Coupled structural and magnetic properties of ferric fluoride nanostructures: Part II,a Monte Carlo–Heisenberg study

We present a numerical study of the magnetic structure of nanostructured iron fluoride, using the Monte Carlo Metropolis simulated annealing technique and a classical Heisenberg Hamiltonian with superexchange angle dependent interactions. The parameters are adjusted on experimental results, and the atomic structure and topology taken from a previous atomistic model of grain boundaries in the same system. We find perfect antiferromagnetic crystalline grains and a disordered magnetic configuration (speromagnetic) at the grain boundary, in agreement with experimental features. Both the lowest magnetic energy and the rate of magnetic frustration are found to be dependent on the relative disorientation of crystalline grains, i.e. on the cationic topology. We conclude on possible extensions of the model.     

Fe-Mn合金中ε-马氏体的电子结构和磁性特性

利用原子簇模型和自旋极化离散变分法(DV-Xα),对Fe-Mn合金中ε -马氏体的电子结构和自旋磁矩进行了计算,结果与实验相符;并讨论了原子间距对磁矩 、局域态密度和Fermi能级的影响。     

遗传算法研究原子团簇

遗传算法作为一种结构优化方法应用于研究原子团簇的结构和性质,具有高效和全局搜索等特点。本扼要介绍遗传算法基本特征、优化程序和方法。重点讨论我们近年来在应用遗传算法研究碳６０分子聚集超团簇的幻数,金团簇有序和无序结构,双金属团簇的偏析效应以及过渡金属团簇电磁性质的结构关联等方面所取得的一些结果,说明遗传算法与传统优化方法相比确具一定优势,以及需要解决的问题。     

Disorder-Order-Crystalline State Transitions of PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO Copolymers and their Blends: SAXS/WAXS/DSC Study

The structure in the symmetrical triblock copolymers PEO-b-PPO-b-PEO and their blend with PEO, studied by small angle x-ray scattering (SAXS), wide angle x-ray scattering (WAXS), and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), pass from melt to the solid state on cooling. On subsequent heating back to the melt, they pass through disordered and ordered molten states, crystalline structure, and finally back to a disordered melt state. At high temperatures these systems are in the melt in the disordered state approximately described by the mean-field theory. The characteristic lengths of these systems, obtained from SAXS, are proportional to R _g . At lower temperatures, their structure changes to a disordered state which can be described by the concentration fluctuation theory. During cooling, the disordered melt structure changes abruptly into the ordered melt structure. The crystallization destroys this melt structure, forming a new lamellar structure with different periodicity. During heating near the melting point, lamellar periodicity increases very steeply. After melting, the crystalline structure transforms directly to the disordered state.     

Correlation effects during liquid infiltration into hydrophobic nanoporous media

To explain the thermal effects observed during the infiltration of a nonwetting liquid into a disordered nanoporous medium, we have constructed a model that includes correlation effects in a disordered medium. It is based on analytical methods of the percolation theory. The infiltration of a porous medium is considered as the infiltration of pores in an infinite cluster of interconnected pores. Using the model of randomly situated spheres (RSS), we have been able to take into account the correlation effect of the spatial arrangement and connectivity of pores in the medium. The other correlation effect of the mutual arrangement of filled and empty pores on the shell of an infinite percolation cluster of filled pores determines the infiltration fluctuation probability. This probability has been calculated analytically. Allowance for these correlation effects during infiltration and defiltration makes it possible to suggest a physical mechanism of the contact angle hysteresis and to calculate the dependences of the contact angles on the degree of infiltration, porosity of the medium, and temperature. Based on the suggested model, we have managed to describe the temperature dependences of the infiltration and defiltration pressures and the thermal effects that accompany the absorption of energy by disordered porous medium-nonwetting liquid systems with various porosities in a unified way.     

Tuning exchange coupling by replacing CoFe with amorphous CoFeB in the CoFe/Ru/CoFe synthetic antiferromagnetic structure

We studied exchange coupling in the CoFe/Ru/CoFe synthetic antiferromagnetic structure with systematical replacement of the crystalline CoFe with amorphous CoFeB. Antiferromagnetic exchange coupling intensity decreases with an increase in the replacement in the bottom magnetic layer, which indicates that exchange coupling intensity could be tuned by the replacement. The origin of weakening antiferromagnetic exchange coupling is attributed to the amorphous CoFeB replacement inducing incomplete crystallization and disordered orientation in the Ru layer.     

