Long and short range spin-spin interactions in ErBaCuO

Dipolar spin-spin interactions play a crucial role as for the magnetic order in the compounds of the RBa₂Cu₃O_6+x family, (R = Dy, Er, Nd). However, inelastic neutron scattering data observed in ErBa₂Cu₃O₇ can be explained only if exchange interactions in addition to dipolar ones are taken into account. Received: 12 January 1998 / Received in final form: 26 March 1998 / Accepted: 10 April 1998     

Magnetic interactions in the monoclinic ludwigite Cu FeO BO

The system Cu₂FeO₂BO₃ is an oxyborate belonging to the family of the ludwigites. In this paper we present AC susceptibility, magnetization measurements and M?ssbauer spectroscopy on this material which allows for a complete characterization of its complex magnetic behavior. We find an hierarchy of interactions which clearly defines three regimes with decreasing temperature. These are associated with, the freezing of the Fe moments, the antiferromagnetic ordering of the Cu sub-lattice and finally the coupling between both systems. Received 25 September 1998     

How to get access to long range states of highly excited molecules

Due to competition between ionic and covalent dissociation, the excited potential curves of the alkali dimers display long range structures, leading in some cases to secondary wells. We discuss the possibility of populating the well (with a depth of 1614.8 cm^-1, located at R _e = 30.5a ₀ ) that is present in the Na₂ potential curve and propose detection schemes. Received: 28 May 1998 / Revised: 5 August 1998 / Accepted: 24 September 1998     

Bias and temperature dependence of the noise in a single electron transistor

Models generalizing the su (2) XX spin-chain were recently introduced. These XXC models also have an underlying su (2) structure. Their construction method is shown to generalize to the chains based on the fundamental representations of the A_m Lie algebras. Integrability of the new models is shown in the context of the quantum inverse scattering method. Their R-matrix is found and shown to yield a representation of the Hecke algebra. The diagonalization of the transfer matrices is carried out using the algebraic Bethe Ansatz. I comment on eventual generalizations and possible links to reaction-diffusion processes. Received: 24 June 1998 / Received in final form: 8 September 1998 / Accepted: 10 September 1998     

Ab initio thermodynamic properties for different isomers of the AlO molecule

We present ab initio thermodynamic properties for seven different geometric isomers of molecular Al₂O₃ over a wide temperature range. The rigid rotator-harmonic oscillator approximation is used to calculate the partition function as it is generally applied in thermodynamic studies of polyatomic molecules. The molecular data employed in setting up the partition functions are taken from the theoretical results of ab initio MP2/6-31G(d) calculations. An analysis of the effects of the various contributions is made. The resulting thermodynamic functions of Al₂O₃ are consistent with the JANAF thermochemical data compilation. Some thermochemical implications are discussed. Received: 9 September 1998 / Received in final form: 2 October 1998     

Electron detachment and fragmentation in collisions between 1.25 keV/carbon and clusters and

The destruction cross-section for 22.5 and 50 keV C^1- , for 10 and 50 keV C₈ ^1- and for 50 and 75 keV C₆₀ ^1- clusters in collisions with H₂ has been measured by an attenuation method. The destruction of the cluster anions is dominated by electron detachment rather than fragmentation and is of the order of the geometric cross-section. The cross-sections vary little with bombarding energy. Received: 16 September 1998 / Received in final form: 23 February 1999     

Zero temperature phase transitions in spin-ladders: Phase diagram and dynamical studies of Cu2(C5H12N2)2Cl4>

In a magnetic field, spin-ladders undergo two zero-temperature phase transitions at the critical fields H_c1 and H_c2. An experimental review of static and dynamical properties of spin-ladders close to these critical points is presented. The scaling functions, universal to all quantum critical points in one-dimension, are extracted from (a) the thermodynamic quantities (magnetization) and (b) the dynamical functions (NMR relaxation). A simple mapping of strongly coupled spin ladders in a magnetic field on the exactly solvable XXZ model enables to make detailed fits and gives an overall understanding of a broad class of quantum magnets in their gapless phase (between H_c1 and H_c2). In this phase, the low temperature divergence of the NMR relaxation demonstrates its Luttinger liquid nature as well as the novel quantum critical regime at higher temperature. The general behavior close these quantum critical points can be tied to known models of quantum magnetism. Received: 13 March 1998 / Received in final form and Accepted: 21 July 1998     

Ga-NMR study of the low-energy excitations in

We report the results of ⁶⁹Ga- and ⁷¹Ga-NMR measurements on NdGa₂ at temperatures between 0.1 and and in applied magnetic fields between zero and 74 kOe. NdGa₂ orders antiferromagnetically below and undergoes several metamagnetic transitions in external magnetic fields. In zero applied magnetic field and below the temperature dependence of the spin-lattice relaxation rate T1 ^-1 ( T ) shows a large linear-in-T term, about two orders of magnitude higher than for the reference compound LaGa₂. This strong enhancement confirms the presence of low-energy excitations in the antiferromagnetic phase of NdGa₂ as was previously indicated by specific heat data. Above , T1 ^-1 ( T ) is dominated by an exponential term, which we associate with excitations between the lowest energy levels of the f-electron system. The separation of these energy levels is determined by exchange, crystal-field and Zeeman interactions. Received 3 September 1998 and Received in final form 3 November 1998     

