Structural and magnetic properties of \lbrackEr|Tb\rbrackmultilayers

We have investigated the structural and magnetic properties of Er|Tb multilayers by different scattering methods. Diffuse X-ray scattering under grazing incidence reveals the interface structure in Er|Tb bilayers and trilayers, indicating vertically correlated roughness between the Er and Tb interfaces. The magnetic properties of Er_nEr|Tb_nTb superlattices have been studied as a function of the superlattice composition (indices denote the number of atomic layers). Coupled ferromagnetic structures exist in all investigated samples. The phase transition temperature varies with the Tb layer thickness. Modulated magnetic order is short range for all samples beside the Er₂₀|Tb₅ superlattice, the sample with the smallest Tb layer thickness. We observe dipolar antiferromagnetic coupling between single ferromagnetic Tb layers in all samples, with the onset of this ordering depending on the Tb layer thickness. Due to competing interactions, exchange coupling is limited to the interface near region. Therefore long range modulated magnetic order is observed in the Er₂₀|Tb₅ superlattice only, where the interface regions overlap. The distinct differences to the magnetic structure of an Er_0.8Tb_0.2 alloy film are explained by a highly anisotropic arrangement of neighbouring atoms due to the correlated roughness.     

Spin-dependent transport in films composed of Co clusters and C $_{\mathsf{60}}$ fullerenes

Granular films of Co-cluster/C₆₀ mixtures have been prepared by the co-deposition of well defined Co clusters (mean diameter 4.5 nm) and C₆₀ fullerenes onto a cold ( 35 K) substrate. Films having a Co cluster volume fraction show a resistivity , typical for tunneling with a Coulomb barrier. The tunneling magnetoresistance (TMR) has a value of TMR ( % for and is decreasing by almost one order of magnitude going to . We explain this unusual decrease of the TMR with increasing as caused by electron-doping of the C₆₀ fullerenes due to the known charge transfer process occurring between transition metal surface and C₆₀. Increasing electron doping may lead to an increasing probability for spin-flip processes within the tunneling barrier, resulting in a decrease of the TMR.Received: 17 March 2004, Published online: 3 August 2004PACS: 75.47.-m Magnetotransport phenomena; materials for magnetotransport - 73.40.Gk Tunneling - 73.40.Rw Metal-insulator-metal structures     

On the Meissner effect in a superconductor with 4-fermion attraction

A presence of a Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect in a gas of spin 1/2 fermions with an interaction , where is a volume of a region in real space which is taken by thesystem and with , satisfying Fermi anticommutation relations, is investigated. The effect proves to be weaker than in BCS by a factor 3/4 at T = 0, implying a greater penetration depth of external magnetic field. V ₄ is nonzero only within a thin layer of 1-fermion energies around the chemical potential .Received: 14 June 2004, Published online: 12 October 2004PACS: 74.20.-z Theories and models of superconducting state - 74.20.Fg BCS theory and its development     

Interpreting remanence isotherms: a Preisach-based study

Numerical simulations of the field dependence of the isothermal remanent moment (IRM) and the thermoremanent moment (TRM) are presented, based on a Preisach formalism which decomposes the free energy landscape into an ensemble of thermally activated, temperature dependent, double well subsystems, each characterized by a dissipation field H _d and a bias field H _s . The simulations show that the TRM approaches saturation much more rapidly than the corresponding IRM and that, as a consequence, the characteristics of the IRM are determined primarily by the distribution of dissipation fields, as defined by the mean field and the dispersion , while the characteristics of the TRM are determined primarily by a mixture of the mean dissipation field and the dispersion of bias fields . The simulations also identify a regime , where the influence of on the TRM is negligible, and hence where the TRM and the IRM provide essentially independent scans of the Preisach distribution along the two orthogonal H _s and H _d directions, respectively. The systematics established by the model simulations are exploited to analyze TRM and IRM data from a mixed ferromagnetic perovskite Ca_0.4Sr_0.6RuO₃, and to reconstruct the distribution of characteristic fields H _d and H _s , and its variation with temperature.Received: 16 April 2004, Published online: 12 August 2004PACS: 75.60.Ej Magnetization curves, hysteresis, Barkhausen and related effects - 75.60.-d Domain effects, magnetization curves, and hysteresis     

