arXiv subjects

Isao Watanabe

Publications and source records attributed to Isao Watanabe.

29 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2013

Magnetic order in pyrochlore iridate Nd$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ probed by muon spin relaxation

Muon-spin relaxation results on the pyrochlore iridate Nd$_2$Ir$_2$O$_7$ are reported. Spontaneous coherent muon-spin precession below the metal-insulator transition (MIT) temperature of about 33 K is observed, indicating the appearance of a long-ranged magnetic ordering of Ir$^{4+}$ moments. With further decrease in temperature, the internal field at the muon site increases again below about 9 K. The second increase of internal field suggests the ordering of Nd$^{3+}$ moments, which is consistent with a previous neutron experiment. Our results suggest that the MIT and magnetic ordering of Ir$^{4+}$ moments have a close relationship and that the large spin-orbit coupling of Ir 5\textit{d} electrons plays a key role for both MIT and the mechanism of the magnetic ordering in pyrochlore iridates in the insulting ground state.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2013

Magnetic instability induced by Rh-doping in Kondo semiconductor CeRu$_2$Al$_{10}$

Magnetic ground state of Rh-doped Kondo semiconductor CeRu$_2$Al$_{10}$ [Ce(Ru$_{1-x}$Rh$_x$)$_2$Al$_{10}$] is investigated by muon-spin relaxation method. Muon-spin precession with two frequencies is observed in the $x$ = 0 sample, while only one frequency is present in the $x$ = 0.05 and 0.1 samples, which is attributed to the broad static field distribution at the muon site. The internal field at the muon site is enhanced from about 180 G in $x$ = 0 sample to about 800 G in the Rh-doped samples, supporting the spin-flop transition as suggested by macroscopic measurements, and the boundary of different magnetic ground states is identified around $x$ = 0.03. The drastic change of magnetic ground state by a small amount of Rh-doping (3%) indicates that the magnetic structure in CeRu$_2$Al$_{10}$ is not robust and can be easily tuned by external perturbations such as electron doping. The anomalous temperature dependence of internal field in CeRu$_2$Al$_{10}$ is suggested to be attributed to the hyperfine interaction between muons and conduction electrons.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Microscopic phase separation in triangular-lattice quantum spin magnet kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 probed by muon spin relaxation

The ground state of the quantum spin system kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu2(CN)3 in which antiferromagnetically-interacting S=1/2 spins are located on a nearly equilateral triangular lattice attracts considerable interest both from experimental and theoretical aspects, because a simple antiferromagnetic order may be inhibited because of the geometrical frustration and hence an exotic ground state is expected. Furthermore, recent two reports on the ground state of this system have made it further intriguing by showing completely controversial results; one indicates the gapless state and the other gapped. By utilizing microscopic probe of muSR, we have investigated its spin dynamics below 0.1 K, unveiling its microscopically phase separated ground state at zero field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Possibility of Horizontal Line Node in KFe$_2$As$_2$ Probed by Muon Spin Rotation

The anisotropy and temperature dependence of the magnetic field penetration depth in the iron-based superconductor KFe$_2$As$_2$ have been measured down to 20 mK by means of muon spin rotation. We have observed that the flux-line lattice forms triangular symmetry when we applied the field parallel to c-axis, suggesting the interaction between vortices should be isotropic. The temperature dependence of the penetration depth observd with an applied field parallel and perpendicular to c-axis are different. These results can be accounted for by a superconducting gap function with a horizontal line node in the basal plane.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

No anomalous spin fluctuation in optimally doped and overdoped iron-based oxypnictide superconductors LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ probed by muon spin relaxation

Zero field and longitudinal field muon spin relaxation measurements have been performed in optimally doped and overdoped superconductors LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ in order to investigate the magnetic fluctuation over a wide range of temperature and longitudinal field. We have observed no sign of magnetic fluctuation against temperature in the muons' time window (10$^{-5}\sim$ 10$^{-9}$s). Considering the current results and other results, i.e., spin fluctuation observed by neutron scattering, pseudogap-like behaviors by NMR and photoemission spectroscopy, it is suggested that not only the spin fluctuation but also the multiband character with several different orbital contributions at the Fermi surface may play an important role in the superconducting pairing mechanism of LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Change of the Ground State upon Hole Doping Unveiled by Ni Impurity in High-$T_{\rm c}$ Cuprates

The electronic ground state in high-$T_{\rm c}$ cuprates where the superconducting state is suppressed by Ni substitution has been investigated in La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$Cu$_{1-y}$Ni$_y$O$_4$ from the specific heat and muon spin relaxation measurements. It has been found that the ground state changes from a magnetically ordered state with the strong hole-trapping by Ni to a metallic state with the Kondo effect of Ni with increasing hole-concentration. Moreover, the analysis of the results has revealed that a phase separation into the magnetically ordered phase and the metallic phase occurs around the boundary of two phases.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Pressure-induced new magnetic phase in Tl(Cu$_{0.985}$Mg$_{0.015}$)Cl$_3$ probed by muon spin rotation

