arXiv subjects

L. Pintschovius

Publications and source records attributed to L. Pintschovius.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2019

Phonon Dispersion Relation, High-Pressure Phase Stability and Thermal Expansion in YVO4

The orthovanadates are useful as host matrices for immobilization of radioactive wastes. The thermodynamic stability of these materials is crucial for their applications in high pressure and temperatures environment. It is necessary to investigate the phonons in the entire Brillouin zone, beyond the zone-centre phonons accessible in previous Raman and infrared experiments. We have carried out extensive neutron inelastic scattering experiments to derive the phonon dispersion relation of YVO4 up to high energy transfer of 65 meV using a single crystal, which are perhaps reported for the first time in any orthovanadate compound. The measured phonon dispersion relation is in good agreement with our first principles density functional theory as well as shell model calculations. The calculated pressure dependence of phonon modes in the zircon and scheelite phases shows unstable modes and violation of the Born stability criteria at high pressure, which may be lead to instability in YVO4 at high pressures. We also calculate large anisotropy in the thermal expansion behavior which arises from difference in anisotropic elasticity and mode Grüneisen parameters.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Soft phonons reveal the nematic correlation length in Ba(Fe$_{0.94}$Co$_{0.06}$)$_2$As$_2$

Nematicity is ubiquitous in electronic phases of high-$T_c$ superconductors, particularly in the Fe-based systems. While several experiments have probed nematic fluctuations, they have been restricted to uniform or momentum averaged fluctuations. Here, we investigate the behavior of finite-momentum nematic fluctuations by utilizing the anomalous softening of acoustic phonon modes in optimally doped Ba(Fe$_{0.94}$Co$_{0.06}$)$_2$As$_2$. We determine the nematic correlation length and find that it sharply changes its $T$-dependence at $T_c$, revealing a strong connection between nematicity and superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Magnetic and structural quantum phase transitions in CeCu6-xAux are independent

The heavy-fermion compound CeCu$_{6-x}$Au$_x$ has become a model system for unconventional magnetic quantum criticality. For small Au concentrations $0 \leq x < 0.16$, the compound undergoes a structural transition from orthorhombic to monoclinic crystal symmetry at a temperature $T_{s}$ with $T_{s} \rightarrow 0$ for $x \approx 0.15$. Antiferromagnetic order sets in close to $x \approx 0.1$. To shed light on the interplay between quantum critical magnetic and structural fluctuations we performed neutron-scattering and thermodynamic measurements on samples with $0 \leq x\leq 0.3$. The resulting phase diagram shows that the antiferromagnetic and monoclinic phase coexist in a tiny Au concentration range between $x\approx 0.1$ and $0.15$. The application of hydrostatic and chemical pressure allows to clearly separate the transitions from each other and to explore a possible effect of the structural transition on the magnetic quantum critical behavior. Our measurements demonstrate that at low temperatures the unconventional quantum criticality exclusively arises from magnetic fluctuations and is not affected by the monoclinic distortion.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2017

Finite-momentum nematic fluctuations soften phonons in the superconducting state of Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$

Nematic order is ubiquitous in liquid crystals and is characterized by a rotational symmetry breaking in an otherwise uniform liquid. Recently a similar phenomenon has been observed in some electronic phases of quantum materials related to high temperature superconductivity, particularly in the Fe-based superconductors. While several experiments have probed nematic fluctuations, they have been primarily restricted to the uniform nematic susceptibility, i.e. q = 0 fluctuations. Here, we investigate the behavior of finite-momentum nematic fluctuations by measuring transverse acoustic phonon modes with wavelengths of up to 25 unit cells in the prototypical Fe-based compound Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$. While the slope of the phonon dispersion gives information about the uniform nematic susceptibility, deviations from this linear behavior at finite but small wave-vectors are attributed to finite-momentum nematic fluctuations. Surprisingly, these non-zero q fluctuations lead to a softening of the phonon mode below the superconducting transition temperature, in contrast to the behavior of the phonon velocity at q = 0, which increases below $T_c$. Our work not only establishes a sound method to probe long wavelength nematic fluctuations, but also sheds light on the unique interplay between nematicity and superconductivity in Fe-based compounds.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2015

Close correlation between magnetic properties and the soft phonon mode of the structural transition in BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ and SrFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$

Parent compounds of Fe-based superconductors undergo a structural phase transition from a tetragonal to an orthorhombic structure. We investigated the temperature dependence of the frequencies of transverse acoustic (TA) phonons that extrapolate to the shear vibrational mode at the zone center, which corresponds to the orthorhombic deformation of the crystal structure at low temperatures in BaFe 2 As 2 and SrFe 2 As 2 . We found that acoustic phonons at small wavevectors soften gradually towards the transition from high temperatures, tracking the increase of the size of slowly fluctuating magnetic domains. On cooling below the transition to base temperature the phonons harden, following the square of the magnetic moment. Our results provide evidence for close correlation between magnetic and phonon properties in Fe-based superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Phonons and electron-phonon coupling in the phonon-mediated superconductor YNi2B2C

