Linear optical properties of γ-modification of bismuth borate BiB3O6

The refractive index dispersion of the ??-BiB₃O₆ crystal in the wavelength range 0.43?C0.81 ??m has been measured. It has been shown that the principal refractive indices n ₁, n ₂, and n ₃ are on average higher than those of ??-BiB₃O₆, but are slightly lower than those of ??-BiB₃O₆. The temperature dependences of the rotation angle ??(T) of the optical indicatrix and birefringence ??n ₂(T) = (n ₁ ? n ₃)(T) have been studied in the temperature range 100?C963 K. It has been shown that the ??-BiB₃O₆ crystal is stable in this temperature region.     

Magnetostructural phase transitions in manganese arsenide single crystals

The effect of an external magnetic field with a strength up to 140 kOe on the phase transitions in manganese arsenide single crystals has been investigated. The existence of unstable magnetic and crystal structures at temperatures above the Curie temperature T _C = 308 K has been established. The displacements of manganese and arsenic atoms during the magnetostructural phase transition and the shift in the temperature of the first-order magnetostructural phase transition in a magnetic field have been determined. It has been shown that the magnetocaloric effect in a magnetic field of 140 kOe near the Curie temperature T _C is equal to ??T ?? 13 K. A model of the superparamagnetic state in MnAs above the temperature T _C has been proposed using the data on the magnetic properties and structural transformation in the region of the first-order magnetostructural phase transition. It has been demonstrated that, at temperatures close to T _C, apart from the contribution to the change in the entropy from the change in the magnetization there is a significant contribution from the transformation of the crystal lattice due to the magnetostructural phase transition.     

Neutron diffraction studies of the magnetic properties of Pr0.5Sr0.5Co1 ? x Mn x O3 solid solutions

The crystal structure and magnetic properties of a system of Pr_0.5Sr_0.5Co_{1 ? x} Mn _x O₃ solid solutions were studied by neutron diffraction and magnetization measurements. It is shown that, at a low manganese concentration, the structure can be described by the I/2a monoclinic space group; with increasing substitution level x the structure becomes orthorhombic. For x > 0.9 the crystal structure is tetragonal at high temperatures and the symmetry is lowered to orthorhombic with lowering the temperature. The substitution of cobalt for manganese leads to the destruction of long-range ferromagnetic order near x ?? 0.25. A transition from the high-temperature ferromagnetic phase to the A-type low-temperature antiferromagnetic phase is observed at x ?? 0.93 in the temperature range 110?C160 K.     

Thermal expansion of dysprosium tetraboride

The temperature variations of the interplanar spacings a(T) and c(T) in the crystal lattice of dysprosium tetraboride have been studied using X-ray diffraction in the temperature range 5?C300 K. Anomalous variations of a(T) and c(T) in the temperature range of magnetic transformations, anisotropy of the thermal expansion of DyB₄, and the monoclinic distortion of the crystal structure at low temperatures have been revealed. The magnitudes of the spontaneous magnetostriction, the thermal expansion coefficients ??a and ??c, and the exchange integrals Y _a and Y _c have been determined.     

Heat capacity of the 0.7PbNi1/3Nb2/3O3-0.3PbTiO3 ferroelectric ceramics

The temperature dependence of the heat capacity of the 0.7PbNi_1/3Nb_2/3O₃-0.3PbTiO₃ compound has been studied in the temperature range 120?C800 K. The temperature dependence of the heat capacity C _p has two diffuse anomalies in the temperature ranges 250?C450 K and 450?C650 K and a ?? anomaly at temperatures T ?? 225 K. The results are discussed with inclusion of the dielectric and structural data.     

Synthesis, structure, and magnetic properties of anion-substituted manganese chalcogenides

The anion-substituted solid solutions of the MnSe_{1 t x} Te _x system have been synthesized. The crystal structure and magnetic properties of the synthesized solid solutions have been investigated. It has been shown that, in the concentration range 0 ?? x ?? 0.4, the solid solutions have a face-centered cubic structure. It has been revealed that an increase in the concentration of the substituting element in the MnSe_{1 ? x} Te _x system leads to an increase in the coefficient of thermal expansion of the sample. The investigation of the magnetic properties has been carried out at temperatures in the range 80 K < T < 1000 K in a magnetic field up to 8.6 kOe. It has been experimentally found that the type of antiferromagnetic order (the second type of ordering) remains unchanged over the entire concentration range up to x = 0.4 and that the paramagnetic Curie temperature and the Néel temperature decrease within the limits of 20%. Theoretical calculations have been performed using the Monte Carlo method, and the model of nanoclusters with an uncompensated antiferromagnetic moment has been proposed.     

