arXiv subjects

Frances Hellman

Publications and source records attributed to Frances Hellman.

17 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2023

Disorder-driven localization and electron interactions in Bi$_x$TeI thin films

Strong disorder has a crucial effect on the electronic structure in quantum materials by increasing localization, interactions, and modifying the density of states. Bi$_x$TeI films grown at room temperature and \SI{230}{K} exhibit dramatic magnetotransport effects due to disorder, localization and electron correlation effects, including a MIT at a composition that depends on growth temperature. The increased disorder caused by growth at 230K causes the conductivity to decrease by several orders of magnitude, for several compositions of Bi$_x$TeI. The transition from metal to insulator with decreasing composition $x$ is accompanied by a decrease in the dephasing length which leads to the disappearance of the weak-antilocalization effect. Electron-electron interactions cause low temperature conductivity corrections on the metallic side and Efros-Shklovskii (ES) variable range hopping on the insulating side, effects which are absent in single crystalline Bi$_x$TeI. The observation of a tunable metal-insulator transition and the associated strong localization and quantum effects in Bi$_x$TeI shows the possibility of tuning spin transport in quantum materials via disorder.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Exploring the origins of perpendicular magnetic anisotropy in amorphous Tb-Co via changes in medium-range ordering

Amorphous thin films of Tb$_{17}$Co$_{83}$ (a-Tb-Co) grown by magnetron co-sputtering exhibit changes in magnetic anisotropy with varying growth and annealing temperatures. The magnetic anisotropy constant increases with increasing growth temperature, which is reduced or vanishes upon annealing at temperatures above the growth temperature. The proposed explanation for this growth-induced anisotropy in high orbital moment Tb-based transition metal alloys such as a-Tb-Co is an amorphous phase texturing with preferential in-plane and out-of-plane local bonding configurations for the rare-earth and transition metal atoms. Scanning nanodiffraction performed in a transmission electron microscope (TEM) is applied to a-Tb$_{17}$Co$_{83}$ films deposited over a range of temperatures to measure relative changes in medium-range ordering (MRO). These measurements reveal an increase in MRO with higher growth temperatures and a decrease in MRO with higher annealing temperatures. The trend in MRO indicates a relationship between the magnetic anisotropy and local atomic ordering. Tilting select films between 0$^{\circ}$ and 40$^{\circ}$ in the TEM measures variations in the local atomic structure a function of orientation within the films. The findings support claims that preferential ordering along the growth direction results from temperature-mediated adatom configurations during deposition, and that oriented MRO correlates with the larger anisotropy constants.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Establishing Coherent Momentum-Space Electronic States in Locally Ordered Materials

In our understanding of solids, the formation of highly spatially coherent electronic states, fundamental to command the quantum behavior of materials, relies on the existence of discrete translational symmetry of the crystalline lattice. In contrast, in the absence of long-range order, as in the case of non-crystalline materials, the electronic states are localized and electronic coherence does not develop. This brings forward the fundamental question whether long range order is necessary condition to establish coherence and structured momentum-dependent electronic state, and how to characterize it in the presence of short-range order. Here we study Bi$_2$Se$_3$, a material that exists in its crystalline form with long range order, in amorphous form, with short and medium range order, and in its nanocrystalline form, with reduced short range order. By using angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy to directly access the electronic states in a momentum resolved manner, we reveal that, even in the absence of long-range order, a well-defined real-space length scale is sufficient to produce dispersive band structures. Moreover, we observe for the first time a repeated Fermi surface structure of duplicated annuli, reminiscent of Brillouin zone-like repetitions. These results, together with our simulations using amorphous Hamiltonians, reveal that the typical momentum scale where coherence occurs is the inverse average nearest-neighbor distance, the direct fingerprint of the local order of the underlying atomic structure. These results, not only lead the way to a new understanding of electronic coherence in solids, but also open the way to the realization of novel momentum-dependent quantum phenomena such as momentum pairing and spin-orbit coupling, in a much broader class of materials than the currently studied ones, lacking long range crystalline translational symmetry.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Observation of spin-momentum locked surface states in amorphous Bi$_{2}$Se$_{3}$

