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Now showing 1 - 10 of 12
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    Multiple fermion scattering in the weakly coupled spin-chain compound YbAlO3
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2021) Nikitin, S.; Nishimoto, S.; Fan, Y.; Wu, J.; Wu, L.; Sukhanov, A.; Brando, M.; Pavlovskii, N.; Xu, J.; Vasylechko, L.; Yu, R.; Podlesnyak, A.
    The Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chain, originally introduced almost a century ago, is one of the best studied models in quantum mechanics due to its exact solution, but nevertheless it continues to present new discoveries. Its low-energy physics is described by the Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid of spinless fermions, similar to the conduction electrons in one-dimensional metals. In this work we investigate the Heisenberg spin-chain compound YbAlO3 and show that the weak interchain coupling causes Umklapp scattering between the left- and right-moving fermions and stabilizes an incommensurate spin-density wave order at q = 2kF under finite magnetic fields. These Umklapp processes open a route to multiple coherent scattering of fermions, which results in the formation of satellites at integer multiples of the incommensurate fundamental wavevector Q = nq. Our work provides surprising and profound insight into bandstructure control for emergent fermions in quantum materials, and shows how neutron diffraction can be applied to investigate the phenomenon of coherent multiple scattering in metals through the proxy of quantum magnetic systems.
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    Tunneling current modulation in atomically precise graphene nanoribbon heterojunctions
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2021) Senkovskiy, B.; Nenashev, A.; Alavi, S.; Falke, Y.; Hell, M.; Bampoulis, P.; Rybkovskiy, D.; Usachov, D.; Fedorov, A.; Chernov, A.; Gebhard, F.; Meerholz, K.; Hertel, D.; Arita, M.; Okuda, T.; Miyamoto, K.; Shimada, K.; Fischer, F.; Michely, T.; Baranovskii, S.; Lindfors, K.; Szkopek, T.; Grüneis, A.
    Lateral heterojunctions of atomically precise graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) hold promise for applications in nanotechnology, yet their charge transport and most of the spectroscopic properties have not been investigated. Here, we synthesize a monolayer of multiple aligned heterojunctions consisting of quasi-metallic and wide-bandgap GNRs, and report characterization by scanning tunneling microscopy, angle-resolved photoemission, Raman spectroscopy, and charge transport. Comprehensive transport measurements as a function of bias and gate voltages, channel length, and temperature reveal that charge transport is dictated by tunneling through the potential barriers formed by wide-bandgap GNR segments. The current-voltage characteristics are in agreement with calculations of tunneling conductance through asymmetric barriers. We fabricate a GNR heterojunctions based sensor and demonstrate greatly improved sensitivity to adsorbates compared to graphene based sensors. This is achieved via modulation of the GNR heterojunction tunneling barriers by adsorbates.
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    Observation of giant spin-split Fermi-arc with maximal Chern number in the chiral topological semimetal PtGa
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Yao, M.; Manna, K.; Yang, Q.; Fedorov, A.; Voroshnin, V.; Valentin Schwarze, B.; Hornung, J.; Chattopadhyay, S.; Sun, Z.; Guin, S.N.; Wosnitza, J.; Borrmann, H.; Shekhar, C.; Kumar, N.; Fink, J.; Sun, Y.; Felser, C.
    Non-symmorphic chiral topological crystals host exotic multifold fermions, and their associated Fermi arcs helically wrap around and expand throughout the Brillouin zone between the high-symmetry center and surface-corner momenta. However, Fermi-arc splitting and realization of the theoretically proposed maximal Chern number rely heavily on the spin-orbit coupling (SOC) strength. In the present work, we investigate the topological states of a new chiral crystal, PtGa, which has the strongest SOC among all chiral crystals reported to date. With a comprehensive investigation using high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, quantum-oscillation measurements, and state-of-the-art ab initio calculations, we report a giant SOC-induced splitting of both Fermi arcs and bulk states. Consequently, this study experimentally confirms the realization of a maximal Chern number equal to ±4 in multifold fermionic systems, thereby providing a platform to observe large-quantized photogalvanic currents in optical experiments.
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    Separate tuning of nematicity and spin fluctuations to unravel the origin of superconductivity in FeSe
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Baek, S.-H.; Ok, J.M.; Kim, J.S.; Aswartham, S.; Morozov, I.; Chareev, D.; Urata, T.; Tanigaki, K.; Tanabe, Y.; Büchner, B.; Efremov, D.V.