Optical-pyrometric diagnostics of the state of silicon during nanopulsed laser irradiation

The dynamics of the reflectivity at ?? = 0.53 ??m and the IR radiation of silicon in the wavelength range 0.9?C1.2 ??m is studied under the action of nanosecond ruby laser radiation pulses. When radiation energy density W is lower than the threshold of laser-induced melting of the surface of a semiconductor crystal, the major contribution to the IR radiation emitted by this crystal is made by edge photoluminescence. As the melting threshold is exceeded, the nanosecond dynamics of the detected IR radiation changes from photoluminescence to the thermal radiation of the forming Si phase melt with a high reflectivity. The results of pyrometric measurements of the peak melt surface temperature as a function of W obtained at an effective wavelength ?? _e = 1.04 ??m of the detected IR radiation agree with the data of analogous measurements performed at ?? _e = 0.53 and 0.86 ??m.     

The ground state and EPR spectrum in monoclinic KY(WO4)2:Nd single crystal

The electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) of Nd³⁺ ion in KY(WO₄)₂ single crystal was investigated at T=4.2 K using an X-band spectrometer. The observed resonance absorption represents the complex superposition of three spectra corresponding to neodymium isotopes with different nuclear momenta. The EPR spectrum is characterized by a strong g-factor anisotropy. The temperature dependences of the g-factor were caused by strong spin-orbit and orbit-lattice coupling. The resonance lines become broader as temperature increases due to the short spin-lattice relaxation time.     

Electrical conductivity and thermopower of lead titanate crystals

The temperature dependences of the thermopower ?? and volume conductivity ?? _V of lead titanate crystals have been studied in the temperature range 400?C550 K, in which there are anomalies of the permittivity ? that are not related to the phase transition. It has been found that, in this temperature range, the thermopower ?? has a maximum and changes sign in many crystals; in this case, ?? _V decreases. It has been assumed that the anomalies of ?? and ?? _V , which correlate with anomalies of ?, are caused by thermal activation of electron traps, which leads to compensation of the p-type conductivity. The concentrations of free charge carriers and their drift mobility in the paraphase near the Curie point have been determined. These data indicate that the possibility exists of occurring the total internal screening of the bound charge P _s .     

LiNH4SO4: A new crystal with an isotropic point

Spectral dependences of the refractive and birefringence indices of ??-LiNH₄SO₄ crystals have been investigated. Curves n _i (??) are found to intersect, which indicates the existence of an isotropic point (??n _y = 0) for this crystal; at room temperature, this point corresponds to wavelength ??₀ ?? 683 nm. The isotropic point is blue-shifted upon heating. Temperature measurements of the angle between the optical axes indicate that the optical-axis plane changes orientation when passing through the isotropic state. The results obtained give grounds to consider LiNH₄SO₄ as a new crystal with an isotropic point.     

Dielectric properties and specific heat of the (1 ? x)PbNi1/3Nb2/3O3-xPbTiO3 ferroelectric ceramics

The temperature dependences of the permittivity and specific heat of a mixed (1 ? x)PbNi_1/3Nb_2/3O₃-xPbTiO₃ system (where x = 0.3, 0.4, 0.5) have been studied over a wide temperature range 290?C700 K. It has been shown that the composition with x = 0.3 undergoes a diffuse phase transition at T _m ?? 315 K. A specific heat anomaly that is characteristic of the phase transition has been revealed at T ?? 315 K in all the compositions under study.     

Surface size effects under plastic deformation of microcrystals and nanocrystals

The size effects associated with the crystal surface as an effective sink for moving dislocations in a thin crystal and as a barrier for these dislocations in the presence of a high-strength film or a special hardened layer on the surface, which favor the accumulation of dislocations in the crystal, have been considered theoretically in terms of the kinetic equation for the density of dislocations concentrated in the crystal in the critical lengths of single-ended (unipolar) dislocation sources. The theoretical results have been illustrated by the experimental data available in the literature for microcrystals and nanocrystals of copper and aluminum. It has been found in accordance with these data that the dependence of the yield stress ??_2% of the crystal on the crystal transverse size D has the form ??_2% ?? D ^?0.75 when there is a free crystal surface for the escape ofthe dislocations and ??_2% ?? D ^?0.5 when there is a high-strength layer on the lateral surface of the crystal..     

