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Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Mechanisms of stress generation and relaxation during pulsed laser deposition of epitaxial Fe-Pd magnetic shape memory alloy films on MgO
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Edler, Tobias; Buschbeck, Jörg; Mickel, Christine; Fähler, Sebastian; Mayr, S.G.
    Mechanical stress generation during epitaxial growth of Fe–Pd thin films on MgO from pulsed laser deposition is a key parameter for the suitability in shape memory applications. By employing in situ substrate curvature measurements, we determine the stress states as a function of film thickness and composition. Depending on composition, different stress states are observed during initial film growth, which can be attributed to different misfits. Compressive stress generation by atomic peening is observed in the later stages of growth. Comparison with ex situ x-ray based strain measurements allows integral and local stress to be distinguished and yields heterogeneities of the stress state between coherent and incoherent regions. In combination with cross-sectional TEM measurements the relevant stress relaxation mechanism is identified to be stress-induced martensite formation with (111) twinning.
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    Magnetically induced reorientation of martensite variants in constrained epitaxial Ni-Mn-Ga films grown on MgO(001)
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Thomas, M.; Heczko, O.; Buschbeck, J.; Rößler, U.K.; McCord, J.; Scheerbaum, N.; Schultz, L.; Fähler, S.
    Magnetically induced reorientation (MIR) is observed in epitaxial orthorhombic Ni-Mn-Ga films. Ni-Mn-Ga films have been grown epitaxially on heated MgO(001) substrates in the cubic austenite state. The unit cell is rotated by 45° relative to the MgO cell. The growth, structure texture and anisotropic magnetic properties of these films are described. The crystallographic analysis of the martensitic transition reveals variant selection dominated by the substrate constraint. The austenite state has low magnetocrystalline anisotropy. In the martensitic state, the magnetization curves reveal an orthorhombic symmetry having three magnetically non-equivalent axes. The existence of MIR is deduced from the typical hysteresis within the first quadrant in magnetization curves and independently by texture measurement without and in the presence of a magnetic field probing micro structural changes. An analytical model is presented, which describes MIR in films with constrained overall extension by the additional degree of freedom of an orthorhombic structure compared to the tetragonal structure used in the standard model.
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    Hyper-domains in exchange bias micro-stripe pattern
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Theis-Bröhl, K.; Westphalen, A.; Zabel, H.; Rücker, U.; McCord, J.; Höink, V.; Schmalhorst, J.; Reiss, G.; Weis, T.; Engel, D.; Ehresmann, A.; Toperverg, B.P.
    A combination of experimental techniques, e.g. vector-MOKE magnetometry, Kerr microscopy and polarized neutron reflectometry, was applied to study the field induced evolution of the magnetization distribution over a periodic pattern of alternating exchange bias (EB) stripes. The lateral structure is imprinted into a continuous ferromagnetic/antiferromagnetic EB bilayer via laterally selective exposure to He-ion irradiation in an applied field. This creates an alternating frozen-in interfacial EB field competing with the external field in the course of the re-magnetization. It was found that in a magnetic field applied at an angle with respect to the EB axis parallel to the stripes the re-magnetization process proceeds via a variety of different stages. They include coherent rotation of magnetization towards the EB axis, precipitation of small random (ripple) domains, formation of a stripe-like alternation of the magnetization, and development of a state in which the magnetization forms large hyper-domains comprising a number of stripes. Each of those magnetic states is quantitatively characterized via the comprehensive analysis of data on specular and off-specular polarized neutron reflectivity. The results are discussed within a phenomenological model containing a few parameters, which can readily be controlled by designing systems with a desired configuration of magnetic moments of micro- and nano-elements.
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    Fermi surface nesting in several transition metal dichalcogenides
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Inosov, D.S.; Zabolotnyy, V.B.; Evtushinsky, D.V.; Kordyuk, A.A.; Büchner, B.; Follath, R.; Berger, H.; Borisenko, S.V.
    By means of high-resolution angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy (ARPES), we have studied the fermiology of 2H transition metal dichalcogenide polytypes TaSe2, NbSe2 and Cu0.2NbS 2. The tight-binding model of the electronic structure, extracted from ARPES spectra for all three compounds, was used to calculate the Lindhard function (bare spin susceptibility), which reflects the propensity to charge density wave (CDW) instabilities observed in TaSe2 and NbSe 2. We show that though the Fermi surfaces of all three compounds possess an incommensurate nesting vector in the close vicinity of the CDW wave vector, the nesting and ordering wave vectors do not exactly coincide, and there is no direct relationship between the magnitude of the susceptibility at the nesting vector and the CDW transition temperature. The nesting vector persists across the incommensurate CDW transition in TaSe2 as a function of temperature despite the observable variations of the Fermi surface geometry in this temperature range. In Cu0.2NbS2, the nesting vector is present despite different doping levels, which leads us to expect a possible enhancement of the CDW instability with Cu intercalation in the Cu xNbS2 family of materials.
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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.
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    Enhanced spin coherence via mesoscopic confinement during acoustically induced transport
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2008) Stotz, J.A.H.; Hey, R.; Santos, P.V.; Ploog, K.H.
    Long coherence lifetimes of electron spins transported using moving potential dots are shown to result from the mesoscopic confinement of the spin vector. The confinement condition to control electron spin dephasing is governed by the relation between the characteristic spin–orbit length of the electron spins and the dimensions of the dot potential, which governs the electron spin coherence lifetime. The spin–orbit length is a sample-dependent parameter determined by the Dresselhaus contribution to the spin–orbit coupling and can be predictably controlled by varying the sample geometry. We further show that the coherence lifetime of the electron spins is independent of the local carrier densities within each potential dot, which suggests the possibility of coherent, long-range transport of single electron spins.