Anharmonic processes of scattering and relaxation of slow quasi-transverse phonons in cubic crystals

Relaxation of slow quasi-transverse phonons in anharmonic processes of scattering in cubic crystals with positive (Ge, Si, diamond) and negative (KCl, NaCl) anisotropies of the second-order elastic moduli has been considered. The dependences of the relaxation rates on the direction of the wave vector of phonons in scattering processes with the participation of three quasi-transverse phonons (the TTT relaxation mechanisms) are analyzed within the anisotropic continuum model. It is shown that the TTT relaxation mechanisms in crystals are associated with their cubic anisotropy, which is responsible for the interaction between noncollinear phonons. The dominant contribution to the phonon relaxation comes from large-angle scattering. For crystals with significant anisotropy of the elastic energy (Ge, Si, KCl, NaCl), the total contribution of the TTT relaxation mechanisms to the total relaxation rate exceeds the contribution of the Landau-Rumer mechanism either by several factors or by one to two orders of magnitude depending on the direction. The dominant role of the TTT relaxation mechanisms as compared to the Landau-Rumer mechanism is governed, to a considerable extent, by the second-order elastic moduli. The total relaxation rates of slow quasi-transverse phonons are determined. It is demonstrated that, when the anharmonic processes of scattering play the dominant role, the inclusion of one of the relaxation mechanisms (the Landau-Rumer mechanism or the mechanisms of relaxation of the slow quasi-transverse mode by two slow or two fast modes) is insufficient for describing the anisotropy of the total relaxation rates in cubic crystals.     

Relaxation of quasi-transverse phonons in the Herring mechanism and ultrasound absorption in cubic crystals with positive and negative anisotropies of the second-order elastic moduli

The phonon relaxation and quasi-transverse ultrasound absorption in the course of Herring and Landau-Rumer anharmonic scattering processes in cubic crystals with positive (Ge, Si, diamond, InSb, LiF, MgO) and negative (KCl, NaCl, CaF₂) anisotropies of the second-order elastic moduli have been investigated. A new mechanism of transverse phonon relaxation, according to which the fusion of a transverse (slow or fast) phonon with a slow phonon generates a fast transverse phonon, has been considered in the long-wave-length approximation. This mechanism is similar to the Herring relaxation mechanism for longitudinal phonons. It has been demonstrated that, for crystals of the first group with a considerable anisotropy of the elastic energy (Ge, Si, InSb, LiF, MgO), “anomalous” relaxation processes in which the fusion of a slow transverse phonon with a fast phonon generates a slow transverse phonon are possible in contrast to the Herring relaxation mechanism for longitudinal phonons. These relaxation processes appear to be impossible for all crystals of the second group (KCl, NaCl, CaF₂), as well as for crystals of the first group with a small anisotropy of the elastic energy, such as diamond. The angular dependences of the ultrasound absorption coefficient for the Herring and Landau-Rumer mechanisms have been analyzed using the anisotropic-continuum model. It has been shown that, for the crystals of the first group under consideration, the contribution of the Herring mechanism to the long-wavelength ultrasound absorption is small compared to the contribution of the Landau-Rumer mechanism. However, for the KCl and NaCl crystals of the second group in directions of the [001] type, the contribution of the Herring mechanism can significantly exceed the contribution of the Landau-Rumer mechanism.     

Non-Arrhenius relaxation of the Heisenberg model with dipolar and anisotropic interactions

The dynamical properties of a 2D Heisenberg model with dipolar interactions and perpendicular anisotropy are studied using Monte Carlo simulations in two different ordered regions of the equilibrium phase diagram. We find a temperature defining a dynamical transition below which the relaxation suddenly slows down and the system apart from the typical Arrhenius relaxation to a Vogel-Fulcher-Tamann law. This anomalous behavior is observed in the scaling of the magnetic relaxation and may eventually lead to a freezing of the system. Through the analysis of the domain structures we explain this behavior in terms of the domains dynamics. Moreover, we calculate the energy barriers distribution obtained from the data of the magnetic viscosity. Its shape supports our comprehension of both, the Vogel-Fulcher-Tamann dynamical slowing down and the freezing mechanism.     

