285 research outputs found
Evidence for time-reversal symmetry breaking in superconducting PrPt4Ge12
Zero and longitudinal field muon spin rotation (muSR) experiments were
performed on the superconductors PrPt4Ge12 and LaPt4Ge12. In PrPt4Ge12 below Tc
a spontaneous magnetization with a temperature variation resembling that of the
superfluid density appears. This observation implies time-reversal symmetry
(TRS) breaking in PrPt4Ge12 below Tc = 7.9 K. This remarkably high Tc for an
anomalous superconductor and the weak and gradual change of Tc and of the
related specific heat anomaly upon La substitution in La_(1-x)Pr_xPt_4Ge_(12)
suggests that the TRS breaking is due to orbital degrees of freedom of the
Cooper pairs.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev. B. 5 pages, 3 figure
Cluster approach study of intersite electron correlations in pyrochlore and checkerboard lattices
To treat effects of electron correlations in geometrically frustrated
pyrochlore and checkerboard lattices, an extended single-orbital Hubbard model
with nearest neighbor hopping and Coulomb repulsion is
applied. Infinite on-site repulsion, , is assumed, thus double
occupancies of sites are forbidden completely in the present study. A
variational Gutzwiller type approach is extended to examine correlations due to
short-range interaction and a cluster approximation is developed to
evaluate a variational ground state energy of the system. Obtained analytically
in a special case of quarter band filling appropriate to LiVO, the
resulting simple expression describes the ground state energy in the regime of
intermediate and strong coupling . Like in the Brinkman-Rice theory based on
the standard Gutzwiller approach to the Hubbard model, the mean value of the
kinetic energy is shown to be reduced strongly as the coupling approaches a
critical value . This finding may contribute to explaining the observed
heavy fermion behavior in LiVO
Magnetostriction of a Superconductor: -Results from the Critical-State Model
In many cases, the critical-state theory can be treated as a suffi ciently
accurate approximation for the modelling of the magnetic properties of
superconductors. In the present work, the magnetostrictive hysteresis is
computed for a quite general case of the modified Kim-Anderson model. The
results obtained reproduce many features of the giant magnetostriction
(butterfly-shaped curves) reported in the literature for measurements made on
single-crystal samples of the high-temperature superconductor
. It is shown that addition of a contribution to the
magnetostriction in the superconducting state which is of similar origin as in
the normal state, offers a broader phenomenological interpretation of the
complex magnetostriction hysteresis found in such heavy-fermion compounds as
, or .Comment: 9 LaTeX pages, 4 Postscript figures, WWW version available at
http://is.dal.ca/~zkoziol/super.htm
Symmetry properties of the nodal superconductor PrOs4Sb12
We present a theoretical study of the superconducting gap function in
PrOs4Sb12 using a symmetry-based approach. A three-component order parameter in
the triplet channel best describes superconductivity. The gap function is
non-degenerate and the lower branch has four cusp nodes at unusual points of
the Fermi surface, which lead to power law behaviours in the density of states,
specific heat and nuclear spin relaxation rate.Comment: to appear in Phys. Rev. B 7
Evidence for multiband superconductivity in the heavy fermion compound UNi2Al3
Epitaxial thin films of the heavy fermion superconductor UNi2Al3 with
Tc{max}=0.98K were investigated. The transition temperature Tc depends on the
current direction which can be related to superconducting gaps opening at
different temperatures. Also the influence of the magnetic ordering at TN=5K on
R(T) is strongly anisotropic indicating different coupling between the magnetic
moments and itinerant charge carriers on the multi-sheeted Fermi surface. The
upper critical field Hc2(T) suggests an unconventional spin-singlet
superconducting state.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures revised version: inset of fig. 2 changed, fig. 3
added accepted for pub. in Phys. Rev. Lett. (estimated 9/04
Line nodes in the superconducting gap function of noncentrosymmetric CePt_3Si
The superconducting gap structure of recently discovered heavy fermion
CePt_3Si without spatial inversion symmetry was investigated by thermal
transport measurements down to 40 mK. In zero field a residual T-linear term
was clearly resolved as T-> 0, with a magnitude in good agreement with the
value expected for a residual normal fluid with a nodal gap structure, together
with a T^2-dependence at high temperatures. With an applied magnetic fields,
the thermal conductivity grows rapidly, in dramatic contrast to fully gapped
superconductors, and exhibits one-parameter scaling with T/sqrt{H}. These
results place an important constraint on the order parameter symmetry, that is
CePt_3Si is most likely to have line nodes.Comment: 5pages, 3figures, accpted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Universally diverging Grueneisen parameter and the magnetocaloric effect close to quantum critical points
At a generic quantum critical point, the thermal expansion is more
singular than the specific heat . Consequently, the "Gr\"uneisen ratio'',
\GE=\alpha/c_p, diverges. When scaling applies, \GE \sim T^{-1/(\nu z)} at
the critical pressure , providing a means to measure the scaling
dimension of the most relevant operator that pressure couples to; in the
alternative limit and , \GE \sim \frac{1}{p-p_c} with a
prefactor that is, up to the molar volume, a simple {\it universal} combination
of critical exponents. For a magnetic-field driven transition, similar
relations hold for the magnetocaloric effect .
