arXiv subjects

G. Aeppli

Publications and source records attributed to G. Aeppli.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2000

Onset of antiferromagnetism in heavy fermion metals

There are two views of antiferromagnets. The first proceeds from atomic physics, which predicts that atoms with unpaired electrons develop magnetic moments. In a solid, the coupling between moments on nearby ions then yields antiferromagnetic order at low temperatures. The second, based on the physics of electron fluids or 'Fermi liquids', states that Coulomb interactions can drive the fluid to adopt a more stable configuration by developing a spin density wave. It is presently unknown which view is appropriate at a `quantum critical point', where the antiferromagnetic transition temperature vanishes. Here we describe an atomically local contribution to the magnetic correlations which develops in the metal CeCu$_{6-x}$Au$_{x}$ at the critical gold concentration ($x_c=0.1$) where the magnetic ordering temperature is tuned to zero. This contribution implies that a Fermi-liquid destroying spin-localizing transition, unanticipated for the spin density wave description, coincides with the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

X-ray induced persistent photoconductivity in Si-doped Al$_{0.35}$Ga$_{0.65}$As

We demonstrate that X-ray irradiation can be used to induce an insulator-metal transition in Si-doped Al$_{0.35}$Ga$_{0.65}$As, a semiconductor with {\it DX} centers. The excitation mechanism of the {\it DX} centers into their shallow donor state was revealed by studying the photoconductance along with fluorescence. The photoconductance as a function of incident X-ray energy exhibits an edge both at the Ga and As K-edge, implying that core-hole excitation of Ga and As are efficient primary steps for the excitation of {\it DX} centers. A high quantum yield ($\gg 1$) suggests that the excitation is indirect and nonlocal, due to secondary electrons, holes, and fluorescence photons.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2000

Mesoscale magnetism at the grain boundaries in colossal magnetoresistive films

We report the discovery of mesoscale regions with distinctive magnetic properties in epitaxial La$_{1-x}$Sr$_{x}$MnO$_{3}$ films which exhibit tunneling-like magnetoresistance across grain boundaries. By using temperature-dependent magnetic force microscopy we observe that the mesoscale regions are formed near the grain boundaries and have a different Curie temperature (up to 20 K {\it higher}) than the grain interiors. Our images provide direct evidence for previous speculations that the grain boundaries in thin films are not magnetically and electronically sharp interfaces. The size of the mesoscale regions varies with temperature and nature of the underlying defect.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

The connection between superconducting phase correlations and spin excitations in YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.6}$: A magnetic field study

One of the most striking universal properties of the high-transition-temperature (high-$T_c$) superconductors is that they are all derived from the hole-doping of their insulating antiferromagnetic (AF) parent compounds. From the outset, the intimate relationship between magnetism and superconductivity in these copper-oxides has intrigued researchers. Evidence for this link comes from neutron scattering experiments that show the unambiguous presence of short-range AF correlations (excitations) in cuprate superconductors. Even so, the role of such excitations in the pairing mechanism and superconductivity is still a subject of controversy. For YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$, where $x$ controls the hole-doping level, the most prominent feature in the magnetic excitations spectra is the ``resonance''. Here we show that for underdoped YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6.6}$, where $x$ and $T_c$ are below the optimal values, modest magnetic fields suppress the resonance significantly, much more so for fields approximately perpendicular rather than parallel to the CuO$_2$ planes. Our results indicate that the resonance measures pairing and phase coherence, suggesting that magnetism plays an important role in the superconductivity of cuprates. The persistence of a field effect above $T_c$ favors mechanisms with preformed pairs in the normal state of underdoped cuprates.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2000

Magnetoresistance From Quantum Interference Effects in Ferromagnets

The desire to maximize the sensitivity of read/write heads and thus the information density of magnetic storage devices has produced an intense interest in the magnetoresistance (MR) of magnetic materials. Recent discoveries include "colossal" MR of the manganites1-4 and the enhanced MR of low carrier density ferromagnets4-6. In the low carrier density systems investigated to date as well as the manganites, a key feature is that the electrical conduction is due to a different set of electrons than the localized electrons responsible for the magnetism. Here we propose a mechanism for ferromagnetic MR originating from quantum interference effects, rather than simple scattering. The new mechanism obtains in disordered low carrier density magnets where the magnetism as well as the electrical conduction are due to the same electrons. Here the MR is positive and only weakly temperature dependent below the Curie point. This is very different from the MR seen when conduction electrons and local moments can be treated separately, in which case the MR is negative and strongly peaked at the Curie point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2000

The Magnetic Excitation Spectrum and Thermodynamics of High-$T_c$ Superconductors

