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Now showing 1 - 10 of 59
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    Edge states and topological insulating phases generated by curving a nanowire with Rashba spin-orbit coupling
    (College Park : American Physical Society, 2015) Gentile, Paola; Cuoco, Mario; Ortix, Carmine
    We prove that curvature effects in low-dimensional nanomaterials can promote the generation of topological states of matter by considering the paradigmatic example of quantum wires with Rashba spin-orbit coupling, which are bent in a nanoscale periodic serpentine structure. The effect of the periodic curvature generally results in the appearance of insulating phases with a corresponding novel butterfly spectrum characterized by the formation of finite measure complex regions of forbidden energies. When the Fermi energy lies in the gaps, the system displays localized end states protected by topology. We further show that for certain superstructure periods the system possesses topologically nontrivial insulating phases at half filling. Our results suggest that the local curvature and the topology of the electronic states are inextricably intertwined in geometrically deformed nanomaterials.
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    Chiral surface twists and Skyrmion stability in nanolayers of cubic helimagnets
    (College Park : American Physical Society, 2016) Leonov, A. O.; Togawa, Y.; Monchesky, T. L.; Bogdanov, A. N.; Kishine, J.; Kousaka, Y.; Miyagawa, M.; Koyama, T.; Akimitsu, J.; Koyama, Ts.; Harada, K.; Mori, S.; McGrouther, D.; Lamb, R.; Krajnak, M.; McVitie, S.; Stamps, R. L.; Inoue, K.
    Theoretical analysis and Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (LTEM) investigations in an FeGe wedge demonstrate that chiral twists arising near the surfaces of noncentrosymmetric ferromagnets [Meynell et al., Phys. Rev. B 90, 014406 (2014)] provide a stabilization mechanism for magnetic Skyrmion lattices and helicoids in cubic helimagnet nanolayers. The magnetic phase diagram obtained for freestanding cubic helimagnet nanolayers shows that magnetization processes differ fundamentally from those in bulk cubic helimagnets and are characterized by the first-order transitions between modulated phases. LTEM investigations exhibit a series of hysteretic transformation processes among the modulated phases, which results in the formation of the multidomain patterns.
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    High-field ESR studies of the quantum spin magnet CaCu2O 3
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2006) Goiran, M.; Costes, M.; Broto, J.M.; Chou, F.C.; Klingeler, R.; Arushanov, E.; Drechsler, S.-L.; Büchner, B.; Kataev, V.
    We report an electron spin resonance (ESR) study of the s = 1/2 Heisenberg pseudo-ladder magnet CaCu2O3 in pulsed magnetic fields up to 40 T. At sub-terahertz frequencies we observe an ESR signal originating from a small amount of uncompensated spins residing presumably at the imperfections of the strongly antiferromagnetically correlated host spin lattice. The data give evidence that these few per cent of 'extra' spin states are coupled strongly to the bulk spins and are involved in the antiferromagnetic (AF) ordering at TN = 25 K. By mapping the frequency/resonance field diagram we have determined a small gap for magnetic excitations below TN of the order of ~0.3–0.8 meV. Such a small value of the gap explains the occurrence of the spin-flop transition in CaCu2O3 at weak magnetic fields μ0Hsf ~ 3 T. Qualitative changes of the ESR response with the increasing field strength give indications that strong magnetic fields reduce the AF correlations and may even suppress the long-range magnetic order in CaCu2O3. ESR data support scenarios with a significant role of the 'extra' spin states for the properties of low-dimensional quantum magnets.
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    Doping dependence and electron–boson coupling in the ultrafast relaxation of hot electron populations in Ba(Fe1–x Co x )2As2
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2016) Avigo, I.; Thirupathaiah, S.; Ligges, M.; Wolf, T.; Fink, J.; Bovensiepen, U.
    Using femtosecond time- and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy we investigate the effect of electron doping on the electron dynamics in $\mathrm{Ba}{({\mathrm{Fe}}_{1-x}{\mathrm{Co}}_{x})}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ in a range of $0\leqslant x\lt 0.15$ at temperatures slightly above the Néel temperature. By analyzing the time-dependent photoemission intensity of the pump laser excited population as a function of energy, we found that the relaxation times at $0\lt E-{E}_{{\rm{F}}}\lt 0.2\,\mathrm{eV}$ are doping dependent and about 100 fs shorter at optimal doping than for overdoped and parent compounds. Analysis of the relaxation rates also reveals the presence of a pump fluence dependent step in the relaxation time at $E-{E}_{{\rm{F}}}=200\,\mathrm{meV}$ which we explain by coupling of the excited electronic system to a boson of this energy. We compare our results with static ARPES and transport measurements and find disagreement and agreement concerning the doping-dependence, respectively. We discuss the effect of the electron–boson coupling on the energy-dependent relaxation and assign the origin of the boson to a magnetic excitation.
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    The properties of isolated chiral skyrmions in thin magnetic films
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2016) Leonov, A.O.; Monchesky, T.L.; Romming, N.; Kubetzka, A.; Bogdanov, A.N.; Wiesendanger, R.
    Axisymmetric solitonic states (chiral skyrmions) were first predicted theoretically more than two decades ago. However, until recently they have been observed in a form of skyrmionic condensates (hexagonal lattices and other mesophases). In this paper we report experimental and theoretical investigations of isolated chiral skyrmions discovered in PdFe/Ir(111) bilayers two years ago by Romming et al (2013 Science 341 636). The results of spin-polarized scanning tunneling microscopy analyzed within the continuum and discrete models provide a consistent description of isolated skyrmions in thin layers. The existence region of chiral skyrmions is restricted by strip-out instabilities at low fields and a collapse at high fields. We demonstrate that the same equations describe axisymmetric localized states in all condensed matter systems with broken mirror symmetry, and thus our findings establish basic properties of isolated skyrmions common for chiral liquid crystals, different classes of noncentrosymmetric magnets, ferroelectrics, and multiferroics.
