Non-uniqueness of the heat-current operator and the hopping thermoelectric and thermomagnetic phenomena

The Hardy's corrections to the Maradudin's lattice part of the total heat current operator are shown to yield no corrections to the hopping thermoelectric coefficients of amorphous solids and glasses in the lowest (minus-first) order of the electron phonon coupling constant. But even after including the magnetic field (0, 0,), the lowest non-zero (zeroth order) contributions to the Peltier and Seebeck tensors are shown to be diagonal, yielding thus no contribution to the Nernst and Ettingshaussen coefficients. Therefore, the Hardy corrections, which might yield the next (first) order contributions to these coefficients, appear to be crucial for treating the thermomagnetic phenomena in amorphous and glassy materials.     

Quantum transport in dynamically disordered continuum tight binding systems

We consider the continuum limit of three distinct models describing tightly bound electron systems in one dimension. The first model is the usual tight binding hamiltonian for monatomic lattices with nearest-neighbour hopping between sites. The second model describes a two-subband tight binding system involving two different atoms per unit cell. Finally, the third model represents a monatomic system with two energy levels per atomic site and different nearest-neighbour hopping parameters for hopping between equivalent and non-equivalent levels. The continuum limits of these models result in field-theoretic hamiltonians showing similarities with the Dirac hamiltonian. Assuming the different types of site energies to be dynamically disordered with gaussian whitenoise spectra, we calculate exactly the quantum mechanical mean square displacement <x ²(t)>. Due to the use of Novikov's theorem for the evaluation of configuration averages our analysis for the two-band models is restricted to the degenerate case, where the average positions of the two types of atomic levels coincide. Fort we find coherent motion, <x ²(t)>t ², for the one-band model and disorder induced diffusive contributions for the two-band models. However, for the two-level atomic model the diffusive term is dominated by at ²-term describing coherent hopping between equivalent levels. These findings are discussed in relation to previous results for both discrete and continuum models.     

Dielectric relaxation and AC conduction of an AgTlSe2 semiconductor in the solid and liquid states

Measurements of the dielectric properties of AgTlSe₂ in the solid and liquid states were carried out in a wide range of frequencies and temperatures. The material displayed dielectric dispersion, and a loss peak was observed. Cole-Cole diagrams have been used to determine the distribution parameter (a) and the molecular relaxation time (). The process of dielectric relaxation (loss) and ac conduction was attributed to the correlated barrier hopping model suggested by Elliott for amorphous solids, where two carriers simultaneously hop over a barrier between charged defectD ⁺ andD ^– states.     

Structure and electrophysical properties of a lead iron niobate-based amorphous material

An amorphous material based on lead iron niobate (PFN) is studied by X-ray diffraction and dielectric and Mössbauer measurements over a wide temperature range. The atomic structure of amorphous PFN is found to be substantially disordered, which suppresses the transitions into ordered states in the electric and magnetic dipole subsystems that are inherent in crystalline PFN. The dependence of electrical conductivity σ on field frequency ω is shown to correspond to the law σ ～ ω ^s , where parameter s decreases linearly with increasing temperature. This law corresponds to a hopping carrier transfer mechanism that is correlated due to the Coulomb interaction.     

Hall effect in heterogeneous Fe-Ni vacuum condensates

The temperature dependence of the electric conductivity and the Hall and Nernst-Ettinghausen effects of amorphous and microcrystalline Fe-Ni films obtained by ion-plasma sputtering, with a content of technological impurities of about 3 at. %, was studied for the first time. The relationship R_a(T) a²(T), was found between the anomalous Hall constant R_a and . R_a was found to be more sensitive to peculiarities of the complex transformation amorphous, microheterogeneous-crystalline state.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 9, pp. 29–33, September, 1990.     

The emission of neutral clusters in sputtering

The mass, angle, and energy resolved emission of neutral clusters in sputtering was studied for a variety of metals and semiconductors. The main phenomena and results are the following: (i) Cluster emission from a series of transition metals reveals a prominent contribution of clusters to the total flux of ejected particles but there is no simple scaling of cluster intensities with the average sputtering yields. With increasing number of constituents, relative intensities of neutral clusters decrease much faster than those of secondary-ion clusters. (ii) The relative intensities of clusters emitted from amorphous and crystalline semiconductors are identical, but the energy spectra of Ge _n -clusters (n = 1–4) sputtered from Ge (111) peak at a slightly higher energy (1 eV) as compared to spectra taken from amorphous Ge. The intensities of all Ge _n -clusters exhibit the same dependence on emission angle; this holds for both the amorphous and crystalline Ge-sample. (iii) The flux of neutral monomers, dimers, and trimers sputtered from Cu(111), Ni(111), and Ag(111) crystals shows a pronouncedly anisotropic emission along the 110 lattice directions which is ascribed to a momentum alignment in the anisotropic part of the collision cascade. Energy spectra taken along 110 peak at higher energies than those obtained from a random emission angle.     