We carried out zero-field muon-spin-rotation (ZF-$μ$SR) measurements in hydrostatic pressures in impurity-doped quantum spin gap system Tl(Cu$_{0.985}$Mg$_{0.015}$)Cl$_3$ to investigate microscopic magnetic properties of the pressure-induced phase. The spontaneous muon spin precession, which indicates the existence of a long-range coherent order, is observed in pressures. With decreasing temperature in 3.1 kbar, the internal static magnetic field at the muon sites {\it H}$_{\rm int}$ tends to saturate to 280 Oe around 4 K, however, decreases to 240 Oe at 2.3 K. These results suggest a rearrangement of ordered spins, and we speculate that the oblique antiferromagnetic phase, which is observed in the pressure of 14 kbar on the pure TlCuCl$_3$, appears in the Mg-doped system in lower pressures.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2009

Li diffusion in Li$_x$CoO$_2$ probed by muon-spin spectroscopy

The diffusion coefficient of Li$^+$ ions ($D_{\rm Li}$) in the battery material Li$_x$CoO$_2$ has been investigated by muon-spin relaxation ($μ^+$SR). Based on the experiments in zero-field and weak longitudinal-fields at temperatures up to 400 K, we determined the fluctuation rate ($ν$) of the fields on the muons due to their interaction with the nuclear moments. Combined with susceptibility data and electrostatic potential calculations, clear Li$^+$ ion diffusion was detected above $\sim150$K. The $D_{\rm Li}$ estimated from $ν$ was in very good agreement with predictions from first-principles calculations, and we present the $μ^+$SR technique as an % novel and optimal probe to detect $D_{\rm Li}$ for materials containing magnetic ions.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2008

μSR-detection of the soft-mode toward the exotic magnetic ground state in bond-disordered quantum spin system IPA-Cu(Cl$_{0.35}$Br$_{0.65}$)$_3$

The spin-gap system with a bond-disorder (CH3)2CHNH3-Cu(ClxBr1-x)3 is reported by experiments on macroscopic quantities of the uniform susceptibility and the specific heat to show a magnetic order at low temperatures when the value of x is within the limited region between 0.44 and 0.87, and otherwise a gapped behavior. We have investigated microscopically the ground state of the sample with x=0.35 by muon spin relaxation (mSR) to observe that the frequency spectrum of the spin fluctuation tends to concentrate around zero energy as lowering temperatures. This behavior was interpreted as the soft-mode toward the possible magnetic phase transition at absolute zero.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2007

The effect of randomness on the quantum spin system Tl$_{1-x}$K$_x$CuCl$_3$ with ${\boldmath $x$}$ = 0.44 studied by the Zero-field Muon-Spin-Relaxation (ZF-$μ$SR) method

Zero-field muon-spin-relaxation (ZF-{\boldmath $μ$}SR) measurements were carried out down to 80 mK on the randomness bond system Tl$_{1-x}$K$_x$CuCl$_3$ with $x$ = 0.44. Time spectra are well fitted by the stretched exponential function $\exp (-λt)^β$. The muon spin relaxation rate $λ$ increases rapidly with decreasing temperature, and $β$ tends to 0.5 at 80 mK. The divergent increase of $λ$ suggests the critical slowing down of the frequency of the Cu-3{\it d} spin fluctuations toward a spin frozen state below 80 mK, and the root-exponential-like behavior of the time spectrum indicates that the origin of the relaxation is possibly the spatially-fixed fluctuating dilute moments.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2006

31P-NMR and muSR Studies of Filled Skutterudite Compound SmFe4P12: Evidence for Heavy Fermion Behavior with Ferromagnetic Ground State

The 31P-NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) and muSR (muon spin relaxation) measurements on the filled skutterudite system SmFe4P12 have been carried out. The temperature T dependence of the 31P-NMR spectra indicates the existence of the crystalline electric field effect splitting of the Sm3+$ (J = 5/2) multiplet into a ground state and an excited state of about 70 K. The spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T1 shows the typical behavior of the Kondo system, i.e., 1/T1 is nearly T independent above 30 K, and varies in proportion to T (the Korringa behavior, 1/T1 \propto T) between 7.5 K and 30 K. The T dependence deviated from the Korringa behavior below 7 K, which is independent of T in the applied magnetic field of 1 kOe, and suppressed strongly in higher fields. The behavior is explained as 1/T1is determined by ferromagnetic fluctuations of the uncovered Sm3+ magnetic moments by conduction electrons. The muSR measurements in zero field show the appearance of a static internal field associated with the ferromagnetic order below 1.6 K.

cond-mat.str-el↗