We present a combined density-functional-perturbation-theory and inelastic neutron scattering study of the lattice dynamical properties of YNi2B2C. In general, very good agreement was found between theory and experiment for both phonon energies and line widths. Our analysis reveals that the strong coupling of certain low energy modes is linked to the presence of large displacements of the light atoms, i.e. B and C, which is unusual in view of the rather low phonon energies. Specific modes exhibiting a strong coupling to the electronic quasiparticles were investigated as a function of temperature. Their energies and line widths showed marked changes on cooling from room temperature to just above the superconducting transition at Tc = 15.2 K. Calculations simulating the effects of temperature allow to model the observed temperature dependence qualitatively.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2014

Evidence for a charge collective mode associated with superconductivity in copper oxides from neutron and x-ray scattering measurements of La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$

In superconducting copper oxides some Cu-O bond-stretching phonons around 70meV show anomalous giant softening and broadening of electronic origin and electronic dispersions have large renormalization kinks near the same energy. These observations suggest that phonon broadening originates from quasiparticle excitations across the Fermi surface and the electronic dispersion kinks originate from coupling to anomalous phonons. We measured the phonon anomaly in underdoped (x=0.05) and overdoped (x=0.20,0.25) La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ by inelastic neutron and x-ray scattering with high resolution. Combining these and previously published data, we found that doping-dependence of the magnitude of the giant phonon anomaly is very different from that of the ARPES kink, i.e. the two phenomena are not connected. We show that these results provide indirect evidence that the phonon anomaly originates from novel collective charge excitations as opposed to interactions with electron-hole pairs. Their amplitude follows the superconducting dome so these charge modes may be important for superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Electron-phonon coupling in the conventional superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C at high phonon energies studied by time-of-flight neutron spectroscopy

We report an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of phonons with energies up to 159 meV in the conventional superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C. Using the SWEEP mode, a newly developed time-of-flight technique involving the continuous rotation of a single crystal specimen, allowed us to measure a four dimensional volume in (Q,E) space and, thus, determine the dispersion surface and linewidths of the $A_{1g}$ (~ 102 meV) and $A_u$ (~ 159 meV) type phonon modes for the whole Brillouin zone. Despite of having linewidths of $Γ= 10 meV$, $A_{1g}$ modes do not strongly contribute to the total electron-phonon coupling constant $λ$. However, experimental linewidths show a remarkable agreement with ab-initio calculations over the complete phonon energy range demonstrating the accuracy of such calculations in a rare comparison to a comprehensive experimental data set.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Phonon lineshapes in the vortex state of the phonon-mediated superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C

We present an inelastic neutron scattering study of phonon lineshapes in the vortex state of the type-II superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C. In a previous study [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{101}, 237002 (2008)] it was shown that certain phonons exhibit a clear signature of the superconducting gap $2Δ$ on entering the superconducting state. Our interest was to find out whether or not the lineshape of such phonons reflects the inhomogeneous nature of the vortex state induced by a magnetic field smaller than the upper critical field $B_{c2}$ .We found that this is indeed the case because the observed phonon lineshapes can be well described by a model considering the phonon as a local probe of the spatial variation of the superconducting gap. We found that even at $B=3\,\rm{T}$, where the inter-vortex distance is less than $300\,$Å, the phonon lineshape still shows evidence for a variation of the gap.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2012

Competition between commensurate and incommensurate magnetic ordering in Fe(1+y)Te

The Fe1+y Te1-x Sex compounds belong to the family of iron-based high temperature superconductors, in which superconductivity often appears upon doping antiferromagnetic parent compounds. Unlike other Fe-based superconductors (in which the antiferromagnetic order is at the Fermi surface nesting wavevector [1/2,1/2,1]), the Fe1+y Te1-x Sex parent compound Fe1+y Te orders at a different wavevector, [1/2, 0, 1/2]. Furthermore, the ordering wavevector depends on y, the occupation of interstitial sites with excess iron; the origin of this behavior is controversial. Using inelastic neutron scattering on Fe1.08 Te, we find incommensurate magnetic fluctuations above the Neel temperature, even though the ordered state is bicollinear and commensurate with gapped spin waves. This behavior can be understood in terms of a competition between commensurate and incommensurate order, which we explain as a lock-in transition caused by the magnetic anisotropy.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Effects of charge inhomogeneities on elementary excitations in La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4

Purely local experimental probes of many copper oxide superconductors show that their electronic states are inhomogeneous in real space. For example, scanning tunneling spectroscopic (STS) imaging shows strong variations in real space, and according to nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) studies the charge distribution in the bulk varies on the nanoscale. However, the analysis of the experimental results utilizing spatially-averaged probes often ignores this fact. We have performed a detailed investigation of the doping-dependence of the energy and line width and position of the zone-boundary Cu-O bond-stretching vibration in La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4 by inelastic neutron scattering. Both our new results as well as previously reported angle-dependent momentum widths of the electronic spectral function detected by angle-resolved photoemission can be reproduced by including the same distribution of local environments extracted from the NQR analysis.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Superconductivity-Induced Distortions of Phonon Lineshapes in Niobium

