Pressure–temperature studies on conductivity of TlX(X=Cl,Br,I) compounds:: I: phase diagram. II: ionic mobility

We have measured the conductivity σ of TlX(X=Cl, Br, I) compounds up to 5.3 GPa and between 300–823 K. The σ–T dependence for all compounds can be divided into three distinct regions: (i) low temperature (LT), <400 K, with unusual negative σ–T dependence, (ii) intermediate temperature (IT), 400<650 K, with positive σ–T dependence and (iii) high temperature (HT), T>650 K, with positive σ–T dependence. The σ–T isobars were used to construct the T–P solid phase diagram for each compound. The LT region data indicate a new meta-stable phase in the 1.0–3.5 GPa range. The LT→IT transition is characterized by an inverse σ–T dependence followed by normal Arrhenius behavior up to and including the HT region. The extrapolation to 1 atm of the P-dependent boundary between IT and HT regions above 3 GPa for each compound in the P–T plot yields a value close to its respective normal (1 atm) T_melt suggesting a solid order–disorder transition type paralleling -AgI behavior. The abrupt drop in conductivity in the LT region for P between 2.5–4.1 GPa of all compounds is at variance with the Arrhenius behavior observed for unperturbed ion migration implying the appearance of a second factor overriding the Arrhenius temperature dependence. Normal Arrhenius σ–T dependence prevails in both IT and HT regions with Q_c values of 85–100 kJ mol⁻¹ and 50–75 kJ mol⁻¹, respectively. The higher conductivities at 0.4 GPa for TlBr and TlI relative to their 1 atm data and the increasing σ with P are in strong contrast to the normal σ-P behavior of TlCl. The dependence of activation volume ΔV^‡ on T for TlCl, i.e. ΔV^‡>0, shows abnormally high values with a maximum at 500 K for P<3.0 GPa but reasonable ΔV^‡ values appear above 3.0 GPa. The ΔV^‡–T dependence for both TlBr and TlI with ΔV^‡<0 is incompatible with an ion transport mechanism suggesting an electronic conduction process and implying an ionic–metallic transition at higher pressures. These contrasting conductivity features are discussed and interpreted in terms of electronegativity differences and bonding character rather than structure.     

ESR of double-perovskite Sr2FeMoO6

We present an ESR study of Sr₂FeMoO₆ in the paramagnetic region. A single line at g≈2 was associated with Fe³⁺ ions. The intensity follows Curie–Weiss law in the whole T range. For T >500 K a secondary line is attributed to ferromagnetic (FM) impurities. The line width is described by ΔH_pp(T)=ΔH_pp(∞)(1−Θ/T) with a high value for ΔH_pp(∞). The absence of narrowing effects is a signature of double-exchange (DE) interactions and indicates that DE drives the FM ordering at a relatively high T_c.     

Conductivity peaks broadening in the quantum Hall regime

We argue that it is the hopping transport that is responsible for broadening of the σ_xx peaks. Explicit expressions for the width Δν of a peak as a function of the temperature T, current J and frequency ω are found. It is shown that Δν grows with T as (T/T₁)^κ, where κ is the inverse localization-length exponent. The current J is shown to act like the effective temperature T_eff(J) ∝ J^1/2 if . Broadening of the ohmic ac-conductivity peaks with frequency ω is found to be determined by the effective temperature      

Characterization of metal/GaN Schottky interfaces based on I–V–T characteristics

Interface properties of metal/n- and p-GaN Schottky diodes are studied by I–V–T and C–V–T measurements, and simulation of their characteristics. On the basis of the previously proposed “surface patch” model, the gross behavior of I–V–T characteristics, which includes Richardson plots together with temperature dependence of the effective Schottky barrier heights (SBHs) and n-values, can be well reproduced. Furthermore, the dependence of the true SBH on the metal work function was also deduced from high-temperature I–V curves, giving S-values of 0.28 and 0.20 for n- and p-GaN samples, respectively, and the interface Fermi level tends to be pinned at a characteristic energy of about two-third of the bandgap.     

