arXiv subjects

G. Cao

Publications and source records attributed to G. Cao.

125 records · Page 7Linked to original sources

arXiv2005

Thermal and Magnetic Properties of the Spin-Chain Material, Pr3RuO7

We present measurements of the magnetic moment and specific heat of single crystals of the spin-chain insulator, Pr3RuO7. The susceptibility indicates that three-dimensional antiferromagnetic order sets in at TN = 54 K, with spin polarization approximately along the chain direction, but the susceptibility anisotropy above TN indicates that the intrachain interactions are predominantly ferromagnetic while the interchain interactions are antiferromagnetic. This competition presumably gives rise to the observed metamagnetic behavior for applied fields along the polarization direction. The specific heat anomaly at TN is unusually mean-field in shape, with magnitude indicating that the transition involves mostly ordering of the ruthenium moments. A Schottky-like anomaly at low temperature may be due to praesodynium ions ordering in the effective field established at TN.

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arXiv2005

Colossal Magnetoresistance by Avoiding a Ferromagnetic State in the Mott System Ca3Ru2O7

Transport and magnetic studies of Ca3Ru2O7 for temperatures ranging from 0.4 K to 56 K and magnetic fields, B, up to 45 T leads to strikingly different behavior when the field is applied along the different crystal axes. A ferromagnetic (FM) state with full spin polarization is achieved for B||a-axis, but colossal magnetoresistance is realized only for B||b-axis. For B||c-axis, Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations are observed and followed by a less resistive state than for B||a. Hence, in contrast to standard colossal magnetoresistive materials, the FM phase is the least favorable for electron hopping. These properties together with highly unusual spin-charge-lattice coupling near the Mott transition (48 K) are driven by the orbital degrees of freedom.

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arXiv2004

From itinerant ferromagnetism to insulating antiferromagnetism: A magnetic and transport study of single crystal SrRu1-xMnxO3

We report results of a magnetic and transport study of SrRu1-xMnxO3, i.e., Mn doped SrRuO3. The Mn doping drives the system from the itinerant ferromagnetic state (TC=165 K for x=0) through a quantum critical point at xc=0.39 to an insulating antiferromagnetic state. The onset of antiferromagnetism is abrupt with a Neel temperature increasing from 205 K for x=0.44 to 250 K for x=0.59. Accompanying this quantum phase transition is a drastic change in resistivity by as much as 8 orders of magnitude as a function of x at low temperatures. The critical composition xc=0.39 sharply separates the two distinct ground states, namely the ferromagnetic metal from the antiferromagnetic insulator.

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arXiv2004

Orbitally-driven Behavior: Mott Transition, Quantum Oscillations and Colossal Magnetoresistance in Bilayered Ca3Ru2O7

We report recent transport and thermodynamic experiments over a wide range of temperatures for the Mott-like system Ca3Ru2O7 at high magnetic fields, B, up to 30 T. This work reveals a rich and highly anisotropic phase diagram, where applying B along the a-, b-, and c-axis leads to vastly different behavior. A fully spin-polarized state via a first order metamagnetic transition is obtained for B||a, and colossal magnetoresistance is seen for B||b, and quantum oscillations in the resistivity are observed for B||c, respectively. The interplay of the lattice, orbital and spin degrees of freedom are believed to give rise to this strongly anisotropic behavior.

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arXiv2004

Specific Heat of Sr4Ru3O10

We have measured the specific heat of single crystals of the triple-layer Ruddlesden-Popper material, Sr4Ru3O10, grown both in an image furnace and by flux-growth. The flux grown sample has a sharp mean-field-like anomaly at the onset of magnetic order, Tc = 102 K, but a much broader anomaly, indicative of residual heterogeneity, is observed for the image furnace sample. Even for the flux grown sample, however, the anomaly is at least an order of magnitude smaller than one would expect for complete ordering of the spins. Neither sample exhibits an anomaly at Tm ~ 50 K, where magnetic measurements suggest that basal plane antiferromagnetism sets in. Anomalous behavior (e.g. consistent with a term in the specific heat ~ T^3/2 as would be observed for a three-dimensional ferromagnet with weak exchange) is observed at low temperatures for both samples, indicative of the unusual magnetic order in this material.

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arXiv2004

Coexistence of dimerization and long-range magnetic order in the quantum antiferromagnetic compound LiCu2O2: inelastic light scattering study

Raman scattering studies of the frustrated spin chain system LiCu$_{2}$O$_{2}$ are reported. Two transitions into a magnetically ordered phase (taken place at temperatures $\sim$ 9 K and $\sim$ 24 K) have been confirmed from the analysis of optical properties of the samples. Interestingly, two different magnetic excitations, seen at 100 and 110 cm$^{-1}$ in the magnetically ordered phase superimpose each other independently, indicating a coherent coexistence of long-range magnetic order and dimerization. The observed phenomenon is attributed to magnetostructural peculiarities of LiCu$_{2}$O$_{2}$ leading to the intrinsic presence of nonmagnetic impurities on a nanometer scale. Furthermore, magnetic impurities play a significant role in driving the transition from an incommensurate state to a Néel ordered one at 9 K.

