Novel Electronic State and Superconductivity in the Electron-Doped High-Tc T'-Superconductors

In this review article, we show our recent results relating to the undoped (Ce-free) superconductivity in the electron-doped high-Tc cuprates with the so-called T' structure. For an introduction, we briefly mention the characteristics of the electron-doped T'-cuprates, including the reduction annealing, conventional phase diagram and undoped superconductivity. Then, our transport and magnetic results and results relating to the superconducting pairing symmetry of the undoped and underdoped T'-cuprates are shown. Collaborating spectroscopic and nuclear magnetic resonance results are also shown briefly. It has been found that, through the reduction annealing, a strongly localized state of carriers accompanied by an antiferromagnetic pseudogap in the as-grown samples changes to a metallic and superconducting state with a short-range magnetic order in the reduced superconducting samples. The formation of the short-range magnetic order due to a very small amount of excess oxygen in the reduced superconducting samples suggests that the T'-cuprates exhibiting the undoped superconductivity in the parent compounds are regarded as strongly correlated electron systems, as well as the hole-doped high-Tc cuprates. We show our proposed electronic structure model to understand the undoped superconductivity. Finally, unsolved future issues of the T'-cuprates are discussed.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figure

muSR study of the Cu-spin dynamics in the electron-doped high-Tc cuprate of Pr0.86LaCe0.14Cu1-y(Zn,Ni)yO4

Effects of the Zn- and Ni-substitution on the Cu-spin dynamics in the electron-doped Pr0.86LaCe0.14Cu1-y(Zn,Ni)yO4+a-d with y = 0, 0.01, 0.02, 0.05 and different values of the reduced oxygen content d have been studied using zero-field muon-spin-relaxation (muSR) measurements at temperatures down to 2 K. For the as-grown sample (d = 0, y = 0) and the sample with a very small d value (d < 0.01, y = 0), a muon-spin precession due to long-range antiferromagnetic order has been observed. On the other hand, no precession has been observed for moderately oxygen-reduced samples (0.01 < d < 0.09). It has been found that for all the samples of 0.01 < d < 0.09 the asymmetry A(t) (muSR time spectrum) in the long-time region increases with decreasing temperature at low temperatures, suggesting possible slowing-down of the Cu-spin fluctuations. On the other hand, no significant difference between Zn- and Ni-substitution effects on the slowing down of the Cu-spin fluctuations has been observed.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceeding of 10th muSR conference 2005, to be published in Physica

Magnetic-field effects on the charge-spin stripe order in La-214 high-Tc cuprates

Magnetic-field effects on the charge-spin stripe order in La-214 high-Tc cuprates have been investigated from measurements of the in-plane electrical-resistivity, Rho_ab_. In La_2-x_Ba_x_CuO_4_ with x=0.10 and La_2-x_Sr_x_CuO_4_ with x=0.115 where the incommensurate charge peaks are weak and unobservable in zero field in elastic neutron-scattering measurements, respectively, the normal-state value of Rho_ab_ at low temperatures markedly increases with increasing field up to 27 T. For La_2-x_Ba_x_CuO_4_ with x=0.11 and Zn-substituted La_2-x_Sr_x_Cu_1-y_Zn_y_O_4_ with x=0.115 and y=0.02 where the charge stripe order is fairly stabilized in zero field, on the other hand, the increase in Rho_ab_ with increasing field is negligibly small. In conclusion, when the charge-spin stripe order is not fully stable in zero field, magnetic field operates to stabilize the charge-spin stripe order. The value of Rho_ab_ increases with increasing field depending on the stability of the charge stripe order.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of Yamada Conference LX on Research in High Magnetic Fields (RHMF2006) (Satellite of ICM2006

Chemisorption and reactions on clusters of nickel atoms

The nucleation and growth of metallic clusters on a substantially amorphous substrate are discussed with emphasis on the geometrical and electronic structure of the clusters. Several clusters of different symmetry containing five to nine nickel atoms were studied. It was found that the energy range of primary d-like states is not significantly different from the width of the d-band states in nickel metal, as long as the interatomic distance is comparable to that in the bulk metal. The approach of one or more molecules to the cluster is examined using at the hydrogenation of acetylene and the dehydrogenation of ethylene as examples

Phenomenological Analysis of pppp and pˉp\bar{p}p Elastic Scattering Data in the Impact Parameter Space

We use an almost model-independent analytical parameterization for $pp$ and $\bar{p}p$ elastic scattering data to analyze the eikonal, profile, and inelastic overlap functions in the impact parameter space. Error propagation in the fit parameters allows estimations of uncertainty regions, improving the geometrical description of the hadron-hadron interaction. Several predictions are shown and, in particular, the prediction for $pp$ inelastic overlap function at $\sqrt{s}=14$ TeV shows the saturation of the Froissart-Martin bound at LHC energies.Comment: 15 pages, 16 figure

Numerical Study of Velocity Statistics in Steady Counterflow Quantum Turbulence

We investigate the velocity statistics by calculating the Biot--Savart velocity induced by vortex filaments in steady counterflow turbulence investigated in a previous study [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 81}, 104511 (2010)]. The probability density function (PDF) obeys a Gaussian distribution in the low-velocity region and a power-law distribution $v^{-3}$ in the high-velocity region. This transition between the two distributions occur at the velocity characterized by the mean inter-vortex distance. Counterflow turbulence causes anisotropy of the vortex tangle, which leads to a difference in the PDF for the velocities perpendicular to and parallel to the counterflow.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figure