Two types of the effective mass divergence and the Grüneisen ratio in heavy-fermion metals

The behavior of the specific heat c_p, effective mass M^*, and the thermal expansion coefficient of a Fermi system located near the fermion condensation quantum phase transition (FCQPT) is considered. We observe the first type behavior if the system is close to FCQPT: the specific heat , , while the thermal expansion coefficient . Thus, the Grüneisen ratio Γ(T)=/c_p does not diverges. At the transition region, where the system passes over from the non-Fermi liquid to the Landau Fermi liquid, the ratio diverges as . When the system becomes the Landau Fermi liquid, Γ(T,r)∝1/r, with r being a distance from the quantum critical point. Provided the system has undergone FCQPT, the second type takes place: the specific heat behaves as , M^*∝1/T, and =a+bT with a,b being constants. Again, the Grüneisen ratio diverges as .     

An isothermal equation of state for solids

An isothermal equation of state (EOS) for solids, recently suggested by the authors in the realistic form, V/V₀=f(P), with relative volume as the dependent and the pressure as the independent variable, was shown to have an advantage for some close-packed materials in that it allows B′_∞=(∂B_s/∂P)_s(P→∞) to be fitted, and this is where the usual standard equations fail. In the present study, our EOS is applied to a number of inorganic as well as organic solids, including alloys, glasses, rubbers and plastics; varying widely in their bonding and structural characteristics, as well as in their bulk modulus values. A very good agreement is observed between the data and fits. The results obtained are compared with those from two well-known equations, expressible in the realistic form, proposed by Murnaghan and Luban. Further, the results are also compared with those from the widely used two- and three-parameter EOSs, expressible in the unrealistic form only, P=f(V/V₀), proposed by Birch—and also with those from the EOS model of Keane in which B′_∞ is explicitly expressed as an equation of state parameter. The results obtained from our model compare well to these EOSs. Our EOS, in general, yields the smallest mean-squared deviations between data and fits. The values of B′_∞calculated from our EOS are compared with those from Keane's model. Further, we have studied the variation of B′_∞with temperature using the experimental isotherms of Mo and W at 10 different temperatures ranging from 100 to 1000 K, and observed that the values of B′_∞ yielded by our model and that of Keane vary, as expected, within a narrow range. Furthermore, our EOS is applied to study the stability of the fit parameters with variation in the pressure ranges with reference to the isothermal compression data on Mo and W—and also to study the variation of isothermal bulk modulus with pressure, with reference to the ultrasonic data on NaCl and noted a very good agreement with experiment. In addition, our model is applied, with B₀ and B′₀ constrained to the theoretical values, to the five theoretical isotherms of MgO at 300, 500, 1000, 1500 and 2000 K obtained on the basis of a first principles approach—a good agreement is observed with the predictions, and the values of B′_∞ inferred at different temperatures tend to converge to a constant value.     

Mechanism of current leakage through metal/n-GaN interfaces

Detailed current–voltage–temperature (I–V–T) measurements were performed on the Schottky diodes fabricated on MOVPE-grown n-GaN layers. A large deviation from the thermionic emission (TE) transport was observed in the reverse I–V curves with a large excess leakage. From the calculation based on the thermionic-field emission (TFE) model, it was found that the tunneling plays an important role in the carrier transport across the GaN Schottky barrier even for doping densities as low as 1×10¹⁷ cm⁻³. A novel barrier-modified TFE model based on presence of near-surface fixed charges or surface states is proposed to explain the observed large reverse leakage currents.     

Incommensurability in an exactly-soluble quantal and classical model for a kicked rotator

The Hamiltonian H = 2πp + V(θ) Σ^∞_−∞ δ(t − n)(0 θ < 2π) is solved exactly, classically and quantally; the so lutions depend strongly on . There is no classical chaos and the phase cylinder p, θ is filled with invariant curves, which are finite loops around the cylinder if is sufficiently irrational and are translates of the infinitely long p axis if is rational. Quantal quasi-energy states correspond exactly to these invariant curves: localized in p and extended in θ if is sufficiently irrational, and extended in p and localized in θ if is rational. For a classical or quantal initial pure-momentum state, the energy at time t = n grows as n² if is rational (resonance) and remains bounded if is sufficiently irrational (non-resonance). If is very nearly rational (marginal resonance), the energy may grow as n^λ where λ is expressed in terms of exponents describing the irrationality of and the continuity class of V(θ). If the value of is uncertain, ensemble-averaging over shows that the energy grows ultimately as n, i.e. diffusively, as though under random impulses.     