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    The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon concentrations in soils in the Region of Valasske Mezirici, the Czech Republic
    (London : BioMed Central, 2009) Plachá, Daniela; Raclavská, Helena; Rümmeli, Mark H.
    The polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) contamination of urban, agricultural and forest soil samples was investigated from samples obtained in the surroundings of Valasske Mezirici. Valasske Mezirici is a town located in the north-east mountainous part of the Czech Republic, where a coal tar refinery is situated. 16 PAHs listed in the US EPA were investigated. Organic oxidizable carbon was also observed in the forest soils. The PAH concentrations ranged from 0.86-10.84 (with one anomalous value of 35.14) and 7.66-79.39 mg/kg dm in the urban/agricultural and forest soils, respectively. While the PAH levels in the urban/agricultural soils are within the range typically found in industrialized areas, the forest soils showed elevated PAH concentrations compared to other forest soils in Western and Northern Europe. The PAH concentrations and their molecular distribution ratios were studied as functions of the sample location and the meteorological history. The soils from localities at higher altitudes above sea level have the highest PAH concentrations, and the PAH concentrations decrease with increasing distance from the town.
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    Formation of heavy d-electron quasiparticles in Sr3Ru2O7
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2013) Allan, M.P.; Tamai, A.; Rozbicki, E.; Fischer, M.H.; Voss, J.; King, P.D.C.; Meevasana, W.; Thirupathaiah, S.; Rienks, E.; Fink, J.; Tennant, D.A .; Perry, R.S.; Mercure, J.F.; Wang, M.A.; Lee, Jinho; Fennie, C.J.; Kim, E.A.; Lawler, M.J.; Shen, K.M.; Mackenzie, A.P.; Shen, Z.X.; Baumberger, F.
    The phase diagram of Sr3Ru2O7 shows hallmarks of strong electron correlations despite the modest Coulomb interaction in the Ru 4d shell. We use angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy measurements to provide microscopic insight into the formation of the strongly renormalized heavy d-electron liquid that controls the physics of Sr3Ru2O7. Our data reveal itinerant Ru 4d-states confined over large parts of the Brillouin zone to an energy range of <6 meV, nearly three orders of magnitude lower than the bare band width. We show that this energy scale agrees quantitatively with a characteristic thermodynamic energy scale associated with quantum criticality and illustrate how it arises from a combination of back-folding due to a structural distortion and the hybridization of light and strongly renormalized, heavy quasiparticle bands. The resulting heavy Fermi liquid has a marked k-dependence of the renormalization which we relate to orbital mixing along individual Fermi surface sheets.
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    A new look on the two-dimensional Ising model: Thermal artificial spins
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2016) Arnalds, Unnar B.; Chico, Jonathan; Stopfel, Henry; Kapaklis, Vassilios; Bärenbold, Oliver; Verschuuren, Marc A.; Wolff, Ulrike; Neu, Volker; Bergman, Anders; Hjörvarsson, Björgvin
    We present a direct experimental investigation of the thermal ordering in an artificial analogue of an asymmetric two-dimensional Ising system composed of a rectangular array of nano-fabricated magnetostatically interacting islands. During fabrication and below a critical thickness of the magnetic material the islands are thermally fluctuating and thus the system is able to explore its phase space. Above the critical thickness the islands freeze-in resulting in an arrested thermalized state for the array. Determining the magnetic state we demonstrate a genuine artificial two-dimensional Ising system which can be analyzed in the context of nearest neighbor interactions.
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    Domain evolution during the spin-reorientation transition in epitaxial NdCo5 thin films
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2013) Seifert, M.; Schultz, L.; Schäfer, R.; Neu, V.; Hankemeier, S.; Rössler, S.; Frömter, R.; Oepen, H.P.
    The domain structure and its changes with temperature were investigated for an epitaxial NdCo5 thin film with in-plane texture in which a spin-reorientation transition takes place from the easy c-axis via the easy cone to the easy plane. Scanning electron microscopy with polarization analysis reveals a transition from a two-domain state at temperatures above 318 K via a four-domain state back to a 90°-rotated two-domain state at temperatures below 252 K. The transition temperatures correspond well to those determined by global magnetization measurements. The magnetization configuration at the three different regimes of magnetic anisotropy and its transition with temperature were analysed in detail. From the local measurements, the spin-reorientation angle and the magnetocrystalline anisotropy constants of first and second order were derived.
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    Magnetic field-induced twin boundary motion in polycrystalline Ni-Mn-Ga fibres
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Scheerbaum, N.; Heczko, O.; Liu, J.; Hinz, D.; Schultz, L.; Gutfleisch, O.
    Magnetic field-induced twin boundary motion leading to large magnetic field-induced strain of ~1.0% was established in polycrystalline Ni50.9Mn27.1Ga22.0 (at.%) fibres at room temperature (~60–100 μm in diameter and ~3 mm in length). The fibres' grains are as large as the fibre diameter and of random orientation. At room temperature, a ferromagnetic 5M martensite is found. Magnetic field-induced twin boundary motion was indicated by magnetic measurements and validated by electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). The application of a magnetic field shifts the equilibrium temperature of martensite and austenite by ~0.4 K T−1, which agrees with calculations using the Clapeyron–Clausius approach.