294 research outputs found
Hopping models and ac universality
Some general relations for hopping models are established. We proceed to
discuss the universality of the ac conductivity which arises in the extreme
disorder limit of the random barrier model. It is shown that the relevant
dimension entering into the diffusion cluster approximation (DCA) is the
harmonic (fracton) dimension of the diffusion cluster. The temperature scaling
of the dimensionless frequency entering into the DCA is discussed. Finally,
some open questions about ac universality are mentioned.Comment: 6 page
History-dependent relaxation and the energy scale of correlation in the Electron-Glass
We present an experimental study of the energy-relaxation in
Anderson-insulating indium-oxide films excited far from equilibrium. In
particular, we focus on the effects of history on the relaxation of the excess
conductance dG. The natural relaxation law of dG is logarithmic, namely
dG=-log(t). This may be observed over more than five decades following, for
example, cool-quenching the sample from high temperatures. On the other hand,
when the system is excited from a state S_{o} in which it has not fully reached
equilibrium to a state S_{n}, the ensuing relaxation law is logarithmic only
over time t shorter than the time t_{w} it spent in S_{o}. For times t>t_{w}
dG(t) show systematic deviation from the logarithmic dependence. It was
previously shown that when the energy imparted to the system in the excitation
process is small, this leads to dG=P(t/t_{w}) (simple-aging). Here we test the
conjecture that `simple-aging' is related to a symmetry in the relaxation
dynamics in S_{o} and S_{n}. This is done by using a new experimental procedure
that is more sensitive to deviations in the relaxation dynamics. It is shown
that simple-aging may still be obeyed (albeit with a modified P(t/t_{w})) even
when the symmetry of relaxation in S_{o} and S_{n} is perturbed by a certain
degree. The implications of these findings to the question of aging, and the
energy scale associated with correlations are discussed
Magnetic field induced orientation of superconducting MgB crystallites determined by X-ray diffraction
X-ray diffraction studies of fine polycrystalline samples of MgB in the
superconducting state reveal that crystals orient with their \emph{c}-axis in a
plane normal to the direction of the applied magnetic field. The MgB
samples were thoroughly ground to obtain average grain size 5 - 10 m in
order to increase the population of free single crystal grains in the powder.
By monitoring Bragg reflections in a plane normal to an applied magnetic field
we find that the powder is textured with significantly stronger (\emph{0,0,l})
reflections in comparison to (\emph{h,k,0}), which remain essentially
unchanged. The orientation of the crystals with the \emph{ab}-plane parallel to
the magnetic field at all temperatures below demonstrates that the sign
of the torque under magnetic field does not alter, in disagreement with current
theoretical predictions
Manifestation of ageing in the low temperature conductance of disordered insulators
We are interested in the out of equilibrium phenomena observed in the
electrical conductance of disordered insulators at low temperature, which may
be signatures of the electron coulomb glass state. The present work is devoted
to the occurrence of ageing, a benchmark phenomenon for the glassy state. It is
the fact that the dynamical properties of a glass depend on its age, i.e. on
the time elapsed since it was quench-cooled. We first critically analyse
previous studies on disordered insulators and question their interpretation in
terms of ageing. We then present new measurements on insulating granular
aluminium thin films which demonstrate that the dynamics is indeed age
dependent. We also show that the results of different relaxation protocols are
related by a superposition principle. The implications of our findings for the
mechanism of the conductance slow relaxations are then discussed
Magnetic excitations in underdoped Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 with x=0.047
The magnetic excitations in the paramagnetic-tetragonal phase of underdoped
Ba(Fe0.953Co0.047)2As2, as measured by inelastic neutron scattering, can be
well described by a phenomenological model with purely diffusive spin dynamics.
At low energies, the spectrum around the magnetic ordering vector Q_AFM
consists of a single peak with elliptical shape in momentum space. At high
energies, this inelastic peak is split into two peaks across the direction
perpendicular to Q_AFM. We use our fittings to argue that such a splitting is
not due to incommensurability or propagating spin-wave excitations, but is
rather a consequence of the anisotropies in the Landau damping and in the
magnetic correlation length, both of which are allowed by the tetragonal
symmetry of the system. We also measure the magnetic spectrum deep inside the
magnetically-ordered phase, and find that it is remarkably similar to the
spectrum of the paramagnetic phase, revealing the strongly overdamped character
of the magnetic excitations.Comment: 12 pages, 7 figure
Disorder from order among anisotropic next-nearest-neighbor Ising spin chains in SrHoO
We describe why Ising spin chains with competing interactions in segregate into ordered and disordered ensembles at low temperatures
(). Using elastic neutron scattering, magnetization, and specific heat
measurements, the two distinct spin chains are inferred to have N\'eel
() and double-N\'eel
() ground states respectively. Below
~K, the N\'eel chains develop three dimensional (3D) long
range order (LRO), which arrests further thermal equilibration of the
double-N\'eel chains so they remain in a disordered incommensurate state for
below ~K. distills an important
feature of incommensurate low dimensional magnetism: kinetically trapped
topological defects in a quasidimensional spin system can preclude order
in dimensions.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figure
Dynamics of short time--scale energy relaxation of optical excitations due to electron--electron scattering in the presence of arbitrary disorder
A non--equilibrium occupation distribution relaxes towards the Fermi--Dirac
distribution due to electron--electron scattering even in finite Fermi systems.
The dynamic evolution of this thermalization process assumed to result from an
optical excitation is investigated numerically by solving a Boltzmann equation
for the carrier populations using a one--dimensional disordered system. We
focus on the short time--scale behavior. The logarithmically long time--scale
associated with the glassy behavior of interacting electrons in disordered
systems is not treated in our investigation.
For weak disorder and short range interaction we recover the expected result
that disorder enhances the relaxation rate as compared to the case without
disorder. For sufficiently strong disorder, however, we find an opposite trend
due to the reduction of scattering probabilities originating from the strong
localization of the single--particle states. Long--range interaction in this
regime produces a similar effect. The relaxation rate is found to scale with
the interaction strength, however, the interplay between the implicit and the
explicit character of the interaction produces an anomalous exponent.Comment: 4 pages, 3 EPS figure
Ageing memory and glassiness of a driven vortex system
Many systems in nature, glasses, interfaces and fractures being some
examples, cannot equilibrate with their environment, which gives rise to novel
and surprising behaviour such as memory effects, ageing and nonlinear dynamics.
Unlike their equilibrated counterparts, the dynamics of out-of- equilibrium
systems is generally too complex to be captured by simple macroscopic laws.
Here we investigate a system that straddles the boundary between glass and
crystal: a Bragg glass formed by vortices in a superconductor. We find that the
response to an applied force evolves according to a stretched exponential, with
the exponent reflecting the deviation from equilibrium. After the force is
removed, the system ages with time and its subsequent response time scales
linearly with its age (simple ageing), meaning that older systems are slower
than younger ones. We show that simple ageing can occur naturally in the
presence of sufficient quenched disorder. Moreover, the hierarchical
distribution of timescales, arising when chunks of loose vortices cannot move
before trapped ones become dislodged, leads to a stretched-exponential
response.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
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