arXiv subjects

A. de Visser

Publications and source records attributed to A. de Visser.

At least 55 records · Page 3Linked to original sources

arXiv2007

Superconductivity on the border of weak itinerant ferromagnetism in UCoGe

We report the coexistence of ferromagnetic order and superconductivity in UCoGe at ambient pressure. Magnetization measurements show that UCoGe is a weak ferromagnet with a Curie temperature T_{C}= 3 K and a small ordered moment $m_{0}$= 0.03 $μ_B$. Superconductivity is observed with a resistive transition temperature T_{s} = 0.8 K for the best sample. Thermal-expansion and specific-heat measurements provide solid evidence for bulk magnetism and superconductivity. The proximity to a ferromagnetic instability, the defect sensitivity of T_{s}, and the absence of Pauli limiting, suggest triplet superconductivity mediated by critical ferromagnetic fluctuations.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2007

Evidence for a ferromagnetic quantum critical point in URhGe doped with Ru

We have investigated the evolution of ferromagnetic order in the correlated metal series URh_{1-x}Ru_{x}Ge. Magnetization, transport and specific heat measurements provide convincing evidence for a ferromagnetic quantum critical point at the critical concentration x_{c} = 0.38. Here we report ac-susceptibility and magnetization measurements on selected samples with Ru doping concentrations near the critical point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Ferromagnetic quantum critical point in URhGe doped with Ru

We have investigated the thermal, transport and magnetic properties of URh$_{1-x}$Ru$_x$Ge alloys near the critical concentration $x_{cr} = 0.38$ for the suppression of ferromagnetic order. The Curie temperature vanishes linearly with $x$ and the ordered moment $m_0$ is suppressed in a continuous way. At $x_{cr}$ the specific heat varies as $c \sim TlnT$, the $γ$-value $c/T|_{0.5K}$ is maximum and the temperature exponent of the resistivity $ρ\sim T^n$ attains a minimum value $n=1.2$. These observations provide evidence for a ferromagnetic quantum phase transition. Interestingly, the coefficient of thermal expansion and the Grüneisen parameter $Γ$ remain finite at $x_{cr}$ (down to $T = 1$ K), which is at odds with recent scaling results for a metallic quantum critical point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

Evolution of ferromagnetic order in URhGe alloyed with Ru, Co and Si

We have investigated the evolution of ferromagnetic order in the correlated metal URhGe (Curie temperature $T_{\rm C} = $9.5 K) by chemical substitution of Ru, Co and Si. Polycrystalline samples URh$_{1-x}$Ru$_x$Ge ($x \leq $0.6), URh$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Ge ($x \leq $0.9) and URhGe$_{1-x}$Si$_x$ ($x \leq $0.2) have been prepared and the magnetic properties have been investigated by magnetization and transport experiments. In the case of Ru doping, $T_{\rm C}$ initially increases, but then decreases linearly as a function of $x$ and is completely suppressed for $x_{\rm cr} \approx 0.38$. The Curie temperature in the URh$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Ge series has a broad maximum $T_{\rm C} = 20$ K near $x=0.6$ and then drops to 8 K for $x=0.9$. In the case of Si doping $T_{\rm C}$ stays roughly constant. We conclude that the alloy systems URh$_{1-x}$Ru$_x$Ge and URh$_{1-x}$Co$_x$Ge are interesting candidates to study the ferromagnetic instability.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

Observation of the quantized Hall insulator in the quantum critical regime of the two-dimensional electron gas

We have investigated the Hall resistance $R_H$ near the plateau-insulator transition of a two-dimensional electron gas in the quantum critical regime. High-field magnetotransport data taken on a low-mobility InGaAs/InP heterostructure with the plateau-insulator transition at a critical field $B_c$ of 17.2 T show that the Hall resistance $R_H$ is quantized at $h/e^2$ near the critical filling fraction ($ν_c$ = 0.55) when $T \to 0$. By making use of universal scaling functions extracted from the magnetotransport data we show that $R_H$ in the insulating phase in the limit $T \to 0$ is quantized at $h/e^2$ for all values of the scaling parameter $Δν/(T/T_0)^κ$ with $Δν= ν- ν_c$. However, as a function of $Δν$ (or magnetic field) the Hall resistance diverges in the limit $T \to 0$ for all values $ν< ν_c$.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Quantum critical behaviour of the plateau-insulator transition in the quantum Hall regime

High-field magnetotransport experiments provide an excellent tool to investigate the plateau-insulator phase transition in the integral quantum Hall effect. Here we review recent low-temperature high-field magnetotransport studies carried out on several InGaAs/InP heterostructures and an InGaAs/GaAs quantum well. We find that the longitudinal resistivity $ρ_{xx}$ near the critical filling factor $ν_{c}$ ~ 0.5 follows the universal scaling law $ρ_{xx}(ν, T) \propto exp[-Δν/(T/T_{0})^κ]$, where $Δν=ν-ν_{c}$. The critical exponent $κ$ equals $0.56 \pm 0.02$, which indicates that the plateau-insulator transition falls in a non-Fermi liquid universality class.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2006