NMR observation of rattling phonons in the pyrochlore superconductor KOs2O6

We report nuclear magnetic resonance studies on the beta-pyrochlore oxide superconductor KOs2O6. The nuclear relaxation at the K sites is entirely caused by fluctuations of the electric field gradient, which we ascribe to highly anharmonic low frequency oscillation (rattling) of K ions. A phenomenological analysis shows a crossover from overdamped to underdamped behavior of the rattling phonons with decreasing temperature and its sudden sharpening below the superconducting transition temperature T(c). Suppression of the Hebel-Slichter peak in the relaxation rate at the O sites below T(c) also indicates strong electron-phonon coupling.     

Exchange anisotropy in Co/NiO bilayers: time-dependent effects

The time dependence of the exchange anisotropy was studied in Co/NiO bilayers. In order to only observe the relaxation phenomena inside the antiferromagnetic (AF) layer and to eliminate the dynamic behaviour inside the ferromagnetic (F) layer, we have developed an experimental method where a small a.c. magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the main anisotropy axis. All data are obtained by magneto-optical (m.o.) experiments. We observe a logarithmic time dependence of Hud, the exchange unidirectional anisotropy. We prove that the key parameter for the rate of relaxation is the anisotropy of the AF layer which depends strongly of the preparation method. We use the random field model as proposed by Malozemoff and suppose a breakdown of the AF interface into regular domains of size close to the crystallite size (10 nm width). If we further develop a Fulcomer and Charap relaxation model, we can propose from the distribution of relaxation times an analysis in terms of a spread of AF anisotropy energies. High magnetic pulsed field experiments (55 T) complete the experimental study and the results are analysed assuming that the Zeeman energy balances the anisotropy energy of the AF domains and switches them into the opposite direction.     

Energy relaxation mechanism in Landau level system of quantum wells

Kinetics of intrasubband energy relaxation of electrons in the system of Landau levels lying below the optical phonon energy is studied. Extraordinary behavior of the relaxation of electronic subsystem excitation energy is detected. Despite the fact that its main channel is optical phonon emission, the total relaxation time exceeds the characteristic times of scattering on optical phonons by several orders of magnitude.     

The effect of phonon focusing on the electron-phonon relaxation and electron transport in potassium crystals

The influence of anisotropy of elastic energy on electron-phonon relaxation and the role of shear waves in the electrical resistance of potassium crystals are investigated. It is shown that, at temperatures much lower than the Debye temperature (T<< θ_D), the contribution of slow quasi-transverse phonons to the electrical resistance of potassium crystals exceeds that of longitudinal phonons by an order of magnitude. Earlier, the Bloch-Grüneisen theory left aside this component under the above conditions. At the same time, at high temperatures(T>>θ_D), the contribution of longitudinal phonons to the electrical resistance turns out to be 4 times greater than the total contribution of electron relaxation by fast and slow transverse modes. The role of shear waves in the electrical resistance of potassium crystals is analyzed. It is shown that, at low temperatures, this mechanism provides 32% of the total electrical resistance. It is 4 times higher than the contribution of longitudinal phonons to the electrical resistance and should be taken into account when analyzing the electrical resistance of alkali metals. The distribution function of the most effective phonons for electrical resistance is defined, and the inelasticity of electron-phonon scattering is analyzed. It is shown that the calculated results of the electrical resistance of potassium in the temperature range from 40 to 400 K, taking into account the anisotropy of elastic energy, are in good agreement with the experimental data without the use of fitting parameters.     

微晶的磁性

在穆斯堡尔谱学的实验结果基础上讨论了微晶的磁性。微晶的尺寸小于10um时,穆斯堡尔谱将受到磁化方向起伏,即超顺磁弛豫与集体磁激发的影响。这些效应可用来确定颗粒体积与磁各向异性常数二者之积。测量铁磁、亚铁磁颗粒穆斯堡尔谱随外磁场的变化可以确定颗粒的体积。当铁、钴、镍以及Fe_3O_4颗粒表面化学吸附不同的分子时,微晶的磁晶各向异性常数将随之改变。细颗粒的穆斯堡尔谱亦给出了表面层原子磁性的信息。α-Fe颗粒表面层原子的超精细场大于块状样品的值。FeCo合金颗粒的表面是富铁层。α-Fe_2O_3的Morin转变温度与Fe_3O_4的Verwey温度均发现随颗粒尺寸减小而降低。α-FeOOH微晶密堆积体的研究表明,这些微晶间的磁耦合显著地影响穆斯堡尔谱。     

