Interplay between symmetry breaking and quasiperiodicity in spin chains

Summary An isotropicXY spin chain is studied in the presence of symmetry-breaking perturbations and a periodic modulation with wave vector incommensurate with the periodicity of the chain. The ground states of the system are obtained in terms of a two-dimensional area-preserving map defined on a cylinder of finite extent. The spin distributions are found to exhibit KAM and Cantorus phases with the onset of transition being the critical phase. The relationship between these three phases and the magnetic properties of the model is also studied. The presence of two competing easy axes for spin alignment results in incommensurate reentrant phase diagram with fractal boundary.     

Interplay between orbital and spin motion in heavy nuclei

We investigate the role of orbital and spin motion in shaping the structure of the magnetic dipole and quadrupole spectra in spherical as well as in deformed heavy nuclei.     

Thermal stability of spin valve sensors using artificial Co/Ir based ferrimagnets

Hard-soft spin valve structures have been grown by molecular beam epitaxy on MgO(0 0 1) substrates. The hard magnetic layer consists of an artificial Co/Ir/Co ferrimagnet system (AFi), while a Fe/Co bilayer from the buffer has been used as a soft detection layer. The Fe layer has been grown at 600°C giving rise to a monocrystalline layer with a BCC structure. Consequently, this layer presents a hard and a easy magnetization axis, respectively, along the BCC [1 1 0] and the [1 0 0] directions. The AFi system presents dramatic differences after successive annealing steps up to 350°C. An increase of the GMR from 3% to 3.5% is observed after annealing at 250°C while the coercive field of the AFi and the GMR plateau are strongly reduced. After further annealing at higher temperature the GMR drops down accompanied with a strong decrease in the antiparallel alignment amount in the AFi system. Rutherford back scattering measurements have been performed to investigate the changes in the interface morphology and to correlate it to the magneto-transport properties.     

Interplay between spin frustration and magnetism in the exactly solved two-leg mixed spin ladder

We study a mixed spin-(3/2,1) ladder system with antiferromagnetic rung coupling and next-nearest-neighbor interaction.The exactly solved Ising-chain model is employed to investigate the ground-state properties and thermodynamics of the low-dimensional ladder system.Our results show that the competition between different exchange couplings brings in a large variety of ground states characterized by various values of normalized magnetization equal to 0,1/5,2/5,3/5,1.Moreover,an interesting double-peak structure is also detected in the thermal dependence of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat when the frustration comes into play.It is shown that the double-peak phenomenon at zero-field for the case of AF_2 ground-state arises from the very strong antiferromagnetic rung coupling,while other cases are attributed to the excitations induced by temperature and external field around the phase boundary.     

Direct measurement of equilibrium and nonequilibrium Lyapunov spectra

Lyapunov spectra are measured for a three-dimensional many-body dense fluid, not only at equilibrium, but also in the presence of an isoenergetic nonequilibrium field generating a pair of equal and opposite currents. The Lyapunov spectra bear a strong resemblance to the Debye spectrum of solid-state physics.     

Efficiency of ethanol conversion in equilibrium and nonequilibrium plasmas

The efficiency of ethanol conversion into molecular hydrogen is studied in equilibrium and nonequilibrium plasmas, as applied to the problem of alternative fuel. It is shown that, under the same initial conditions (discharge current and voltage), glow-discharge plasma is more efficient than arc plasma.     

Reference layer exchange in spin transfer torque experiment using magnetic-coated nanometric point contacts

We investigate the importance of using nanotips on a point contact spin-transfer torque (STT) experiment. A systematic analysis comparing the STT in a magnetic thin film in current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) geometry sample for magnetic coated and uncoated tungsten nanotips is shown. The STT effect presents a reverse resistance to current behavior when using a magnetic coating layer on the nanotips. We demonstrate that the magnetic layer on the tip may assume the role of a polarizer layer. This effect opens up the possibility of exploiting simpler architectures in STT-based devices, such as STT-random access memory (STT-RAM).     

Interplay of spin and charge channels in zero-dimensional systems

We study the interplay of charge and spin (zero-mode) channels in quantum dots. The latter affects the former in the form of a distinct signature on the differential conductance. We also obtain both longitudinal and transverse spin susceptibilities. All these observables, underlain by spin fluctuations, become accentuated as one approaches the Stoner instability. The nonperturbative effects of zero-mode interaction are described in terms of the propagation of gauge bosons associated with charge [U(1)] and spin [SU(2)] fluctuations in the dot, while transverse spin fluctuations are analyzed perturbatively.     