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arXiv2003

High-temperature weak ferromagnetism on the verge of a metallic state: Impact of dilute Sr-doping on BaIrO3

The 5d-electron based BaIrO3 is a nonmetallic weak ferromagnet with a Curie temperature at Tc=175 K. Its largely extended orbitals generate strong electron-lattice coupling, and magnetism and electronic structure are thus critically linked to the lattice degree of freedom. Here we report results of our transport and magnetic study on slightly Sr doped BaIrO3. It is found that dilute Sr-doping drastically suppresses Tc, and instantaneously leads to a nonmetal-metal transition at high temperatures. All results highlight the instability of the ground state and the subtle relation between magnetic ordering and electron mobility. It is clear that BaIrO3 along with very few other systems represents a class of materials where the magnetic and transport properties can effectively be tuned by slight alterations in lattice parameters.

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arXiv2003

Violation of the Mott-Ioffe-Regel Limit: High-temperature Resistivity of Itinerant Magnets Srn+1RunO3n+1 (n=2,3,infinity) and CaRuO3

Srn+1RunO3n+1 represents a class of layered materials whose physical properties are a strong function of the number of Ru-O layers per unit cell, n. This series includes the p-wave superconductor Sr2RuO4 (n=1), enhanced paramagnetic Sr3Ru2O7 (n=2), nearly ferromagnetic Sr4Ru3O10 (n=3) and itinerant ferromagnetic SrRuO3 (n=infinity). In spite of a wide spectrum of physical phenomena, this series of materials along with paramagnetic CaRuO3 shares two major characteristics, namely, robust Fermi liquid behavior at low temperatures and anomalous transport behavior featured by linear temperature dependence of resistivity at high temperature where electron wavepackets are no longer clearly defined. There is no crossover separating such two fundamentally different states. In this paper, we report results of our study that systematically addresses anisotropy and temperature dependence of basal-plane and c-axis resistivity as a function of n for the entire Srn+1RunO3n+1 series and CaRuO3 and for a wide temperature range of 1.7 K<T<900 K. It is found that the anomalous transport behavior correlates with magnetic susceptibility and becomes stronger with decreasing dimensionality. Implications of these results are discussed.

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arXiv2003

Field-tuned Collapse of an Orbital Ordered and Spin-polarized State: Colossal Magnetoresistance in Bilayered Ruthenate

Ca3Ru2O7 with a Mott-like transition at 48 K features different in-plane anisotropies of magnetization and magnetoresistance. Applying magnetic field along the magnetic easy-axis precipitates a spin-polarized state via a first-order metamagnetic transition, but does not lead to a full suppression of the Mott state, whereas applying magnetic field along the magnetic hard axis does, causing a resistivity reduction of three orders of magnitude. The colossal magnetoresistivity is attributed to the collapse of the orbital ordered and spin-polarized state. Evidence for a density wave is also presented.

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arXiv2003

Quantum Oscillations, Colossal Magnetoresistance and Magnetoelastic Interaction in Bilayered Ca3Ru2O7

We report magnetic and inter-plane transport properties of Ca3Ru2O7 at high magnetic fields and low temperatures. Ca3Ru2O7 with a bilayered orthorhombic structure is a Mott-like system with a narrow charge gap of 0.1eV. Of a host of unusual physical phenomena revealed in this study, a few are particularly intriguing: (1) a collapse of the c-axis lattice parameter at a metal-nonmetal transition, TMI (=48 K), and a rapid increase of TMI with low uniaxial pressure applied along the c-axis; (2) quantum oscillations in the gapped, nonmetallic state for 20 mK<T<6.5 K; (3) tunneling colossal magnetoresistance, which yields a precipitate drop in resistivity by as much as three orders of magnitude; (4) different in-plane anisotropies of the colossal magnetoresistance and magnetization. All results appear to indicate a highly anisotropic ground state and a critical role of coupling between lattice and magnetism. The implication of these phenomena is discussed.

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arXiv2003

Competing Ground States in Triple-layered Sr4Ru3O10: Verging on Itinerant Ferromagnetism with Critical Fluctuations

Sr4Ru3O10 is characterized by a sharp metamagnetic transition and ferromagnetic behavior occurring within the basal plane and along the c-axis, respectively. Resistivity at magnetic field, B, exhibits low-frequency quantum oscillations when B||c-axis and large magnetoresistivity accompanied by critical fluctuations driven by the metamagnetism when B^c-axis. The complex behavior evidenced in resistivity, magnetization and specific heat presented is not characteristic of any obvious ground states, and points to an exotic state that shows a delicate balance between fluctuations and order.

