Multicritical end point of the first-order ferromagnetic transition in colossal magnetoresistive manganites

We have studied the bandwidth-temperature-magnetic-field phase diagram of RE0.55Sr0.45MnO3 colossal magnetoresistance manganites with ferromagnetic metal (FM) ground state. The bandwidth was controlled both via chemical substitution and hydrostatic pressure with a focus on the vicinity of the critical pressure p;{*} where the character of the zero-field FM transition changes from first to second order. Below p;{*} the first-order FM transition extends up to a critical magnetic field. It approaches zero on the larger bandwidth side where the surface of the first-order FM phase boundary is terminated by a multicritical end point. The change in the character of the transition and the decrease of the colossal magnetoresistance effect is attributed to the reduced charge-order and orbital-order fluctuations.     

Multicritical behavior of systems with a free surface

The effect of a plane free surface on the multicritical behavior of Ising-like systems with two coupled fluctuating order parameters is analyzed. Homogeneous and weakly disordered systems are considered. The multicritical points at the junctions of bulk and surface phase transition lines are defined. The types of multicritical points that can exist in the phase diagrams of such systems are described.     

Composite to tilted vortex lattice transition in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta in oblique fields

Precision measurements of the vortex phase diagram in single crystals of the layered superconductor Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+delta in oblique magnetic fields confirm the existence of a second phase transition, in addition to the usual first-order vortex-lattice melting line Hm(T). The transition has a strong first-order character, is accompanied by strong hysteresis, and intersects the melting line in a tricritical point (Hm perpendicular, Hcr parallel). Its field dependence and the changing character of the melting line at the tricritical point strongly suggest that the ground state for magnetic fields closely aligned with the superconducting layers is a lattice of uniformly tilted vortex lines.     

Vortex matter phase transition in the C15-Laves-phase superconductor CeRu2: comparison with Bi-2212

We present a comparative study of peak-effect in DC magnetization in single-crystal samples of CeRu₂ and Bi-2212. While the PE in Bi-2212 can be associated with the second-order phase transition from Bragg-glass to vortex-glass, the PE in CeRu₂ is anomalous and can be understood as accompanying a first-order phase transition in the vortex matter.     

Multicritical behavior at the kosterlitz-thouless critical point

A multicritical critical point for the two dimensional planar model is analyzed by studying an exactly soluable limit of a related model—the generalized Villain model. The statistical mechanics of this model is written in terms of vortex and symmetry breaking excitations. In these terms, the problem reduces to a kind of two dimensional problem with interacting electric charges and magnetic monopoles. In this form, the problem is manifestly self-dual. The multicritical behavior is exhibited in a three-dimensional phase space in which the axes are the coupling strength of a “square” symmetry breaking which favors four possible directions for the planar model vectors. The analysis of this multicritical point shows that it is the intersection of at least six critical lines—each with continuously varying critical indices. Two of these lines are described by the exactly soluable gaussian model. The other four are isomorphic to one another, and each one has—as a point on the line—a critical point of the Ashkin-Teller model. We argue that each of these lines might be in an equivalent universality class to the line of critical points which occurs in the Baxter and Ashkin-Teller models. We make a suggestion about which point on these critical lines might be in the same universality class as our multicritical point. Correlation functions at the intersection point are calculated and used to develop an expansion of critical indices about this point. This expansion gives a potential method for calculating the critical behavior along the critical lines of the model.     

Resistance of thin films with edge superconductivity in strong magnetic fields

It is shown that, in an edge superconducting layer of a thin film in a magnetic field perpendicular to the film plane, phase slip centers are formed. The centers arise below the superconducting transition temperature because of the thermal fluctuations of the order parameter and lead to the suppression of superconductivity. The resistance corresponding to such fluctuations is determined, and the contribution of the Aslamazov-Larkin correction to the conductivity of a thin film in magnetic fields slightly exceeding the critical field that breaks the surface superconductivity is calculated.     

Critical behavior and coexistence near a superconducting-ferromagnetic multicritical point

It is shown that in the vicinity of the multicritical transition point of a ferromagnetic cuperconductor a) critical fluctuations of the superconducting order parameter should become observable in 3 dimensions, b) for planar magnetic ordering magnetism and superconductivity should coexist.     

