133 research outputs found
Evidence for hard and soft substructures in thermoelectric SnSe
SnSe is a topical thermoelectric material with a low thermal conductivity
which is linked to its unique crystal structure. We use low-temperature heat
capacity measurements to demonstrate the presence of two characteristic
vibrational energy scales in SnSe with Debye temperatures thetaD1 = 345(9) K
and thetaD2 = 154(2) K. These hard and soft substructures are quantitatively
linked to the strong and weak Sn-Se bonds in the crystal structure. The heat
capacity model predicts the temperature evolution of the unit cell volume,
confirming that this two-substructure model captures the basic thermal
properties. Comparison with phonon calculations reveals that the soft
substructure is associated with the low energy phonon modes that are
responsible for the thermal transport. This suggests that searching for
materials containing highly divergent bond distances should be a fruitful route
for discovering low thermal conductivity materials.Comment: Accepted by Applied Physics Letter
Complete d-Band Dispersion and the Mobile Fermion Scale in NaxCoO2
We utilize fine-tuned polarization selection coupled with excitation-energy
variation of photoelectron signal to image the \textit{complete d}-band
dispersion relation in sodium cobaltates. A hybridization gap anticrossing is
observed along the Brillouin zone corner and the full quasiparticle band is
found to emerge as a many-body entity lacking a pure orbital polarization. At
low dopings, the quasiparticle bandwidth (Fermion scale, many-body
\textit{E} 0.25 eV) is found to be smaller than most known oxide
metals. The low-lying density of states is found to be in agreement with
bulk-sensitive thermodynamic measurements for nonmagnetic dopings where the 2D
Luttinger theorem is also observed to be satisfied.Comment: 4+ pages, 5 Fig
Low-lying quasiparticle states and hidden collective charge instabilities in parent cobaltate superconductors (NaxCoO2)
We report a state-of-the-art photoemission (ARPES) study of high quality
single crystals of the NaxCoO2 series focusing on the fine details of the
low-energy states. The Fermi velocity is found to be small (< 0.5 eV.A) and
only weakly anisotropic over the Fermi surface at all dopings setting the size
of the pair wavefunction to be on the order of 10-20 nanometers. In the low
doping regime the exchange inter-layer splitting vanishes and two dimensional
collective instabilities such as 120-type fluctuations become kinematically
allowed. Our results suggest that the unusually small Fermi velocity and the
unique symmetry of kinematic instabilities distinguish cobaltates from other
unconventional oxide superconductors such as the cuprates or the ruthenates.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Lett. (2006
Magnetism and structure of LixCoO2 and comparison to NaxCoO2
The magnetic properties and structure of LixCoO2 for x between 0.5 and 1.0
are reported. Co4+ is found to be high-spin in LixCoO2 for x between 0.94 and
1.0 and low-spin for x between 0.50 and 0.78. Weak antiferromagnetic coupling
is observed, increasing in strength as more Co4+ is introduced. At an x value
of about 0.65, the temperature-independent contribution to the magnetic
susceptibility and the electronic contribution to the specific heat are
largest. Neutron diffraction analysis reveals that the lithium oxide layer
expands perpendicular to the basal plane and the Li ions displace from their
ideal octahedral sites with decreasing x. A comparison of the structures of the
NaxCoO2 and LixCoO2 systems reveals that the CoO2 layer changes substantially
with alkali content in the former but is relatively rigid in the latter.
Further, the CoO6 octahedra in LixCoO2 are less distorted than those in
NaxCoO2. We postulate that these structural differences strongly influence the
physical properties in the two systems
Large enhancement of the thermopower in NaCoO at high Na doping
Research on the oxide perovskites has uncovered electronic properties that
are strikingly enhanced compared with those in conventional metals. Examples
are the high critical temperatures of the cuprate superconductors and the
colossal magnetoresistance in the manganites. The conducting layered cobaltate
displays several interesting electronic phases as is varied
including water-induced superconductivity and an insulating state that is
destroyed by field. Initial measurements showed that, in the as-grown
composition, displays moderately large thermopower and
conductivity . However, the prospects for thermoelectric cooling
applications faded when the figure of merit was found to be small at this
composition (0.60.7). Here we report that, in the poorly-explored
high-doping region 0.75, undergoes an even steeper enhancement. At the
critical doping 0.85, (at 80 K) reaches values 40 times
larger than in the as-grown crystals. We discuss prospects for low-temperature
thermoelectric applications.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure
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