Crystalline symmetries have played a central role in the identification of topological materials. The use of symmetry indicators and band representations have enabled a classification scheme for crystalline topological materials, leading to large scale topological materials discovery. In this work we address whether amorphous topological materials, which lie beyond this classification due to the lack of long-range structural order, exist in the solid state. We study amorphous Bi$_2$Se$_3$ thin films, which show a metallic behavior and an increased bulk resistance. The observed low field magnetoresistance due to weak antilocalization demonstrates a significant number of two dimensional surface conduction channels. Our angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy data is consistent with a dispersive two-dimensional surface state that crosses the bulk gap. Spin resolved photoemission spectroscopy shows this state has an anti-symmetric spin texture resembling that of the surface state of crystalline Bi$_2$Se$_3$. These experimental results are consistent with theoretical photoemission spectra obtained with an amorphous tight-binding model that utilizes a realistic amorphous structure. This discovery of amorphous materials with topological properties uncovers an overlooked subset of topological matter outside the current classification scheme, enabling a new route to discover materials that can enhance the development of scalable topological devices.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2023

Structural spillage: an efficient method to identify non-crystalline topological materials

While topological materials are not restricted to crystals, there is no efficient method to diagnose topology in non-crystalline solids such as amorphous materials. Here we introduce the structural spillage, a new indicator that predicts the unknown topological phase of a non-crystalline solid, which is compatible with first-principles calculations. We illustrate its potential with tight-binding and first-principles calculations of amorphous bismuth, predicting a bilayer to be a new topologically nontrivial material. Our work opens up the efficient prediction of non-crystalline solids via first-principles and high-throughput searches.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2022

Characterizing the Nonequilibrium Response of FeRh Thin Films using Time-Domain Thermoreflectance (TDTR)

Time-Domain Thermoreflectance (TDTR) characterization of FeRh throughout its first-order antiferromagnetic (AF) to ferromagnetic (FM) transition shows that the transient reflectance, $\Delta$R(t)/R, strongly depends on the magnetic order of the sample. Using TDTR, which uses optical pulses to induce small temperature excursions, we have found that the $\Delta$R(t)/R of the AF phase exhibits a large negative response, while the response of the FM phase is positive. This magnetic phase sensitivity has allowed us to study the transient response of both the AF and FM phase to the pump pulse excitation and the mixed phase of the material. These results are significant since the ultrafast properties of antiferromagnetic materials and mixed antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic materials are difficult to detect using other conventional techniques.We have found that the AF phase exhibits a strong subpicosecond signal not observed in the FM phase. The magnetic phase dependence of the sign of $\Delta$R(t)/R is qualitatively explained using the results of ab-initio density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Using the two-temperature model, we found that the change in the thermalization time across the transition is caused by differences in both the electronic heat capacity and the electron-phonon coupling factor of the AF and FM phases. The electron-phonon coupling constant in the AF phase is also determined using the two-temperature model conducted using the NTMpy code package. For the FM phase, we provide boundaries for the magnitude of the electron-phonon coupling factor for the FM phase. These results indicate that TDTR can be used to study the transient properties of magnetic materials that are otherwise challenging to probe.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Strategies to reduce the thermoelastic loss of multimaterial coated finite substrates

Thermoelastic loss is an important energy dissipation mechanisms in resonant systems. A careful analysis of the thermoelastic loss is critical to the design of low-noise devices for high-precision applications, such as the mirrors used for gravitational-wave detectors. In this paper, we present analytical solutions to the thermoelastic loss due to thermoelasticity between different materials that are in contact. We find expressions for the thermoelastic loss of multimaterial coatings of finite substrates, and analyze its dependencies on material properties, mirror design and operating experimental conditions. Our results show that lower operating mirror temperature, thinner layers and higher number of interfaces in the coating, and the choice of the first layer of the coating that minimizes the thermal expansion mismatch with the substrate are strategies that reduce the thermoelastic loss and, therefore, diminish the thermal noise that limits the resolution in sensing applications. The results presented in this paper are relevant for the development of low-noise gravitational-wave detectors and for other experiments sensitive to energy dissipation mechanisms when different materials are in contact.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Temperature effects on the structure and mechanical properties of vapor deposited a-SiO2

Amorphous silica (a-SiO2) exhibits unique thermo-mechanical behaviors that set it apart from other glasses. However, there is still limited understanding of how this mechanical behavior is related to the atomic structure and to the preparation conditions of a-SiO2. Here, we used electron beam (e-beam) physical vapor deposition (PVD) to prepare a series of a-SiO2 films grown at different substrate temperatures and then combined molecular simulations with Positronium Annihilation Lifetime Spectroscopy and nanoindentation experiments to establish relations among processing, structure, and mechanical response of the films. Specifically, we found that increase in the growth temperature leads to increase in the elastic moduli and hardness of the films. The relative porosity in the films also increases while the a-SiO2 network itself becomes denser, resulting in an overall increase in density despite increased porosity. In addition, we found that the a-SiO2 films exhibit the same anomalous temperature dependence of elastic modulus as bulk a-SiO2. However, the rate of increase in the elastic modulus with the measurement temperature was found to depend on the density of the a-SiO2 network and therefore on the growth temperature. Our findings provide new insights into the influence of the atomic network structure on the anomalous thermomechanical behavior of a-SiO2 and in turn guidance to control the mechanical properties of a-SiO2 films.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2022