    The interplay of orbital and spin degrees of freedom is the fundamental characteristic in numerous condensed matter phenomena, including high-temperature superconductivity, quantum spin liquids, and topological semimetals. In iron-based superconductors (FeSCs), this causes superconductivity to emerge in the vicinity of two other instabilities: nematic and magnetic. Unveiling the mutual relationship among nematic order, spin fluctuations, and superconductivity has been a major challenge for research in FeSCs, but it is still controversial. Here, by carrying out 77Se nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on FeSe single crystals, doped by cobalt and sulfur that serve as control parameters, we demonstrate that the superconducting transition temperature Tc increases in proportion to the strength of spin fluctuations, while it is independent of the nematic transition temperature Tnem. Our observation therefore directly implies that superconductivity in FeSe is essentially driven by spin fluctuations in the intermediate coupling regime, while nematic fluctuations have a marginal impact on Tc.
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    Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2021) Freelon, B.; Sarkar, R.; Kamusella, S.; Brückner, F.; Grinenko, V.; Acharya, Swagata; Laad, Mukul; Craco, Luis; Yamani, Zahra; Flacau, Roxana; Swainson, Ian; Frandsen, Benjamin; Birgeneau, Robert; Liu, Yuhao; Karki, Bhupendra; Alfailakawi, Alaa; Neuefeind, Joerg C.; Everett, Michelle; Wang, Hangdong; Xu, Binjie; Fang, Minghu; Klauss, H.-H.
    Nematic fluctuations occur in a wide range physical systems from biological molecules to cuprates and iron pnictide high-Tc superconductors. It is unclear whether nematicity in pnictides arises from electronic spin or orbital degrees of freedom. We studied the iron-based Mott insulators La2O2Fe2OM2M = (S, Se), which are structurally similar to pnictides. Nuclear magnetic resonance revealed a critical slowing down of nematic fluctuations and complementary Mössbauerr spectroscopy data showed a change of electrical field gradient. The neutron pair distribution function technique detected local C2 fluctuations while neutron diffraction indicates that global C4 symmetry is preserved. A geometrically frustrated Heisenberg model with biquadratic and single-ion anisotropic terms provides the interpretation of the low temperature magnetic fluctuations. The nematicity is not due to spontaneous orbital order, instead it is linked to geometrically frustrated magnetism based on orbital selectivity. This study highlights the interplay between orbital order and spin fluctuations in nematicity.
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    Turning charge-density waves into Cooper pairs
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Chikina, A.; Fedorov, A.; Bhoi, D.; Voroshnin, V.; Haubold, E.; Kushnirenko, Y.; Kim, K.H.; Borisenko, S.
    The relationship between charge-density waves (CDWs) and superconductivity is a long-standing debate. Often observed as neighbors in phase diagrams, it is still unclear whether they cooperate, compete, or simply coexist. Using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we demonstrate here that by tuning the energy position of the van Hove singularity in Pd-doped 2H-TaSe2, one is able to suppress CDW and enhance superconductivity by more than an order of magnitude. We argue that it is particular fermiology of the material that is responsible for each phenomenon, thus explaining their persistent proximity as phases.
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    Comprehensive scan for nonmagnetic Weyl semimetals with nonlinear optical response
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Xu, Q.; Zhang, Y.; Koepernik, K.; Shi, W.; van den Brink, J.; Felser, C.; Sun, Y.
    First-principles calculations have recently been used to develop comprehensive databases of nonmagnetic topological materials that are protected by time-reversal or crystalline symmetry. However, owing to the low symmetry requirement of Weyl points, a symmetry-based approach to identifying topological states cannot be applied to Weyl semimetals (WSMs). To date, WSMs with Weyl points in arbitrary positions are absent from the well-known databases. In this work, we develop an efficient algorithm to search for Weyl points automatically and establish a database of nonmagnetic WSMs with Weyl points near the Fermi level based on the experimental non-centrosymmetric crystal structures in the Inorganic Crystal Structure Database (ICSD). In total, 46 Weyl semimetals were discovered to have nearly clean Fermi surfaces and Weyl points within 300 meV of the Fermi level. Nine of them are chiral structures which may exhibit the quantized circular photogalvanic effect. In addition, the nonlinear optical response is studied and the giant shift current is explored. Besides nonmagnetic WSMs, our powerful tools can also be used in the discovery of magnetic topological materials.
