Oxygen Isotope Effect on the Spin State Transition in (Pr0.7_{0.7}Sm0.3_{0.3})0.7_{0.7}Ca0.3_{0.3}CoO3{_3}

Oxygen isotope substitution is performed in the perovskite cobalt oxide (Pr$_{0.7}$Sm$_{0.3}$)$_{0.7}$Ca$_{0.3}$CoO${_3}$ which shows a sharp spin state transition from the intermediate spin (IS) state to the low spin (LS) state at a certain temperature. The transition temperature of the spin state up-shifts with the substitution of $^{16}O$ by $^{18}$O from the resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The up-shift value is 6.8 K and an oxygen isotope exponent ($\alpha_S$) is about -0.8. The large oxygen isotope effect indicates strong electron-phonon coupling in this material. The substitution of $^{16}$O by $^{18}$O leads to a decrease in the frequency of phonon and an increase in the effective mass of electron ($m$$^\ast$), so that the bandwidth W is decreased and the energy difference between the different spin states is increased. This is the reason why the $T_s$ is shifted to high temperature with oxygen isotopic exchange.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Large magnetothermal conductivity of HoMnO_3 single crystals and its relation to the magnetic-field induced transitions of magnetic structure

We study the low-temperature heat transport of HoMnO_3 single crystals to probe the magnetic structures and their transitions induced by magnetic field. It is found that the low-T thermal conductivity (\kappa) shows very strong magnetic-field dependence, with the strongest suppression of nearly 90% and the biggest increase of 20 times of \kappa compared to its zero-field value. In particular, some ``dip"-like features show up in \kappa(H) isotherms for field along both the ab plane and the c axis. These behaviors are found to shed new light on the complex H-T phase diagram and the field-induced re-orientations of Mn^{3+} and Ho^{3+} spin structures. The results also demonstrate a significant spin-phonon coupling in this multiferroic compound.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.