Compositional Trends in Surface Enhanced Diffusion in Lead Silicate Glasses

In this work, we use molecular dynamics simulations to study the enhancement of surface over bulk diffusion (surface enhanced diffusion) in (PbO)x(SiO2)1-x glasses. This work is motivated to better understand surface diffusion in glasses and its connection to fragility, and to enhance surface diffusion in silica and related glasses for greater thermodynamic stability during vapor-deposition. By adding PbO to silica, the fragility of glass increases continuously for 10% <= x <= 70% during experiments. The increase in fragility may correspond to an increase in surface enhanced diffusion, as fragility and surface diffusion are correlated. We observe that for the silicates investigated, while surface enhanced diffusion increases with fragility, the enhancement is quite small. The slower diffusing Si and O atoms have higher enhancements, which could allow for some surface stabilization effects. We demonstrate that there are only small changes in atomic arrangements, consistent with the similar diffusion rates, at the surface as compared to bulk. Finally, we examine the trend of bulk versus surface diffusion in view of previous observations in organic and metallic glasses and found that in oxides, fragility increase may not be strongly linked to enhanced surface diffusion.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Structural disorder-driven topological phase transition in noncentrosymmetric BiTeI

We investigate the possibility of using structural disorder to induce a topological phase in a solid state system. Using first-principles calculations, we introduce structural disorder in the trivial insulator BiTeI and observe the emergence of a topological insulating phase. By modifying the bonding environments, the crystal-field splitting is enhanced and the spin-orbit interaction produces a band inversion in the bulk electronic structure. Analysis of the Wannier charge centers and the surface electronic structure reveals a strong topological insulator with Dirac surface states. Finally, we propose a prescription for inducing topological states from disorder in crystalline materials. Understanding how local environments produce topological phases is a key step for predicting disordered and amorphous topological materials.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2020

Spin-orbit torque generated by amorphous Fe$_{x}$Si$_{1-x}$

While tremendous work has gone into spin-orbit torque and spin current generation, charge-to-spin conversion efficiency remains weak in silicon to date, generally stemming from the low spin-orbit coupling (low atomic number, Z) and lack of bulk lattice inversion symmetry breaking. Here we report the observation of spin-orbit torque in an amorphous, non-ferromagnetic Fe$_{x}$Si$_{1-x}$ / cobalt bilayer at room temperature, using spin torque ferromagnetic resonance and harmonic Hall measurements. Both techniques provide a minimum spin torque efficiency of about 3 %, comparable to prototypical heavy metals such as Pt or Ta. According to the conventional theory of the spin Hall effect, a spin current in an amorphous material is not expected to have any substantial contribution from the electronic bandstructure. This, combined with the fact that Fe$_{x}$Si$_{1-x}$ does not contain any high-Z element, paves a new avenue for understanding the underlying physics of spin-orbit interaction and opens up a new class of material systems - silicides - that is directly compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes for integrated spintronics applications.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

A Cryogenic Silicon Interferometer for Gravitational-wave Detection

The detection of gravitational waves from compact binary mergers by LIGO has opened the era of gravitational wave astronomy, revealing a previously hidden side of the cosmos. To maximize the reach of the existing LIGO observatory facilities, we have designed a new instrument that will have 5 times the range of Advanced LIGO, or greater than 100 times the event rate. Observations with this new instrument will make possible dramatic steps toward understanding the physics of the nearby universe, as well as observing the universe out to cosmological distances by the detection of binary black hole coalescences. This article presents the instrument design and a quantitative analysis of the anticipated noise floor.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2020

Role of Element-Specific Damping on the Ultrafast, Helicity-Independent All-Optical Switching Dynamics in Amorphous (Gd,Tb)Co Thin Films