Phase diagram of antiferromagnetic cobalt fluoride

The H-T phase diagram of antiferromagnetic cobalt fluoride in an external magnetic field H perpendicular to the easy magnetization axis A is completed and used to construct a phase diagram in the variables H _z and H _y . In this diagram, the lines corresponding to second-order phase transitions (between an angular phase and a phase with antiferromagnetic vector I ⊥ A) begin and end in fields of a spin-flip transition (i.e., in an exchange field). A peculiarity of these lines of phase transitions is that each of them has two tricritical points at which this line of second-order phase transitions transforms into a line of first-order phase transitions. A critical angle between the direction of the external magnetic field and the basal plane within which the first-order phase transition takes place is determined.     

Instabilities and disorder-driven first-order transition of the vortex lattice

Transport studies in a Corbino disk suggest that the Bragg glass phase undergoes a first-order transition into a disordered solid. This transition shows sharp reentrant behavior at low fields. In contrast, in the conventional strip configuration, the phase transition is obscured by the injection of the disordered vortices through the sample edges, which results in the commonly observed vortex instabilities and smearing of the peak effect in NbSe2 crystals. These features are found to be absent in the Corbino geometry in which the circulating vortices do not cross the sample edges.     

掺杂MgCNi3超导电性和磁性的第一性原理研究

从第一性原理出发，计算了MgCNi₃的电子能带结构.MgCNi₃中C 2p与Ni 3d轨道杂化使穿梭费米面上的Ni 3d能带表现出平面性，费米面落在态密度范霍夫奇异(vHs)峰的右坡上.vHs峰上大的电子态密度和铁磁相变点附近的自旋涨落是决定MgCNi₃超导电性的重要因素.研究了三种替代式掺杂对其超导电性和磁性的影响，发现电子掺杂使费米能级下滑到态密度较低的位置，导致体系转变为无超导电性的顺磁相；同构等价电子数的金属间化合物的轨道杂化，引起费米面上态密度的减少，降低了超导电性；而空穴掺杂使费米面向vHs峰值方向移动，虽然费米面上电子态密度增大可能提高超导电性，但增强了的Ni原子磁交换作用产生铁磁序，破坏了超导电性. 关键词： 电子结构 超导电性 磁性 掺杂     

Magnetic properties of Ising metamagnet in both external longitudinal and transverse fields

The phase diagrams of a two-sublattice Ising metamagnet at finite temperature in a mixed longitudinal field and a transverse magnetic field are investigated by the use of an effective-field theory (EFT) with correlations. In addition to the second-order transition lines, the first-order transition lines are also presented in the phase diagrams, since the Gibbs free energy can be calculated numerically. The results show that there is no fourth-order critical line in the phase diagrams given by using EFT as found by using mean-field theory (MFT). The tricritical lines and their projection in the t−h_x plane obtained by using EFT are also quite different from those by using MFT. Only one type of phase diagram is obtained by using EFT while three kinds of phase diagrams are obtained by using MFT, which indicates that only the first kind of phase diagrams obtained by using MFT is reliable. Furthermore, it is shown that the region of first-order transitions increases as the transverse magnetic field h_x decreases.     

Investigation of the Disordered Antiferromagnetic Ising Model with the Effects of Random Magnetic Fields

Computer simulation of phase transitions is made by the Monte Carlo method using a three-dimensional disordered antiferromagnetic Ising model in the external magnetic field. It is found that in the case where the spin concentration in a system is lower than a threshold one, the effects of random magnetic fields destroy the second-order phase transition and lead to the first-order phase transition into a new phase state of the system characterized by a ground spin-glassy state and metastable energy states at finite temperatures. The dependence of the threshold concentration on the external magnetic field is revealed.     

Effect of an external magnetic field on the dynamics of the nucleus of a new phase near the first-order phase transition in magnetics with defects

The evolution of the nucleus of a new phase near the point of a spin-reorientation first-order phase transition in its magnetics in an external magnetic field is investigated. The effect of the external field and one-dimensional magnetic anisotropy defects on the dynamics of such a nucleus is investigated. Critical fields that promote remagnetization of the sample are noted and evaluated.     