Nonergodicity and dynamical approach to the anharmonic oscillator

General lower bounds for the time average C^AA(∞)≡lim_T→∞(1/T)∝^T₀ C^AA(t) dt of the correlation C^AA(t)≡A(t)A(0)−A² of an arbitrary variable A are derived, which depend only on the temperature derivatives of the canonical averages of A and the Hamiltonian of the system. The bounds may be used to give good estimations for C^AA(∞) which is different from zero when A is nonergodic. It is important to take care of these terms when dynamical theories made for interacting systems are applied to isolated systems. We show explicitely that our recently developed dynamical approach to phonon systems with quartic anharmonicity yields excellent results for the corresponding isolated system, the anharmonic single well oscillator, when nonvanishing time averages are taken into account.     

Phase transition from solid to liquid phase of vortex lattice in YBa2Cu3O7 thin films

We measured voltage V versus current I curves with a function of temperature T and magnetic field H for YBa₂Cu₃O₇ single-crystalline thin films. The characteristics of the pinning type was found to be changed with the change in T, in contradiction to Kramer's scaling law. Furthermore, we analyzed I–V curves in terms of the flux creep model proposed by Anderson and Kim. In low H region the product of flux bundle volume v_d and its jump distance l decreased with the increase of H, while in high H region the product increased rapidly with H, suggesting a rapid increased of interaction length between vortices. These results imply all evidence of an occurence of vortex liquid phase in the high H regime. We showed that the transition region between the above two regimes is located in the vicinity of H at which the critical current density begins to decrease rapidly with the increase of H.     

Electron transfer based voltage tunable two-color quantum-well infrared photodetectors

We present a detailed investigation of the temperature T dependence of photoresponse of voltage tunable two-color quantum-well infrared photodetectors (QWIPs) that are based on the transfer of electrons between coupled QWs under an applied bias V_b. For T40 K, the peak detection wavelength switches from 7.2 μm under positive bias to 8.6 μm under large negative bias as electrons are transferred from the right QW (RQW) to the left QW (LQW). For T50 K, the short wavelength peak is not only present for both bias polarities but also increases rapidly with T while the long wavelength peak decreases rapidly with T. We investigate this temperature dependence by extracting absorption coefficient and photoconductive gain g using corrugated QWIPs with different corrugation periods. The deduced absorption spectra indicate that the LQW population first increases and then decreases with increasing negative bias for T50 K. The deduced gain spectra show that short and long wavelength gain under negative bias exhibit a strong enhancement and reduction, respectively, with T above 50 K. We show that both these temperature dependences are caused by large thermal currents from the LQWs, which are designed for long wavelength detection and, therefore, have a significantly lower activation energy than the RQWs.     

Ising spin glass on a D = 3 hierarchical lattice: Effects of tailed coupling distributions

Within a real-space renormalization-group framework, we approach the cubic lattice through a D = 3 diamond-like hierarchical lattice. The model is a standard, nearest-neighbor, Ising spin glass with coupling constants {J_ij} distributed according to the family of continuous probability distributions P_q(J_ij) ∝ 1/[1 + (q − 1)J_ij²/2J²]^{1/(q − 1)} (if 1 + (q − 1) J_ij²/2J² > 0, and zero otherwise; q ). Such distributions, which arise naturally in the treatment, within the recently proposed nonextensive thermostatistics, of anomalous diffusion, reproduce the usual, Gaussian case, for q → 1. Moreover, they present a second moment J_ij² proportional to (5 − 3q)⁻¹ for q < 5/3, diverging for q ≥ 5/3, but keeping a finite width at midheight. In the limit q → 3, P_q(J_ij) collapses with the abscissa, and so the width at midheight diverges. We compute the q-dependence of the spin-glass critical temperature T_c. We show numerically that T_c does not scale with J_ij^21/2 (contrary to the usual belief), but rather with the width at midheight of P_q(J_ij). Our results suggest that T_c vanishes as −1/q when q → −∞; furthermore, we verified that T_c diverges exponentially when q approaches 3 from below.     

Quantum bound states with zero binding energy

After reviewing the general properties of zero-energy quantum states, we give the explicit solutions of the Schrödinger equation with E = 0 for the class of potentials V = −|γ|/r^ν, where −∞ < ν < ∞. For ν > 2, these solutions are normalizable and correspond to bound states, if the angular momentum quantum number l > 0. (These states are normalizable, even for l = 0, if we increase the space dimension, D, beyond 4; i.e for D > 4.) For ν < −2 the above solutions, although unbound, are normalizable. This is true even though the corresponding potentials are repulsive for all r. We discuss the physics of these unusual effects.     