$\mathsf{\sqrt{3}}$ linear structures in the Te/Ni(111) system

Surface structures in the Te/Ni(111) system are revealed by using reflection high-energy electron diffraction combined with X-ray and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopies. At a 0.33 mono-layer (ML)-Te/Ni(111) surface, a reversible structural phase transition is observed with a transition temperature T_c of 380 C. The diffraction pattern from the low temperature phase is accompanied by streaks. The high and low temperature phases are characterized by and rectangle, respectively. The mechanism of the phase transition is explained by the order-disorder transition with a rumpled chain model. Both 0.51 ML- and 0.44 ML-Te/Ni(111) surfaces exhibit the complex diffraction patterns accompanied by diffuse streaks. These surface structures are characterized by the rectangle and , respectively. All diffuse streaks obtained at the above surfaces are consistently interpreted in the view of the ill-ordered arrangements of the well-ordered linear chains. It is shown that the linear structure is the key in the Te/Ni(111) system.Received: 1 December 2003, Published online: 20 April 2004PACS: 61.14.Hg Low-energy electron diffraction (LEED) and reflection high-energy electron diffraction (RHEED) - 68.65.-k Low-dimensional, mesoscopic, and nanoscale systems: structure and nonelectronic properties - 64.60.Cn Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems     

The stationary properties and the state transition of the tumor cell growth mode

We study the stationary properties and the state transition of the tumor cell growth model (the logistic model) in presence of correlated noises for the case of nonzero correlation time. We derived an approximative Fokker-Planck equation and the stationary probability distribution (SPD) of the model. Based the SPD, we investigated the effects of both correlation strength ( ) and correlation time ( ) of cross-correlated noises on the SPD, the mean of the tumor cell population and the normalized variance ( ) of the system, and calculated the state transition rate of the system between two stable states. Our results indicate that: (i) and play opposite roles in the stationary properties and the state transition of the system, i.e. increase of can produce a smaller mean value of the cell population and slow down the state transition, but increase of can produce a larger mean value of the cell population and enhance state transition; (ii) For large , there a peak structure on both - plot and - plot. For the small , increases with increasing , but increases with decreasing .Received: 26 June 2004, Published online: 30 September 2004PACS: 87.10. + e General theory and mathematical aspects - 05.40.-a Fluctuation phenomena, random processes, noise, and Brownian motion - 02.50.Ey Stochastic processes     

The effect of mixture lengths of vehicles on the traffic flow behaviour in one-dimensional cellular automaton

The effect of mixture lengths of vehicles on the asymmetric exclusion model is studied using numerical simulations for both open and periodic boundaries in deterministic parallel dynamics. The vehicles are filed according to their length, the small cars type 1 occupy one cell whereas the big ones type 2 takes two. In the case of open boundaries two cases are presented. The first case corresponds to a chain with two entries where densities are calculated as a function of the injecting rates and of vehicles type 1 and type 2 respectively, and the phase diagram ( ) is presented for a fixed value of the extracting rate . In this situation the first order transition from low to high density phases occurs at and disappears for . The second case corresponds to a chain with one entry, where is the injecting rate of vehicles independent of their nature. Type 2 are injected with the conditional probability , where and n is the concentration of type 2. Densities are calculated as a function of the injecting rates , and the phase diagrams ( , ) are established for different values of n. In this situation the gap which is a characteristic of the first order transition vanishes with increasing for . However, the first order transition between high and low densities exhibit an end point above which the global density undergoes a continuous passage. The end point coordinate depends strongly on the value of n. In the periodic boundaries case, the presence of vehicles type 2 in the chain leads to a modification in the fundamental diagram (current, density). Indeed, the maximal current value decreases with increasing the concentration of vehicles type 2, and occurs at higher values of the global density.Received: 13 May 2004, Published online: 3 August 2004PACS: 05.50. + q Lattice theory and statistics (Ising, Potts, etc.) - 64.60.Cn Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems - 75.30.Kz Magnetic phase boundaries (including magnetic transitions, metamagnetism, etc.) - 82.20.Wt Computational modeling; simulation     