Amorphous echo

Recently, the amorphous state of matter, which can be regarded as an excited state in relation to the crystalline state, has become of interest. This state is formed from the liquid state by certain rapid cooling techniques, and thus manifests a wide spectrum of controllable structural modifications and physical parameters. It may be said that just like a liquid, an amorphous solid consists of a collection of defects with a certain characteristic viscosity. According to [1], the defect nature of amorphous solids as compared to crystals manifests itself by at least two methods: a) rapid cooling leads to identical groups of atoms being able to occupy slightly differing energy positions in the amorphous matrix in the absence of any extraneous impurities; b) divergence in potential energy of identical atomic groups is produced by extraneous impurites. In [1] it was established that a type a) system has strong quasispin-phonon interaction, while type b) systems do not affect attenuation of sound, but both produce a contribution to heat capacity at low temperature (10^–2–10°K).Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 69–75, July, 1977.     

Superconductor-insulator transition tuned by annealing in Bi-film on top of Co-clusters

We deposited amorphous Bi films with a thickness between 3 and 6.5 nm at 4.2 K on top of previously deposited Co clusters having a mean size of ～4.5 nm. The Co cluster layers thickness was between 2.3 and 5 nm. In-situ electrical transport measurements were performed between 2 and 100 K. Measurements on as-prepared samples having a Bi layer thickness of 3.0 nm show hopping (tunneling) conductivity as σ(T) = σ ₀ exp[?(T ₀/T)^1/2] above the superconducting transition temperature T _C and re-entrance behavior again with hopping (tunneling) conductivity below T _C . Annealing of films having a Bi layer thickness of 5.5 nm results in a decrease of resistivity, with variable-range hopping conduction behavior as σ(T) = σ ₀ exp[?(T ₀/T)^1/3 ]. Quite different are the findings for films having a Bi layer thickness of 6.5 nm: annealing of these films results in a power-law behavior as σ(T) = σ ₀ T ^α with α = 2/3, indicating that these films are close to a quantum critical point separating superconducting and insulating phases. A phase diagram including all experimental observations is proposed.     

X-ray spectral and diffraction studies of germanides of iron-group metals in the amorphous and crystalline states

This article examines results of x-ray emission spectroscopy and x-ray diffractometry of amorphous and crystalline layers of certain germanides of iron-group transition metals. Combined analysis of the K- and L-bands of Me and Ge in Me₂ (Fe, Co, Ni)Ge and data from model interpretation of radial distribution functions of atoms in amorphous layers are used to make conclusions on the character of the chemical bond and the structure of the short-range order in the materials studied. It was established that there is no significant change in the character of the chemical bond in germanides Me₂(Fe, Co, Ni)Ge in the transition from the crystalline to the amorphous state. It was also found that short-range order in the investigated amorphous layers can be described by a complex poly-structural atom distribution, i.e. it is characterized by a complex, microscopically nonuniform model of the type Me₂Ge+Me.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 1, pp. 39–43, January, 1986.     

Observation of variable range hopping at “natural” phonon frequencies

Hill's analysis of hopping conductivity data has been applied to ion-bombarded amorphous-silicon samples. The apparent hopping conductivity parameters derived from a standardT ^–0.25 plot undergo changes by several orders of magnitude when plotted with the exact scaling of the abscissa. A typical example is characterized by a temperature dependence ofdc conductivity according to= ₀ exp (—(T ₀/T) ^m ), withm=0.45,T ₀ =6.410⁴K and ₀=6.610^{1 –1} cm^–1. From ₀ a phonon frequency of about 3–1510¹² s^–1 is derived.     

Hubbard-like models in high spatial dimensions

The present paper studies the properties of Hubbard-like models in high spatial dimensionsD. In a first par the limit of infinite dimension and its main features-i.e.i) the mapping onto a generalized atomic model with an additional auxiliary field andii) the validity of the local approximation for the self-energy-are worked out in a systematic (1/D)-expansion. Since the hopping matrix elements have to be properly scaled with the dimensionD, the (1/D)-expansion is also an expansion in the hopping amplitude. Thus for small hopping theD-limit may serve as a proper approximation for finite-dimensional systems. The second part of the paper adopts the hybridisation-perturbation theory of the single impurity Anderson model in order to construct a perturbation theory for the auxiliary field of the generalized atom which can also be interpreted as an expansion in the hopping amplitude. The non-crossing approximation (NCA) is used to study the antiferromagnetic phase transtion of theD-Hubbard model in the case of half filling: the critical temperature, the antiferromagnetic order parameter and the free energy of the lattice system are calculated. The NCA-results are in quite good agreement with recent results from the imaginary-time discretisation method.     

