Search Results
Low-Temperature Magnetothermodynamics Performance of Tb1-xErxNi2 Laves-Phases Compounds for Designing Composite Refrigerants
In this paper, the results of heat capacity measurements performed on the polycrystalline Tb1-xErxNi2 intermetallic compounds with x = 0.25, 0.5 and 0.75 are presented. The Debye temperatures and lattice contributions as well as the magnetic part of the heat capacity were determined and analyzed. The heat capacity measurements reveal that the substitution of Tb atoms for Er atoms leads to a linear reduction of the Curie temperatures in the investigated compounds. The ordering temperatures decrease from 28.3 K for Tb0.25Er0.75Ni2 to 12.9 K for Tb0.75Er0.25Ni2. Heat capacity measurements enabled us to calculate with good approximation the isothermal magnetic entropy ΔSmag and adiabatic temperature changes ΔTad for Tb1-xErxNi2, for the magnetic field value equal to 1 T and 2 T. The optimal molar ratios of individual Tb0.75Er0.25Ni2, Tb0.5Er0.5Ni2 and Tb0.25Er0.75Ni2 components in the final composite were theoretically determined. According to the obtained results, the investigated composites make promising candidates that can find their application as an active body in a magnetic refrigerator performing an Ericsson cycle at low temperatures. Moreover, for the Tb0.5Er0.5Ni2 compound, direct measurements of adiabatic temperature change in the vicinity of the Curie temperature in the magnetic field up to 14 T were performed. The obtained high-field results are compared to the data for the parent TbNi2 and ErNi2 compounds, and their magnetocaloric properties near the Curie temperature are analyzed in the framework of the Landau theory for the second-order phase transitions.
Raman spectroscopy in layered hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites
The continuous progress in the synthesis and characterization of materials in the vast family of hybrid organic-inorganic metal halide perovskites (HOIPs) has been pushed by their exceptional properties mainly in optoelectronic applications. These works highlight the peculiar role of lattice vibrations, which strongly interact with electrons, resulting in coupled states affecting the optical properties. Among these materials, layered (2D) HOIPs have emerged as a promising material platform to address some issues of their three-dimensional counterparts, such as ambient stability and ion migration. Layered HOIPs consist of inorganic layers made of metal halide octahedra separated by layers composed of organic cations. They have attracted much interest not only for applications, but also for their rich phenomenology due to their crystal structure tunability. Here, we give an overview of the main experimental findings achieved via Raman spectroscopy in several configurations and set-ups, and how they contribute to shedding light on the complex structural nature of these fascinating materials. We focus on how the phonon spectrum comes from the interplay of several factors. First, the inorganic and organic parts, whose motions are coupled, contribute with their typical modes which are very different in energy. Nonetheless, the interaction between them is relevant, as it results in low-symmetry crystal structures. Then, the role of external stimuli, such as temperature and pressure, which induce phase transitions affecting the spectrum through change in symmetry of the lattice, octahedral tilting and arrangement of the molecules. Finally, the relevant role of the coupling between the charge carriers and optical phonons is highlighted.
Bilinear coagulation equations
We consider coagulation equations of Smoluchowski or Flory type where the total merge rate has a bilinear form π(y) · Aπ (x) for a vector of conserved quantities π, generalising the multiplicative kernel. For these kernels, a gelation transition occurs at a finite time tg ∈ (0,∞), which can be given exactly in terms of an eigenvalue problem in finite dimensions. We prove a hydrodynamic limit for a stochastic coagulant, including a corresponding phase transition for the largest particle, and exploit a coupling to random graphs to extend analysis of the limiting process beyond the gelation time.
Analysis of a thermodynamically consistent Navier--Stokes--Cahn--Hilliard model
In this paper, existence of generalized solutions to a thermodynamically consistent Navier--Stokes--Cahn--Hilliard model introduced in [19] is proven in any space dimension. The generalized solvability concepts are measure-valued and dissipative solutions. The measure-valued formulation incorporates an entropy inequality and an energy inequality instead of an energy balance in a nowadays standard way, the Gradient flow of the internal variable is fulfilled in a weak and the momentum balance in a measure-valued sense. In the dissipative formulation, the distributional relations of the momentum balance and the energy as well as entropy inequality are replaced by a relative energy inequality. Additionally, we prove the weak-strong uniqueness of the proposed solution concepts and that all generalized solutions with additional regularity are indeed strong solutions.