Electron transport and optical properties of shallow GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum wells with a thin central AlAs barrier

Shallow GaAs/InGaAs/GaAs quantum well structures with and without a three monolayer thick AlAs central barrier have been investigated for different well widths and Si doping levels. The transport parameters are determined by resistivity measurements in the temperature range 4-300 K and magnetotransport in magnetic fields up to 12 T. The (subband) carrier concentrations and mobilities are extracted from the Hall data and Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations. We find that the transport parameters are strongly affected by the insertion of the AlAs central barrier. Photoluminescence spectra, measured at 77 K, show an increase of the transition energies upon insertion of the barrier. The transport and optical data are analyzed with help of self-consistent calculations of the subband structure and envelope wave functions. Insertion of the AlAs central barrier changes the spatial distribution of the electron wave functions and leads to the formation of hybrid states, i.e. states which extend over the InGaAs and the delta-doped layer quantum wells.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2005

Non-Fermi-liquid behavior in Ce(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$Ge$_2$: cause and effect

We present inelastic neutron scattering measurements on the intermetallic compounds Ce(Ru$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)$_2$Ge$_2$ ($x$=0.65, 0.76 and 0.87). These compounds represent samples in a magnetically ordered phase, at a quantum critical point and in the heavy-fermion phase, respectively. We show that at high temperatures the three compositions have the identical response of a local moment system. However, at low temperatures the spin fluctuations in the critical composition are given by non-Fermi-liquid dynamics, while the spin fluctuations in the heavy fermion system show a simple exponential decay in time. In both compositions, the lifetime of the fluctuations is determined solely by the distance to the quantum critical point. We discuss the implications of these observations regarding the possible origins of non-Fermi-liquid behavior in this system.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2005

Suppression of ferromagnetism in URhGe doped with Ru

In the correlated metal URhGe ferromagnetic order (T_C = 9.5 K) and superconductivity (T_s= 0.25 K) coexist at ambient pressure. Here we report on alloying URhGe by Ru, which enables one to tune the Curie temperature to 0 K. URuGe has a paramagnetic ground state and is isostructural to URhGe. We have prepared a series of polycrystalline URh_{1-x}Ru_{x}Ge samples over a wide range of x values. Magnetization and electrical resistivity data (T > 2 K) show, after an initial increase, a linear suppression of T_C with increasing x. The critical Ru concentration for the suppression of ferromagnetic order is x_cr ~ 0.38.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Weak magnetism phenomena in heavy-fermion superconductors: selected $μ$SR studies

The behavior of the so-called weak moment antiferromagnetic states, observed in the heavy-fermion superconductors UPt$_3$ and URu$_2$Si$_2$, is discussed in view of recent $μ$SR results obtained as function of control parameters like chemical substitution and external pressure. In UPt$_3$, the Pd substitution for Pt reveals the dynamical character of the weak moment order. On the other hand, $μ$SR measurements performed on samples in which Th substitutes U suggest that crystallographic disorder on the magnetic sites deeply affects the fluctuation timescale. In URu$_2$Si$_2$, a phase separation between the so-called hidden order state, present at ambient pressure, and an antiferromagnetic state, occurring under pressure, is observed. In view of the pressure-temperature phase diagram obtained by $μ$SR, it is deduced that the respective order parameters have different symmetries.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Ordered magnetic and quadrupolar states under hydrostatic pressure in orthorhombic PrCu2

We report magnetic susceptibility and electrical resistivity measurements on single-crystalline PrCu2 under hydrostatic pressure, up to 2 GPa, which pressure range covers the pressure-induced Van Vleck paramagnet-to-antiferromagnet transition at 1.2 GPa. The measured anisotropy in the susceptibility shows that in the pressure-induced magnetic state the ordered 4f-moments lie in the ac-plane. We propose that remarkable pressure effects on the susceptibility and resistivity are due to changes in the quadrupolar state of O22 and/or O20 under pressure. We present a simple analysis in terms of the singlet-singlet model.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2004

Effect of Zeeman splitting on magnetoresistivity of 2D hole gas in a Ge_{1-x}Si_x/Ge/Ge_{1-x}Si_x quantum well

For a two-dimensional (2D) hole system (confined within Ge layers of a multilayered p-Ge/Ge_{1-x}Si_x heterostructure) described by Luttinger Hamiltonian with the g-factor highly anisotropic for orientations of magnetic field perpendicular and parallel to the 2D plane (g_perp >> g_par), reported is an observation of low-temperature transition from metallic (dR/dT > 0) to insulator (dR/dT < 0) behavior of resistivity R(T) induced by a perpendicular magnetic field B. The revealed positive magnetoresistance scales as a function of B/T. We attribute this finding to a suppression of the triplet channel of electron-electron (hole-hole) interaction due to Zeeman splitting in the hole spectrum.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Onset of antiferromagnetism in UPt_{3} via Th-substitution studied by muon spin spectroscopy