Unconventional quasiparticle lifetime in graphene

We address the question of how large can the lifetime of electronic states be at low energies in graphene, below the scale of the optical phonon modes. For this purpose, we study the many-body effects at the K point of the spectrum, which induce a strong coupling between electron-hole pairs and out-of-plane phonons. We show the existence of a soft branch of hybrid states below the electron-hole continuum when graphene is close to the charge neutrality point, leading to an inverse lifetime proportional to the cube of the quasiparticle energy. This implies that a crossover should be observed in transport properties, from such a slow decay rate to the lower bound given at very low energies by the decay into acoustic phonons.     

Annealing effect on magnetic anisotropy in ultrathin（Ga,Mn）As

We investigated the effect of low temperature annealing on magnetic anisotropy in 7-nm ultrathin Ga0.94Mn0.06As devices by measuring the angle-dependent planar Hall resistance(PHR).Obvious hysteresis loops were observed during the magnetization reversal through the clockwise and counterclockwise rotations under low magnetic fields(below 1000 Gs,1 Gs = 10-4 T),which can be explained by competition between Zeeman energy and magnetic anisotropic energy.It is found that the uniaxial anisotropy is dominant in the whole measured ferromagnetic range for both the as-grown ultrathin Ga0.94Mn0.06As and the annealed one.The cubic anisotropy changes more than the uniaxial anisotropy in the measured temperature ranges after annealing.This gives a useful way to tune the magnetic anisotropy of ultrathin(Ga,Mn)As devices.     

Novel dynamical effects and glassy response in a strongly correlated electronic system

We find an unconventional nucleation of a low-temperature paramagnetic metal phase with a monoclinic structure from the matrix of a high-temperature antiferromagnetic insulator phase with a tetragonal structure in a strongly correlated electronic system BaCo0.9Ni0.1S1.97. Such unconventional nucleation leads to a decrease in resistivity by several orders with relaxation at a fixed temperature. The novel dynamical process could arise from the competition of strain fields, Coulomb interactions, magnetic correlations, and disorders. Such competition may frustrate the nucleation, giving rise to a slow, nonexponential relaxation and "physical aging" behavior.     

Experimental signature of phonon-mediated spin relaxation in a two-electron quantum dot

We observe an experimental signature of the role of phonons in spin relaxation between triplet and singlet states in a two-electron quantum dot. Using both the external magnetic field and the electrostatic confinement potential, we change the singlet-triplet energy splitting from 1.3 meV to zero and observe that the spin relaxation time depends nonmonotonously on the energy splitting. A simple theoretical model is derived to capture the underlying physical mechanism. The present experiment confirms that spin-flip energy is dissipated in the phonon bath.     

The Influence of Hydrogen Adsorption on Magnetic Properties of Ni/Cu(001) Surface

Ni/Cu(001) is known as a unique system showing the spin-reorientation transition from an in-plane to out-of-plane magnetization direction when the Ni-overlayer thickness is increased. We investigate different relaxed multilayer structures with a hydrogen adlayer using the full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method. The relaxed geometries, determined by total energy and atomic force calculations, show that H-monolayer strongly influences the interlayer distance between the Ni-surface and sub-surface layers yielding the outward relaxation of Ni-layer at H/Ni interface. Furthermore, large decrease of local magnetic moments at the top surface area is found for the surface covered by H. The magneto-crystalline anisotropy energies are calculated for fully relaxed H/Ni-films. The spin-reorientation transition critical thickness of 4 ML is found in good quantitative agreement with the experiment.     

Magnetic properties and relaxation dynamics of a frustrated Ni? molecular nanomagnet

The Ni? nanomagnet represents an ideal model system for investigating the effects of geometrical frustration in magnetic interactions. The Ni ions in the magnetic core are arranged on two corner-sharing tetrahedra and interact through antiferromagnetic exchange couplings. We show that the high degree of frustration leads to a magnetic energy spectrum with large degeneracies which result in unusual static and dynamical magnetic properties. In particular, the relaxation dynamics of the magnetization is characterized by several distinct characteristic times. We also discuss the possible interest of Ni? for magnetocaloric refrigeration.     