Finally, we determine the corrections to scaling in a class of metallic quantum
critical points.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure; general discussion on how the Grueneisen exponent
measures the scaling dimension of the most relevant operator at any QCP is
expande
Origin of Orthorhombic Transition, Magnetic Transition, and Shear Modulus Softening in Iron Pnictide Superconductors: Analysis based on the Orbital Fluctuation Theory
The main features in iron-pnictide superconductors are summarized as (i) the
orthorhombic transition accompanied by remarkable softening of shear modulus,
(ii) high-Tc superconductivity close to the orthorhombic phase, and (iii)
stripe-type magnetic order induced by orthorhombicity. To present a unified
explanation for them, we analyze the multiorbital Hubbard-Holstein model with
Fe-ion optical phonons based on the orbital fluctuation theory. In the
random-phase-approximation (RPA), a small electron-phonon coupling constant
() is enough to produce large orbital (=charge quadrupole)
fluctuations. The most divergent susceptibility is the
-antiferro-quadrupole (AFQ) susceptibility, which causes the s-wave
superconductivity without sign reversal (s_{++}-wave state). At the same time,
divergent development of -ferro-quadrupole (FQ) susceptibility is
brought by the "two-orbiton process" with respect to the AFQ fluctuations,
which is absent in the RPA. The derived FQ fluctuations cause the softening of
shear modulus, and its long-range-order not only triggers the
orthorhombic structure transition, but also induces the instability of
stripe-type antiferro-magnetic state. In other words, the condensation of
composite bosons made of two orbitons gives rise to the FQ order and structure
transition. The theoretically predicted multi-orbital-criticality presents a
unified explanation for abovementioned features of iron pnictide
superconductors.Comment: 19 pages, 15 figure
Excitations in Spin Chains and Specific-Heat Anomalies in Yb(4)As(3)
An explanation is given for the observed magnetic-field dependence of the
low-temperature specific heat coefficient of Yb(4)As(3). It is based on a
recently developed model for that material which can explain the observed
heavy-fermion behaviour. According to it the Yb(3+)-ions are positioned in a
net of parallel chains with an effective spin coupling of the order of J = 25
K. The magnetic-field dependence can be understood by including a weak magnetic
coupling J' between adjacent chains. The data require a ratio J'/J of about
10^{-4}. In that case the experimental results can be reproduced very well by
the theory.Comment: 5 pages, 5 PostScript-figures, needs LaTeX2e and the graphics-packag
Magneto-structural properties of the layered quasi-2D triangular-lattice antiferromagnets CsCuClBr for = 0,1,2 and 4
We present a study of the magnetic susceptibility under variable
hydrostatic pressure on single crystals of CsCuClBr. This
includes the border compounds \textit{x} = 0 and 4, known as good realizations
of the distorted triangular-lattice spin-1/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet, as
well as the isostructural stoichiometric systems CsCuClBr and
CsCuClBr. For the determination of the exchange coupling
constants and , data were fitted by a
model \cite{Schmidt2015}. Its application, validated for the
border compounds, yields a degree of frustration / = 0.47 for
CsCuClBr and / 0.63 - 0.78 for
CsCuClBr, making these systems particular interesting
representatives of this family. From the evolution of the magnetic
susceptibility under pressure up to about 0.4\,GPa, the maximum pressure
applied, two observations were made for all the compounds investigated here.
First, we find that the overall energy scale, given by +
), increases under pressure, whereas the ratio
/ remains unchanged in this pressure range. These experimental
observations are in accordance with the results of DFT calculations performed
for these materials. Secondly, for the magnetoelastic coupling constants,
extraordinarily small values are obtained. We assign these observations to a
structural peculiarity of this class of materials
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