Crystal electric field effects in Pr0.5Sr0.5CoO3

The energy structure and temperature evolution of the magnetic excitation spectra of Pr_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ are studied by inelastic neutron scattering. The measurements are performed on a polycrystalline sample of Pr_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ and its non-magnetic analogue La_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ on the high intensity time-of-flight spectrometer IN4 (ILL, Grenoble) in the temperature range 10 K < T < 300 K. The crystal electric field parameters in Pr_0.5Sr_0.5CoO₃ are calculated and the splitting scheme of the 4f ground multiplet of Pr³⁺ ions is determined based on the experimental data.     

High-temperature ferromagnetism in Si1 ? x Mn x (x ≈ 0.5) nonstoichiometric alloys

It has been found that the Curie temperature (T _C ?? 300 K) in nonstoichiometric Si_{1 ? x} Mn _x alloys slightly enriched in Mn (x ?? 0.52?C0.55) in comparison to the stoichiometric manganese monosilicide MnSi becomes about an order of magnitude higher than that in MnSi (T _C ?? 30 K). Deviations from stoichiometry lead to a drastic decrease in the density of charge carries (holes), whereas their mobility at about 100 K becomes an order of magnitude higher than the value characteristic of MnSi. The high-temperature ferromagnetism is ascribed to the formation of defects with the localized magnetic moments and by their indirect exchange interaction mediated by the paramagnetic fluctuations of the hole spin density. The existence of defects with the localized magnetic moments in Si_{1 ? x} Mn _x alloys with x ?? 0.52?C0.55 is supported by the results of numerical calculations performed within the framework of the local-density-functional approximation. The increase in the hole mobility in the nonstoichiometric material is attributed to the decay of the Kondo (or spin-polaron) resonances presumably existing in MnSi.     

Determination of the vibrational temperature of OCS in a supersonic free jet

The rotational temperature of OCS in the v₂ = 1 excited state and the vibrational temperature in supersonic free jets seeded in Ar were measured by a diode-laser spectrometer. From the hot band associated to the ν₁ band, the rotational temperature in the v₂ = 1 state was obtained to be 5.7 K and the vibrational temperature obtained for this state was 213 K.     

Magnetooptics of magnetic-dipole transitions in the rare-earth paramagnetic garnets

The Faraday effect (FE) of the rare-earth (RE) paramagnetic garnet crystals associated with magnetic-dipole (MD) transitions has been investigated theoretically over a wide temperature range 80 to 300 K. Over this temperature range, the ??gyromagnetic?? Verdet V _gm ^(m) of the Eu₃Ga₅O₁₂ (EuGG) is not a linear function of the magnetic susceptibility ?? measured along the [111] axis. We find that the nontrivial character of the temperature dependence of the MD Verdet constant V _gm ^(m) is associated with the presence of a contribution to the Faraday rotation of the Van Vleck ??mixing?? by an external magnetic field of the Eu³⁺ electronic states. The optical absorption and magnetic circular dichroism (MCD) of Eu³⁺ ion in EuGG at 85 K for the MD transition ⁷ F ₀ ?? ⁵ D ₁ were measured along the [111] axis. We show that the appearance of the MCD feature observed for the absorption line near 526.6 nm for the ⁷ F ₀ ?? ⁵ D ₁ MD absorption band may be well-explained by the contribution of Van Vleck ??mixing?? between the Stark singlet states from the ⁷ F ₀ and ⁷ F ₁ multiplet manifolds mixed by the external magnetic field H.     

Investigation of LiFeAs by means of “break-junction” technique

In our tunneling investigation using Andreev superconductor-normal metal-superconductor contacts on LiFeAs single crystals we observed two reproducible independent subharmonic gap structures at dynamic conductance characteristics. From these results, we can derive the energy of the large superconducting gap ??_L = (2.5?C3.4) meV and the small gap ??_S = (0.9?C1) meV at T = 4.2 K for the T _C ^local ?? (10.5?C14) K (the contact area critical temperature which deviation causes the variation of ??_L). The BCS-ratio is found to be 2??_L/k _B T _C = 4.6?C5.6, whereas 2??_S/k _B T _C ? 3.52 results from induced superconductivity in the bands with the small gap.     