Inelastic neutron scattering was used to study the wavevector- and frequency-dependent magnetic fluctuations in single crystals of superconducting YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$. The spectra contain several important features, including a gap in the superconducting state, a pseudogap in the normal state and the much-discussed resonance peak. The appearance of the pseudogap determined from transport and nuclear resonance coincides with formation of the resonance in the magnetic excitations. The exchange energy associated with the resonance has the temperature and doping dependences as well as the magnitude to describe approximately the electronic specific heat near the superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1999

The strongly enhanced magnetic excitations near the quantum critical point of Cr$_{1-x}$V$_x$ and why strong exchange enhancement need not imply heavy fermion behavior

Inelastic neutron scattering reveals strong spin fluctuations with energies as high as 0.4eV in the nearly antiferromagnetic metal Cr$_{0.95}$V$_{0.05}$. The magnetic response is well described by a modified Millis-Monien-Pines function. From the low-energy response, we deduce a large exchange enhancement, more than an order of magnitude larger than the corresponding enhancement of the low-temperature electronic heat capacity $γT$. A scaling relationship between $γ$ and the inverse of the wavevector- averaged spin relaxation rate $Γ_{\text{ave}}$ is demonstrated for a number of magnetically correlated metals

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1999

Spin gap and magnetic coherence in a clean high-T_c superconductor

A notable aspect of high-temperature superconductivity in the copper oxides is the unconventional nature of the underlying paired-electron state. A direct manifestation of the unconventional state is a pairing energy - that is, the energy required to remove one electron from the superconductor - that varies (between zero and a maximum value) as a function of momentum or wavevector: the pairing energy for conventional superconductors is wavevector-independent. The wavefunction describing the superconducting state will include not only the pairing of charges, but also of the spins of the paired charges. Each pair is usually in the form of a spin singlet, so there will also be a pairing energy associated with transforming the spin singlet into the higher energy spin triplet form without necessarily unbinding the charges. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering to determine the wavevector-dependence of spin pairing in La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4, the simplest high-temperature superconductor. We find that the spin pairing energy (or 'spin gap') is wavevector independent, even though superconductivity significantly alters the wavevector dependence of the spin fluctuations at higher energies.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

An ordered stack of spin valves in a layered magnetoresistive perovskite

The layered compound La2-2xSr1+2xMn2O7 (x=0.3) consists of bilayers of metallic MnO2 sheets separated by insulating material. The compound exhibits markedly anisotropic magnetoresistance at temperatures well below the three-dimensional magnetic ordering temperature TC=90 K in addition to colossal magnetoresistance around TC. We present neutron diffraction data which show that the magnetic structure of this material switches from antiferromagnetic stacking of the (ferromagnetically ordered) sheets in zero field to ferromagnetic stacking in a field of 1.5 Tesla. The data are the first to be collected on any manganite as a function of applied field, exactly as the magnetoresistance data themselves are collected. They provide a natural explanation of the low-field magnetoresistance in the ordered phase in terms of spin-polarised tunnelling between the magnetic layers and suggest that the material is a bulk stack of spin-valve devices.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Magnetic correlations and quantum criticality in the insulating antiferromagnetic, insulating spin liquid, renormalized Fermi liquid, and metallic antiferromagnetic phases of the Mott system V_2O_3

Magnetic correlations in all four phases of pure and doped vanadium sesquioxide V_2O_3 have been examined by magnetic thermal neutron scattering. While the antiferromagnetic insulator can be accounted for by a Heisenberg localized spin model, the long range order in the antiferromagnetic metal is an incommensurate spin-density-wave, resulting from a Fermi surface nesting instability. Spin dynamics in the strongly correlated metal are dominated by spin fluctuations in the Stoner electron-hole continuum. Furthermore, our results in metallic V_2O_3 represent an unprecedentedly complete characterization of the spin fluctuations near a metallic quantum critical point, and provide quantitative support for the SCR theory for itinerant antiferromagnets in the small moment limit. Dynamic magnetic correlations for energy smaller than k_BT in the paramagnetic insulator carry substantial magnetic spectral weight. However, the correlation length extends only to the nearest neighbor distance. The phase transition to the antiferromagnetic insulator introduces a sudden switching of magnetic correlations to a different spatial periodicity which indicates a sudden change in the underlying spin Hamiltonian. To describe this phase transition and also the unusual short range order in the paramagnetic state, it seems necessary to take into account the orbital degrees of freedom associated with the degenerate d-orbitals at the Fermi level in V_2O_3.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Scaling of magnetic fluctuations near a quantum phase transition

We use inelastic neutron scattering to measure the magnetic fluctuations in a single crystal of the heavy fermion alloy CeCu_5.9Au_0.1 close to the antiferromagnetic quantum critical point. The energy and temperature-dependent spectra obey (E/T) scaling at Q near (1,0,0). The neutron data and earlier bulk susceptibility are consistent with the form 1/X ~ f(Q)+(-iE+bT)^a, with an anomalous exponent a=0.8. We confirm the earlier observation of quasi-low dimensionality and show how both the magnetic fluctuations and the thermodynamics can be understood in terms of a quantum Lifshitz point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1998