Ultrafast control of the magnetization in ps timescales by fs laser pulses offers an attractive avenue for applications such as fast magnetic devices for logic and memory. However, ultrafast helicity-independent all-optical switching (HI-AOS) of the magnetization has thus far only been observed in Gd-based, ferrimagnetic amorphous (\textit{a}-) rare earth-transition metal (\textit{a}-RE-TM) systems, and a comprehensive understanding of the reversal mechanism remains elusive. Here, we report HI-AOS in ferrimagnetic \textit{a}-Gd$_{22-x}$Tb$_x$Co$_{78}$ thin films, from x = 0 to x = 18, and elucidate the role of Gd in HI-AOS in \textit{a}-RE-TM alloys and multilayers. Increasing Tb content results in increasing perpendicular magnetic anisotropy and coercivity, without modifying magnetization density, and slower remagnetization rates and higher critical fluences for switching but still shows picosecond HI-AOS. Simulations of the atomistic spin dynamics based on the two-temperature model reproduce these results qualitatively and predict that the lower damping on the RE sublattice arising from the small spin-orbit coupling of Gd (with $L = 0$) is instrumental for the faster dynamics and lower critical fluences of the Gd-rich alloys. Annealing \textit{a}-Gd$_{10}$Tb$_{12}$Co$_{78}$ leads to slower dynamics which we argue is due to an increase in damping. These simulations strongly indicate that acounting for element-specific damping is crucial in understanding HI-AOS phenomena. The results suggest that engineering the element specific damping of materials can open up new classes of materials that exhibit low-energy, ultrafast HI-AOS.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Spin-Orbit Torque and Nernst Effect in Bi-Sb/Co Heterostructures

Harmonic measurements of the longitudinal and transverse voltages in Bi-Sb/Co bilayers are presented. A large second harmonic voltage signal due to the ordinary Nernst effect is observed. In experiments where a magnetic field is rotated in the film plane, the ordinary Nernst effect shows the same angular dependence in the transverse voltage as the damping-like spin-orbit torque and in the longitudinal voltage as the unidirectional spin-Hall magneto-resistance respectively. Therefore, the ordinary Nernst effect can be a spurious signal in spin-orbit torque measurements, leading to an overestimation of the spin-Hall angle in topological insulators or semimetals.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Magnetic Tunnel Junction Performance Under Mechanical Strain

In this work we investigate the effect of the mechanical stress on the performance of magnetic tunnel junctions (MTJ) with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. We developed a 4-point bending setup, that allows us to apply a constant stress over a large substrate area with access to electrical measurements and external magnetic field. This setup enables us to measure key device performance parameters, such as tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR), switching current ($I_c^{50\%}$) and thermal stability ($Δ$), as a function of applied stress. We find that variations in these parameters are negligible: less than $\SI{2}{\percent}$ over the entire measured range between the zero stress condition and the maximum stress at the point of wafer breakage.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2017

Interface-Induced Phenomena in Magnetism

This article reviews static and dynamic interfacial effects in magnetism, focusing on interfacially-driven magnetic effects and phenomena associated with spin-orbit coupling and intrinsic symmetry breaking at interfaces. It provides a historical background and literature survey, but focuses on recent progress, identifying the most exciting new scientific results and pointing to promising future research directions. It starts with an introduction and overview of how basic magnetic properties are affected by interfaces, then turns to a discussion of charge and spin transport through and near interfaces and how these can be used to control the properties of the magnetic layer. Important concepts include spin accumulation, spin currents, spin transfer torque, and spin pumping. An overview is provided to the current state of knowledge and existing review literature on interfacial effects such as exchange bias, exchange spring magnets, spin Hall effect, oxide heterostructures, and topological insulators. The article highlights recent discoveries of interface-induced magnetism and non-collinear spin textures, non-linear dynamics including spin torque transfer and magnetization reversal induced by interfaces, and interfacial effects in ultrafast magnetization processes.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2016

Spin-Orbit Torques in ferrimagnetic GdFeCo Alloys

The spin-orbit torque switching of ferrimagnetic Gd$_x$(Fe$_{90}$Co$_{10}$)$_{100-x}$ films was studied for both transition metal (TM)-rich and rare earth (RE)-rich configurations. The spin-orbit torque driven magnetization switching follows the same handedness in TM-rich and RE-rich samples with respect to the total magnetization, but the handedness of the switching is reversed with respect to the TM magnetization. This indicates that the sign of the spin-orbit-torque-driven magnetic switching follows the total magnetization, although transport based techniques such as anomalous Hall effect are only sensitive to the transition metal magnetization. These results provide important insight into the physics of spin angular momentum transfer in materials with antiferromagnetically coupled sublattices.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