Influence of the sample orientation in Sn<Subscript>2</Subscript>P<Subscript>2</Subscript>S<Subscript>6</Subscript> crystals on the hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients

The influence of the sample orientation on the effective value of the hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients d _h ⁽ⁱ⁾ of Sn₂P₂S₆ crystals has been studied. The hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficients d _h ⁽¹⁾ and d′ _h ⁽³⁾ , were measured, d _h ⁽¹⁾ =(244±3) pC/N and d′ _h ⁽³⁾ =(92±1) pC/N. The hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient d _h ⁽³⁾ for orthogonal axis system was calculated to be d _h ⁽³⁾ =(87±2) pC/N. The, optimal orientation of the sample has been found as (Xy l)−20°-cut. Maximal value of the effective hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient d _h ⁽¹⁾ equals 260 pC/N. Double rotated samples were also studied. The orientation of the samples insensitive to the pressure has been found. The theoretical mean value of hydrostatic piezoelectric coefficient (d _h ) _mean corresponding to randomly oriented Sn₂P₂S₆ grains in a poled composite has been calculated to be (d _h ) _mean =136 pC/N.     

Electronic structure of novel multiple-band superconductor SrPt<Subscript>2</Subscript>As<Subscript>2</Subscript>

The electronic structure of the recently discovered superconductor SrPt₂As₂ with T _c = 5.2 K has been calculated in the local-density approximation. Despite its chemical composition and crystal structure are somehow similar to FeAs-based high-temperature superconductors, the electronic structure of SrPt₂As₂ is very much different. The crystal structure is orthorhombic (or tetragonal if idealized) and has layered nature with alternating PtAs₄ and AsPt₄ tetrahedra slabs sandwiched with Sr ions. The Fermi level is crossed by Pt-5d states with rather strong admixture of As-4p states. Fermi surface of SrPt₂As₂ is essentially three-dimensional, with complicated sheets corresponding to multiple bands. We compare SrPt₂As₂ with 1111 and 122 representatives of FeAs-class of superconductors, as well as with isovalent (Ba,Sr)Ni₂As₂ superconductors. Brief discussion of superconductivity in SrPt₂As₂ is also presented.     

Resonant photoemission and absorption spectroscopy of the Cu<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>TiSe<Subscript>2</Subscript> compound

Single crystals of the Cu _x TiSe₂ compound with x = 0.05, 0.09, and 0.33 have been grown. Resonance photoelectron Cu 3p-3d and 2d-3d spectra of the valence bands, the spectra of the core levels, and the L absorption spectra for titanium and copper have been obtained. It is shown that the degree of oxidation of titanium atoms is +4 and the state of copper atoms is close to the state of free copper ions. It is found that the spectra of the valence bands obtained under the Cu 3p and 2p resonance conditions radically differ. For the spectra in the Cu 2p excitation regime, several bands corresponding to different decay channels of the excited state are observed. According to calculations of the density of states, the 3d states of copper are filled incompletely; the occupancy of the 3d band of copper is 9.5 electrons per atom.     

Band structure of new layered superconductors BaRh<Subscript>2</Subscript>P<Subscript>2</Subscript> and BaIr<Subscript>2</Subscript>P<Subscript>2</Subscript>

The results of ab initio FLAPW-GGA computations of the band structure of two new layered low-temperature superconductors BaRh₂P₂ and BaIr₂P₂ (with a ThCr₂Si₂ tetragonal structure) are presented. As distinct from the family of the isostructural FeAs superconductors, they feature the complete replacement of the magnetic (Fe) metal by the nonmagnetic 4d (Rh) and 5d (Ir) metals. For BaRh₂P₂ and BaIr₂P₂, the energy bands, the distributions of the densities of electronic states, the Fermi surface topology, and the coefficients of the low-temperature electron specific heat and the molar Pauli paramagnetic susceptibility have been determined. An increase in T _C in the BaRh₂P₂ (1 K) → BaIr₂P₂ (2.1 K) transition can assumingly be attributed to the features of their phonon subsystem.     

Electronic structure of defective lithium cobaltites Li<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>CoO<Subscript>2</Subscript>

X-ray absorption, resonant X-ray emission, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopical methods have been applied for the study of the electronic structure of defective lithium cobaltites Li _x CoO₂ (0.6≤x≤1.0). Resonant O K α X-ray emission spectra of LiCoO₂ showed localized excitonic states due to a dd transition between occupied and unoccupied Co 3d states. On the base of measurements of Co 3s X-ray photoelectron, Co 2p, and O 1s X-ray absorption spectra, it was established that in defective cobaltites the electronic holes are localized mainly in O 2p states. An evidence of phase separation in Li _x CoO₂ has been found. It was shown that the semiconductor-to-metal transition in Li _x CoO₂ (x<0.76) at about 160 K is not accompanied by changes in the Co 3d electronic configuration which remains 3d ⁶.     

