Density of states and specific heat of elastic vibrations in layer structures

On the basis of a determination of normal modes in materials consisting of periodic arrangements of macroscopic layers (of period d), the low frequency density of states and the corresponding low temperature specific heat were calculated numerically. The average temperature dependence of the latter changes in the vicinity of a characteristic temperature T₀ (proportional to 1/d), from a low temperature (α₀T³)- to a higher temperature (αT³+βT²)- law. Depending on the material parameters, β may be positive (especially if Stonely waves are present) or negative. The coefficients α and α₀ can differ by a factor larger than 2. Characteristics of thick and thin layers and the implications of the results on the interpretation of experimental data are discussed.     

Polymorphism of anhydrous ferrous sulfate

The Mössbauer spectra of α-FeSO₄ and β-FeSO₄ have been measured in the temperature range 4.2 K ? T ? 30 K. The high temperature (β) phase is accompanied by a weak fraction of a third component. In analogy to CoSO₄, the third component of the three-fold polymorphism in anhydrous ferrous-sulfate is named the γ phase. X-ray powder measurements confirm this phase to be isomorphous to the corresponding γ-CoSO₄ structure. The parameters of the hyperfine interaction at 4.2 K of the three phases are evaluated. The magnetic ordering temperatures are T_N (α) = 24.0 K, T_N(β) = 17.0 ± 1.5 K and T_N(γ) = 19.5 ± 1.0 K.     

Perpendicular giant magnetoresistance of Co91Fe9/Cu exchange-biased spin-valves: further evidence for a unified picture

Measurements are reported of the increase in specific resistance, AΔR, with increasing Co₉₁Fe₉ layer thickness in current-perpendicular to the plane (CPP) exchange-biased spin-valves (EBSVs) of Co₉₁Fe₉ and Cu. Analysis of these measurements yields a spin anisotropy parameter for Co₉₁Fe₉ of β=0.65±0.05, and a spin diffusion length of l^CoFe_sf=12±1 nm. The value of β agrees reasonably well with those obtained experimentally and theoretically for dilute CoFe alloys, thus providing additional support for a unified picture of spin-polarized transport in CPP-MR and bulk alloys. This value of l^CoFe_sf, and the previously determined l^Py_sf for Permalloy, scale approximately inversely with the residual resistivities of the two alloys.     

Fluorescence enhancement of the aflatoxin B1 by forming inclusion complexes with some cyclodextrins and molecular modeling study

The interaction between the aflatoxin B₁ (AFB₁) and three cyclodextrins, α-cyclodextrin (α-CD), β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and heptakis-2,6-dimethyl-o-β-cyclodextrin (ome-CD), was studied by spectrofluorescence technique. It was found that the inclusion association behavior occurs for the complexes of cyclodextrins with AFB₁. The fluorescence of AFB₁ is generally enhanced in the complexes with cyclodextrins in aqueous solutions. The inclusion complex constants of the three types of cyclodextrins at different temperatures were evaluated from Benesi-Hildebrand plot and also by non-linear regression analysis. These cyclodextrins can only form the 1:1 (host:guest) inclusion complex in the studied temperature range of 20-50 °C. The enthalpy (ΔH°) and entropy (ΔS°) changes of complexation were extracted from the temperature dependency of complex formation constants (K). Temperature-dependent measurements showed that the association step is controlled by enthalpy-entropy compensation effect. The use of ome-CD generally resulted in the greatest fluorescence intensity. On the other hand, the discrepancy between the exhibited enhanced fluorescence and thermodynamic parameters (ΔG°) is proposed to be different only by the orientation of the AFB₁ within the cyclodextrin cavity. To find the most favorable structure, the geometry of complex was investigated by molecular modeling approach employing the semiemperical HF-SCF calculations.     

Valence force field theory, elastic, acoustic and thermodynamic properties and a potential function of TeO2 glass

