Phonon Spectra in the Parent Superconducting Iron-tuned Telluride Fe1+x_{1+x}Te from Inelastic Neutron Scattering and Ab Initio Calculations

We report inelastic neutron scattering measurements of phonon spectra in the parent superconductor iron-tuned chalcogenide Fe$_{1+x}$Te, for two different x contents (x $\leq$ 0.11), using neutron time-of-flight technique. Thermal neutron spectroscopy allowed to collect the low-temperature Stokes spectra over an extended Q-range, at 2, 40 and 120K - hence covering both the magnetic monoclinic and the paramagnetic tetragonal phases. Whereas cold-neutrons allowed to measure high-resolution anti-Stokes spectra at 140, 220 and 300K, thus covering the tetragonal phase. Our results evidence a spin-phonon coupling behaviour towards the observed noticeable temperature-dependent change of the Stokes spectra across the transition temperatures. On the other hand, the anti-Stokes spectra reveal a pronounced hardening of the low-energy, acoustic region, of the phonon spectrum, upon heating, indicating a strong anharmonicity and a subtle dependence of phonons on structural evolution within the tetragonal phase. Experimental results are accompanied by ab initio calculations of phonon spectra of the tetragonal stoichiometric phase for a comparison with the high-resolution anti-Stokes spectra. Calculations included different density functional methods. Spin polarization and van der Waals interaction, were either considered or neglected, individually or concomitantly, in order to study their respective effect on lattice dynamics description. Our results suggest that including van der Waals interaction has only a slight effect on phonon dynamics, however, phonon spectra are better described when spin polarization is included, in a cooperative way with van der Waals interactions

Negative thermal expansion in ZnF2_2

We have investigated temperature dependence of the lattice parameters and the unit cell volume of ZnF$_2$ by neutron diffraction and have discovered negative thermal expansion (NTE) at low temperature. To understand why this simple compound exhibits NTE we performed first principle calculations. These calculations reproduce qualitatively the experimental temperature dependence of volume

Physics process of cosmogenics Li-9 and He-8 production on muons interactions with carbon target in liquid scintillator

Simulations were performed with GEANT4 to study the cosmogenics Li-9 and He-8 production by the interactions of the muons and their secondary shower particles in the liquid scintillator. The photonuclear reactions seem dominate their production. Their energy dependence were deduced. The comparisons with available data show the reliability of the simulations results.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures, 1 tabl

Remark on the studies of the muon-induced neutron background in the liquid scintillator detectors

This article gives a point of view on the studies of the muon-induced background for the underground experiments using a liquid scintillator detectors. The results obtained are in good agreement with the data, especially for the neutron yield production. This is the first time, when a study of this kind successes to get the same neutron yield as the one obtained from the experiment.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, 1 tabl

Inelastic neutron scattering study of crystal field excitations of Nd³⁺ in NdFeAsO

Inelastic neutron scattering experiments were performed to investigate the crystalline electric field (CEF) excitations of Nd3+ (J = 9/2) in the iron pnictide NdFeAsO. The crystal field level structures for both the high-temperature paramagnetic phase and the low-temperature antiferromagnetic phase of NdFeAsO are constructed. The variation of CEF excitations of Nd3+ reflects not only the change of local symmetry but also the change of magnetic ordered state of the Fe sublattice. By analyzing the crystal field interaction with a crystal field Hamiltonian, the crystal field parameters are obtained. It was found that the sign of the fourth and sixth-order crystal field parameters change upon the magnetic phase transition at 140 K, which may be due to the variation of exchange interactions between the 4f and conduction electrons.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure