Electronic Structure and Bulk Spin Valve Behavior in Ca3_3Ru2_2O7_7

We report density functional calculations of the magnetic properties and Fermiology of Ca$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$. The ground state consists of ferromagnetic bilayers, stacked antiferromagnetically. The bilayers are almost but not exactly half-metallic. In the ferromagnetic state opposite spin polarizations are found for in-plane and out-of-plane transport. Relatively high out of plane conductivity is found for the majority spin, which is relatively weakly conductive in-plane. In the ground state in-plane quantities are essentially the same, but the out of plane transport is strongly reduced.Comment: 5 page

Role of covalency in the ground state properties of perovskite ruthenates: A first principle study using local spin density approximations

We investigate the electronic structure of SrRuO3 and CaRuO3 using full potential linearized augmented plane wave method within the local spin density approximations. The ferromagnetic ground state in SrRuO3 could exactly be described in these calculations and the calculated spin magnetic moment is found to be close to the experimentally observed values. Interestingly, the spin polarized calculations for CaRuO3 exhibit large spin moment as observed in the experiments but the magnetic ground state has higher energy than that in the non-magnetic solution. Various calculations for different structural configurations indicate that Ca-O covalency plays the key role in determining the electronic structure and thereby the magnetic ground state in this system.Comment: 8 figure

Decoupled CuO_2 and RuO_2 layers in superconducting and magnetically ordered RuSr_2GdCu_2O_8

Comprehensive measurements of dc and ac susceptibility, dc resistance, magnetoresistance, Hall resistivity, and microwave absorption and dispersion in fields up to 8 T have been carried out on RuSr_2GdCu_2O_8 with the aim to establish the properties of RuO_2 and CuO_2 planes. At ~130 K, where the magnetic order develops in the RuO_2 planes, one observes a change in the slope of dc resistance, change in the sign of magnetoresistance, and the appearance of an extraordinary Hall effect. These features indicate that the RuO_2 planes are conducting. A detailed analysis of the ac susceptibility and microwave data on both, ceramic and powder samples show that the penetration depth remains frequency dependent and larger than the London penetration depth even at low temperatures. We conclude that the conductivity in the RuO_2 planes remains normal even when superconducting order is developed in the CuO_2 planes below \~45 K. Thus, experimental evidence is provided in support of theoretical models which base the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetic order on decoupled CuO_2 and RuO_2 planes.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, submitted to PR

Magnetic ordering in Sr2RuO4 induced by nonmagnetic impurities

We report unusual effects of nonmagnetic impurities on the spin-triplet superconductor Sr2RuO4. The substitution of nonmagnetic Ti4+ for Ru4+ induces localized-moment magnetism characterized by unexpected Ising anisotropy with the easy axis along the interlayer c direction. Furthermore, for x(Ti) > 0.03 magnetic ordering occurs in the metallic state with the remnant magnetization along the c-axis. We argue that the localized moments are induced in the Ru4+ and/or oxygen ions surrounding Ti4+ and that the ordering is due to their interaction mediated by itinerant Ru-4d electrons with strong spin fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages, 4figure