A short survey has been made on the extensive work that is being done on the pressure derivatives of the second order elastic constants (SOEC) to ascertain various properties of substances. Hence an attempt has been made to correlate the pressure derivatives to some properties of the substances. Thus some equations have been derived to correlate the Grüneisen parameter which is evaluated from Schofield's equations and Bhatia-Singh's (BS) parameters. They have been used to compute the longitudinal (γ_g^L) and transverse (γ_g^T) Grüneisen constants. γ_g^L calculated by different methods agree well with experiment. γ_g^T obtained from BS parameters gives rather higher value while Schofield's equations give results in agreement with experiment. The DeLaunay-Nath-Smith (DNS) equation has been used to derive a relation to compute γ_g^el (elastic). A method has been extended to calculate the third order elastic constants (TOEC) and it is found to give excellent values of TOECs in agreement with experiment. The absorption band position of TeO₂ has been predicted to occur at 276 cm⁻¹. The phonon dispersion curves have been calculated through BS equations for TeO₂. Several other properties of TeO₂ have been computed such as thermal Grüneisen parameter γ_g^th, its pressure derivatives (γ_g^th)′≡(dγ_g^th/dP), the pressure variation of bulk modulus C₁≡(dK_T/dP)_T and its pressure derivatives that is (dC₁/dP)_T which is in turn related to (γ_g^th)′, the heat capacity at constant volume C_V, and the second Grüneisen constant Q. In some cases we calculated these quantities by different methods and the agreement between them is good. Besides we evaluated δ_T^AG the Anderson Grüneisen parameter. Another important aspect of the present investigations is the formulation of the potential function (PF) of TeO₂ from which we calculated SOECs and these are found to be in excellent agreement with experiment. All other properties mentioned already have also been calculated through the use of the newly formulated PF and the calculated values obtained through various other equations are in good agreement with those obtained from PF. According to valence force field (VFF) all atomic forces can be resolved into bond bending β and bond stretching α forces. It is shown that TeO₂ does not satisfy Martins unity rule. Hence it is concluded that there is an effective dynamic charge on Te in TeO₂. Using the experimental elastic constants the bond bending force β and bond stretching force α and also their pressure derivatives have been evaluated. In addition the reststrauhlen optic frequency ω has been calculated. A self consistent check has been made by evaluating C₄₄ through the calculated values of α and β.     

Electrical and spectroscopic characterization of polyaniline-polyvinyl chloride (PANI-PVC) blends doped with sodium thiosulphate

Polyaniline is doped with sodium thiosulphate in aqueous tetrahydrofuran (THF) and the blended films have been prepared by changing the amount of doped polyaniline (PANI) in the fixed amount of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The electrical conductivity of various samples of polyaniline-polyvinyl chloride (PANI-PVC) blends has been studied to see the effect of dopant in the temperature range 300-400 K. Mott's parameters are used to explain the conduction mechanism. Different parameters such as pre-exponential factor (σ₀), activation energy (ΔE) and T₀ have also been calculated to see the effect of chemical doping. The crystallinity of the blends is explained on the basis of T₀. The calculated values of T₀ show that crystallinity increases with an increase of doped PANI in PANI-PVC blends. Fourier transform-infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy is done to explore the nature and interaction of dopant into the polymeric chain.     

Nuclear magnetic resonance studies in rare earth ternary phosphides

The results of³¹P Knight shift (KS) and spin-lattice relaxation time (T ₁) measurements in the temperature interval 4.2–300 K are reported for the compounds RENi₂P₂(RE=Ce, Eu, Yb) in order to understand the nature of the ground state in these compounds. KS results conclusively establish that all these compounds exhibit non-magnetic ground states. The temperature dependence of spin-fluctuation temperature (T _sf) in each case is estimated from the measured data. For EuNi₂P₂ the values ofT _sf above 77 K qualitatively agree with those obtained from Mössbauer and susceptibility data employing ionic interconfigurational fluctuation model, but disagree at lower temperatures.     

On the inversion of tunneling characteristics in superconductors with spin fluctuations

We have calculated the current-voltage characteristics of a superconductor with spin fluctuations explicitly included in the kernels of the Eliashberg equation along with the electron-phonon spectral density α²(ω)F(ω). These characteristics are then inverted using the method outlined by Galkin et al. to get an effective electron-phonon spectral density assuming no paramagnons are present in the Eliashberg equations during the inversion procedure. The effective electron-phonon spectral density found in this way is, to an excellent approximation, a scaling factor of $\text{1}\text{(1+λ}{}_{\mathrm{sf}}\text{)}$ times the original α²(ω)F(ω), with λ_sf the paramagnon mass renormalization.     

Field dependent susceptibility of the 2D ferromagnet (CH3NH3)2CuCl4 in the paramagnetic phase

The temperature dependence of the ac susceptibility (χ) at constant applied magnetic field was investigated in the paramagnetic region of the quasi-2D ferromagnet (CH₃NH₃)₂CuCl₄. Above the Curie temperature (T_C=8.85 K) a maximum in the χ(T,H) curves was observed at T_m(H). The temperature at the maximum increases with increasing applied field. This anomaly is related to short range fluctuations close the order transition. The behavior of T_m(H) is governed by the gap exponent of the scaling function (Δ=γ+β). We found Δ=2.2±0.1 in very good agreement with the previously known values of γ and β.     

