Incommensurate magnetic order in TbTe3

We report a neutron diffraction study of the magnetic phase transitions in the charge-density wave (CDW) TbTe(3) compound. We discover that in the paramagnetic phase there are strong 2D-like magnetic correlations, consistent with the pronounced anisotropy of the chemical structure. A long-range incommensurate magnetic order emerges in TbTe(3) at T(mag1) = 5.78 K as a result of continuous phase transitions. We observe that near the temperature T(mag1) the magnetic Bragg peaks appear around the position (0, 0, 0.24) (or its rational multiples), that is fairly close to the propagation vector (0,0,0.29) associated with the CDW phase transition in TbTe(3). This suggests that correlations leading to the long-range magnetic order in TbTe(3) are linked to the modulations that occur in the CDW state.     

Magnetic structures of field-induced magnetic phases of EuAs3

The magnetic field induced magnetic phases of EuAs₃ have been studied with neutron diffraction. Five different magnetic structures have been identified by their moment directions and propagation vectors, only one of them being commensurate with the crystallographic lattice. The change of the magnetic structures with increasing field gives some information on the magnetic exchange interactions.     

Incommensurate modulated magnetic structure in orthorhombic EuPdSb

Orthorhombic EuPdSb is known to undergo two magnetic transitions, at 12 K and at T _N≃ 18 K, and in phase III (T < 12 K), single crystal magnetisation data have shown that the spin structure is collinear antiferromagnetic, with magnetic moments along the crystal a axis. From a ¹⁵¹Eu M?ssbauer absorption study, we show that, at any temperature within phase III, all the moments have equal sizes, and that in phase II (12 K< T <18 K) the magnetic structure is modulated and incommensurate with the lattice spacings. The modulation is close to a pure sine-wave just below T _N = 18 K, and it squares up as temperature is lowered. We measured the thermal variations of the first and third harmonics of the moment modulation, and we could determine the first and third harmonics of the exchange coupling. We furthermore show that the antiferromagnetic-incommensurate transition at 12 K is strongly first order, with a hysteresis of 0.05 K, and that the incommensurate-paramagnetic transition at 18 K is weakly first order. Finally, we present an explanation of the spin-flop transition observed in the single crystal magnetisation data in phase III when || in terms of an anisotropic molecular field tensor. Received 17 January 2001 and Received in final form 20 March 2001     

Incommensurate magnetic structures in rhombohedral Heisenberg antiferromagnet

The phase diagram of the ground state has been calculated for a rhombohedral antiferromagnet of the R3m symmetry with frustrated exchange in the base plane and competition of exchanges between the nearest and next-nearest planes. The diagram contains phases of collinear antiferromagnetic ordering of various types separated by five incommensurate magnetic states of the helicoidal type, differing in the ordering type and in the direction of the modulation vector. The commensurate and incommensurate phases converge at multi-critical points lying on a line corresponding to an antiferromagnet with an undistorted simple cubic lattice.     

Incommensurate charge order phase in Fe2OBO3 due to geometrical frustration

The temperature dependence of charge order in Fe2OBO3 was investigated by resistivity and differential scanning calorimetry measurements, M?ssbauer spectroscopy, and synchrotron x-ray scattering, revealing an intermediate phase between room temperature and 340 K, characterized by coexisting mobile and immobile carriers, and by incommensurate superstructure modulations with temperature-dependent propagation vector (1/2, 0, tau). The incommensurate modulations arise from specific antiphase boundaries with low energy cost due to geometrical charge frustration.     

Incommensurate phase in the layered hexagonal crystal Cs3Bi2I9

An incommensurate phase is observed in a Cs₃Bi₂I₉ crystal, which belongs to the family of layered A₃B₂X₉ structures. Data from ¹²⁷I NQR and x-ray powder diffraction patterns show that the second-order normal phase—incommensurate phase transition at T _i=220 K is accompanied by a P6₃/mmc↔P2₁/m symmetry change and takes place at the center of the Brillouin zone. The nature of the instability leading to the appearance of this little-studied form of incommensurability is discussed. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 39, 1105–1108 (June 1997)     

On the lock-in phase transformation in thiourea

Elastic neutron scattering experiments show clear evidence for the lock-in wave vector being $\text{b}{}^{\mathrm{<mtext>x</mtext><mtext>9</mtext>}}$ in thiourea. A commensurate 9b superstructure is stabilized in the 2 K range just above the ferroelectric transition. A global hysteresis on the wave vector variation is also observed.     