Thermal gradient induced sidebranching in directional solidification

The polycrystalline perovskitelike manganese oxides La_1-xA_xMnO (A = Na, and K, ) have been fabricated by sol-gel technique. For all the compositions explored in this work, the average manganese oxidation state is practically constant, at for A = Na, and for A = K, respectively. A close relationship is confirmed to hold between the Curie temperature (T_c) and the bond distance of Mn-O. Results of magnetic measurements show that these materials can be utilized as suitable candidates for magnetic refrigerants with wide applied temperature span, for their significant entropy change and the easily tuned Curie temperature. Received: 12 September 1997 / Revised: 18 December 1997 / Accepted: 21 January 1998     

High magnetic field properties and ESR of the compounds

compounds have a layered structure made of alternating Ni-O and Li-O slabs. An amount z of extra divalent Ni ions is always present in the Li-O layers. We show, using high field magnetisation, static and dynamic susceptibility and high frequency ESR, that the magnetic properties are driven by the z parameter. The compounds can be described as ferromagnetic Ni-O layers, bridged by clusters possessing a net ferromagnetic moment. Received: 24 July 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 23 September 1998     

Hall effect plateaus and giant Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in (BiSb)Telayered single crystals near the quantum limit

On bulk layered single crystals (Bi_0.25Sb_0.75)₂Te₃ with a hole concentration cm^-3 and a mobility cm²/Vs magnetoresistance and Hall effect investigations were performed in the temperature range T = 1.4 K ... 20 K in magnetic fields up to 18 T. For the magnetic field perpendicular to the layered structure giant Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations are measured; the positions of the maxima are triplets in the reciprocally scaled magnetic field. From the damping of the amplitudes with increasing temperature the cyclotron mass m _c = 0.12m ₀ is evaluated. Correlated with the SdH oscillations doublets of Hall effect plateaus (or kinks in low fields) are found. The weak well known Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations from the generally accepted multivallied highest valence band can be detected as a modulation on the giant oscillation. The high anisotropy of the SdH oscillations and their triplet structure in connection with the layered crystal structure lead us to suggest that the effects are caused by hole carrier pairing (mediated by the bipolaron mechanism) in quasi 2D sheets parallel to the crystal layer stacks. The measured Hall plateau resistances coincide with the quantum Hall effect values considering the number of layer stacks and the valley degeneracy of the 3D hole carrier reservoir. The ratio of spin splitting to Landau (cyclotron) splitting is observed to be . Received: 12 September 1997 / Revised: 8 January 1998 / Accepted: 22 January 1998     

Effects of finite thickness on interfacial widths in confined thin films of coexisting phases

The capillary broadening of a 2-phase interface is investigated both experimentally and theoretically. When a binary mixture in a thin film with thickness D segregates into two coexisting phases the interface between the two phases may form parallel to the substrate due to preferential surface attraction of one of the components. We show that the interfacial profile (of intrinsic width w₀) is broadened due to capillary waves, which lead to fluctuations, of correlation length of the local interface positions in the directions parallel to the confining walls. We postulate that acts as an upper cutoff for the spectrum of capillary waves on the interface, so that the effective mean square interfacial width w varies as . In the limit of large D this yields or respectively for the case of short- or long-range forces between walls and the interface. We used the Nuclear Reaction Analysis depth profiling technique, to investigate this broadening effect directly in two binary polymer mixtures. Our results reveal that the interfacial width indeed increases with film thickness D, though the observed interfacial width is lower than the predicted w. This is probably due to surface tension effects imposed by the confining surfaces which are not taken into account in our model. Received: 19 February 1998 / Received in final form: 2 September 1998 / Accepted: 8 September 1998     

Pressure effects in ferromagnetic manganites and carrier scattering by disordered magnetic rare earths

The influence of hydrostatic pressure on the transport properties of (La_1-xR_x)_0.67Ca_0.33MnO₃ (,Tb) ferromagnetic manganites is investigated. The enhancement of the Curie temperature T_C under pressure agrees with previous data. In the paramagnetic range, the resistivity can be represented by a Mott localisation law, with a characteristic temperature T₀ decreasing with pressure. The variation of T_C with pressure is compared to the effect induced by replacing La by a magnetic rare earth in (La_1-xR_x)_0.67Sr_0.33MnO₃ manganites (, ..., Tm). The main effect is not related to the decrease of the mean radius of the cation, but to an additional scattering by the magnetic moment of the rare earth. Received: 15 May 1998 / Revised: 6 July 1998 / Accepted: 16 July 1998     