Thermodynamic properties of an alternating-spin (1/2,1) two-leg ladder

With the aid of the Schwinger-boson mean-field method, we study the low-lying excitations and thermodynamic properties of a ferrimagnetic Heisenberg two-leg ladder (i.e., a ferrimagnetic double-chain with an antiferromagnetic interaction). The interaction between the two chains plays an important role in producing a low-lying excitation energy gap, affecting the low-lying excited spectrum, and increasing the disorder of the ferrimagnetic double-chain. The excitation spectrum, energy gap, and spin reduction in the ground state are calculated. Thermodynamic quantities such as the short-range spin correlation and short-range order are also obtained at low temperatures. In this gapful system, we observed the exponential behaviors in both the specific heat (C_V) and the product of magnetic susceptibility and temperature ( ) at low temperatures. The exponential behavior of the versus temperature agrees qualitatively with the experimental results in at low temperatures.Received: 24 October 2003, Published online: 15 March 2004PACS: 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models - 75.40.Cx Static properties (order parameter, static susceptibility, heat capacities, critical exponents, etc.) - 75.50.Ee Antiferromagnetics - 75.50.Gg Ferrimagnetics     

Scaling the $\alpha $-relaxation time of supercooled fragile organic liquids

It was shown recently [1] that the structural -relaxation time of supercooled o-terphenyl depends on a single control parameter , which is the product of a function of density , by the inverse temperature T ^-1. We extend this finding to other fragile glassforming liquids using light scattering data. Available experimental results do not allow to discriminate between several analytical forms of the function , the scaling arising from the separation of density and temperature in . We also propose a simple form for , which depends only on three material-dependent parameters, reproducing relaxation times over 12 orders of magnitude.Received: 16 July 2004, Published online: 23 December 2004PACS: 66.20. + d Viscosity of liquids; diffusive momentum transport - 78.35. + c Brillouin and Rayleigh scattering; other light scattering - 64.70.Pf Glass transitions     

Influence of the growth method upon the phase transition of RbCdCl $\mathsf{_{3}}$

Structural properties of two RbCdCl₃ samples grown either from the melt or from aqueous solution are studied via X-ray diffraction over a closed temperature cycle between 20 C and 300 C. During cooling step (300 C), the crystal grown from the melt undergoes a phase transition at 110 C that drives it from the cubic structure into a tetragonal structure that still persists at 20 C. It undergoes exactly the reverse phase transition at the same temperature during the heating ( C) step that immediately follows. The other crystal grows from aqueous solution at 20 C in an orthorhombic structure (i.e. not tetragonal as that of the crystal grown from the melt and cooled down to this temperature). During the heating ( C) step, it undergoes a direct orthorhombic-cubic phase transition at 240 C (without passing through the tetragonal phase) whereas, during subsequent cooling (300 C), it does not exhibit the corresponding reverse phase transition but rather exhibits exactly the same cubic-tetragonal phase transition at 110 C as the crystal grown from the melt. However, for both crystals, this tetragonal phase observed at room temperature is unstable and slowly converts into an orthorhombic phase over the course of time. Complementary Differential Scanning Calorimetry (D.S.C.) and Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (T.G.A.) measurements have been carried out over the range ( ) C in order to interpret diffraction experiments.Received: 19 May 2004, Published online: 30 September 2004PACS: 61.10.Nz X-ray diffraction - 64.70.Kb Solid-solid transitions - 65.40.Ba Heat capacity     

Canonical local algorithms for spin systems: heat bath and Hasting’s methods

We introduce new fast canonical local algorithms for discrete and continuous spin systems. We show that for a broad selection of spin systems they compare favorably to the known ones except for the Ising 1 spins. The new procedures use discretization scheme and the necessary information have to be stored in computer memory before the simulation. The models for testing discrete spins are the Ising 1, the general Ising S or Blume-Capel model, the Potts and the clock models. The continuous spins we examine are the O(N) models, including the continuous Ising model (N = 1), the Ising model (N = 1), the XY model (N = 2), the Heisenberg model (N = 3), the Heisenberg model (N = 3), the O(4) model with applications to the SU(2) lattice gauge theory, and the general O(N) vector spins with .Received: 16 August 2004, Published online: 21 October 2004PACS: 05.70.Fh Phase transitions: general studies - 64.60.Cn Order-disorder transformations; statistical mechanics of model systems - 75.10.Hk Classical spin models - 75.10.Nr Spin-glass and other random models     