Thermal Casimir versus Casimir-Polder forces: equilibrium and nonequilibrium forces

We critically discuss whether and under what conditions Lifshitz theory may be used to describe thermal Casimir-Polder forces on atoms or molecules. An exact treatment of the atom-field coupling reveals that for a ground-state atom (molecule), terms associated with virtual-photon absorption lead to a deviation from the traditional Lifshitz result; they are identified as a signature of nonequilibrium dynamics. Even the equilibrium force on a thermalized atom (molecule) may be overestimated when using the ground-state polarizability instead of its thermal counterpart.     

Krylov-space approach to the equilibrium and nonequilibrium single-particle Green's function

The zero-temperature single-particle Green's function of correlated fermion models with moderately large Hilbert-space dimensions can be calculated by means of Krylov-space techniques. The conventional Lanczos approach consists of finding the ground state in a first step, followed by an approximation for the resolvent of the Hamiltonian in a second step. We analyze the character of this approximation and discuss a numerically exact variant of the Lanczos method which is formulated in the time domain. This method is extended to obtain the nonequilibrium single-particle Green's function defined on the Keldysh-Matsubara contour in the complex time plane which describes the system's nonperturbative response to a sudden parameter switch in the Hamiltonian. The proposed method will be important as an exact-diagonalization solver in the context of self-consistent or variational cluster-embedding schemes. For the recently developed nonequilibrium cluster-perturbation theory, we discuss its efficient implementation and demonstrate the feasibility of the Krylov-based solver. The dissipation of a strong local magnetic excitation into a non-interacting bath is considered as an example for applications.     

Radiation-spin interaction, Gilbert damping, and spin torque

Magnetization relaxation processes, which are represented by the Gilbert damping term and the spin torque term in the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert (LLG) equation, are described by the radiation-spin interaction (RSI), where the radiation field is produced by magnetization precessional motion itself. It is shown that the LLG equation including the Gilbert damping term and the spin torque term is derived from the spin Hamiltonian containing the RSI. The derivation of the LLG equation is given in a self-consistent method. It is also shown that, according to RSI, the magnitude of the magnetization vector deviates from the magnetization saturation with the order of O(alpha(2)), where alpha is the Gilbert damping parameter.     

Interplay of spin and orbital angular momentum in the proton

We derive the consequences of the Myhrer-Thomas explanation of the proton spin problem for the distribution of orbital angular momentum on the valence and sea quarks. After QCD evolution, these results are found to be in very good agreement with both recent lattice QCD calculations and the experimental constraints from Hermes and JLab.     

Current-induced spin injection and surface torque in ferromagnetic metallic junctions

The joint influence of two current-induced effects, namely, longitudinal nonequilibrium spin injection and surface torque, on spin-valve-type ferromagnetic metallic junctions is considered theoretically. The current flows normally to layer boundaries. The analysis is based on solving a system of coupled equations of motion for mobile electron and lattice magnetizations. The boundary conditions for the equations of motion are derived from the continuity condition for the total magnetization flux in these subsystems. A dispersion relation is derived for spin wave fluctuations depending on the current through the junction. The fluctuations become unstable at currents exceeding some threshold value (usually, 10⁶?3 × 10⁷ A/cm²). The joint action of longitudinal spin injection and torque lowers the instability threshold. Current-induced spin injection decreases spin wave frequencies near the threshold and can strengthen magnetization pinning at the injecting contact.     

Electrocaloric effect in triglycine sulfate under equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamic conditions

The direct and indirect measurements of intensive electrocaloric effect in a triglycine sulfate ferroelectric crystal are performed under equilibrium and nonequilibrium thermodynamic conditions implemented in the adiabatic calorimeter. The effect of the electric field parameters (frequency, profile, and strength) on the value of the effect and degree of its reversibility are studied. The difference between the temperature variation values in a switched-on and switched-off dc field under quasi-isothermal conditions is established. The low-frequency periodic electric field induces the temperature gradient along the electrocaloric element and heat flux from its free end to the thermostated base. A significant excess of the field switching-off rate over the switching-on rate leads to a noticeable intensification of the cooling effect.     

Interplay of spin accumulation and Coulomb blockade in double ferromagnetic junctions

Single-electron tunneling in a double junction in which a nonmagnetic metallic island is separated from two ferromagnetic electrodes by tunnel barriers, is analysed theoretically in the sequential tunneling regime and for an arbitrary intrinsic spin relaxation time on the island. It is shown that nonequilibrium spin polarization of the island results in tunnel magnetoresistance due to rotation of the electrode magnetizations from antiparallel to parallel alignment. It is also shown that discrete charging of the island gives rise to a fine structure in the voltage dependence of the island spin polarization and tunnel magnetoresistance