Large-scale anisotropies of the cosmic background radiation in generalized inflationary cosmologies

We calculate the dipole and quadropole moments, (ΔT/T)_l l=1, 2, of the cosmic background radiation anisotropy due to scalar and tensor waves with power-law spectra, produced by quantum processes during a “generalized” inflationary era of the early universe. The observational bounds on (ΔT/T)_l are used to give constraints on the parameters of the cosmological models.     

Phenomenological thermodynamics of mixed valence phenomenon

The fluctuation of valence in some rare-earth (RE) compounds is described in terms of the effective potential seen by the RE ion. The nearly degenerate $\text{4?}{}^{\mathrm{n+1}}\text{(5d6s)}{}^2$ and $\text{4?}{}^{\mathrm{n}}\text{(5d6s)}{}^3$ levels of the RE ion split in energy in the presence of a repulsive potential. The energy separation (ΔE) between these levels is a function of external variables such as temperature, pressure or composition, which change the effective potential seen by the ion. The variation of ΔE with temperature is obtained for four Europium compounds from ¹⁵¹Eu Mössbauer isomer shift data. The temperature dependence of susceptibility is then obtained from the same (ΔE) variation and compared with experimental results. A characteristic temperature (T_υ) is found below and above which (ΔE) behave as ΔE = αT and ΔE = βT+γ respectively.     

Temperature dependence of the contribution to the transport coefficients of nearly ferromagnetic metals from electron-paramagnon scattering

We present calculations of the temperature dependence of the contribution from electron-paramagnon scattering to the electrical and thermal resistivity of a simple model of a nearly ferromagnetic metal. The purpose of the work is to explore the behavior of these quantities when the temperature is the order of or greater than the spin fluctuation temperature T_sf. As the temperature T is raised from zero through T_sf, the electrical resistivity varies more slowly with temperature than the T² law characteristic of the regime T?T_sf. When T?T_sf, the electrical resistivity becomes proportional to T, although this asymptotic behavior is approached very slowly. The Lorenz number rises monotonically with temperature, and appears to approach the ideal Sommerfeld value when T?T_sf, although this limit is also approached slowly.     

Spectral shifts and spectral switches of spatially and spectrally partially coherent pulsed beams in Young’s interference experiment

Taking the Gaussian Schell-model pulsed (GSMP) beam as a typical example of spatially and spectrally partially coherent pulsed beams, an analytical expression for the far-field spectrum of diffracted GSMP beams in Young’s interference experiment is derived, and used to study the spectral shifts and spectral switches of GSMP beams in the far field. Numerical calculation results are given to illustrate the dependence of spectral shifts and spectral switches on the obscuration ratio ε, temporal coherent length T_c, spatial correlation parameter β and diffraction angle α. It is shown that the critical angle α_c of the first- and second-order spectral switches moves away from the z axis with increasing T_c, but α_c of the third-order spectral switch moves towards the z axis with increasing T_c. The spectral transition height Δ decreases and spectral minimum S_min increases as T_c increases. α_c decreases, Δ increases and S_min decreases as β increases. The potential application of spectral switches of spatially and spectrally partially coherent pulsed beams in information encoding and transmission is proposed.     

Δ Isobar Degrees of Freedom in the 3He Transverse Electron Scattering Response Function

The importance of Δ(1232) isobar degrees of freedom is investigated for the transverse (e, e′) response of ³He in the quasi-elastic peak region and beyond (considered momentum transfer range: 500 ≤ q ≤ 1,000 MeV/c). Besides Δ isobar currents (Δ-IC) meson exchange currents and relativistic corrections to the nucleonic one-body current are included. The calculation is carried out by using the Lorentz integral transform (LIT) method. Results for the transverse response function R _T are presented up to q = 700 MeV/c, whereas for higher q only some preliminary results for the LIT of R _T are discussed. In the quasi-elastic peak region Δ-IC enhance R _T by about 5% and tend to cancel three-nucleon force effects. One observes an excellent agreement with experimental R _T results. Particularly strong Δ-IC contributions are found for transitions into the final state with isospin T = 3/2, which is only reachable in three-body break-up reactions.     

Lifetime measurements and particle-core coupling calculations in144Sm

Applying the generalized centroid shift method in the¹⁴²Nd(α, 2n)¹⁴⁴Sm reaction the following half-lives have been measured:T _1/2(3,376 keV)=(1.6±0.2) ns,T _1/2(3,460 keV) =(0.5±0.2) ns andT _1/2(5,150 keV)≦0.3 ns. Level energies and electromagnetic transition rates have been calculated within a particle-core coupling approach that is based on the shell model with configuration mixing. The persistence ofl-forbiddenness of M1 transitions between rather complex configurations could be confirmed.     