Scale dependent partitioning of one-dimensional aperiodic set diffraction

We give a multiresolution partition of pure point parts of diffraction patterns of one-dimensional aperiodic sets. When an aperiodic set is related to the Golden Ratio, denoted by , it is well known that the pure point part of its diffractive measure is supported by the extension ring of , denoted by . The partition we give is based on the formalism of the so called -integers, denoted by . The set of -integers is a selfsimilar set obeying , . The pure point spectrum is then partitioned with respect to this Russian doll like sequence of subsets . Thus we deduce the partition of the pure point part of the diffractive measure of aperiodic sets.Received: 24 March 2004, Published online: 12 July 2004PACS: 61.44.Br Quasicrystals - 61.10.Dp Theories of diffraction and scattering     

Thermal conductivity of doped $\mathsf{La_2CuO_4}$ as an example for heat transport by optical phonons in complex materials

We investigate the phonon thermal conductivity of doped based on out-of-plane thermal conductivity measurements. When room temperature is approached the temperature dependence of strongly deviates from the T^-1-decrease which is usually expected for heat transport by acoustic phonons. Instead, decreases much weaker or even increases with rising temperature. Simple arguments suggest that such unusual temperature dependencies of are caused by heat transport via dispersive optical phonons.Received: 20 October 2003, Published online: 20 April 2004PACS: 66.70. + f Nonelectronic thermal conduction and heat-pulse propagation in solids; thermal waves - 74.72.Dn La-based cuprates - 44.10. + i Heat conduction     

Modulated replica symmetry breaking schemes for antiferrimagnetic spin glasses

The temperature and voltage dependence of spin transport is theoretically investigated in a new type of magnetic tunnel junction, which consists of two ferromagnetic outer electrodes separated by a ferromagnetic barrier and a nonmagnetic (NM) metallic spacer. The effect of spin fluctuation in magnetic barrier, which plays an important role at finite temperature, is included by taking the mean-field approximation. It is found that, the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and the electron-spin polarization depend strongly on the temperature and the applied voltage. The TMR and spin polarization at different temperatures show an oscillatory behavior as a function of the NM spacer thickness. Also, the amplitude of these oscillations is regularly reduced when the temperature increases. The maximum TMR value, varies approximately from 270 in reverse bias (at T = 0 K) to 25 in forward bias (at ).Received: 25 June 2004, Published online: 14 December 2004PACS: 72.25.Hg Electrical injection of spin polarized carriers - 73.23.Ad Ballistic transport - 73.40.Gk Tunneling     

Dynamics of a two-level system coupled to Ohmic bath: a perturbation approach

The quantum dynamics, both non-equilibrium and equilibrium, of the dissipative two-level system is studied by means of the perturbation approach based on a unitary transformation. It works well for the whole parameter range and and our main results are: the coherence-incoherence transition is at ; for the non-equilibrium correlation ; the susceptibility is of a double peak structure for and the Shibas relation is exactly satisfied; at the transition point the equilibrium correlation in the long time limit.Received: 14 October 2003, Published online: 8 June 2004PACS: 72.20.Dp General theory, scattering mechanisms - 05.30.-d Quantum statistical mechanics     

Packet transport along the shortest pathways in scale-free networks

We investigate a problem of data packet transport between a pair of vertices on scale-free networks without loops or with a small number of loops. By introducing load of a vertex as accumulated sum of a fraction of data packets traveling along the shortest pathways between every pair of vertices, it is found that the load distribution follows a power law with an exponent . It is found for the Barabási-Albert-type model that the exponent changes abruptly from for tree structure to as the number of loops increases. The load exponent seems to be insensitive to different values of the degree exponent as long as .Received: 4 February 2004, Published online: 14 May 2004PACS: 89.75.Fb Structures and organization in complex systems - 05.65. + b Self-organized systems - 02.10.Ox Combinatorics; graph theory     

