707 research outputs found
Pr magnetism and its interplay with the Fe spin density wave in PrFeAsO
We have studied the magnetism of the Pr3+ ions in PrFeAsO_1-xF_x (x = 0;
0.15) and its interaction with the Fe magnetic order (for x = 0). Specific heat
data confirm the presence of a first excited crystal electric field (CEF) level
around 3.5 meV in the undoped compound PrFeAsO. This finding is in agreement
with recent neutron scattering experiments. The doped compound is found to have
a much lower first CEF splitting of about 2.0 meV. The Pr ordering in PrFeAsO
gives rise to large anomalies in the specific heat and the thermal expansion
coefficient. In addition, a field-induced transition is found at low
temperatures that is most pronounced for the magnetostriction coefficient. This
transition, which is absent in the doped compound, is attributed to a reversal
of the Fe spin canting as the antiferromagnetic Pr order is destroyed by the
external magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure
Interaction-induced singular Fermi surface in a high-temperature oxypnictide superconductor
In the family of iron-based superconductors, LaFeAsO-type materials possess
the simplest electronic structure due to their pronounced two-dimensionality.
And yet they host superconductivity with the highest transition temperature
Tc=55K. Early theoretical predictions of their electronic structure revealed
multiple large circular portions of the Fermi surface with a very good
geometrical overlap (nesting), believed to enhance the pairing interaction and
thus superconductivity. The prevalence of such large circular features in the
Fermi surface has since been associated with many other iron-based compounds
and has grown to be generally accepted in the field. In this work we show that
a prototypical compound of the 1111-type, SmFe0.92Co0.08AsO, is at odds with
this description and possesses a distinctly different Fermi surface, which
consists of two singular constructs formed by the edges of several bands,
pulled to the Fermi level from the depths of the theoretically predicted band
structure by strong electronic interactions. Such singularities dramatically
affect the low-energy electronic properties of the material, including
superconductivity. We further argue that occurrence of these singularities
correlates with the maximum superconducting transition temperature attainable
in each material class over the entire family of iron-based superconductors.Comment: Open access article available online at
http://www.nature.com/srep/2015/150521/srep10392/full/srep10392.htm
Local magnetic anisotropy in BaFeAs: a polarized inelastic neutron scattering study
The anisotropy of the magnetic excitations in BaFeAs was studied by
polarized inelastic neutron scattering which allows one to separate the
components of the magnetic response. Despite the in-plane orientation of the
static ordered moment we find the in-plane polarized magnons to exhibit a
larger gap than the out-of-plane polarized ones indicating very strong
single-ion anisotropy within the layers. It costs more energy to rotate a spin
within the orthorhombic {\it a-b} plane than rotating it perpendicular to the
FeAs layers.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Surface properties of SmB6 from x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
We have investigated the properties of cleaved SmB single crystals by
x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. At low temperatures and freshly cleaved
samples a surface core level shift is observed which vanishes when the
temperature is increased. A Sm valence between 2.5 - 2.6 is derived from the
relative intensities of the Sm and Sm multiplets. The B/Sm
intensity ratio obtained from the core levels is always larger than the
stoichiometric value. Possible reasons for this deviation are discussed. The B
signal shows an unexpected complexity: an anomalous low energy component
appears with increasing temperature and is assigned to the formation of a
suboxide at the surface. While several interesting intrinsic and extrinsic
properties of the SmB surface are elucidated in this manuscript no clear
indication of a trivial mechanism for the prominent surface conductivity is
found
Ballistic heat transport of quantum spin excitations as seen in SrCuO2
Fundamental conservation laws predict ballistic, i.e., dissipationless
transport behaviour in one-dimensional quantum magnets. Experimental evidence,
however, for such anomalous transport has been lacking ever since. Here we
provide experimental evidence for ballistic heat transport in a S=1/2
Heisenberg chain. In particular, we investigate high purity samples of the