Structural origin of magnetic anisotropy in Co-Pt alloy films probed by polarized XAFS

Polarized X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements at the Co K and Pt L₃ edges show that the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy found in epitaxial fcc CoPt₃ (111) films stems from the existence of anisotropic local ordering. Such ordering, induced during the codeposition process and dependent on the growth temperature, is characterized by preferential CoCo pairs in the film plane, balanced by preferential CoPt pairs out of the plane, resulting from some Co 2D-segregation. Polarized XAFS at the Pt edge reveals similar anisotropic local ordering in epitaxial hcp Co₃Pt (0001) films exhibiting a larger magnetocrystalline anisotropy compared to that of bulk hcp Co. Besides, a polarization dependence of the Co XANES profile is observed only for the Co₃Pt films exhibiting hcp symmetry. Received: 29 April 1998 / Revised: 27 July 1998 / Accepted: 31 August 1998     

Dynamics of polymeric manifolds in melts: the Hartree approximation

The Martin-Siggia-Rose functional technique and the selfconsistent Hartree approximation is applied to the dynamics of a D-dimensional manifold in a melt of similar manifolds. The generalized Rouse equation is derived and its static and dynamic properties are studied. The static upper critical dimension, d _uc =2D/(2-D), discriminates between Gaussian (or screened) and non-Gaussian regimes, whereas its dynamical counterpart, , discriminates between Rouse- and renormalized-Rouse behavior. The Rouse modes correlation function in a stretched exponential form and the dynamical exponents are calculated explicitly. The special case of linear chains D=1 shows agreement with Monte-Carlo simulations. Received: 22 May 1998 / Received in final form: 31 August 1998 / Accepted: 8 September 1998     

Martensitic transformations: first-principles calculations combined with molecular-dynamics simulations

Results are presented of first-principles total-energy calculations and molecular-dynamics simulations of structural transformations in magnetic transition metal alloys like Fe_1-xNi_x. While first-principles calculations allow to identify those structures having the lower total energy, molecular-dynamics simulations can be used to trace out the dependence of the transformation on temperature, composition, concentration of defects etc. We have used the method of the semi-empiric embedded-atom potential in the molecular-dynamics simulations which yields remarkable good results for the structural changes. Received: 3 February 1998 / Revised: 4 May 1998 / Accepted: 24 June 1998     

Spin correlations in the two-dimensional spin-5/2 Heisenberg antiferromagnet

We report a neutron scattering study of the instantaneous spin correlations in the two-dimensional spin S =5/2 square-lattice Heisenberg antiferromagnet Rb₂MnF₄. The measured correlation lengths are quantitatively described, with no adjustable parameters, by high-temperature series expansion results and by a theory based on the quantum self-consistent harmonic approximation. Conversely, we find that the data, which cover the range from about 1 to 50 lattice constants, are outside of the regime corresponding to renormalized classical behavior of the quantum non-linear model. In addition, we observe a crossover from Heisenberg to Ising critical behavior near the Néel temperature; this crossover is well described by a mean-field model with no adjustable parameters. Received: 3 March 1998 / Received in final form: 4 May 1998 / Accepted: 19 May 1998     

Electronic structure and magnetism in 4d-transition metal clusters

We analyze the stability of magnetic states obtained within the tight-binding model for cubooctahedral (O_h) and icosahedral (I_h) clusters of early 4d (Y, Zr, Nb, Mo, and Tc) transition metals. Several metastable magnetic clusters are identified which suggests the existence of multiple magnetic solutions in realistic systems. A bulk-like parabolic behavior is observed for the binding energy of O_h and I_h clusters as a function of the atomic number along the 4 d-series. The charge transfer on the central atom changes sign, while the average magnetic moments present an oscillatory behavior as a function of the number of d electrons in the cluster. Our results are in agreement with other theoretical calculations. Received: 20 November 1997 / Received in final form: 9 March 1998 / Accepted: 30 March 1998     

Heavy electron YBNi2B2C and giant exchange YbNiBC: 170Yb Mössbauer spectroscopy and magnetization studies

We present magnetic properties of the three-band Hubbard model in the para- and antiferromagnetic phase on a hypercubic lattice calculated with the Dynamical Mean-Field Theory (DMFT). To allow for solutions with broken spin-symmetry we extended the approach to lattices with AB-like structure. Above a critical sublattice magnetization one can observe rich structures in the spectral-functions similar to the t-J model which can be related to the well known bound states for one hole in the Neél-background. In addition to the one-particle properties we discuss the static spin-susceptibility in the paramagnetic state at the points and for different dopings . The -T-phase-diagram exhibits an enhanced stability of the antiferromagnetic state for electron-doped systems in comparison to hole-doped. This asymmetry in the phase diagram is in qualitative agreement with experiments for high-T_c materials. Received: 28 May 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 14 September 1998