The lock-in and reorientational phase transitions in metallic superlattices

We show that in the metallic magnetic superlattices, along with the bilinear RKKY-like exchange, there is significant biquadratic contribution arising from intrinsic and fluctuational mechanisms. Within the phenomenological approach, we postulate a particular form of free energy density functional and study the thermodynamic behaviour of the system under consideration. The model permits a transparent interpretation of the phase transitions, observed in metallic multilayers, with multiple oscillation periods and biquadratic exchange effects taken into account.     

Landau-Ginzburg theory of the lock-in transition in magnetic multilayers

In magnetic multilayers the oscillatory exchange coupling across nonmagnetic metallic spacer is mediated via correlated spin fluctuations of the conduction electrons. For some metals there is no coupling across spacer while for the other the effective exchange exhibits either one or two oscillation periods. Within Landau-Ginzburg approach we explain the observed behaviour of magnetic coupling.     

Pressure dependence of zone-boundary phonons in AlSb

Abstract

We have investigated the effect of hydrostatic pressure on zone-boundary and other critical-point phonon frequencies of AlSb by second-order Raman scattering. A softening of the TA(X), TA(L) and (L/T)A([Sgrave]) modes has been observed for pressures up to the first phase transition at 7.7 GPa. The LA(L) as well as the optical TO at X-, L-, and LO at [Sgrave]-, X-points harden with increasing pressure. Mode Griineisen parameters of all the resolved modes were calculated. Reflectivity measurements indicate that the high pressure phase above 7.7 GPa is metallic.     

Effects of stationary phase perturbations on a lock-in mode

Astrofizika Cooperative. Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp. 262–267, March, 1991.     

Dispersion and damping of zone-boundary magnons in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor CePt3Si

Inelastic neutron scattering (INS) is employed to study damped spin-wave excitations in the noncentrosymmetric heavy-fermion superconductor CePt3Si along the antiferromagnetic Brillouin zone boundary in the low-temperature magnetically ordered state. Measurements along the (1/2 1/2 L) and (H H 1/2 - H) reciprocal-space directions reveal deviations in the spin-wave dispersion from the previously reported model. The broad asymmetric shape of the peaks in energy signifies strong spin-wave damping by interactions with the particle-hole continuum. Their energy width exhibits no evident anomalies as a function of momentum along the (1/2 1/2 L) direction which could be attributed to Fermi surface nesting effects, implying the absence of pronounced commensurate nesting vectors at the magnetic zone boundary. In agreement with a previous study, we find no signatures of the superconducting transition in the magnetic excitation spectrum, such as a magnetic resonant mode or a superconducting spin gap, either at the magnetic ordering wavevector (0 0 1/2) or at the zone boundary. However, the low superconducting transition temperature in this material still leaves the possibility of such features being weak and therefore hidden below the incoherent background at energies ? 0.1 meV, precluding their detection by INS.     

Incommensurate magnetic structure of CeSi as observed by neutron diffraction

The magnetic ordering of the orthorhombic compound CeSi (Pama space group, FeB type of structure, Z = 4) T_n = 5.6 K was investigated by means of powder neutron diffraction in the temperatures 1.5 and 10 K. Our results show that the magnetic ordering is associated with a three dimensionally amplitude-modulated phase which is incommensurate with the crystal lattice with wave vector q = (q_χ,q_y,q_z). The ordered Ce³⁺ moments are confined to the plane (a,b) at an angle of 16.7° with the b direction. It follows from the present data analysis that the dominant wave vector component is q_z, which approximately corresponds to a transversal modulation, however the incommensurateness involves also the q_x and q_y components. The amplitude of the sine wave is μ⁰_j = 1.667μ_B at 1.5 K which corresponds to quite a reduced ordered moment value compared to the Ce³⁺ free ion value gJ = 2.14μ_B.     

Computer-based photon-counting lock-in for phase detection at the shot-noise limit

We implement a simple computer-based photon-counting lock-in that combines the signal-to-noise benefits of photon counting with lock-in detection. We experimentally specify the flatness and the noise characteristics of a flexible software implementation. The noise of amplitude and phase of the small signal is at the limit of photonic shot noise; from 1000 counted photons we reach an amplitude resolution of 4.5% and a phase resolution of 13 degrees . The photon-counting lock-in reduces illumination noise, detector dark count noise, and can suppress background. In particular, phase detection is useful to image the delay characteristics in microscopic systems by use of fluorescent probes that are designed to report membrane potential, temperature, or concentration in a chemical reaction.