doped ZnO
Following the theoretical predictions of ferromagnetism in Mn- and Co-doped
ZnO, several workers reported ferromagnetism in thin films as well as in bulk
samples of these materials. While some observe room-temperature ferromagnetism,
others find magnetization at low temperatures. Some of the reports, however,
cast considerable doubt on the magnetism of Mn- and Co-doped ZnO. In order to
conclusively establish the properties of Mn- and Co-doped ZnO, samples with 6
percent and 2 percent dopant concentrations, have been prepared by the
low-temperature decomposition of acetate solid solutions. The samples have been
characterized by x-ray diffraction, EDAX and spectroscopic methods to ensure
that the dopants are substitutional. All the Mn- and Co-doped ZnO samples
(prepared at 400 deg C and 500 deg C) fail to show ferromagnetism. Instead,
their magnetic properties are best described by a Curie-Weiss type behavior. It
appears unlikely that these materials would be useful for spintronics, unless
additional carriers are introduced by some means.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figures. submitted to J. Mater. Chem 200
Magnetic and electron transport properties of the rare-earth cobaltates, La0.7-xLnxCa0.3CoO3 (Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd and Dy) : A case of phase separation
Magnetic and electrical properties of four series of rare earth cobaltates of
the formula La0.7-xLnxCa0.3CoO3 with Ln = Pr, Nd, Gd and Dy have been
investigated. Compositions close to x = 0.0 contain large ferromagnetic
clusters or domains, and show Brillouin-like behaviour of the field-cooled DC
magnetization data with fairly high ferromagnetic Tc values, besides low
electrical resistivities with near-zero temperature coefficients. The
zero-field-cooled data generally show a non-monotonic behaviour with a peak at
a temperatures slightly lower than Tc. The near x = 0.0 compositions show a
prominent peak corresponding to the Tc in the AC-susceptibility data. The
ferromagnetic Tc varies linearly with x or the average radius of the A-site
cations, (rA). With increase in x or decrease in (rA), the magnetization value
at any given temperature decreases markedly and the AC-susceptibility
measurements show a prominent transition arising from small magnetic clusters
with some characteristics of a spin-glass. Electrical resistivity increases
with increase in x, showed a significant increase around a critical value of x
or (rA), at which composition the small clusters also begin to dominate. These
properties can be understood in terms of a phase separation scenario wherein
large magnetic clusters give way to smaller ones with increase in x, with both
types of clusters being present in certain compositions. The changes in
magnetic and electrical properties occur parallely since the large
ferromagnetic clusters are hole-rich and the small clusters are hole-poor.
Variable-range hopping seems to occur at low temperatures in these cobaltates.Comment: 23 pages including figure
Electronic phase separation in the rare earth manganates, (La1-xLnx)0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (Ln = Nd, Gd and Y)
All the three series of manganates showsaturation magnetization
characteristic of ferromagnetism, with the ferromagnetic Tc decreasing with
increasing in x up to a critical value of x, xc (xc = 0.6, 0.3, 0.2
respectively for Nd, Gd, Y). For x > xc, the magnetic moments are considerably
smaller showing a small increase around TM, the value of TM decreasing slightly
with increase in x or decrease in . The ferromagnetic compositions (x xc)
show insulator-metal (IM) transitions, while the compositions with x > xc are
insulating. The magnetic and electrical resistivity behavior of these
manganates is consistent with the occurrence of phase separation in the
compositions around xc, corresponding to a critical average radius of the
A-site cation, , of 1.18 A. Both Tc and TIM increase linearly when < rA
> > or x xc as expected of a homogenous ferromagnetic phase. Both Tc
and TM decrease linearly with the A-site cation size disorder at the A-site as
measured by the variance s2. Thus, an increase in s2 favors the insulating AFM
state. Percolative conduction is observed in the compositions with > <
rAc >. Electron transport properties in the insulating regime for x > xc
conforms to the variable range hopping mechanism. More interestingly, when x >
xc, the real part of dielectric constant (e') reaches a high value (104-106) at
ordinary temperatures dropping to a very small (~500) value below a certain