Possible manifestation of spin fluctuations in the temperature behavior of the resistivity of Sm<Subscript>1.85</Subscript>Ce<Subscript>0.15</Subscript>CuO<Subscript>4</Subscript> thin films

A pronounced step-like (kink) behavior in the temperature dependence of resistivity ρ(T) is observed in the optimally doped Sm_1.85Ce_0.15CuO₄ thin films around T _sf = 87 K and attributed to the manifestation of strong-spin fluctuations induced by Sm³⁺ moments with the energy ħω_sf = k _B T _sf ≃ 7 meV. The experimental data are found to be well fitted by the residual (zero-temperature) ρ_res, electron-phonon ρ_e-ph(T) = AT, and electron-electron ρ_e-e(T) = BT ² contributions in addition to the fluctuation-induced contribution ρ_sf(T) due to thermal broadening effects (of the width ω_sf). According to the best fit, the plasmon frequency, impurity scattering rate, electron-phonon coupling constant, and Fermi energy are estimated as ω_p = 2.1 meV, τ ₀ ⁻¹ = 9.5 × 10⁻¹⁴ s⁻¹, λ = 1.2, and E _F = 0.2 eV, respectively. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Study of the pressure-induced structural phase transition in the Ga(1−x)InxSb alloy system2

The pressure induced first-order semiconductor-to-metal (α-to-β) phase transition has been studied in the Ga_xIn_1?xSb alloy system. Based on hydrostatic polycrystalline X-ray measurements, the transition pressure, P_t, the pressure dependence of the molar volumes in each phase, and the volume change at P_t, ΔV^α,β, have been determined across the compositional range. These results are used with published thermophysical data for the α-phase to estimate the excess enthalpy of mixing in the β-phase. The experimental values of P_t and of ΔV^α,β are compared for the end compounds, GaSb and InSb, with values calculated from Van Vechten's quantum dielectric theory. Suggestions are made for possible use of psuedo-binary alloys of the III-V compounds for high pressure calibration standards.     

Critical properties and exchange interactions of the antiferromagnetic tetrahedral spinel

The high-temperature series expansion for the spin correlation functions of the A-spinel lattice has been derived. The development is extended to order 6 in β=1/k_BT with nearest-neighbour (nn) and next-nearest-neighbour (nnn) exchange couplings. The paramagnetic susceptibility and the correlation length are also given.The series is examined via the Padé approximants method and estimates for the transition temperature T_N are obtained for various values of the ratio α=J₂/|J₁|. It is found that the variation of critical temperature is well represented by T(α)=T(0)[1+3.0725α] for values of α in the range −0.2≤α. T(0) is the critical temperature of the nn model.The approach is applied to the experimental results of the particular system A-spinel CoCo₂O₄. The following estimates are obtained for the familiar critical exponents: γ=1.382 and v=0.701.     

Scaling of the temperature-dependent resistivity in SrFe2−xNixAs2

We show that the zero-field normal-state resistivity of temperature-dependent resistivity ρ(T) of SrFe_2?xNi_xAs₂ can be reproduced by the expression ρ(T) = ρ₀ + c T exp(?2Δ/T). ρ(T) can be scaled using both this expression where the energy scale Δ, c and the residual resistivity ρ₀ are scaling parameters and a recently proposed model-independent scaling method (H.G. Luo, Y.H. Su, T. Xiang, Phys. Rev. B 77 (2008) 014529). The scaling parameters have been calculated and the compositional variation of 2Δ(x) has been determined. This dependence show almost a linear decreasing in the underdoped regime similar to that reported for cuprates. The existence of a universal metallic ρ(T) curve in a wide temperature range which, however, is restricted for the underdoped compounds to temperatures above a structural and anitiferromagnetic transition is interpreted as an indication of a single mechanism which dominates the scattering of the charge carriers in SrFe_2?xNi_xAs₂ (x = 0–0.3).     

Formation andstability of magnetic moment on isolated Rh impurities in dilute PtFe alloys

The local susceptibilities (T) of isolated Rh impurities in paramagnetic dilute Pt(Fe) alloys have been measured using the TDPAC method. The results show existence of 4d magnetic moment for Rh with reduced spin fluctuation temperatures (T _sf). It is suggested that moment stability scaled byT _sf is governed mainly by the interatomic d-d exchange interaction caused by induced ferromagnetic polarization of host d band electrons.