Transport phenomena in spin caloritronics

The interconversion between spin, charge, and heat currents is being actively studied from the viewpoints of both fundamental physics and thermoelectric applications in the field of spin caloritronics. This field is a branch of spintronics, which has developed rapidly since the discovery of the thermo-spin conversion phenomenon called the spin Seebeck effect. In spin caloritronics, various thermo-spin conversion phenomena and principles have subsequently been discovered and magneto-thermoelectric effects, thermoelectric effects unique to magnetic materials, have received renewed attention with the advances in physical understanding and thermal/thermoelectric measurement techniques. However, the existence of various thermo-spin and magneto-thermoelectric conversion phenomena with similar names may confuse non-specialists. Thus, in this Review, the basic behaviors, spin-charge-heat current conversion symmetries, and functionalities of spin-caloritronic phenomena are summarized, which will help new entrants to learn fundamental physics, materials science, and application studies in spin caloritronics.     

Transport phenomena in metal nanocomposites

Ferromagnetic nanocomposites are the special case of metal composites; they are of practical interest for spintronics. Temperature dependences of resistivity ρ(T) and thermoelectric power α(T) of ferromagnetic nanocomposites with the composition Co _x (Al₂O₃)_{100 ? x} (36.6 ≤ x ≤ 52.5 at %) are investigated near the percolation threshold (x _p ≈ 43.3 at %) in a temperature range of 77–300 K. Sizes of Co nanoparticles are no larger than 25 nm. Specific features are observed in the dependences α(T) in the form of a kink at T _b ≈ 170 K. The analysis of the structural and electrical schematics as well as energy diagrams of percolation channels of electrons shows that only the diffusion thermoelectric power appears in Co nanoparticles, at which α(T) is the linear function. No mechanisms of the thermoelectric power caused by nanosizes of Co particles or by electron tunneling between them are found. The kink of the α(T) linear dependence is explained by the existence of the oxide shell of Co nanoparticles. It is assumed that the temperature dependences of energy barriers of oxide shells of metal nanoparticles (including ferromagnetic ones) in oxygen-containing dielectric matrices determine the features of α(T) and ρ(T) dependences of such nanocomposites.     

Transport phenomena in multi-nucleon transfer reactions

Transport phenomena are shown to be present in multi-nucleon transfer reactions. Fokker-Planck equations are derived from a master equation and successfully applied to the element and energy distributions of ⁴⁰Ar + ²³²Th. Transport coefficients are extracted from the cross-sections.     

量子气体中的输运行为

输运测量是了解物质性质的一个重要手段.本文简单介绍最近在量子气体中实现的输运实验及其主要结论,包括在类似于介观物理器件中的Landauer输运和强相互作用费米气体中的自旋输运行为.我们着重讨论自旋动力学的特殊性以及其由于全同粒子相互作用所导致的特殊自旋扩散流的形式.     

Transport phenomena at metal surfaces

Previous theoretical treatments of the scattering of conduction electrons at surfaces are reviewed and it is found that a more complete theory is necessary if the effects of surface scattering in transport phenomena are to be adequately understood. The boundary condition for the distribution function is derived and analysed in terms of the angle-dependent scattering probability. The skin effect, cyclotron resonance and the resistance of thin films and wires are considered in detail.     

Transport phenomena in a weak shock wave

The Boltzmann equation is solved for a weak shock wave to find the first correction in M - 1 to the Mott-Smith bimodal distribution function. The effective values of viscosity and thermal conductivity in the limit M→1 are calculated and found to agree exactly with the Chapman-Enskog values. The closure-independent result is strikingly different from the known properties of various bimodal theories that may give exact values of thermal conductivity or viscosity, but always 33% too high a value of their ratio.     

Transport phenomena in a plane shock wave

With the use of the nonpolynomial closure 1/ _z in the Mott-Smith approximation of the solution of the Boltzmann equation, we obtain a value of the density gradient in the limit of a very weak shock wave that is close to the correct value. For the determination of the transverse temperature gradient we calculated the _x ² / _z moment of the Mott-Smith collision integral. The effective values of viscosity and thermal conductivity in the limit of a very weak shock wave were calculated for inverse-power potentials and found to agree almost exactly with the Chapman-Enskog values. Such a comparison can serve as a criterion for the evaluation of different bimodal theories. Various bimodal theories give different values of viscosity and thermal conductivity, but all of them give 33 % too high a value of the Eucken ratio.     

