84 research outputs found
Universal conductance fluctuations and low temperature 1/f noise in mesoscopic AuFe spin glasses
We report on intrinsic time-dependent conductance fluctuations observed in
mesoscopic AuFe spin glass wires. These dynamical fluctuations have a 1/f-like
spectrum and appear below the measured spin glass freezing temperature of our
samples. The dependence of the fluctuation amplitude on temperature, magnetic
field, voltage and Fe concentration allows a consistent interpretation in terms
of quantum interference effects which are sensitive to the slowly fluctuating
spin configuration.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Equilibrium properties of the mixed state in superconducting niobium in a transverse magnetic field: Experiment and theoretical model
Equilibrium magnetic properties of the mixed state in type-II superconductors
were measured with high purity bulk and film niobium samples in parallel and
perpendicular magnetic fields using dc magnetometry and scanning Hall-probe
microscopy. Equilibrium magnetization data for the perpendicular geometry were
obtained for the first time. It was found that none of the existing theories is
consistent with these new data. To address this problem, a theoretical model is
developed and experimentally validated. The new model describes the mixed state
in an averaged limit, i.e. %without detailing the samples' magnetic structure
and therefore ignoring interactions between vortices. It is quantitatively
consistent with the data obtained in a perpendicular field and provides new
insights on properties of vortices. % and the entire mixed state. At low values
of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter, the model converts to that of Peierls and
London for the intermediate state in type-I superconductors. It is shown that
description of the vortex matter in superconductors in terms of a 2D gas is
more appropriate than the frequently used crystal- and glass-like scenarios.Comment: 8 pages, 9 figure
Electron interaction with domain walls in antiferromagnetically coupled multilayers
For antiferromagnetically coupled Fe/Cr multilayers the low field
contribution to the resistivity, which is caused by the domain walls, is
strongly enhanced at low temperatures. The low temperature resistivity varies
according to a power law with the exponent about 0.7 to 1. This behavior can
not be explained assuming ballistic electron transport through the domain
walls. It is necessary to invoke the suppression of anti-localization effects
(positive quantum correction to conductivity) by the nonuniform gauge fields
caused by the domain walls.Comment: 5 pages with 3 figure
Surface Enhancement of Superconductivity in Tin
The possibility of surface enhancement of superconductivity is examined
experimentally. It is shown that single crystal tin samples with cold-worked
surfaces represent a superconductor with a surface-enhanced order parameter (or
negative surface extrapolation length b), whose magnitude can be controlled.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure
Conductance of Mesoscopic Systems with Magnetic Impurities
We investigate the combined effects of magnetic impurities and applied
magnetic field on the interference contribution to the conductance of
disordered metals. We show that in a metal with weak spin-orbit interaction,
the polarization of impurity spins reduces the rate of electron phase
relaxation, thus enhancing the weak localization correction to conductivity.
Magnetic field also suppresses thermal fluctuations of magnetic impurities,
leading to a recovery of the conductance fluctuations. This recovery occurs
regardless the strength of the spin-orbit interaction. We calculate the
magnitudes of the weak localization correction and of the mesoscopic
conductance fluctuations at an arbitrary level of the spin polarization induced
by a magnetic field. Our analytical results for the ``'' Aharonov-Bohm
conductance oscillations in metal rings can be used to extract spin and
gyromagnetic factor of magnetic impurities from existing experimental data.Comment: 18 pages, 8 figure
Spin-orbit Scattering and the Kondo Effect
The effects of spin-orbit scattering of conduction electrons in the Kondo
regime are investigated theoretically. It is shown that due to time-reversal
symmetry, spin-orbit scattering does not suppress the Kondo effect, even though
it breaks spin-rotational symmetry, in full agreement with experiment. An
orbital magnetic field, which breaks time-reversal symmetry, leads to an
effective Zeeman splitting, which can be probed in transport measurements. It
is shown that, similar to weak-localization, this effect has anomalous magnetic
field and temperature dependence.Comment: 10 pages, RevTex, one postscript figure available on request from
[email protected]
Evidence for nonmonotonic magnetic field penetration in a type-I superconductor
Polarized neutron reflectometry (PNR) provides evidence that nonlocal
electrodynamics governs the magnetic field penetration in an extreme low-k
superconductor. The sample is an indium film with a large elastic mean free
path (11 mkm) deposited on a silicon oxide wafer. It is shown that PNR can
resolve the difference between the reflected neutron spin asymmetries predicted
by the local and nonlocal theories of superconductivity. The experimental data
support the nonlocal theory, which predicts a nonmonotonic decay of the
magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, LaTex, corrected typos and figure
Low Temperature Anomaly in Mesoscopic Kondo Wires
We report the observation of an anomalous magnetoresistance in extremely
dilute quasi-one-dimensional AuFe wires at low temperatures, along with a
hysteretic background at low fields. The Kondo resistivity does not show the
unitarity limit down to the lowest temperature, implying uncompensated spin
states. We suggest that the anomalous magnetoresistance may be understood as
the interference correction from the accumulation of geometric phase in the
conduction electron wave function around the localized impurity spin.Comment: Four pages, five figure
Magnetic field effects in energy relaxation mediated by Kondo impurities
We study the energy distribution function of quasiparticles in voltage biased
mesoscopic wires in presence of magnetic impurities and applied magnetic field.
The system is described by a Boltzmann equation where the collision integral is
determined by coupling to spin 1/2 impurities. We derive an effective coupling
to a dissipative spin system which is valid well above Kondo temperature in
equilibrium or for sufficiently smeared distribution functions in
non-equilibrium. For low magnetic field an enhancement of energy relaxation is
found whereas for larger magnetic fields the energy relaxation decreases again
meeting qualitatively the experimental findings by Anthore et al.
(cond-mat/0109297). This gives a strong indication that magnetic impurities are
in fact responsible for the enhanced energy relaxation in copper wires. The
quantitative comparison, however, shows strong deviations for energy relaxation
with small energy transfer whereas the large energy transfer regime is in
agreement with our findings.Comment: 14 pages, 8 figure
Scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy at low temperatures of the (110) surface of Te doped GaAs single crystals
We have performed voltage dependent imaging and spatially resolved
spectroscopy on the (110) surface of Te doped GaAs single crystals with a low
temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM). A large fraction of the
observed defects are identified as Te dopant atoms which can be observed down
to the fifth subsurface layer. For negative sample voltages, the dopant atoms
are surrounded by Friedel charge density oscillations. Spatially resolved
spectroscopy above the dopant atoms and above defect free areas of the GaAs
(110) surface reveals the presence of conductance peaks inside the
semiconductor band gap. The appearance of the peaks can be linked to charges
residing on states which are localized within the tunnel junction area. We show
that these localized states can be present on the doped GaAs surface as well as
at the STM tip apex.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in PR
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