Energy relaxation of excitonlike polaritons in semiconductor microcavities: Effect on the parametric scattering of polaritons

Polariton emission in GaAs-based microcavities has been studied under variable conditions, which made it possible to excite (a) polaritons from the upper polariton branch and hot free polaritons and electrons, (b) polaritons from the lower polariton branch (LPB) and localized excitons, and (c) the mixed system. Variation of the excitation conditions leads to substantial differences in the energy distributions of polaritons and in the temperature dependences of polariton emission. It is established that the energy relaxation of resonantly excited LPB polaritons via polariton and localized exciton states at liquid helium temperatures is ineffective. Instead, the relaxation bottleneck effect is suppressed with increasing temperature by means of exciton delocalization (due to thermal excitation by phonons). The most effective mechanism of relaxation to the LPB bottom is via scattering of delocalized excitons on hot free carriers. It is found that the slow energy relaxation of polaritons excited below the free exciton energy can be significantly accelerated at low temperatures by means of additional weak generation of hot excitons and, especially, hot electrons. This acceleration of the energy relaxation of polaritons by means of additional overbarrier photoexcitation sharply decreases the barrier for stimulated parametric scattering of polaritons excited at an LPB inflection point. Therefore, additional illumination can be used to control the polariton-polariton scattering.     

Phonon focusing and electron–phonon drag in semiconductor crystals with degenerate charge-carrier statistics

We study the effect of anisotropy in elastic properties on the electron–phonon drag and thermoelectric phenomena in gapless semiconductors with degenerate charge-carrier statistics. It is shown that phonon focusing leads to a number of new effects in the drag thermopower at low temperatures, when diffusive phonon scattering from the boundaries is the predominant relaxation mechanism. We analyze the effect of phonon focusing on the dependences of the thermoelectromotive force (thermopower) in HgSe:Fe crystals on geometric parameters and the heat-flow directions relative to the crystal axes in the Knudsen regime of the phonon gas flow. The crystallographic directions that ensure the maximum and minimum values of the thermopower are determined and the role of quasi-longitudinal and quasi-transverse phonons in the drag thermopower in HgSe:Fe crystals at low temperatures is analyzed. It is shown that the main contribution to the drag thermopower comes from slow quasi-transverse phonons in the directions of focusing in long samples.     

Role of equilibrium plasma flow on damping of slow MHD waves

In the solar corona waves and oscillatory activities are observed with modern imaging and spectral instruments. These oscillations are interpreted as slow magneto-acoustic waves excited impulsively in coronal loops. This study explores the effect of steady plasma flow on the dissipation of slow magneto-acoustic waves in the solar coronal loops permeated by uniform magnetic field. We have investigated the damping of slow waves in the coronal plasma taking into account viscosity and thermal conductivity as dissipative processes. On solving the dispersion relation it is found that the presence of plasma flow influences the characteristics of wave propagation and dissipation. We have shown that the time damping of slow waves exhibits varying behavior depending upon the physical parameters of the loop. The wave energy flux associated with slow magnetoacoustic waves turns out to be of the order of 10⁶ erg cm⁻² s⁻¹ which is high enough to replace the energy lost through optically thin coronal emission and the thermal conduction below to the transition region.     

The mechanism of Landau-Rumer relaxation of thermal and high-frequency phonons in cubic crystals of germanium,silicon, and diamond

Transverse phonon relaxation according to the Landau-Rumer mechanism is considered for an isotropic medium and crystals of germanium, silicon, and diamond possessing a cubic symmetry. The energy of elastic deformation caused by the anharmonicity of vibrations of the cubic crystal lattice is expressed via the second-and third-order moduli of elasticity. Using the known values of these elastic moduli, parameters determining the frequencies of the transverse phonon relaxation in the Landau-Rumer mechanism are evaluated for the germanium, silicon, and diamond crystals. It is shown that the dependence of the relaxation frequency on the wavevector of thermal and high-frequency phonons sharply differs from the classical Landau-Rumer relationship both in the isotropic medium and in the cubic crystals. It is established that the observed peculiarities in the relaxation frequency are related to the angular dependence of the probability of anharmonic scattering and the anisotropy of elastic properties of the germanium, silicon, and diamond crystals. A new method is proposed for the experimental determination of the relaxation frequency of high-frequency phonons as a function of the wavevector using the temperature dependence of the coefficient of absorption of high-frequency ultrasound.