Spin-orbital pattern dependent polaron absorption in manganites

We systematically investigated optical properties of Nd1-xSrxMnO3 single crystals ( x = 0.40, 0.50, 0.55, and 0.65). They are similar in their spin-orbital (SO) disordered states at room temperature. At low temperature, the crystals enter into various SO ordered states, i.e., F-, CE-, A-, and C-type orderings, and their mid-infrared absorptions become quite different. The remarkable variation can be explained by polaron dynamics which depend on the ordering patterns. This SO pattern dependent polaron model can also explain the pseudo CE-type ordering case, demonstrating that this scheme can explain the carrier dynamics in complex SO configurations.     

Fragile magnetic ground state in half-doped LaSr2Mn2O7

We investigated the orbital and antiferromagnetic ordering behaviors of the half-doped bilayer manganite La(2-2x)Sr(1+2x)Mn2O7 (x ? 0.5) by using Mn L(2,3)-edge resonant soft x-ray scattering. Resonant soft x-ray scattering reveals the CE-type orbital order below T(oo) ? 220 K, which shows partial melting behavior below T(m) ? 165 K. We also found coexistence CE- and A-type antiferromagnetic orders. Both orders involve the CE-type orbital order with nearly the same orbital character and are coupled with each other. These results manifest that the ground state with the CE-type antiferromagnetic order is easily susceptible to destabilization into the A-type one even with a small fluctuation of the doping level, as suggested by the extremely narrow magnetic phase boundaries at x ? 0.5±0.005.     

Experimental evidence of coupling interaction between charge ordering and spin ordering

In order to experimentally probe into the complicated interaction between charge ordering and spin ordering in manganites,two sets of samples Nd0.5Sr0.5Mn1-xGaxO3(NSMGO) and Nd 0.5Sr0.5Mn1-y CryO3(NSMCO)(0.0 x,y 0.075),have been studied by means of electrical transport,magnetization,electron spin resonance and transmission electron microscopy analysis.By comparing the influence of Cr-doping and Ga-doping in the Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3(NSMO) system,large difference between the evolution of charge ordering temperature T co in the Cr-doping and the Ga-doping cases is found.In the NSMCO system,the CE-type antiferromagnetic(AFM)/charge ordering(CO) phase disappears with only 2.5 percent Cr doping;but in the NSMGO system,the CE-type AFM/CO phase always exists.This phenomenon indicates that the charge ordering formation is dominated by the spin ordering.As a result,it is experimentally proved that there is strong coupling interaction between charge ordering and spin ordering in NSMO system.     

Nd0.5Ca0.5Mn1-xAlxO3 (x=0,0.03)体系中电荷有序态的超声研究

系统研究了Nd0．5Ca0．5Mn1-xAlxO3(x=0,0．03)单相多晶样品在低温下的电磁性质和超声特性．电阻和磁化率测量表明,Nd0．5Ca0.5O3体系在TCO-257 K处发生了电荷有序相变．超声声速从室温开始随着温度的降低逐渐减小,并在TCO附近达到最小,之后,随着温度的进一步降低,声速急刷增加,同时伴随着一个尖锐的超声衰减峰出现.TCO附近的超声异常表明体系中存在着强烈的电-声子相互作用,该电-声子耦合来源于Mn3 的Jahn-Teller效应．在低温下,出现了另一个超声衰减峰,它的出现归结为反铁磁相与顺磁相之间的相分离现象.随着Al在Mn位的掺入,超声声速的最低点和衰减峰向低温移动,表明体系中的电荷有序态和反铁磁相均被部分抑制,     

A new interpretation of the CO state in half-doped manganites: new results from neutron diffraction and synchrotron radiation experiments