Chirotropical phenomena in biological fluids and their homochiral models

The strong and non-monotonous dependence of chirotropical properties of biological fluids and their homochiral models on the concentration of chiral substance was found, which is associated with the formation of complex, supramolecular structures that consecutively replace each other, viz., molecular associations and strings, and with an increase in the magnitude of the delocalization of the excited electron states of chromophore groups. The rule of consistent change in the sign of chirality was formulated upon the formation of chiral phases, which replace each other.     

X-Ray waveguiding studies of ordering phenomena in confined fluids

We have determined the structure of a colloidal fluid confined in a gap between two walls by making use of the waveguiding properties of the gap at x-ray wavelengths. The method is based on an analysis of the coupling of waveguide modes induced by the density variations in the confined fluid. Studies on suspensions confined within gaps of a few hundred nanometers showed strongly selective mode coupling effects, indicative of an ordering of the colloidal particles in layers parallel to the confining walls.     

Transport phenomena in a partially lonized Lorentzian magnetoplasma

Some transport coefficients are evaluated for a homogeneous, partially ionized Lorentzian plasma in the presence of a uniform external magnetic field. The electronion collisions are taken into account by means of the modified Fokker-Planck equation and the electron-neutral collision frequency, ν_en is taken as velocity (ω) dependent or velocity independent, depending on the energy range under consideration. The variation of the transport coefficients with magnetic field is determined for ν_en ∝ ω^s (s being a positive or negative integer) and one finds that qualitatively this behavior does not change by changing either the collision frequency or the velocity dependence of the collision frequency; however for weak magnetic fields the magnitudes of these transport coefficients increase with the decrease in ν_en or s, whereas for strong magnetic fields the transverse components of the transport coefficients decrease and the Hall components tend to saturate with the decrease of either the collision frequency or s.     

Transport phenomena in nondegenerate semiconductors considering electron-electron scattering

Hall mobility and other transport properties of the electrons inn-type of semiconductors have been investigated when a magnetic field is applied, taking into account electron-electron scattering. Results have been presented for different impurity densities.     

Transport coefficients of hard sphere fluids

New calculations have been made of the self-diffusion coefficient D, the shear viscosity η_s, the bulk viscosity η_b and thermal conductivity λ of the hard sphere fluid, using molecular dynamics (MD) computer simulation. A newly developed hard sphere MD scheme was used to model the hard sphere fluid over a wide range up to the glass transition (～0.57 packing fraction). System sizes of up to 32 000 hard spheres were considered. This set of transport coefficient data was combined with others taken from the literature to test a number of previously proposed analytical formulae for these quantities together with some new ones given here. Only the self-diffusion coefficient showed any substantial N dependence for N < 500 at equilibrium fluid densities (ε 0.494). D increased with N, especially at intermediate densities in the range ε ～ 0.3–0.35. The expression for the packing fraction dependence of D proposed by Speedy, R. J., 1987, Molec. Phys., 62, 509 was shown to fit these data well for N ～ 500 particle systems. We found that the packing fraction ε dependence of the two viscosities and thermal conductivity, generically denoted by X, were represented well by the simple formula X/X ₀ = 1/[1 ? (ε/ε₁)]^m within the equilibrium fluid range 0 > ε > 0.493. This formula has two disposable parameters, ε and m, and X ₀ is the value of the property X in the limit of zero density. This expression has the same form as the Krieger-Dougherty formula (Kreiger, I. M., 1972, Adv. Colloid. Interface Sci., 3, 111) which is used widely in the colloid literature to represent the packing fraction dependence of the Newtonian shear viscosity of monodisperse colloidal near-hard spheres. Of course, in the present case, X _o was the dilute gas transport coefficient of the pure liquid rather than the solvent viscosity. It was not possible to fit the transport coefficient normalized by their Enskog values with such a simple expression because these ratios are typically of order unity until quite high packing fractions and then diverge rapidly at higher values over a relatively narrow density range. At the maximum equilibrium fluid packing fraction ε = 0.494 for both the hard sphere fluid and the corresponding colloidal case a very similar value was found for η_s/η_o ?30–40, suggesting that the ‘crowding’ effects and their consequences for the dynamics in this region of the phase diagram in the two types of liquid have much in common. For the hard sphere by MD, D_o/D ～ 11 at the same packing fraction, possibly indicating the contribution from ‘hydrodynamic enhancement’ of this transport coefficient, which is largely absent for the shear viscosity. Interestingly the comparable ratio for hard sphere colloids is the same.     

