Magnetic behavior of MnAs precipitates in Ga1−xMnxAs diluted magnetic semiconductor

Ferromagnetic Ga_1−xMn_xAs layers (where x≈4.7–5.5%) were grown on (1 0 0) GaAs substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. These p-type (Ga,Mn)As films were revealed to have a ferromagnetic structure and ferromagnetism is observed up to a Curie temperature of 318 K, which is ascribed to the presence of MnAs secondary magnetic phases within the film. It is highly likely that the phase segregation occurs due to the high Mn cell temperature around 890–920 °C, as it is well established that GaMnAs is unstable at such a high temperature. The MnAs precipitate in the samples with x≈4.7–5.5% has a Curie temperature T_c≈318 K, which was characterized from field-cooled and zero-field-cooled magnetization curves.     

Intrinsic magnetic properties of In2O3 and transition metal-doped-In2O3

This paper reports on the influence of the sintering temperature and atmosphere and transition-metal doping on the magnetic properties of nanocrystalline and bulk In₂O₃. Undoped nanocrystalline In₂O₃ is diamagnetic whatever the sintering temperature and atmosphere. All single-phase transition-metal-doped In₂O₃ samples are paramagnetic, with a paramagnetic effective moment originating from weakly interacting transition metal ions. No trace of ferromagnetism has been detected even with samples sintered under argon, except extrinsic ferromagnetism for samples with magnetic dopant concentrations exceeding the solubility limit.     

Disordered correlated Kondo-lattice model

We propose a self-consistent approximate solution of the disordered Kondo-lattice model (KLM) to get the interconnected electronic and magnetic properties of ‘local-moment’ systems like diluted ferromagnetic semiconductors. Aiming at (_A1-xMx)$(A_{1-x}{M}_x)$ compounds, where magnetic (M)$(M)$ and non-magnetic (A)$(A)$ atoms distributed randomly over a crystal lattice, we present a theory which treats the subsystems of itinerant charge carriers and localized magnetic moments in a homologous manner. The coupling between the localized moments due to the itinerant electrons (holes) is treated by a modified RKKY-theory which maps the KLM onto an effective Heisenberg model. The exchange integrals turn out to be functionals of the electronic self-energy guaranteeing self-consistency of our theory. The disordered electronic and magnetic moment systems are both treated by CPA-type methods. We discuss in detail the dependencies of the key-terms such as the long-range and oscillating effective exchange integrals, ‘the local-moment’ magnetization, the electron spin polarization, the Curie temperature as well as the electronic and magnonic quasiparticle densities of states on the concentration x of magnetic ions, the carrier concentration n, the exchange coupling J, and the temperature. The shape and the effective range of the exchange integrals turn out to be strongly x-dependent. The disorder causes anomalies in the spin spectrum especially in the low-dilution regime, which are not observed in the mean field approximation.     

Synthesis and characterization of Ni-doped ZnO: A transparent magnetic semiconductor

We report synthesis of a transparent magnetic semiconductor by incorporating Ni in zinc oxide (ZnO) matrix. ZnO and nickel-doped zinc oxide (ZnO:Ni) thin films (∼60 nm) are prepared by fast atom beam (FAB) sputtering. Both undoped and doped films show the presence of ZnO phase only. The Ni concentration (in at%) as determined by energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) technique is ∼12±2%. Magnetisation measurement using a SQUID magnetometer shows that the Ni-doped films are ferromagnetic, having coercivity (H_c) values 192, 310 and 100 Oe and saturation magnetization (M_s) values of 6.22, 5.32 and 4.73 emu/g at 5, 15 and 300 K, respectively. The Ni-doped film is transparent (>80%) across visible wavelength range. Resistivity of the ZnO:Ni film is ∼2.5×10⁻³ Ω cm, which is almost two orders of magnitude lower than the resistivity (∼4.5×10⁻¹ Ω cm) of its undoped counterpart. Impurity d-band splitting is considered to be the cause of increase in conductivity. Interaction between free charges generated by doping and localized d spins of Ni is discussed as the reason for ferromagnetism in the ZnO:Ni film.     

Electronic structure of cubic ErxGa1−xN using the LSDA+U approach

Electronic structure calculations were performed for substitutional erbium rare-earth impurity in cubic GaN using density-functional theory calculations within the LSDA+U approach (local spin-density approximation with Hubbard-U corrections). The LSDA+U method is applied to the rare-earth 4f states. The Er_xGa_1−xN is found to be a semiconductor, where the filled f-states are located in the valence bands and the empty ones above the conduction band edge. The filled and empty f-states are also shown to shift downwards and upwards in the valence and conduction bands, respectively, with increase in the U potentials.     

Kinematic segregation of granular mixtures in sandpiles

We study the segregation of granular mixtures in two-dimensional silos using a recently proposed set of coupled equations for surface flows of grains. We study the thick flow regime, where the grains are segregated in the rolling phase. We incorporate this dynamical segregation process, called kinematic sieving, free-surface segregation or percolation, into the theoretical formalism and calculate the profiles of the rolling species and the concentration of grains in the bulk in the steady state. Our solution shows the segregation of the mixture with the large grains being found at the bottom of the pile in qualitative agreement with experiments. Received: 6 July 1998 / Revised and Accepted: 13 August 1998     

Semiclassical regime of Regge calculus and spin foams

Recent attempts to recover the graviton propagator from spin foam models involve the use of a boundary quantum state peaked on a classical geometry. The question arises whether beyond the case of a single simplex this suffices for peaking the interior geometry in a semiclassical configuration. In this paper we explore this issue in the context of quantum Regge calculus with a general triangulation. Via a stationary phase approximation, we show that the boundary state succeeds in peaking the interior in the appropriate configuration, and that boundary correlations can be computed order by order in an asymptotic expansion. Further, we show that if we replace at each simplex the exponential of the Regge action by its cosine—as expected from the semiclassical limit of spin foam models—then the contribution from the sign-reversed terms is suppressed in the semiclassical regime and the results match those of conventional Regge calculus.