First-principle study of the electronic structure and magnetism in RuSr<Subscript>2</Subscript>GdCu<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>8</Subscript> under pressure

We have performed a first-principle calculation of the structural, electronic and high pressure properties of RuSr₂GdCu₂O₈, a ferromagnetic superconductor, by employing a full-potential linearized augmented plane-wave method within the density-functional theory. The effect of pressure was achieved by varying the volume of the unit cell with constant a:b:c ratio. The experimentally observed anti-phase rotation of RuO₆ octahedra has been attributed to the residual forces on O_Ru which results in shear strain in the RuO₂ layer. Partial charge analysis shows that applying pressure up to 6 GPa leads to hole creation in the CuO₂ sheets which causes increase in the superconducting transition temperature. We have estimated the Curie temperature T _M of this compound in the mean-field approximation using Heisenberg model with first-nearest neighbor exchange interactions determined from DFT calculations for parallel and anti-parallel spin configurations of Ru moment in RuO₂ planes. The effect of pressure causes the magnetic moment of Ru atoms to decrease due to the increase of hybridization between the adjacent Ru atoms. The calculated exchange splitting in Cu d _{x 2 - y 2} states increases slightly with pressure but it is still very small that it does not affect superconductivity, and the hole doping mechanism is dominant.     

Pseudogap behavior in Bi<Subscript>2</Subscript>Ca<Subscript>2</Subscript>SrCu<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>8</Subscript>: Results of the generalized dynamical mean-field approach

Pseudogap phenomena are observed for the normal underdoped phase of different high-T _c cuprates. Among others, the Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O_{8 − δ} (Bi2212) compound is one of the most studied experimentally. To describe the pseudogap regime in Bi2212, we use a novel generalized ab initio LDA + DMFT + Σ_k hybrid scheme. This scheme is based on the strategy of one of the most powerful computational tools for real correlated materials: the local density approximation (LDA) + dynamical mean-field theory (DMFT). Conventional LDA + DMFT equations are here supplied with an additional (momentum-dependent) self-energy Σ_k in the spirit of our recently proposed DMFT + Σ_k approach taking into account pseudogap fluctuations. In the present model, Σ_k describes nonlocal correlations induced by short-range collective Heisenberg-like antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations. The effective single-impurity problem of the DMFT is solved by the numerical renormalization group (NRG) method. Material-specific model parameters for the effective x ² − y ² orbital of Cu-3d shell of the Bi2212 compound, e.g., the values of intra-and interlayer hopping integrals between different Cu sites, the local Coulomb interaction U, and the pseudogap potential Δ were obtained within the LDA and LDA + DMFT schemes. Here, we report on the theoretical LDA + DMFT + Σ_k quasiparticle band dispersion and damping, Fermi surface renormalization, momentum anisotropy of (quasi)static scattering, densities of states, spectral densities, and angular-resolved photoemission (ARPES) spectra, taking into account pseudogap and bilayer splitting effects for normal (slightly) underdoped Bi2212 (δ = 0.15). We show that LDA + DMFT + Σ_k successfully describes strong (pseudogap) scattering close to Brillouin zone boundaries. Our calculated LDA + DMFT + Σ_k Fermi surfaces and ARPES spectra in the presence of pseudogap fluctuations are almost insensitive to the bilayer splitting strength. However, our LDA-calculated value of bilayer splitting is rather small to describe the experimentally observed peak-dip-hump structure. The results obtained are in good semiquantitative agreement with various recent ARPES experiments. The article was submitted by the authors in English.     

Magnetic properties of nanoparticle La<Subscript>0.7</Subscript>Ca<Subscript>0.3</Subscript>MnO<Subscript>3</Subscript> under applied hydrostatic pressure

Pressure effects on magnetic properties of two La_0.7Ca_0.3MnO₃ nanoparticle samples with different mean particle sizes were investigated. Both the samples were prepared by the glycine-nitrate method: sample S—as-prepared (10 nm), and sample S₉₀₀—subsequently annealed at 900 °C for 2 h (50 nm). Magnetization measurements revealed remarkable differences in magnetic properties with the applied pressure up to 0.75 GPa: (i) for S sample, both transition temperatures, para-to-ferromagnetic T _C = 120 K and spin-glass-like transition T _f = 102 K, decrease with the pressure with the respective pressure coefficients dT _C/dP = −2.9 K/GPa and dT _f/dP = −4.4 K/GPa; (ii) for S₉₀₀ sample, para-to-ferromagnetic transition temperature T _C = 261 K increases with pressure with the pressure coefficient dT _C/dP = 14.8 K/GPa. At the same time, saturation magnetization M _S recorded at 10 K decreases/increases with pressure for S/S₉₀₀ sample, respectively. Explanation of these unusual pressure effects on the magnetism of sample S is proposed within the scenario of the combined contributions of two types of disorders present in the system: surface disorder introduced by the particle shell, and structural disorder of the particle core caused by the prominent Jahn–Teller distortion. Both disorders tend to vanish with the annealing of the system (i.e., with the nanoparticle growth), and so the behavior of the sample S₉₀₀ is similar to that previously observed for the bulk counterpart.     