Magnetic and Magnetoresonance Properties of the Solid Solution Hg0.5Cd0.4Cr0.1Se

The results of studying the magnetic and magnetoresonance properties of the diluted magnetic semiconductor Hg_0.5Cd_0.4Cr_0.1Se are presented. Microanalysis of the samples shows that the introduction of cadmium and chromium elements into the host HgSe matrix leads to the formation in the crystal of the four-component compound HgCdCrSe with the high chromium content [Cr (18.96 %)] and the three-component compound HgCdSe. The measured temperature dependence of the crystal magnetization illustrates the transition to ferromagnetic ordering at the Curie temperature T _C = 126 K. It is noted that the measured magnetization value points out the indicates the presence of both Cr³⁺ and Cr²⁺ ions in the compound HgCdCrSe, which is responsible for the magnetic and magnetoresonance properties of the sample under test. The electron paramagnetic resonance studies are carried out on the an X-band spectrometer in the temperature range 77 K < T < 300 K. The angular dependences of electron paramagnetic resonance spectra are shown in the paramagnetic and ferromagnetic temperature ranges. As follows from the analysis of experimental data, the aforementioned transition is accompanied by the evolution of the electron paramagnetic resonance spectrum at changing the temperature and the orientation of the sample relative to the static magnetic field in the ferromagnetic temperature range. In the assumption of the g-tensor axial symmetry the components of the latter are determined and the different law of their temperature changing is revealed in the ferromagnetic ordering state of the sample.     

Magnetocaloric effect in manganites

The magnetocaloric effect (MCE) in La_{1 ? x} Sr _x MnO₃, Sm_0.55Sr_0.45MnO₃, and PrBaMn₂O₆ compounds is studied. The maximum values of MCE (??T _max) determined by a direct method in the second and third compositions and in La_0.9Sr_0.1MnO₃ are found to be much lower than those calculated from the change of the magnetic part of entropy in the Curie temperature (T _C) and the Néel temperature (T _N) range. The negative contribution of the antiferromagnetic (AFM) part of a sample in the La_{1 ? x} Sr _x MnO₃ system at 0.1 ?? x ?? 0.3 decreases ??T _max and changes the ??T(T) curve shape, shifting its maximum 20?C40 K above T _C. Lower values of ??T _max are detected in the range T _C = 130?142 K in polycrystalline and single-crystal Sm_0.55Sr_0.45MnO₃ samples cooled in air. If such samples were cooled in an oxygen atmosphere (which restores broken Mn-O-Mn bonds and, thus, increases the volume of CE-type AFM clusters), the maximum in the temperature dependence of MCE is located at T _N (243 K) for CE-type AFM clusters. A magnetic field applied to a sample during the MCE measurements transforms these clusters into a ferromagnetic (FM) state, and both types of clusters decompose at T = T _N. The PrBaMn₂O₆ composition undergoes an AFM-FM transition at 231 K, and the temperature dependence of its MCE has a sharp minimum at T = 234 K, where MCE is negative, and a broad maximum covering T _C. The absolute values of MCE at both extrema are several times lower than those calculated from the change in the magnetic entropy. These phenomena are explained by the presence of a magnetically heterogeneous FM-AFM state in these manganites.     

Metamagnetic phase transitions induced by static and pulsed fields in (Sm0.5Gd0.5)0.55Sr0.45MnO3 ceramics

It has been found that the magnetic susceptibility of (Sm_0.5Gd_0.5)_0.55Sr_0.45MnO₃ ceramic samples in zero external magnetic field exhibits a sharp peak near the temperature of 48.5 K with a small temperature hysteresis that does not depend on the frequency of measurements and is characteristic of the phase transition to an antiferromagnetic state with a long-range charge orbital ordering, which is accompanied by an increase in the magnetic susceptibility with a decrease in the temperature. The magnetization isotherms in static and pulsed magnetic fields at temperatures below 60 K demonstrate the occurrence of an irreversible metamagnetic transition to a homogeneous ferromagnetic state with a critical transition field independent of the measurement temperature, which, apparently, is associated with the destruction of the insulating state with a long-range charge ordering. In the temperature range 60 K ?? T ?? 150 K, the ceramic samples undergo a magnetic-field-induced reversible phase transition to the ferromagnetic state, which is similar to the metamagnetic transition in the low-temperature phase and is caused by the destruction of local charge/orbital correlations. With an increase in the temperature, the critical transition fields increase almost linearly and the field hysteresis disappears. Near the critical fields of magnetic phase transitions, small ultra-narrow magnetization steps have been revealed in pulsed fields with a high rate of change in the magnetic field of ??400 kOe/??s.