Surface studies on polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7−δ with Auger electron and low-energy electron energy-loss spectroscopy

Chemical and electronic properties of scrapecleaned YBa₂Cu₃O_7–(YBCO) ceramics, which were also annealed in vacuum or exposed to H atoms or O₂ molecules, were studied at room temperature by applying Auger electron (AES) and low-energy electron energy-loss spectroscopy (LEELS). Scanning electron micrographs showed such scraped surfaces to consist mainly of small, fractured YBCO crystallites, i.e. of clean YBCO surfaces. With only one exception, all low-energy AES lines were found to be shifted in energy compared to data recorded with surfaces of metallic Cu and Y. The analysis of the high-energy AES lines indicated the existence of non-stoichiometric material in grain boundaries. At least 25 different LEELS features were recorded. The 24.9-eV energy loss, which is due to the excitation of bulk valence-electron plasmons, indicates an enhanced oxygen deficit _s 0.8 at scrape-cleaned YBCO surfaces. Annealing of scraped YBCO samples at approximately 700 K in vacuum and also their exposure to hydrogen atoms resulted in an additional oxygen depletion within a few atomic layers near to the surfaces. These oxygen deficiencies were found to increase the intensity ratios of low-and high-energy AES lines of Cu, Ba, and Y and to intensify the energy-loss peak at 4.4 eV which has been attributed to O–Cu–O dumbbells.     

Instability of the paramagnetic state towards incommensurate magnetic order in the 2-d Hubbard model

We determine the instability line separating the paramagnetic phase in the phase diagram of the 2-d Hubbard Model from a phase with incommensurate magnetic order. A mean-field approximation of the Kotliar-Ruckenstein slave boson representation is used to calculate the wave-vector dependent magnetic susceptibility. For largeU/t the instability occurs at a densityn0.37, and a wave-vector close toq=(0,). The dependence ofq onU andn is also given.     

Zur krümmungsverwandtschaft von zwangläufen in affinen ck — Ebenen II

In part I we have studied a map of osculating elements of an affine Cayley-Klein (CK-) plane into the Lie algebra A₄(²) of the aequiform transformations A₄(²) of the given plane A₂(, ²). If we use the real projective space P₃() over A₄(²) each osculating element defines a straight line in P₃(). We now give a one parameter motion in A₄(²) and study second order properties and their analogon in the Lie algebra and P₃(), respectively. We show that the wellknown relationship between the points of the moving frame and the osculating circles of the point paths in the fixed frame may be interpreted as part of a quadratic map of certain straight Lines of P₃(). An analogous result holds for the curvature of pairs of envelopes; the mapV induced in P₃() than is contained in a cubic relationship of straight lines.

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Herrn Professor Oswal Giering zum 60. Geburtstag gewidmet