Tuning the interplay between nematicity and spin fluctuations in Na1-x Li x FeAs superconductors
Strong interplay of spin and charge/orbital degrees of freedom is the fundamental characteristic of the iron-based superconductors (FeSCs), which leads to the emergence of a nematic state as a rule in the vicinity of the antiferromagnetic state. Despite intense debate for many years, however, whether nematicity is driven by spin or orbital fluctuations remains unsettled. Here, by use of transport, magnetization, and 75As nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements, we show a striking transformation of the relationship between nematicity and spin fluctuations (SFs) in Na1-x Li x FeAs; For x ≤ 0.02, the nematic transition promotes SFs. In contrast, for x ≥ 0.03, the system undergoes a non-magnetic phase transition at a temperature T 0 into a distinct nematic state that suppresses SFs. Such a drastic change of the spin fluctuation spectrum associated with nematicity by small doping is highly unusual, and provides insights into the origin and nature of nematicity in FeSCs.
Collapse of layer dimerization in the photo-induced hidden state of 1T-TaS2
Photo-induced switching between collective quantum states of matter is a fascinating rising field with exciting opportunities for novel technologies. Presently, very intensively studied examples in this regard are nanometer-thick single crystals of the layered material 1T-TaS2, where picosecond laser pulses can trigger a fully reversible insulator-to-metal transition (IMT). This IMT is believed to be connected to the switching between metastable collective quantum states, but the microscopic nature of this so-called hidden quantum state remained largely elusive up to now. Here, we characterize the hidden quantum state of 1T-TaS2 by means of state-of-the-art x-ray diffraction and show that the laser-driven IMT involves a marked rearrangement of the charge and orbital order in the direction perpendicular to the TaS2-layers. More specifically, we identify the collapse of interlayer molecular orbital dimers as a key mechanism for this non-thermal collective transition between two truly long-range ordered electronic crystals.
A large-deviations principle for all the cluster sizes of a sparse Erdős-Rényi graph
[For Abstract, see PDF]
Two types of magnetic shape-memory effects from twinned microstructure and magneto-structural coupling in Fe1 +yTe
A detailed experimental investigation of Fe1+yTe (y = 0.11, 0.12) using pulsed magnetic fields up to 60 T confirms remarkable magnetic shape-memory (MSM) effects. These effects result from magnetoelastic transformation processes in the low-temperature antiferromagnetic state of these materials. The observation of modulated and finely twinned microstructure at the nanoscale through scanning tunneling microscopy establishes a behavior similar to that of thermoelastic martensite. We identified the observed, elegant hierarchical twinning pattern of monoclinic crystallographic domains as an ideal realization of crossing twin bands. The antiferromagnetism of the monoclinic ground state allows for a magnetic-field–induced reorientation of these twin variants by the motion of one type of twin boundaries. At sufficiently high magnetic fields, we observed a second isothermal transformation process with large hysteresis for different directions of applied field. This gives rise to a second MSM effect caused by a phase transition back to the field-polarized tetragonal lattice state.
Continuum percolation in a nonstabilizing environment
We prove nontrivial phase transitions for continuum percolation in a Boolean model based on a Cox point process with nonstabilizing directing measure. The directing measure, which can be seen as a stationary random environment for the classical Poisson--Boolean model, is given by a planar rectangular Poisson line process. This Manhattan grid type construction features long-range dependencies in the environment, leading to absence of a sharp phase transition for the associated Cox--Boolean model. Our proofs rest on discretization arguments and a comparison to percolation on randomly stretched lattices established in [MR2116736].
Weak solutions and weak-strong uniqueness for a thermodynamically consistent phase-field model
In this paper we prove the existence of weak solutions for a thermodynamically consistent phase-field model introduced in [26] in two and three dimensions of space. We use a notion of solution inspired by [18], where the pointwise internal energy balance is replaced by the total energy inequality complemented with a weak form of the entropy inequality. Moreover, we prove existence of local-in-time strong solutions and, finally, we show weak-strong uniqueness of solutions, meaning that every weak solution coincides with a local strong solution emanating from the same initial data, as long as the latter exists.