Fractional ac Josephson effect in p- and d-wave superconductors

For certain orientations of Josephson junctions between two p_x-wave or two d-wave superconductors, the subgap Andreev bound states produce a -periodic relation between the Josephson current I and the phase difference : . Consequently, the ac Josephson current has the fractional frequency , where V is the dc voltage. In the tunneling limit, the Josephson current is proportional to the first power (not square) of the electron tunneling amplitude. Thus, the Josephson current between unconventional superconductors is carried by single electrons, rather than by Cooper pairs. The fractional ac Josephson effect can be observed experimentally by measuring frequency spectrum of microwave radiation from the junction. We also study junctions between singlet s-wave and triplet p_x-wave, as well as between chiral -wave superconductors.Received: 24 September 2003, Published online: 2 April 2004PACS: 74.50. + r Tunneling phenomena; point contacts, weak links, Josephson effects - 74.70.Kn Organic superconductors - 74.72.-h Cuprate superconductors (high-T_c and insulating parent compounds) - 74.70.Pq Ruthenates     

Electrical resistivity in the ferromagnetic metallic state of La-Ca-MnO\mathsf{_{3}}: Role of electron-phonon interaction

The temperature-dependent resistivity of the perovskite manganites La_1-x Ca _x MnO₃, with x = 0.33, is theoretically analysed within the framework of the classical electron-phonon model of resistivity, i.e., the Bloch-Gruneisen model. Due to inherent acoustic (low-frequency) phonons ( as well as high-frequency optical phonons ( , the contributions to the resistivity have first been estimated. The acoustic phonons of the oxygen-breathing mode yield a relatively larger contribution to the resistivity compared to the contribution of optical phonons. Furthermore, the nature of phonons changes around T = 167 K exhibiting a crossover from an acoustic to optical phonon regime with elevated temperature. The contribution to resistivity estimated by considering both phonons, i.e. and , when subtracted from thin film data, infers a power temperature dependence over most of the temperature range. The quadratic temperature dependence of is understood in terms of electron-electron scattering. Moreover, in the higher temperature limit, the difference can be varies linearly with T ^4.5 in accordance with the electron-magnon scattering in the double exchange process. Within the proposed scheme, the present numerical analysis of temperature dependent resistivity shows similar results as those revealed by experiment.Received: 8 April 2004, Published online: 12 August 2004PACS: 5.47.Gk Colossal magnetoresistance - 72.15.-v Electronic conduction in metals and alloys - 74.25.Kc Phonons - 75.30.Ds Spin wavesD. Varshney: dvboson.sop@dauniv.ac.in     

What are spin currents in Heisenberg magnets?

We discuss the proper definition of the spin current operator in Heisenberg magnets subject to inhomogeneous magnetic fields. We argue that only the component of the naive current operator in the plane spanned by the local order parameters and is related to real transport of magnetization. Within a mean field approximation or in the classical ground state the spin current therefore vanishes. Thus, finite spin currents are a direct manifestation of quantum correlations in the system.Received: 1 September 2004, Published online: 5 November 2004PACS: 75.10.Jm Quantized spin models - 75.10.Pq Spin chain models - 75.30.Ds Spin waves - 73.23.Ra Persistent currents     

Test of universality in the Ising spin glass using high temperature graph expansion

We calculate high-temperature graph expansions for the Ising spin glass model with 4 symmetric random distribution functions for its nearest neighbor interaction constants J _ij . Series for the Edwards-Anderson susceptibility are obtained to order 13 in the expansion variable (J/(k _B T))² for the general d-dimensional hyper-cubic lattice, where the parameter J determines the width of the distributions. We explain in detail how the expansions are calculated. The analysis, using the Dlog-Padé approximation and the techniques known as M1 and M2, leads to estimates for the critical threshold (J/(k _B T _c ))² and for the critical exponent in dimensions 4, 5, 7 and 8 for all the distribution functions. In each dimension the values for agree, within their uncertainty margins, with a common value for the different distributions, thus confirming universality.Received: 22 July 2004, Published online: 12 October 2004PACS: 05.70.Jk Critical point phenomena - 75.10.Nr Spin-glass and other random models