Ferromagnetism in Rh-doped SnO<Subscript>2</Subscript> from first-principles calculation

The electronic structures and magnetic properties for Rh-doped SnO₂ crystals have been investigated by density functional theory. The results demonstrate a magnetic moment, which mainly arises from d orbital of Rhodium, of 1.0 μ _B per Rhodium with a little contribution from the Oxygen atoms surrounding it. The Rh-doped SnO₂ system exhibits half-metallic ferromagnetism with high Curie temperature. Several doped configurations calculations show that there are some robust ferromagnetic couplings between these local magnetic moments. The p–d hybridization mechanism is responsible for the predicted ferromagnetism. These results suggest a recipe obtaining promising dilute magnetic semiconductor by doping nonmagnetic elements in SnO₂ matrix.     

Structural and electronic properties of Y<Subscript>2</Subscript>CrS<Subscript>4</Subscript> from first-principles study

We systematically study the structural, electronic, and magnetic properties of chromium sulfide Y₂CrS₄ by using density-functional theory. We find that antiferromagnetic order is more energetically favorable than ferromagnetic state and near the Fermi level the main occupation is from Cr 3d states.     

Half-metallicity in Rh-doped TiO<Subscript>2</Subscript> from ab initio calculations

First-principles calculations based on density functional theory (DFT) are performed to study the electronic structures and magnetic properties of Rh-doped TiO₂ crystals. The hybridization between Rh-4d and O-2p results in Rh becoming ferromagnetic with a magnetic moment of about 1.0 μ _B per supercell. The Rh-doped TiO₂ system exhibits half-metallic ferromagnetism based both DFT and DFT + U. The strong ferromagnetic couplings between local magnetic moments can be attributed to both the p-d hybridization and double-exchange mechanisms, as well as superexchange interaction. These results suggest an alternative approach to achieve promising dilute magnetic semiconductors by doping non-magnetic transition metals in a TiO₂ host.     

Photoacoustic spectroscopy of thin films of As<Subscript>2</Subscript>S<Subscript>3</Subscript>, As<Subscript>2</Subscript>Se<Subscript>3</Subscript> and GeSe<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Photoacoustic spectroscopy (PAS) is one of the important branches of spectroscopy, which enables one to detect light-induced heat production following the absorption of pulsed radiation by the sample. As₂S₃, As₂Se₃ and GeSe₂ exhibit a wide variety of photo-induced phenomena that enable them to be used as optical imaging or storage medium and various electronic devices, including electro-optic information storage devices and optical mass memories. Therefore, accurate measurement of thermal properties of semiconducting films is necessary to study the memory density. The thermal conductivity of thin films of As₂S₃ (thickness 100 μm and 80 μm), As₂Se₃ (thickness 100 μm and 80 μm) and GeSe₂ (thickness 120 μm and 100 μm) has been measured using PAS technique. Our result shows that the thermal conductivity of thicker films is larger than the thinner films. This can be explained by the thermal resistance effect between the film and the surface of the substrate.      

Polarization modes in the Ba<Subscript>2</Subscript>Mg<Subscript>2</Subscript>Fe1<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>22</Subscript> multiferroic

The spectra of complex permittivity of a Ba₂Mg₂Fe₁₂O₂₂ single crystal belonging to the family of Y-type hexaferrites have been measured over a wide temperature range (10–300 K) with the aim of determining the dynamic parameters of the phonon and magnetic subsystems in the terahertz and infrared frequency ranges (3–4500 cm⁻¹). A factor-group analysis of the vibrational modes has been performed, and the results obtained have been compared with the experimentally observed resonances. The oscillator parameters of all nineteen phonon modes of E _u symmetry, which are allowed by the symmetry of the Ba₂Mg₂Fe₁₂O₂₂ crystal lattice, have been calculated. It has been found that, at temperatures below 195 and 50 K, the spectral response exhibits new absorption lines due to magnetic excitations.     