Large inverse and normal magnetocaloric effects in HoBi compound with nonhysteretic first-order phase transition

HoBi single crystal and polycrystalline compounds with NaCl-type structure are successfully obtained, and their magnetic and magnetocaloric properties are studied in detail. With temperature increasing, HoBi compound undergoes two magnetic transitions at 3.7 K and 6 K, respectively. The transition temperature at 6 K is recognized as an antiferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic (AFM-PM) transition, which belongs to the first-order magnetic phase transition (FOMT). It is interesting that the HoBi compound with FOMT exhibits good thermal and magnetic reversibility. Furthermore, a large inverse and normal magnetocaloric effect (MCE) is found in HoBi single crystal in the $H|| [100]$ direction, and the positive $\Delta S_{\rm M}$ peak reaches 13.1 J/kg$\cdot$K under a low field change of 2 T and the negative $\Delta S_{\rm M}$ peak arrives at $-18 $ J/kg$\cdot$K under a field change of 5 T. These excellent properties are expected to be applied to some magnetic refrigerators with special designs and functions.     

Er1-xDyxNi2B2C体系中超导和磁性的共存和相互作用

本在2K～20K温区内系统地研究了Er1-xDyxNi2B2C体系中超导转变温度Tc的反铁磁转变温度TN随Dy掺杂含量x的变化．实验发现x=0．3和x=0．8附近的样品具有复杂的磁结构．这些洋品有两个磁转变温度(TN’和TN)．对于该体系发现了两个主要的特征：1)在x=0．3附近，超导被抑制，TN’出现一个小的峰值；2)在x=0．8附近，Tc出现一个低谷，TN’出现一个大的宽峰．TN’在x=0．3和x=0．8附近的异常来源于改系统中超导和磁性的共存和相互作用。     

Unusual resistivity broadening in the mixed state of NdBa2Cu3O7−δ crystals grown by a crystal-pulling technique

In order to clarify the origin of a strong peak effect in the magnetization curve of NdBa₂Cu₃O_7−δ crystals, we investigated the superconductivity transition behavior of the in-plane resistivity in static magnetic fields up to 8 T. Comparing the results for the samples exhibiting and not exhibiting the peak effect, we found that the former (peak effect sample) shows lower resistivity above the vortex melting temperature. This implies that the pinning force is effective in the vortex liquid state. We also found that the normal state resistivity behaviors of some samples were unusual, indicating inhomogeneous current flow. These results suggest an existence of sheet-like pinning centers perpendicular to the conduction planes.     

Equilibrium first-order melting and second-order glass transitions of the vortex matter in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8

The thermodynamic phase diagram of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 was mapped by measuring local equilibrium magnetization M(H,T) in the presence of vortex shaking. Two equally sharp first-order magnetization steps are revealed in a single temperature sweep, manifesting a liquid-solid-liquid sequence. In addition, a second-order glass transition line is revealed by a sharp break in the equilibrium M(T) slope. The first- and second-order lines intersect at intermediate temperatures, suggesting the existence of four phases: Bragg glass and vortex crystal at low fields, glass and liquid at higher fields.     

Pressure induced superconductivity in CaFe2As2

CaFe2As2 has been found to be exceptionally sensitive to the application of hydrostatic pressure and can be tuned to reveal all the salient features associated with FeAs superconductivity without introducing any disorder. The ambient pressure, 170 K, structural/magnetic, first-order phase transition is suppressed to 128 K by 3.5 kbar. At 5.5 kbar a new transition is detected at 104 K, increasing to above 300 K by 19 kbar. A low temperature, superconducting dome (T(c) approximately 12 K) is centered around 5 kbar, extending down to 2.3 kbar and up to 8.6 kbar. This superconducting phase appears to exist when the low pressure transition is suppressed sufficiently, but before the high pressure transition has reduced the resistivity too dramatically.     

Colossal magnetoresistance in manganites as a multicritical phenomenon

The colossal magnetoresistance in manganites AMnO3 is studied from the viewpoint of multicritical phenomena. To understand the complicated interplay of various phases, we study the Ginzburg-Landau theory in terms of both the mean-field approximation and the renormalization-group analysis for comparison with the observed phase diagram. Several novel features, such as the first-order ferromagnetic transition and the dip in the transition temperature near the multicritical point, can be understood as being driven by enhanced fluctuations near the multicritical point. Furthermore, we obtain a universal scaling relation for the H/M versus M2 plot (Arrott plot), which fits rather well with the experimental data, providing further evidence for the enhanced fluctuation.