Field-induced parameters of re-entrant magnets and concentrated spin glasses

We have used electron spin resonance measurements to derive the temperature and frequency dependences of the field-induced magnetization [M(T, f)] and anisotropy field [H_an (T)] in a number of amorphous alloys belonging to the series (Fe_pNi_1−p)₇₅P₁₆B₆Al₃. In re-entrant (p > p_c, the critical concentration for ferromagnetism) alloys at hi gh frequencies (f = 35 GHz, field ≈ 12 kOe) M reduces as T^3/2 at high T and as T below ≈ 40 K, the deviation from T^3/2 becoming more marked as p → p⁺_c. For p close to p_c, lowering the frequency first causes the T term to increase and ultimately ( ≈ 4 GHz) changes the variation of M with T to that discovered previously for concentrated spin glasses, namely M is constant at low T and drops linearly at high temperatures. For the re-entrants, the results are interpreted on the basis of a model which invokes an energy gap in the spin-wave spectrum, introduces a non-zero density of states of the gap energy and takes into consideration a low-q cut-off in the spin-wave integral in thelow-T (T) regime.In the concentrated spin glasses [M (0) - M (T)]/ M (0) is well represented by the function [exp (Δ / T) - 1]^-1, where Δ has values close to the corresponding Curie-Weiss temperatures θ_p but much larger than the respective spin glass transition temperatures T_SG. The temperature dependence of H_an is largely given by the function (1 - T/T^*), where T^* is equal to the zero-field freezing temperature for the re-entrants and T_SG for the spin glasses, respectively.     

Thermal transport in the oxygenated magnetic superconductor, Eu1.5Ce0.5RuSr2Cu2O10+δ

The thermal conductivity and thermopower are reported for a hole doped Eu_1.5Ce_0.5RuSr₂Cu₂O_10+δ sample that has been annealed at 1100 K under an oxygen pressure of 54 atm. At T_c=45 K superconductivity and weak ferromagnetism coexist (T_m=180 K). Weak features in the thermopower, S(T), and thermal conductivity, κ(T), are observed both at T_m and at T^*=140 K. The thermopower begins to decrease sharply toward zero at T_c, and there is an extremely sharp increase of about 30% in the thermal conductivity at T_c. This “first order” transition may be related to the sudden appearance of a spontaneous vortex phase at T_c. A small shoulder is observed in κ(T) in the temperature range T=5–13 K.     

Crossover from thermally activated flux creep to quantum tunneling of vortices in a YBa2Cu3O7−x film

We present the results of a study of flux creep in a ring-shaped epitaxial superconducting YBa₂Cu₃O_7−x film at low temperatures. Measurements between 2 and 20 K have been made and it is confirmed that the flux creep is a thermally activated process at temperatures exceeding 10 K. The low-temperature data are analyzed by assuming a crossover to quantum tunneling of the vortex lines. Using the fact that the critical current in our sample is almost independent of temperature below 20 K, we establish the temperature dependence of the Euclidian action S directly from the experimental data without any a priori assumptions. Our results imply that at temperatures below 8.5 K S(T)=S(0)(1−T²/T_qc²), with approximately the same value of T_qc≈15 K for the case of the remnant magnetization as well as in an external magnetic field of 1 kOe.     

Direct measurement of electron transport features in cytochrome c via V–I characteristics of STM currents

The morphology of and electron tunneling through single and cluster cytochrome c molecules deposited on self-assembled dodecanthiol monolayer film on a gold substrate have been studied experimentally using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and scanning tunneling spectroscopy. STM images of a single cytochrome c molecule revealed a globular structure with a diameter of 4 nm and height of 1.5 nm. A spectroscopic study obtained by recording tunneling current–bias voltage (V–I) curves revealed that the STM current increases stepwise at asymmetric threshold sample bias voltages of +100 mV and –200 mV.     

Observing quantum tunneling in perturbation series

We apply Borel resummation to the conventional perturbation series of ground state energy in a metastable potential, V(x) = x²/2 − gx⁴/4. We observe numerically that the discontinuity of the Borel transform reproduces the imaginary part of the energy eigenvalue, i.e., the total decay width due to quantum tunneling. The agreement with the exact numerical value is remarkable in the whole tunneling regime 0 < g 0.7.