Stability of (Fe-Tm-B) amorphous alloys: relaxation and crystallization phenomena

Fe-Tm-B base (TM=transition metal) amorphous alloys (metallic glasses) are thermodynamically metastable. This limits their use as otherwise favourable materials, e.g. magnetically soft, corrosion resistant and mechanically firm. By analogy of the mechanical strain-stress dependence, at a certain degree of thermal activation the amorphous structure reaches its limiting state where it changes its character and physical properties. Relaxation and early crystallization processes in amorphous alloys, starting already around 100°C, are reviewed involving subsequently stress relief, free volume shrinking, topological and chemical ordering, pre-crystallization phenomena up to partial (primary) crystallization. Two diametrically different examples are demonstrated from among the soft magnetic materials: relaxation and early crystallization processes in the Fe-Co-B metallic glasses and controlled crystallization of amorphous ribbons yielding rather modern nanocrystalline Finemet alloys where late relaxation and pre-crystallization phenomena overlap when forming extremely dispersive and fine-grained nanocrystals-in-amorphous-sauce structure. Mössbauer spectroscopy seems to be unique for magnetic and phase analysis of such complicated systems.     

Infrared detection of crystalline forms of polyvinylidene fluoride

Two crystalline forms ( and) are demonstrated; the form goes over to the form above 200°C. The IR intensities of both forms are examined as functions of temperature; the crystalline and amorphous bands are identified, together with the melting points of both crystalline forms. The degree of crystallinity of the and forms can be deduced from the amorphous bands.I am indebted to V. N. Nikitin and N. A. Borisevich for their interest in this work.     

Magnetocaloric properties of amorphous GdNiAl obtained by mechanical grinding

An amorphous GdNiAl sample was prepared by mechanical grinding performed on a crystallised intermetallic. The treatment changes greatly the ferromagnetic behaviour of this compound; its Curie temperature decreases from 57 K (unmilled sample) to 29 K (milled sample). Specific heat and magnetisation measurements reveal that amorphous GdNiAl exhibits an interesting magnetocaloric effect; for an applied magnetic field of 5 T a change of 8.9 J/kgK is observed at 36 K for the isothermal magnetic entropy. PACS 75.30.Sg; 65.40.+g; 75.50.Kj     

Distribution for fermionic discrete lattice gas within the canonical ensemble

The distinct deviations from the Fermi-Dirac statistics ascertained recently at low temperatures for a one-dimensional, spinless fermionic discrete lattice gas with conserved number of noninteracting particles hopping on the non-degenerated, well-separated single-particle energy levels are studied in numerical and theoretical terms. The generalized distribution is derived in the formn(h)={Y _h exp [(_h–)]+1{su–1 valid even in the thermodynamic limit, when the discreteness of the energy levels is kept. This distribution demonstrates good agreement with the data obtained numerically both by the canonical partition function technique and by Monte Carlo simulation.     

Evidence for a new Hume-Rothery phase with an amorphous structure

It will be shown that binary amorphous alloys with a noble metal and a polyvalent non-transition element, as constituents, can be described essentially as a Hume-Rothery phase. Some structural as well as transport properties depend on , the average number of the conduction electrons per atom. A strong similarity between the amorphous and the corresponding liquid alloys was found. Alloys of the type mentioned can exist in a homogeneous amorphous phase within a concentration range which is limited on the noble-metal rich side by =1.8 and on the other side by about 20 at% noble-metal content. The influence of the conduction electrons, manifested in the Friedel oscillations of the effective pair potentials, is responsible for structural and electronic transport properties. For amorphous and liquid alloys with =1.8 it is interesting to note thatk _pe , the wave number at which the maximum in the structure factor occurs, is equal to 2k _F , the diameter of the Fermi sphere. As far as we have determined, all amorphous alloys with =1.8 containing the same noble metal have the same crystallization temperature and the same Hall coefficient independent of the polyvalent element. The individual influence of the polyvalent constituents can only be seen with increasing .     

On the variation of hopping transport in amorphous silicon with preparation conditions

Thedc conductivity of amorphous silicon prepared by two successive ion bombardments at different temperatures has been measured as a function of temperature. The results may be expressed in terms of a generalized hopping formula =₀ exp [–(T ₀/T) ⁿ where the parameter set {n,T ₀, ₀} varies with the irradiation conditions. In particular, the hopping exponent has been found to assume the limiting values ofn1/4 at irradiation temperatures ofT _i100 K and ofn1/2 atT _i500 K, whereas intermediate values ofn have been observed for temperatures inbetween. It is concluded that thermally activated redistribution processes of radiation defects control the final state of disorder in the irradiated samples, which in turn determines the particular hopping characteristics. Within the framework of existing theories the two limiting cases can be explained to be due to a disordered solid of homogeneous and granular structure, respectively.     

Ultraviolet-laser-induced permanent electrical conductivity in polyimide

When polyimide (Kapton) is irradiated by a krypton fluoride (KrF) laser, an increase of the electrical conductivity of up to 16 orders of magnitude is observed. In the high conduction regime, the resistivity is about 0.1 cm, the current voltage characteristic is ohmic and the contacts of gold and silver with the irradiated conducting polymer are also ohmic. The conduction mechanism is phonon-assisted variable range hopping, evident from the observed temperature and electric field dependence of the resistivity at low conductivities. The laser-induced conductivity depends on the ambient atmosphere during irradiation. Transmission spectroscopy in the visible region and infrared Fourier transform spectroscopy have been used to characterize the material. A thermal mechanism is proposed for the formation of conducting polyimide, by excimer-laser irradiation.