chain cuprate SrCuO2 and observe a huge magnetic heat conductivity
. An extremely large spinon mean free path of more than a
micrometer demonstrates that is only limited by extrinsic
scattering processes which is a clear signature of ballistic transport in the
underlying spin model
High-temperature superconductivity from fine-tuning of Fermi-surface singularities in iron oxypnictides
In the family of the iron-based superconductors, the FeAsO-type compounds
(with being a rare-earth metal) exhibit the highest bulk superconducting
transition temperatures () up to and thus hold
the key to the elusive pairing mechanism. Recently, it has been demonstrated
that the intrinsic electronic structure of SmFeCoAsO
() is highly nontrivial and consists of multiple
band-edge singularities in close proximity to the Fermi level. However, it
remains unclear whether these singularities are generic to the FeAsO-type
materials and if so, whether their exact topology is responsible for the
aforementioned record . In this work, we use angle-resolved
photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) to investigate the inherent electronic
structure of the NdFeAsOF compound with a twice higher
. We find a similarly singular Fermi surface and
further demonstrate that the dramatic enhancement of superconductivity in this
compound correlates closely with the fine-tuning of one of the band-edge
singularities to within a fraction of the superconducting energy gap
below the Fermi level. Our results provide compelling evidence that the
band-structure singularities near the Fermi level in the iron-based
superconductors must be explicitly accounted for in any attempt to understand
the mechanism of superconducting pairing in these materials.Comment: Open access article available online at
http://www.nature.com/articles/srep1827
NMR Evidence for Charge Inhomogeneity in Stripe Ordered La_{1.8-x}Eu_{0.2}Sr_{x}CuO_4
We report ^{17}O Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) results in the stripe
ordered La_{1.8-x}Eu_{0.2}Sr_{x}CuO_4 system. Below a temperature T_q ~ 80K,
the local electric field gradient (EFG) and the absolute intensity of the NMR
signal of the planar O site exhibit a dramatic decrease. We interpret these
results as microscopic evidence for a spatially inhomogeneous charge
distribution, where the NMR signal from O sites in the domain walls of the spin
density modulation are wiped out due to large hyperfine fields, and the
remaining signal arises from the intervening Mott insulating regions.Comment: 4 pages, to appear in Phys. Rev. Let
Magnetisation of hole-doped CuO2 spin chains in Sr14-xCaxCu24O41
We report on magnetisation measurements of Sr14-xCaxCu24O41, with 0 <= x <=
12, in magnetic fields up to 16 T. The low temperature magnetic response of the
CuO2 spin chains changes strongly upon doping. For x = 0, the ground state with
nearly independent dimers is confirmed. Reduction of the number of holes in the
chains through Ca-doping leads to an additional contribution to the
magnetisation, which depends linearly on the magnetic field. Remarkably, the
slope of this linear contribution increases with the Ca content. We argue that
antiferromagnetic spin chains do not account for this behaviour but that the
hole dynamics might be involved.Comment: In v2, spelling of author names has been change
Magnetization reversal and local switching fields of ferromagnetic Co/Pd microtubes with radial magnetization
Three-dimensional nanomagnetism is a rapidly growing field of research covering both noncollinear spin textures and curved magnetic geometries including microtubular structures. We spatially resolve the field-induced magnetization reversal of free-standing ferromagnetic microtubes utilizing multifrequency magnetic force microscopy (MFM). The microtubes are composed of Co/Pd multilayer films with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy that translates to an anisotropy with radial easy axis upon rolling-up. Simultaneously mapping the topography and the perpendicular magnetostatic force derivative, the relation between surface angle and local magnetization configuration is evaluated for a large number of locations with slopes exceeding 45 degrees. The angle-dependence of the switching field is concurrent with the Kondorsky model, i.e., the rolled-up nanomembrane behaves like a planar magnetic film with perpendicular anisotropy and a pinning dominated magnetization reversal. Additionally, we discuss methodological challenges when detecting magnetostatic force derivatives near steep surfaces
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