temperature, the value of which decreases with decreasing frequency.Comment: 27 pages; 11 figures, Submitted to J.Phys:Condens Matte
Anti-correlated time lags in the Z source GX 5-1: Possible evidence for a truncated accretion disk
We investigate the nature of the inner accretion disk in the neutron star
source GX 5-1 by making a detailed study of time lags between X-rays of
different energies. Using the cross-correlation analysis, we found
anti-correlated hard and soft time lags of the order of a few tens to a few
hundred seconds and the corresponding intensity states were mostly the
horizontal branch (HB) and upper normal branch (NB). The model independent and
dependent spectral analysis showed that during these time lags the structure of
accretion disk significantly varied. Both eastern and western approaches were
used to unfold the X-ray continuum and systematic changes were observed in soft
and hard spectral components. These changes along with a systematic shift in
the frequency of quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) made it substantially
evident that the geometry of the accretion disk is truncated. Simultaneous
energy spectral and power density spectral study shows that the production of
the horizontal branch oscillations (HBOs) are closely related to the
Comptonizing region rather than the disk component in the accretion disk. We
found that as the HBO frequency decreases from the hard apex to upper HB, the
disk temperature increases along with an increase in the coronal temperature
which is in sharp contrast with the changes found in black hole binaries where
the decrease in QPO frequency is accompanied by a decrease in the disk
temperature and a simultaneous increase in the coronal temperature. We discuss
the results in the context of re-condensation of coronal material in the inner
region of the disk.Comment: 40 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal Supplement (ApJS
A double peaked pulse profile observed in GX 1+4
The hard X-ray pulsar GX 1+4 was observed several times in the last few years
with a pair of balloon-borne Xenon filled Multi-cell Proportional Counters
(XMPC). In a balloon flight made on 22 March 1995, the source was detected in a
bright state, the average observed source count rate being per
detector. X-ray pulsations with a period of s were detected in
the source with a broad double peak pulse feature. When observed in December
1993 with the same instrument, the pulse profile of GX 1+4 showed a single
peak. This change in the pulse profile to a double pulse structure in about 15
months indicates either activation of the opposite pole of the neutron star if
the magnetic field is asymmetric or possibly a change in the beam pattern, from
a pencil beam to a fan beam. Assuming a fan beam configuration, the pulse
profile is used to find the inclinations of the magnetic axis and the viewing
axis with the spin axis. The derived angles support the GINGA observations of a
dip in the pulse profile which was resolved to have a local maximum in one of
the observations and was explained with resonance scattering of cyclotron line
energy photons by the accretion column (Makishima et al., \markcite{maki1988},
Dotani et al., \markcite{dotani1989}.). Compared to our previous observation of
the same source with the same telescope (Rao et al., \markcite{rao1994}) a
period change rate of is obtained which is the lowest rate
of change of period for this source since its discovery. Average pulse fraction
in the hard X-ray range is low (30%), consistent with its anti correlation with
luminosity as reported by us earlier (Rao et al., \markcite{rao1994}) and the
observed spectrum is very hard (power law photon index ).Comment: 10 pages, to appear in A&
A hybrid computer program for rapidly solving flowing or static chemical kinetic problems involving many chemical species
A hybrid chemical kinetic computer program was assembled which provides a rapid solution to problems involving flowing or static, chemically reacting, gas mixtures. The computer program uses existing subroutines for problem setup, initialization, and preliminary calculations and incorporates a stiff ordinary differential equation solution technique. A number of check cases were recomputed with the hybrid program and the results were almost identical to those previously obtained. The computational time saving was demonstrated with a propane-oxygen-argon shock tube combustion problem involving 31 chemical species and 64 reactions. Information is presented to enable potential users to prepare an input data deck for the calculation of a problem
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