In the R_1−xD_xMnO₃ (x0.5) manganites, the structural phase transition at T_CO is commonly interpreted as a concomitant charge and orbital ordering (CO/OO) process driven by a co-operative Jahn–Teller effect and Coulomb repulsion forces. The low-temperature phase is supposed to contain well-separated and ordered Mn³⁺ and Mn⁴⁺ ionic species in an NaCl-like pattern. Structure refinement, from a neutron diffraction experiment below T_CO on a Pr_0.6Ca_0.4MnO₃ single crystal, gives us a model for the displacement of atoms with respect to the high-temperature phase that invalidates the standard model based in the CO/OO picture. Our result is a non-centrosymmetric crystal structure with two non-equivalent MnO₆ octahedra, both being slightly elongated but displaying very similar average Mn–O distances (1.96 and 1.95 Å, respectively) and having off-centered Mn atoms. We argue that this is a proof of the absence of charge ordering in half-doped manganites in the sense of formation of separated Mn³⁺ and Mn⁴⁺ ionic species. A new qualitative interpretation of the CE-type spin ordering (SO) is proposed. The so-called CO transition is, in fact, a structural transition induced by the change in the mean free path of electrons that continue to be thermally activated below T_CO by forming ferromagnetic Mn–Mn pairs stabilized by a local double-exchange process. The CE SO pattern results from the ordering of these pairs formed at T_CO. High-resolution synchrotron powder diffraction shows a complex anisotropic/asymmetric strains appearing at the transition that can be phenomenologically fitted by additional phases. Complementary electron diffraction and microscopy have shown no trace of macroscopic phase separation.     

Influence of the magnetic and structural heterogeneities on the thermopower,magnetothermpower, and spontaneous generation of electric voltage in the manganite Sm0.55Sr0.45MnO3

The thermopower α and magnetothermopower Δα/α have been studied on single-crystal Sm_0.55Sr_0.45MnO₃ samples consisting of three types of magnetic clusters (ferromagnetic clusters with the Curie temperature T _C = 134 K, the A-type antiferromagnetic clusters with the Néel temperature T _NA ≥ T _C, and the CE-type antiferromagnetic clusters with T _NCE = 240 K). The temperature dependences of α and Δα/α have extremes in the vicinity of T _NCE, namely, a wide maximum in curve α(T) and a sharp minimum in curve{Δα/α}(T). The negative magnetothermopower in the minimum has a giant value of 50% in the magnetic field of 13.2 kOe. The thermopower is shown to be mainly due to the existence of the CE-type antiferromagnetic clusters, in which there is a charge-orbital ordering that displaces the oxygen atoms. The changed crystal lattice inside these clusters changes the value of the thermopower inside them. This thermopower influences the voltage drop across the sample during measuring the thermopower and, thus, the effective value of α of the whole sample. The application of a magnetic field near T _NCE accelerating the destruction of the CE-type antiferromagnetic order causes the sharp decrease in the thermopower of the whole sample. This implies that the CE-type antiferromagnetic clusters with the charge-orbital ordering make main contribution to the thermopower of the whole sample.     

Neutron powder diffraction investigation on the crystal and magnetic structure of (Ho(0.50+x)Ca(0.50-x))(Mn(1-x)Cr(x))O3

The crystal and magnetic structure of (Ho(0.50+x)Ca(0.50-x))(Mn(1-x)Cr(x))O(3) (x = 0.00, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03) has been investigated between 5 and 300 K by means of neutron powder diffraction followed by Rietveld refinement and dc magnetic measurements. During cooling an orthorhombic to monoclinic phase transition occurs on account of the charge and orbital ordering taking place in the Mn sub-lattice; at low temperature phase separation takes place and the main monoclinic phase coexists with a secondary orthorhombic phase, whose amount slightly increases with the increase of Cr content. Cr(3+) is not involved in orbital ordering or superexchange interactions. The charge and magnetic ordering are decoupled: the Mn moments order according to a CE-type structure in all samples.     

Magnetic ordering of dangling bond networks on hydrogen-deposited Si(111) surfaces

Based on total-energy electronic-structure calculations within the density-functional theory, we find that a high spin state is realized for an ultimate dangling bond unit on an otherwise hydrogen-covered Si(111) surface. We further propose a systematic method of constructing nanometer-scale dangling bond networks that exhibit the ferrimagnetic spin ordering. The interplay between the electron-electron interaction and the surface reconstruction is elucidated.     