Tight binding electrons on a disordered square lattice in a magnetic field

A semiclassical WKB treatment of the density of states spectrum of tight-binding electrons moving in a disordered two dimensional lattice in the presence of a transverse magnetic field is presented. The disorder is accounted for in the coherent potential approximation and analytical results are derived. For both ordered and disordered systems the line position of magnetic subbands as well as the cluster lineshape of the density of states agree quite well with exact numerical results.     

Disordered magnetic phases and magnetic transitions in non anisotropic frustrated systems

Numerous studies have been devoted to disordered magnetic phases which show the existence of several types of disorder in non-anisotropic systems. Semi-disordered systems which retain at least partially long-range order (reentrant properties and randomly canted structures) and fully disordered systems (spin cluster and soft transition systems, true spin glass state) are shortly reviewed. Several characteristic experiments and results are presented and commented on, such as alternative, nonlinear and static susceptibilities, thermoremanence, ageing effects, neutron diffraction and Mössbauer spectroscopy. The possible types of disordered magnetic phases are discussed as a function of a sharp (or soft) transition and of a more or less fast dynamics. In true spin glasses, some problems are still open while in the other disordered phases the unresolved questions are numerous.     

Investigation into the influence of the degree of cation ordering on the magnetic properties of 1:1 double perovskites in the framework of the Heisenberg model

The influence of disorder in the cation sublattice on the magnetic properties of 1: 1 double perovskites is investigated in the framework of the Heisenberg model. It is revealed that the dependence of the sublattice magnetization on the degree of atomic ordering for strontium ferromolybdate exhibits a linear behavior. The results of simulation allow the assumption that disordered lead ferroniobate has a spin-glass structure.     

Magnetic ordering in Fe2−xZnxMoO4(X=0.1–1) spinel

We have studied the diluted Fe_2−xZn_xMoO₄ spinel ferrite which shows a frozen disordered magnetic state at low temperature. Magnetic properties are examined by DC magnetisation measurements as a function of temperature, field and time and AC susceptibility experiment. Our measurements show that this disordered magnetic system at low fields, shares many common features with spin glass or cluster glass like phases. Results suggest that the interaction gradually changes as the magnetic ion concentration decreases by the substitution of non-magnetic Zn on A site and causing a perturbation to the magnetically ordered spins and magnetic order decreases.     

Effect of the size and structure factors on the magnetic susceptibility of nanoparticles of cadmium sulfide

The dependence of the Van Vleck component of the magnetic susceptibility of nanostructured cadmium sulfide CdS on the geometry and structure of CdS nanoparticles has been established by analyzing the data obtained from diffraction and magnetic measurements. It has been found that a decrease in the size of wurtzite CdS nanoparticles leads to an increase in the degree of distortion of the sp ³ orbitals (i.e., the degree of covalence), which reaches a limiting value for elongated particles with an average size of 9 nm. In particles with smaller sizes, the character of the orbital distortion sharply changes, and the Van Vleck contribution returns to the value typical of coarse-grained CdS. Nanoparticles less than 9 nm in size have a specific disordered close-packed structure and a centrosymmetric shape. The data obtained have made it possible to understand the reason of the dimensional phase transition from the crystalline state to a specific nanostate of cadmium sulfide.     

The characterization of poorly chrystalline Si-containing natural iron oxides by Mössbauer spectroscopy

Soils developed from recent basalts of Marion Island in the Sub-Antarctic contain about 20% of a poorly crystalline iron oxide. The association of this phase with Al and Si appears to have a major influence on its Mössbauer spectra: whereas room-temperature spectra indicate a relatively regular structure, the magnetic hyperfine fields at 4.2K are lower than those of even the most poorly crystalline pure ferrihydrites.     

Dependence of the spectral characteristics of quartz on the fluence of neutrons

The influence of radiation on the change in the optical properties of a crystalline quartz is investigated. The results of the measurement of the optical spectra of luminescence, reflection, and scattering in specimens irradiated with different fluences of neutron radiation are presented. It is shown that the corresponding spectral characteristics experience substantial changes in the region of fluences that are associated with rearrangement of the crystalline structure. The results of approximation of some radiation kinetics are given, and the trend in the process of accumulation of disordered zones is established. Translated from Zhurnal Prikladnoi Spektroskopii, Vol. 67, No. 4, pp. 543–545, July–August, 2000.     