Superconductivity-induced changes of phonon lineshapes in niobium have been re-investigated by high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering. We show that the changes go beyond a simple change in lifetime and frequency when the phonon frequency is close to the superconducting energy gap $2Δ$. The observed lineshapes in elemental niobium are qualitatively similar to those found previously in borocarbide superconductors and agree very well with those predicted by the theory of Allen et al. [PRB 56, 5552 (1997)]. Our results indicate that the peculiar phonon lineshapes in the superconducting state predicted by the theory of Allen et al. are a general phenomenon and not restricted to a particular class of compounds.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Pressure dependence of phonon modes across the tetragonal to collapsed tetragonal phase transition in CaFe2As2

The pressure dependence of a large number of phonon modes in CaFe2As2 with energies covering the full range of the phonon spectrum has been studied using inelastic x-ray and neutron scattering. The observed phonon frequency changes are in general rather small despite the sizable changes of the lattice parameters at the phase transition. This indicates that the bonding properties are not profoundly altered by the phase transition. The transverse acoustic phonons propagating along the c-direction are an exception because they stiffen very significantly in response to the large contraction of the c-axis. The lattice parameters are found to change significantly as a function of pressure before, during and after the first-order phase transition. However, the frequencies change nearly uniformly with the change in the lattice parameters due to pressure, with no regard specifically to the first-order phase transition. Density functional theory describes the frequencies in both the zero pressure and in the collapsed phase in a satisfactory way if based on the respective crystal structures.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Anomalous Phonons in CaFe2As2

Extensive inelastic neutron scattering measurements of phonons on a single crystal of CaFe2As2 allowed us to establish a fairly complete picture of phonon dispersions in the main symmetry directions. The phonon spectra were also calculated by density functional theory (DFT) in the local density approximation (LDA). There are serious discrepancies between calculations done for the optimized structure and experiment, because the optimised structure is not the ambient pressure structure but is very close to the collapsed structure reached at p = 3.5 kbar. However, if the experimental crystal structure is used the calculation gives correct frequencies of most phonons. The most important new result is that linewidths/frequencies of certain modes are larger/softer than predicted by DFT-LDA. We also observed strong temperature dependence of some phonons near the structural phase transition near 173K. This behavior may indicate anomalously strong electron phonon coupling and/or anharmonicity, which may be important to the mechanism of superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Direct observation of the superconducting gap in phonon spectra

We show that the superconducting energy gap $Δ$ can be directly observed in phonon spectra, as predicted by recent theories. In addition, since each phonon probes the gap on only a small part of the Fermi surface, the gap anisotropy can be studied in detail. Our neutron scattering investigation of the anisotropic conventional superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C demonstrates this new application of phonon spectroscopy.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Local moment fluctuations in an optimally-doped high Tc superconductor

We present results of neutron scattering experiments on YBa2Cu3O6.95 (Tc=93K). Our results indicate that magnetic collective modes due to correlated local moments are present both above and below Tc in optimally doped YBCO. The magnon-like modes are robust and not overdamped by itinerant particle-hole excitations, which may point at a substantial static or slowly fluctuating charge inhomogeneity. We compare the experimental results to predictions of the Fermi liquid (FL) theory in the Random Phase Approximation (RPA).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2006

Electron-phonon anomaly related to charge stripes: static stripe phase versus optimally-doped superconducting La1.85Sr0.15CuO4

Inelastic neutron scattering was used to study the Cu-O bond-stretching vibrations in optimally doped La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 (Tc = 35 K) and in two other cuprates showing static stripe order at low temperatures, i.e. La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4 and La1.875Ba0.125CuO4. All three compounds exhibit a very similar phonon anomaly, which is not predicted by conventional band theory. It is argued that the phonon anomaly reflects a coupling to charge inhomogeneities in the form of stripes, which remain dynamic in superconducting La1.85Sr0.15CuO4 down to the lowest temperatures. These results show that the phonon effect indicating stripe formation is not restricted to a narrow region of the phase diagram around the so-called 1/8 anomaly but occurs in optimally doped samples as well.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2006

Oxygen phonon branches in overdoped La$_{1.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$CuO$_4$

The dispersion of the Cu-O bond-stretching vibrations in overdoped La$_{1.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$CuO$_4$ (not superconducting) has been studied by high resolution inelastic neutron scattering. It was found that the doping-induced renormalization of the so-called breathing and the half-breathing modes is larger than in optimally doped La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_4$. On the other hand, the phonon linewidths are generally smaller in the overdoped sample. Features observed in optimally doped La$_{1.85}$Sr$_{0.15}$CuO$_4$ which suggest a tendency towards charge stripe formation are absent in overdoped La$_{1.7}$Sr$_{0.3}$CuO$_4$.

cond-mat.supr-con↗