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arXiv2002

Pressure-Tuned Collapse of the Mott-Like State in Ca_{n+1}Ru_nO_{3n+1} (n=1,2): Raman Spectroscopic Studies

We report a Raman scattering study of the pressure-induced collapse of the Mott-like phases of Ca_3Ru_2O_7 (T_N=56 K) and Ca_2RuO_4 (T_N=110 K). The pressure-dependence of the phonon and two-magnon excitations in these materials indicate: (i) a pressure-induced collapse of the antiferromagnetic (AF) insulating phase above P* ~ 55 kbar in Ca_3Ru_2O_7 and P* ~ 5-10 kbar in Ca_2RuO_4, reflecting the importance of Ru-O octahedral distortions in stabilizing the AF insulating phase; and (ii) evidence for persistent AF correlations above the critical pressure of Ca_2RuO_4, suggestive of phase separation involving AF insulator and ferromagnetic metal phases.

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arXiv2002

Temperature-dependent Raman spectroscopy in BaRuO$_3$ systems

We investigated the temperature-dependence of the Raman spectra of a nine-layer BaRuO$_3$ single crystal and a four-layer BaRuO$_3$ epitaxial film, which show pseudogap formations in their metallic states. From the polarized and depolarized spectra, the observed phonon modes are assigned properly according to the predictions of group theory analysis. In both compounds, with decreasing temperature, while $A_{1g}$ modes show a strong hardening, $E_g$ (or $E_{2g}$) modes experience a softening or no significant shift. Their different temperature-dependent behaviors could be related to a direct Ru metal-bonding through the face-sharing of RuO$_6$. It is also observed that another $E_{2g}$ mode of the oxygen participating in the face-sharing becomes split at low temperatures in the four layer BaRuO$_3 $. And, the temperature-dependence of the Raman continua between 250 $\sim $ 600 cm$^{-1}$ is strongly correlated to the square of the plasma frequency. Our observations imply that there should be a structural instability in the face-shared structure, which could be closely related to the pseudogap formation of BaRuO$_3$ systems.

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arXiv2002

Complex Quantum Phenomena in a Bilayered Calcium Ruthenate

Ca$_3$Ru$_2$O$_7$ undergoes an antiferromagnetic transition at $T_{\text{N}}=56 $K, followed by a Mott-like (MI) transition at $T_{\text{MI}}=48$ K. This nonmetallic ground state, with a charge gap of 0.1 eV, is suppressed by a highly anisotropic metamagnetic transition that leads to a fully spin-polarized metallic state. We report the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the \textit{gapped} state, colossal magnetoresistance in the inter-plane resistivity with a large anisotropy different from that observed in the magnetization, and non-Fermi liquid behavior in the metallic state at high magnetic fields.

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arXiv1999

Destruction of the Mott Insulating Ground State of Ca_2RuO_4 by a Structural Transition

We report a first-order phase transition at T_M=357 K in single crystal Ca_2RuO_4, an isomorph to the superconductor Sr_2RuO_4. The discontinuous decrease in electrical resistivity signals the near destruction of the Mott insulating phase and is triggered by a structural transition from the low temperature orthorhombic to a high temperature tetragonal phase. The magnetic susceptibility, which is temperature dependent but not Curie-like decreases abruptly at TM and becomes less temperature dependent. Unlike most insulator to metal transitions, the system is not magnetically ordered in either phase, though the Mott insulator phase is antiferromagnetic below T_N=110 K.

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arXiv1998

Localization and transport in pseudoternary ruthenates

The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity of two chemically substituted Ca-ruthenates is examined with the Efros-Shklovskii mechanism invoking Coulomb interactions between carriers. Additional mechanisms causing an energy dependence to the density of states at the Fermi surface may explain the unusually wide temperature and conductivity range obeyed by one system.

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arXiv1997

High-field Electron Spin Resonance of Cu_{1-x}Zn_{x}GeO_{3}

High-Field Electron Spin Resonance measurements were made on powder samples of Cu_{1-x}Zn_{x}GeO_{3} (x=0.00, 0.01, 0.02, 0.03 and 0.05) at different frequencies (95, 110, 190, 220, 330 and 440 GHz) at low temperatures. The spectra of the doped samples show resonances whose positions are dependent on Zn concentration, frequency and temperature. The analysis of intensity variation of these lines with temperature allows us to identify them as originating in transitions within states situated inside the Spin Peierls gap. A qualitative explanation of the details of the spectra is possible if we assume that these states in the gap are associated with "loose" spins created near the Zn impurities, as recently theoreticaly predicted. A new phenomenon of quenching of the ESR signal across the Dimerized to Incommensurate phase-boundary is observed.

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