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    Improved kinetic behaviour of Mg(NH2)2-2LiH doped with nanostructured K-modified-LixTiyOz for hydrogen storage
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Gizer, G.; Puszkiel, J.; Riglos, M.V.C.; Pistidda, C.; Ramallo-López, J.M.; Mizrahi, M.; Santoru, A.; Gemming, T.; Tseng, J.-C.; Klassen, T.; Dornheim, M.
    The system Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH is considered as an interesting solid-state hydrogen storage material owing to its low thermodynamic stability of ca. 40 kJ/mol H2 and high gravimetric hydrogen capacity of 5.6 wt.%. However, high kinetic barriers lead to slow absorption/desorption rates even at relatively high temperatures (>180 °C). In this work, we investigate the effects of the addition of K-modified LixTiyOz on the absorption/desorption behaviour of the Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH system. In comparison with the pristine Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH, the system containing a tiny amount of nanostructured K-modified LixTiyOz shows enhanced absorption/desorption behaviour. The doped material presents a sensibly reduced (∼30 °C) desorption onset temperature, notably shorter hydrogen absorption/desorption times and reversible hydrogen capacity of about 3 wt.% H2 upon cycling. Studies on the absorption/desorption processes and micro/nanostructural characterizations of the Mg(NH2)2 + 2LiH + K-modified LixTiyOz system hint to the fact that the presence of in situ formed nanostructure K2TiO3 is the main responsible for the observed improved kinetic behaviour.
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    Increased static dielectric constant in ZnMnO and ZnCoO thin films with bound magnetic polarons
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Vegesna, S.V.; Bhat, V.J.; Bürger, D.; Dellith, J.; Skorupa, I.; Schmidt, O.G.; Schmidt, H.
    A novel small signal equivalent circuit model is proposed in the inversion regime of metal/(ZnO, ZnMnO, and ZnCoO) semiconductor/Si3N4 insulator/p-Si semiconductor (MSIS) structures to describe the distinctive nonlinear frequency dependent capacitance (C-F) and conductance (G-F) behaviour in the frequency range from 50 Hz to 1 MHz. We modelled the fully depleted ZnO thin films to extract the static dielectric constant (εr) of ZnO, ZnMnO, and ZnCoO. The extracted enhancement of static dielectric constant in magnetic n-type conducting ZnCoO (εr ≥ 13.0) and ZnMnO (εr ≥ 25.8) in comparison to unmagnetic ZnO (εr = 8.3–9.3) is related to the electrical polarizability of donor-type bound magnetic polarons (BMP) in the several hundred GHz range (120 GHz for CdMnTe). The formation of donor-BMP is enabled in n-type conducting, magnetic ZnO by the s-d exchange interaction between the electron spin of positively charged oxygen vacancies Vo+ in the BMP center and the electron spins of substitutional Mn2+ and Co2+ ions in ZnMnO and ZnCoO, respectively. The BMP radius scales with the Bohr radius which is proportional to the static dielectric constant. Here we show how BMP overlap can be realized in magnetic n-ZnO by increasing its static dielectric constant and guide researchers in the field of transparent spintronics towards ferromagnetism in magnetic, n-ZnO.
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    The Influence of Cu-Additions on the Microstructure, Mechanical and Magnetic Properties of MnAl-C Alloys
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2020) Jürries, F.; Freudenberger, J.; Nielsch, K.; Woodcock, T.G.
    Alloys of the form (Mn54Al44C2)100-xCux (with x = 0, 1, 2, 4 and 6) were produced by induction melting. After homogenisation and quenching, most of the alloys consist entirely of the retained ε-phase, except for x = 6, in which the κ-phase was additionally present. After subsequent annealing, the alloys with x ≤ 2 consist entirely of a Cu-doped, ferromagnetic τ-phase, whereas the alloys with x > 2 additionally contain the κ-phase. The polarisation of the alloys at an applied field of 14 T decreases with increasing Cu-content, which is attributed i) to the dilution of the magnetic moment of the τ-phase unit cell by the Cu atoms, which do not carry a magnetic moment, and ii) at higher Cu-contents, to the formation of the κ-phase, which has a much lower polarisation than the τ-phase and therefore dilutes the net polarisation of the alloys. The Curie temperature was not affected by the Cu-additions. The stress needed to die-upset the alloys with x ≤ 2 was similar to that of the undoped alloy, whereas it was much lower for x = 4 and 6, due to the presence of intergranular layers of the κ-phase. The extrinsic magnetic properties of alloys with x ≤ 2 were improved by die-upsetting, whereas decomposition of the τ-phase during processing had a deleterious effect on the magnetic properties for higher Cu-additions.