250 research outputs found
Intermediate valence behavior in CeCo9Si4
The novel ternary compound CeCoSi has been studied by means of
specific heat, magnetisation, and transport measurements. Single crystal X-ray
Rietveld refinements reveal a fully ordered distribution of Ce, Co and Si atoms
with the tetragonal space group I4/mcm isostructural with other RCo9Si4. The
smaller lattice constants of CeCo9Si4 in comparison with the trend established
by other RCo9Si4 is indicative for intermediate valence of cerium. While
RCo9Si4 with R= Pr, .. Tb, and Y show ferromagnetism and LaCo9Si4 is nearly
ferromagnetic, CeCo9Si4 remains paramagnetic even in external fields as large
as 40 T, though its electronic specific heat coefficient (g~190 mJ/molK^2) is
of similar magnitude as that of metamagnetic LaCo9Si4 and weakly ferromagnetic
YCo9Si4.Comment: 2 pages, 3 figures, submitted to SCES 0
Superconductivity in novel Ge-based skutterudites: {Sr,Ba}Pt_4Ge_{12}
Combining experiments and ab initio models we report on
and as members of a novel class of superconducting
skutterudites, where Sr or Ba atoms stabilize a framework entirely formed by
Ge-atoms. Below K, and 5.10 K for and , respectively, electron-phonon coupled superconductivity
emerges, ascribed to intrinsic features of the Pt-Ge framework, where Ge-
states dominate the electronic structure at the Fermi energy.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in PR
Heavy fermion superconductivity and magnetic order in non-centrosymmetric
is a novel heavy fermion superconductor, crystallising in the
structure as a tetragonally distorted low symmetry variant of the
structure type. exhibits antiferromagnetic order at
K and enters into a heavy fermion superconducting state at
K. Large values of T/K and T refer to heavy quasiparticles forming Cooper pairs. Hitherto, is the first heavy fermion superconductor without a center of
symmetry.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
A new polymorphic material? Structural degeneracy of ZrMn_2
Based on density functional calculations, we propose that ZrMn_2 is a
polymorphic material. We predict that at low temperatures the cubic C15, and
the hexagonal C14 and C36 structures of the Laves phase compound ZrMn_2 are
nearly equally stable within 0.3 kJmol^{-1} or 30 K. This degeneracy occurs
when the Mn atoms magnetize spontaneously in a ferromagnetic arrangement
forming the states of lowest energy. From the temperature dependent free
energies at T approx 160K we predict a transition from the most stable C15 to
the C14 structure, which is the experimentally observed structure at elevated
temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure
Terahertz superlattice parametric oscillator
We report a GaAs/AlAs superlattice parametric oscillator. It was pumped by a
microwave field (power few mW) and produced 3rd harmonic radiation (frequency
near 300 GHz). The nonlinearity of the active superlattice was due to Bragg
reflections of conduction electrons at the superlattice planes. A theory of the
nonlinearity indicates that parametric oscillation should be possible up to
frequencies above 10 THz. The active superlattice may be the object of further
studies of predicted extraordinary nonlinearities for THz fields.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
Itinerant electron metamagnetism in LaCoSi
The strongly exchange enhanced Pauli paramagnet LaCoSi is found to
exhibit an itinerant metamagnetic phase transition with indications for
metamagnetic quantum criticality. Our investigation comprises magnetic,
specific heat, and NMR measurements as well as ab-initio electronic structure
calculations. The critical field is about 3.5 T for and 6 T for , which is the lowest value ever found for rare earth intermetallic
compounds. In the ferromagnetic state there appears a moment of about 0.2
/Co at the Co-sites, but sigificantly smaller moments at the 4d
and Co-sites.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, PRB Rapid Communication, in prin
Heavy Fermion Behavior, Crystalline Electric Field Effects, and Weak Ferromagnetism in SmOs_{4}Sb_{12}
The filled skutterudite compound SmOs_{4}Sb_{12} was prepared in single
crystal form and characterized. The SmOs_{4}Sb_{12} crystals have the
LaFe_{4}P_{12}-type structure with lattice parameter a = 9.3085 Angstroms.
Specific heat measurements indicate a large electronic specific heat
coefficient of ~880 mJ/mol K^{2}, from which an enhanced effective mass m^{*} ~
170 m_{e} is estimated. The specific heat data also suggest crystalline
electric field (CEF) splitting of the Sm^{3+} J = 5/2 multiplet into a
Gamma_{7} doublet ground state and a Gamma_{8} quartet excited state separated
by 37 K. Electrical resistivity rho(T) measurements reveal a decrease in rho(T)
below ~50 K that is consistent with CEF splitting of ~33 K between a Gamma_(7)
doublet ground state and Gamma_{8} quartet excited state. Specific heat and
magnetic susceptibility measurements display a possible weak ferromagnetic
transition at ~2.6 K, which could be an intrinsic property of SmOs_4Sb_{12} or
possibly due to an unknown impurity phase.Comment: 24 pages, 11 Postscript figures, to be published in Physical Review
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