Distribution of dipole fields in disordered crystalline and amorphous ferromagnetic alloys

By means of computer simulation we have calculated the distribution functions of dipole fields in disordered crystalline and amorphous ferromagnetic alloys A_1-xB_x. It is shown that for all cubic lattice sites in simple cubic, body-centred cubic and face-centred cubic materials as well as for amorphous materials the envelopes of the distribution functions may be obtained in a satisfactory approximation by considering only the nearest contributing atoms. Whereas in crystalline materials we have a complicated structure of the distribution functions for arbitrary values ofx, we obtain simple Gaussian distributions for the case of amorphous materials, using Heimendahl's model of the amorphous structure. The influence of isotropic and anisotropic short-range order is discussed in detail.     

Diffusion in disordered media

Diffusion in disordered systems does not follow the classical laws which describe transport in ordered crystalline media, and this leads to many anomalous physical properties. Since the application of percolation theory, the main advances in the understanding of these processes have come from fractal theory. Scaling theories and numerical simulations are important tools to describe diffusion processes (random walks: the 'ant in the labyrinth') on percolation systems and fractals. Different types of disordered systems exhibiting anomalous diffusion are presented (the incipient infinite percolation cluster, diffusion-limited aggregation clusters, lattice animals, and random combs), and scaling theories as well as numerical simulations of greater sophistication are described. Also, diffusion in the presence of singular distributions of transition rates is discussed and related to anomalous diffusion on disordered structures.     

Electric field induced by vortex transport in percolation superconductors

The influence of fractal normal phase clusters on the electric field induced by the flow and creep of the magnetic flux in percolation superconductors has been considered. The current–voltage characteristics of such superconductors with allowance for the influence of the fractal dimension of cluster boundaries and the pinning barrier height have been obtained. The vortex dynamics in percolation superconductors with a fractal cluster structure in a viscous flow of the magnetic flux, the Anderson–Kim creep, and the collective flux creep has been analyzed. It has been discovered that the fractality of normal phase clusters reduces the electric field arising in the initial stage of the resistive transition.     

Magnetic Field Dependent Tunneling of Atoms and Molecules in Non-Magnetic Disordered Solids

The low-temperature properties of disordered solids, such as glasses or crystals with certain substitutional defects are governed by atomic tunneling systems. Until recently it was believed that the dielectric properties of insulating materials devoid of magnetic impurities should not—or only very weakly—depend on external magnetic fields. In contrast, new experiments on glasses and crystalline defect systems show a pronounced magnetic field dependence of the dielectric properties of such materials at ultra-low temperatures. In particular, the low-frequency dielectric susceptibility and the amplitude of polarization echoes appear to be strongly affected by magnetic fields. These very surprising findings clearly indicate that atomic tunneling systems can couple to magnetic fields. We summarize the available data and discuss the possible origin of these intriguing phenomena.     

Magnetic circular dichroism from the impurity band in III-V diluted magnetic semiconductors

The magnetic circular dichroism of III-V diluted magnetic semiconductors, calculated within a theoretical framework suitable for highly disordered materials, is shown to be dominated by optical transitions between the bulk bands and an impurity band formed from magnetic dopant states. The real-space Green's functions incorporate spatial correlations in the disordered conduction band and valence-band electronic structure, and include extended and localized states on an equal basis. Our findings reconcile unusual trends in the experimental magnetic circular dichroism in III-V diluted magnetic semiconductors with the antiferromagnetic p-d exchange interaction between a magnetic dopant spin and its host.     

Transmission electron microscopy of thiol-capped Au clusters on C: Structure and electron irradiation effects

High-resolution transmission electron microscopy is used to study interactions between thiol-capped Au clusters and amorphous C support films. The morphologies of the clusters are found to depend both on their size and on the local structure of the underlying C. When the C is amorphous, larger Au clusters are crystalline, while smaller clusters are typically disordered. When the C is graphitic, the Au particles adopt either elongated shapes that maximize their contact with the edge of the C film or planar arrays when they contain few Au atoms. We demonstrate the influence of electron beam irradiation on the structure, shape and stability of the Au clusters, as well as on the formation of holes bounded by terraces of graphitic lamellae in the underlying C.