Acoustically coupled gas bubbles in fluids: time-domain phenomena.

In previous work [C. Feuillade, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 98, 1178-1190 (1995)] a coupled oscillator formalism was introduced for describing collective resonances, scattering, and superresonances, of multiple gas bubbles in a fluid. Subsequently, time-domain investigations of the impulse response of coupled systems have disclosed the exact conditions which determine whether the ensemble scattering behavior should be described using: either (a), a multiple scattering; or (b), a self-consistent methodology. The determining factor is the Q of the individual scatterers, and their typical spatial separations in the medium. For highly damped or sparse systems, e.g., scattering from loose schools of swimbladder fish, or from a gassy seabed containing entrained bubbles, the multiple scatter counting approach should be applicable. For more strongly coupled systems, e.g., a dense cloud of resonating bubbles in the water column, energy exchange may be due primarily to radiative cycling rather than scattering, in which case a self-consistent approach is indicated. The result has implications for both volume and bottom scattering applications.     

Transport phenomena in superionic solids: Master equation approach

A first-principles derivation of the master equation is systematically given based on Kikuchi's ansatz, which is then applied to non-interacting (ideal) and interacting lattice–gas systems. The former application to an anomalous diffusion, observed by MD simulation of β-AgI, makes its mechanism clear in terms of relaxation modes such that the anomalous diffusion is due to non-diffusive (collective) modes. It is also shown in random systems that anomalous frequency-dependent conductivities, made up of Jonscher and nearly constant loss regimes, are reduced to a single master curve. The case of interacting lattice–gas system is discussed on the ab-plane of Rb₃H(SeO₄)₂ by a pair approximation of the path probability method, where a spontaneous strain involved in the ferroelastic phase turns out to be a proton-trapped state originated in an attractive strain energy mediated by a proton–displacement interaction, and the transition to superprotonic phase is due to an off-trapping of protons. This mechanism is confirmed by no phase transition without the attractive strain energy.     

Computer simulations of critical phenomena and phase behaviour of fluids

Computer simulation techniques such as Monte Carlo (MC) and Molecular Dynamics (MD) methods yield numerically exact information (apart from statistical errors) on model systems of classical statistical mechanics. However, a systematic limitation is the restriction to a finite (and often rather small) particle number N (or box linear dimension L, respectively). This limitation is particularly restrictive near critical points (due to the divergence of the correlation length of the order parameter) and for the study of phase equilibria (possibly involving interfaces, droplets, etc.). Starting out with simple lattice gas (Ising) models, finite size scaling analyses have been developed to overcome this limitation. These techniques work for both simple Lennard-Jones fluids and their mixtures, including generalizations to approximate models for quadrupolar fluids such as carbon dioxide, benzene etc. and various mixtures, whose phase behaviour can be predicted. A combination of MC and MD allows the study of dynamic critical phenomena, and specialised techniques (umbrella sampling plus thermodynamic integration) yield the surface free energy of droplets as function of droplet size. Thus, computer simulation has become a versatile and widely applicable tool for the study of fluids.     

Transport phenomena of SmSe1−x As x

Results are presented on the measurements of unit cell parameter and electrical resistivity under pressure on SmSe_1−x As _x forx=0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 0.4. The electrical resistivity values are found to be decreasing with increase of pressure and also with increase of arsenic concentration. The semiconductor to metallic transition is induced by chemical alloying of SmSe with SmAs similar to that observed under pressure. The electrical resistivity values are also calculated which are in good agreement with the experimental values. In this calculation, the carrier mobility is of negative sign and so the sample SmSe_1−x As _x is found to ben-type semiconductor.