Muon spin spectroscopy has been used to study in detail the onset of large-moment antiferromagnetism (LMAF) in UPt_{3} as induced by Th substitution. Zero-field experiments have been carried out on a series of polycrystalline U_{1-x}Th_{x}Pt_{3} (0 <= x <= 0.05) samples in the temperature range 0.04 - 10 K. At low Th content (x <= 0.002) magnetic ordering on the time scale of the uSR experiment (10^{-8} s) is not detected. For x = 0.005 a weak magnetic signal appears below T = 2 K, while for 0.006 <= x <= 0.05, spontaneous oscillations in the uSR spectra signal the presence of the LMAF phase. The data are well described by a two-component depolarization function, combining the contribution of a polycrystalline antiferromagnet and a Kubo-Lorentzian response. However, the transition into the antiferromagnetic phase is quite broad. For x = 0.01 and 0.02, a weak magnetic signal appears below about 7 K, which is well above the mean-field transition temperatures. The broadening may be a result of the effects of disorder on the time fluctuations associated with anomalous small-moment antiferromagnetism.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2003

The effects of macroscopic inhomogeneities on the magneto transport properties of the electron gas in two dimensions

In experiments on electron transport the macroscopic inhomogeneities in the sample play a fundamental role. In this paper and a subsequent one we introduce and develop a general formalism that captures the principal features of sample inhomogeneities (density gradients, contact misalignments) in the magneto resistance data taken from low mobility heterostructures. We present detailed assessments and experimental investigations of the different regimes of physical interest, notably the regime of semiclassical transport at weak magnetic fields, the plateau-plateau transitions as well as the plateau-insulator transition that generally occurs at much stronger values of the external field only. It is shown that the semiclassical regime at weak fields plays an integral role in the general understanding of the experiments on the quantum Hall regime. The results of this paper clearly indicate that the plateau-plateau transitions, unlike the the plateau-insulator transition, are fundamentally affected by the presence of sample inhomogeneities. We propose a universal scaling result for the magneto resistance parameters. This result facilitates, amongst many other things, a detailed understanding of the difficulties associated with the experimental methodology of H.P. Wei et.al in extracting the quantum critical behavior of the electron gas from the transport measurements conducted on the plateau-plateau transitions.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

New Insights into the Plateau-Insulator Transition in the Quantum Hall Regime

We have measured the quantum critical behavior of the plateau-insulator (PI) transition in a low-mobility InGaAs/GaAs quantum well. The longitudinal resistivity measured for two different values of the electron density follows an exponential law, from which we extract critical exponents kappa = 0.54 and 0.58, in good agreement with the value (kappa = 0.57) previously obtained for an InGaAs/InP heterostructure. This provides evidence for a non-Fermi liquid critical exponent. By reversing the direction of the magnetic field we find that the averaged Hall resistance remains quantized at the plateau value h/e^2 through the PI transition. From the deviations of the Hall resistance from the quantized value, we obtain the corrections to scaling.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Parallel magnetic field induced magnetoresistance peculiarities of the double quantum well filled with electrons or holes

In In_xGa_{1-x}As/n-GaAs double quantum wells (DQWs) containing an electron gas, the magnetoresistance (MR) peculiarities under parallel magnetic fields caused by the passing of the tunnel gap edges through the Fermi level are revealed. Peculiarities positioned in high fields (~30 T) can only be explained if the spin-splitting of the In_xGa_{1-x}As conduction band is considered, that was neglected in the GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures, for which solely the effects of this nature have been observed so far. In Ge/p-Ge_{1-x}Si_x DQWs containing a hole gas, local MR peculiarities under parallel fields are discovered as well. But the tunnel gap in these DQWs is too narrow to be responsible for these observations. We suppose, they are due to a complicated shape of the hole confinement subbands.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

The effect of carrier density gradients on magnetotransport data measured in Hall bar geometry

We have measured magnetotransport of the two-dimensional electron gas in a Hall bar geometry in the presence of small carrier density gradients. We find that the longitudinal resistances measured at both sides of the Hall bar interchange by reversing the polarity of the magnetic field. We offer a simple explanation for this effect and discuss implications for extracting conductivity flow diagrams of the integer quantum Hall effect.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2003

Thermal expansion of the magnetorefrigerant Gd5(Si,Ge)4

We report thermal expansion measurements carried out on a single-crystal of the giant magnetocaloric effect material Gd5(Si0.43Ge0.57)4. At the magneto-structural phase transition at T_0 ~ 240 K, large steps in the relative length change DELTAL/L along the principle crystallographic axes are observed. The single-step behaviour in DELTAL/L indicates that the magnetic and structural phase transition occur at one and the same temperature. The specific heat was measured in order to determine the latent heat. Using the Clausius-Clapeyron relation we extract a hydrostatic pressure dependence dT_0/dp of 3.2+-0.2 K/kbar. The pressure effect is strongly anisotropic as follows from the anisotropy in the linear thermal expansion. Uniaxial pressure along the a-axis enhances T_0, while uniaxial pressure in the bc-plane suppresses T_0.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