Role of electronic correlations in the Fermi surface formation of Na<Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">x</Emphasis></Subscript>CoO<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Band structure of metallic sodium cobaltate Na _x CoO₂ (x = 0.33, 0.48, 0.61, 0.72) has been investigated by local density approximation + Hubbard U (LDA+U) method and within Gutzwiller approximation for the Co-t _2g manifold. Correlation effects being taken into account results in suppression of the e′ _g hole pockets at the Fermi surface in agreement with recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) experiments. In the Gutzwiller approximation the bilayer splitting is significantly reduced due to the correlation effects. The formation of high spin (HS) state in Co d-shell was shown to be very improbable.     

Observation of the 2<Superscript>-</Superscript> state in <Superscript>208</Superscript>Pb with a major s<Subscript>1/2</Subscript>p<Subscript>3/2</Subscript> structure and structure of ten more 2<Superscript>-</Superscript> states

From ²⁰⁸Pb (p, p’) via isobaric analog resonances in ²⁰⁹Bi , at E _x = 6420 keV in the doubly magic nucleus ²⁰⁸Pb , a new state with spin 2^- with half the s _1/2 p _3/2 strength and major g _7/2 f _5/2 , d _3/2 f _5/2 fractions is identified. Ten more 2^- states up to E _x = 7.0 MeV are identified and their structure discussed, among them six states with new spin assignments. The known 6314 1^- state is shown to contain almost the entire s _1/2 p _3/2 strength.     

Radiative lifetimes of 7d, 8d <Superscript>1</Superscript>D<Subscript>2</Subscript> excited states of Hg I

Radiative lifetimes of 7d, 8d ¹ D ₂ excited states of Hg I are measured using pulsed two-photon excitation from the ground [Xe]5d ¹⁰6s ^{2 1} S ₀ mercury state, detecting the decay of the laser-induced fluorescence. The results are compared with theoretical values, obtained by means of a Hartree-Fock single configuration method, taking into account electron configuration interaction. The radiative lifetime value dependence on the effective principal quantum number for the nd ¹ D ₂ series is analyzed and compared with the quantum defect dependence. Received 25 February 2000 and Received in final form 26 July 2000     

Observation of multiple superconducting gaps in the infrared reflectivity spectra of Ba(Fe<Subscript>0.9</Subscript>Co<Subscript>0.1</Subscript>)<Subscript>2</Subscript>As<Subscript>2</Subscript>

The results of infrared reflectivity measurements for the iron-based high-temperature superconductor Ba(Fe_0.9Co_0.1)₂As₂ are reported. The reflectivity is found to be close to unity at frequencies ω lower than 2Δ/h (2Δ is the superconducting gap and h is Planck’s constant). This is evidence for the s ^+/− or s ^+/+ symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in the studied compound. The infrared reflectivity spectra of Ba(Fe_0.9Co_0.1)₂As₂ manifest opening of several superconducting gaps at temperatures lower than critical T _c .     

Electronic structure of prototype AFe<Subscript>2</Subscript>As<Subscript>2</Subscript> and ReOFeAs high-temperature superconductors: A comparison

We have performed ab initio LDA calculations of the electronic structure of newly discovered prototype high-temperature superconductors AFe₂As₂ (A = Ba, Sr) and compared it with the previously calculated electronic spectra of ReOFeAs (Re = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm). In all cases, we obtain almost identical densities of states in a rather wide energy interval (up to 1 eV) around the Fermi level. Energy dispersions are also very similar and almost two dimensional in this energy interval, leading to the same basic (minimal) model of the electronic spectra, determined mainly by Fe d orbitals of the FeAs layers. The other constituents, such as A ions or rare-earth Re (or oxygen states) are more or less irrelevant for superconductivity. LDA Fermi surfaces for AFe₂As₂ are also very similar to that of ReOFeAs. This makes the more simple AFe₂As₂ a generic system to study the high-temperature superconductivity in FeAs-layered compounds. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Ground-state measurement of Pr<Superscript>3+</Superscript> in Y<Subscript>2</Subscript>O<Subscript>3</Subscript> by photoconductivity

1 at % Pr³⁺-doped Y₂O₃ single-crystal fibers were prepared using a laser-heated pedestal growth method. The emission and excitation spectra of the fibers were measured. The emissions of 4f-4f transitions from ¹ D ₂ to the ³ H ₄ and ³ H ₅ states are found at 620 and 720 nm, respectively. The ³ P ₂, ³ P ₁, ¹ I ₆, and ³ P ₀ 4f-4f absorptions are observed at 456, 472, 482, and 492 nm, respectively. A 4f-5d absorption band is detected at 288 nm. Photoconductivity measurements show that the 4f-5f transition of Pr³⁺ around 285 nm produces a direct photocurrent. Taking the onset of photocurrent to be at 320 nm, the ground state of Pr³⁺ is determined at 1.7 eV above the valence band of the host. The text was submitted by the authors in English.