A-site ordering versus electronic inhomogeneity in colossally magnetoresistive manganite films

Epitaxial La(3/4)Ca(1/4)MnO3/MgO(100) (LCMO) thin film shows an unusual rhombohedral (R-3c) structure with a new perovskite superstructure at room temperature due to the CE-type ordering of La and Ca with modulation vector q=1/4[011]. A-site ordered film was found to be electronically homogeneous down to the 1 nm scale as revealed by scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy. In contrast, orthorhombic and A-site disordered LCMO demonstrate a mesoscopic phase separation far below the Curie temperature (TC). Unique La/Ca ordering compensates the cation mismatch stress within one supercell, a(S) approximately 1.55 nm, and enhances the electronic homogeneity. The phase separation does not seem to be a unique mechanism for the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) as very large CMR approximately 500% was also observed in A-site ordered films.     

Tuning kinetic magnetism of strongly correlated electrons via a staggered flux

An interplay between kinetic process and magnetic ordering is manifested when strong correlation and electronic frustration are present: tuning a staggered flux phi from 0 to pi makes the ground state (GS) of an infinite-U Hubbard model change abruptly from a Nagaoka-type ferromagnet to a Haerter-Shastry-type antiferromagnet at a phi_(c), with both states being metallic and of kinetic origin. Intraplaquette spin correlation, as well as nonanalyticity in the GS energy, signals such a novel quantum criticality. This tunable kinetic magnetism is generic and may be experimentally realized.     

Effect of Lattice Distortion on Charge Order in Manganites at Doping x = 0.5

In the present paper, we continue our investigation on the antiferromagnetic origin of the charge order observed in the half-doped manganese. By introducing a Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) type of perturbation interaction to the double-exchange Hamiltonian, we calculate again its ground-state phase diagram at filling x=0.5 by the unrestricted real-space Hartree-Fock approximation method. We find that, as the SSH electron-phonon interaction increases, the charge order parameter decreases to zero rapidly but the CE-type antiferromagnetic order becomes more stable. In other words, the charge order is much more fragile than the CE-type or the Neel-type antiferromagnetic orders under the electron-phonon perturbation. These results support the proposed theory in the recent publications that the charge order in these systems is induced by the antiferromagnetic correlations.     

Spontaneous generation of electric voltage in a single crystal of Sm<Subscript>0.55</Subscript>Sr<Subscript>0.45</Subscript>MnO<Subscript>3</Subscript>

Spontaneous generation of electric voltage has been found in a Sm_0.55Sr_0.45MnO₃ single crystal grown by floating zone melting with cooling in oxygen. The maximum voltage of 60 μV has been observed in the region of temperatures corresponding, simultaneously, to destruction of the CE-type antiferromagnetic ordering and charge ordering in some clusters. The maximum voltage remains unchanged for 24 h and decreases by 45% in a magnetic field of 14.2 kOe. It has been shown that the spontaneous voltage is caused by the presence of regions with different electric charges in the sample.     

Role of electronic nematicity in the interplay between s- and d-wave broken-symmetry states

To understand the role of electronic nematic order in the interplay between s- and d-wave particle-particle or particle-hole condensate states, relations between various s- and d-wave order parameters are studied. We find that the nematic operator transforms two independent six-dimensional vectors. The d-wave superconducting, d-density wave, and antiferromagnetic orders are organized into one vector, and the s-wave superconducting, charge density wave, and spin-triplet d-density wave orders into the other vector. Each vector acts as a superspin and transforms under the action of SO(6) where charge, spin, η- and π-pairing, spin-triplet nematic operators satisfy the SO(6) Lie algebra. Electronic nematic order is not a part of the SO(6) group. It commutes with all 15 generators. Our findings imply that nematic order does not affect the competition among the order parameters within the same superspin, while it strongly interferes the interplay between two order parameters that belong to different superspins. For example, nematicity allows a linear coupling between d- and s-wave superconducting order parameters which modifies the superconducting transition temperature. A generalized Ginzburg-Landau theory and further physical implications are discussed.     

Spontaneous spin textures in dipolar spinor condensates

We have mapped out a detailed phase diagram that shows the ground state structure of a spin-1 condensate with magnetic dipole-dipole interactions. We show that the interplay between the dipolar and the spin-exchange interactions induces a rich variety of quantum phases that exhibit spontaneous magnetic ordering in the form of intricate spin textures.     