Absolute measurements of the high-frequency magnetic dynamics in high-Tc superconductors

We review recent measurements of the high-frequency dynamic magnetic susceptibility in the high-$T_c$ superconducting systems La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_4$ and YBa$_2$Cu$_3$O$_{6+x}$. Experiments were performed using the chopper spectrometers HET and MARI at the ISIS spallation source. We have placed our measurements on an absolute intensity scale, this allows systematic trends to be seen and comparisons with theory to be made. We find that the insulating S=1/2 antiferromagnetic parent compounds show a dramatic renormalization of the spin wave intensity. The effect of doping on the response is to cause broadenings in wave vector and large redistributions of spectral weight in the frequency spectrum.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1998

Nearly Singular Magnetic Fluctuations in the Normal State of a High-T_c Cuprate Superconductor

Polarized and unpolarized neutron scattering was used to measure the wave vector- and frequency-dependent magnetic fluctuations in the normal state (from the superconducting transition temperature, T_c=35, up to 350 K) of single crystals of La_{1.86}Sr_{0.14}CuO_4. The peaks which dominate the fluctuations have amplitudes that decrease as T^{-2} and widths that increase in proportion to the thermal energy, k_B T (where k_B is Boltzmann's constant), and energy transfer added in quadrature. The nearly singular fluctuations are consistent with a nearby quantum critical point.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Softening and Broadening of the Zone Boundary Magnons in Pr0.63Sr0.37MnO3

We have studied the spin dynamics in Pr$_{0.63}$Sr$_{0.37}$MnO$_3$ above and below the Curie temperature $T_C=301$ K. Three distinct new features have been observed: a softening of the magnon dispersion at the zone boundary for $T<T_C$, significant broadening of the zone boundary magnons as $T\to T_C$, and no evidence for residual spin-wave like excitations just above $T_C$. The results are inconsistent with double exchange models that have been successfully applied to higher $T_C$ samples, indicating an evolution of the spin system with decreasing $T_C$.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Direct Observation of Field-Induced Incommensurate Fluctuations in a One-Dimensional S=1/2 Antiferromagnet

Neutron scattering from copper benzoate, Cu(C6D5COO)2 3D2O, provides the first direct experimental evidence for field-dependent incommensurate low energy modes in a one-dimensional spin S = 1/2 antiferromagnet. Soft modes occur for wavevectors q=π+- dq(H) where dq(H) ~ 2 πM(H)/gμ_B as predicted by Bethe ansatz and spinon descriptions of the S = 1/2 chain. Unexpected was a field-induced energy gap $Δ(H) \propto H^α$, where $α= 0.65(3)$ as determined from specific heat measurements. At H = 7 T (gμ_B H/J = 0.52), the magnitude of the gap varies from 0.06 - 0.3 J depending on the orientation of the applied field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1997

Is a doped 'Kondo' insulator different from doped Silicon?

We have observed the metal-insulator transition in the strongly correlated insulator FeSi with the chemical substitution of Al at the Si site. The magnetic susceptibility, heat capacity, and field dependent conductivity are measured for Al concentrations ranging from 0 to 0.08. For concentrations greater than 0.01 we find metallic properties quantitatively similar to those measured in Si:P with the exception of a greatly enhanced quasiparticle mass. Below 2 K the temperature and field dependent conductivity can be completely described by the theory of disordered Fermi Liquids.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv1996

A Comparison of the High-Frequency Magnetic Fluctuations in Insulating and Superconducting La2-xSrxCuO4

Inelastic neutron scattering performed at a spallation source is used to make absolute measurements of the dynamic susceptibility of insulating La2CuO4 and superconducting La2-xSrxCuO4 over the energy range 15<EN<350 meV. The effect of Sr doping on the magnetic excitations is to cause a large broadening in wavevector and a substantial change in the spectrum of the local spin fluctuations. Comparison of the two compositions reveals a new energy scale of 22 meV in La1.86Sr0.14CuO4.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv1996

Two routes to metallic behavior for a Kondo insulator

Cold neutron spectroscopy was performed on CeNi_{1-x}Cu_xSn to investigate how the magnetic gap in the 'Kondo insulator' CeNiSn is destroyed by temperature (T), chemical substitution (x), and external magnetic field. Upon doping, the spin gap collapses and magnetic Bragg peaks occur initially (x = 0.13) at the commensurate wave vectors Q = (0,m/2,l) (m,l integer) where the higher-energy (4.1 meV) gap is located for x = 0. A magnetic field smooths the sharp spin gap structure in both momentum and energy, while leaving the associated static susceptibility unchanged, as does raising T.

cond-mat.str-el↗