Structure and magnetization studies of Nd0.5−xPrxSr0.5MnO3 system

The structural and magnetic properties of Nd_0.5−xPr_xSr_0.5MnO₃ (x=0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5) system have been investigated. With the substitution of Pr in Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃, it shows a gradual structure transformation from the Imma orthorhombic symmetry to the tetragonal I4/mcm phase, and the crystallographic transition remains incomplete, even in Pr_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃. A large bifurcation between zero-field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) susceptibility has been observed below Curie temperature (T_C), which is characteristic of coexistence of ferromagnetism (FM) and antiferromagnetism (AFM) at low temperature region. The magnetization of Pr_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ is larger than that of Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃, while Nd_0.5Sr_0.5MnO₃ with more CE-type AFM shows larger magnetization than Nd_0.3Pr_0.2Sr_0.5MnO_3, which mixed with CE-type (majority) and A-type (minority) AFM at low temperature, indicating that the magnetization of Nd_0.5−xPr_xSr_0.5MnO₃ system is affected by A-site disorder combined with orbital ordering of A-type AFM and CE-type AFM.     

Roles of Electron Hopping on Orbital Ordering for Vanadium Spinels

We investigate the orbital ordering quantitatively for the spinel systems RV 2 O 4(R=Mg,Zn,Cd) in the viewpoint of single-ion physics through the method of diagonalization.Through the quantitative calculation,it is found that the spin-orbit(SO)coupling and the Jahn-Teller(JT) effect enable the orbital ordering under the conditions of negligible electron hopping among different V 3+ sites.For the systems RV 2 O 4,the electron hopping is implied to be observable from the energy gap in conductivity,so the orbital ordering of RV 2 O 4 cannot be induced by the SO coupling and JT effect at definite temperature,which is on contrary to the conclusions in [Phys.Rev.Lett.93(2004) 157206].     

Iron spin-reorientation transition in NdFeAsO

The low-temperature magnetic structure of NdFeAsO has been revisited using neutron powder diffraction and symmetry analysis using the Sarah representational analysis program. Four magnetic models with one magnetic variable for each of the Nd and Fe sublattices were tested. The best fit was obtained using a model with Fe moments pointing along the c-direction, and Nd moments along the a-direction. This signals a significant interplay between rare-earth and transition metal magnetism, which results in a spin-reorientation of the Fe sublattice upon ordering of the Nd moments. All models that fit the data well, including collinear models with more than one magnetic variable per sublattice, were found to have an Fe moment of 0.5 μ(B) and a Nd moment of 0.9 μ(B), demonstrating that the low-temperature Fe moment is not substantially enhanced compared to the spin-density wave state.     

Glass fragility and atomic ordering on the intermediate and extended range

The relation between the fragility of glass-forming systems, a parameter which describes many of their key physical characteristics, and atomic scale structure is investigated by using neutron diffraction to measure the topological and chemical ordering for germania, or GeO(2), which is an archetypal strong glass former. We find that the ordering for this and other tetrahedral network-forming glasses at distances greater than the nearest neighbor can be rationalized in terms of an interplay between the relative importance of two length scales. One of these is associated with an intermediate range, the other with an extended range and, with increasing glass fragility, it is the extended range ordering which dominates.     

Quantum-noise-induced order in lasers placed in chaotic oscillation by frequency-shifted feedback

A kind of chaotic oscillations featuring random switching between sustained relaxation oscillations (RO) and spiking oscillations (SO) has been demonstrated in lasers with frequency-shifted feedback. The presence of stochastic frequency locking between two periodicities of RO and SO motions and selective quantum-noise-induced ordering of chaotic spiking oscillations is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally.     

Roles of Electron Hopping on Orbital Ordering for Vanadium Spinels

We investigate the orbital ordering quantitatively for the spinel systems RV₂O₄ (R=Mg, Zn, Cd) in the viewpoint of single-ion physics through the method of diagonalization. Through the quantitative calculation, it is found that the spin-orbit (SO)coupling and the Jahn-Teller (JT) effect enable the orbital ordering under the conditions of negligible electron hopping among different V³⁺ sites. For the systems RV₂O₄, the electron hopping is implied to be observable from the energy gap in conductivity, so the orbital ordering of RV₂O₄ cannot be induced by the SO coupling and JT effect at definite temperature, which is on contrary to the conclusions in [Phys. Rev. Lett. 93 (2004) 157206].