arXiv subjects

V. Tsurkan

Publications and source records attributed to V. Tsurkan.

At least 91 records · Page 5Linked to original sources

arXiv2012

Magnetic ground state and 2D behavior in pseudo-Kagome layered system Cu3Bi(SeO3)2O2Br

Anisotropic magnetic properties of a layered kagome-like system Cu3Bi(SeO3)2O2Br have been studied by bulk magnetization and magnetic susceptibility measurements as well as powder and single-crystal neutron diffraction. At T_N = 27.4 K the system develops an alternating antiferromagnetic order of (ab) layers, which individually exhibit canted ferrimagnetic moment arrangement, resulting from the competing ferro- and antiferro-magnetic intralayer exchange interactions. A magnetic field B_C ~ 0.8 T applied along the c axis (perpendicular to the layers) triggers a metamagnetic transition, when every second layer flips, i.e., resulting in a ferrimagnetic structure. Significantly higher fields are required to rotate the ferromagnetic component towards the b axis (~7 T) or towards the a axis (~15 T). The estimates of the exchange coupling constants and features indicative of an XY character of this quasi-2D system are presented.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Nanoscale layering of antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases in Rb2Fe4Se5

We studied phase separation in a single-crystalline antiferromagnetic superconductor Rb2Fe4Se5 (RFS) using a combination of scattering-type scanning near-field optical microscopy (s-SNOM) and low-energy muon spin rotation (LE-μSR). We demonstrate that the antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases segregate into nanometer-thick layers perpendicular to the iron-selenide planes, while the characteristic in-plane size of the metallic domains reaches 10 μm. By means of LE-μSR we further show that in a 40-nm thick surface layer the ordered antiferromagnetic moment is drastically reduced, while the volume fraction of the paramagnetic phase is significantly enhanced over its bulk value. Self-organization into a quasiregular heterostructure indicates an intimate connection between the modulated superconducting and antiferromagnetic phases.

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arXiv2012

NMR Study in the Iron-Selenide Rb0.74Fe1.6Se2: Determination of the Superconducting Phase as Iron Vacancy-Free Rb0.3Fe2Se2

77Se and 87Rb nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on Rb0.74Fe1.6Se2 reveal clearly distinct spectra originating from a majority antiferromagnetic (AF) and a minority metallic-superconducting (SC) phase. The very narrow NMR line of the SC phase evidences the absence of Fe vacancies and any trace of AF order. The Rb content of the SC phase is deduced from intensity measurements identifying Rb0.3(1)Fe2Se2 as the actual composition of the SC fraction. The resulting estimate of 0:15 electrons/Fe brings this class of superconductors 245 family closer to the other Fe-based superconductor families.

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arXiv2012

Superconductivity at Tc = 44 K in LixFe2Se2(NH3)y

Following a recent proposal by Burrard-Lucas et al. [unpublished, arXiv: 1203.5046] we intercalated FeSe by Li in liquid ammonia. We report on the synthesis of new LixFe2Se2(NH3)y phases as well as on their magnetic and superconducting properties. We suggest that the superconducting properties of these new hybride materials appear not to be influenced by the presence of electronically-innocent Li(NH2) salt moieties. Indeed, high onset temperatures of 44 K and shielding fractions of almost 80% were only obtained in samples containing exclusively Lix(NH3)y moieties acting simultaneously as electron donors and spacer units. The c-axis of the new intercalated phases is strongly enhanced when compared to the alkali-metal intercalated iron selenides A1-xFe2-ySe2 with A = K, Rb, Cs, Tl with T c = 32 K.

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arXiv2012

Universal exchange-driven phonon splitting in antiferromagnets

We report a linear dependence of the phonon splitting Δωon the non-dominant exchange coupling constant J_{nd} in the antiferromagnetic transition-metal monoxides MnO, FeO, CoO, NiO, and in the frustrated antiferromagnetic oxide spinels CdCr2O4, MgCr2O4, and ZnCr2O4. It directly confirms the theoretical prediction of an exchange induced splitting of the zone-centre optical phonon for the monoxides and explains the magnitude and the change of sign of the phonon splitting on changing the sign of the non-dominant exchange also in the frustrated oxide spinels. The experimentally found linear relation \hbarΔω= βJ_{nd} S^2 with slope β= 3.7 describes the splitting for both systems and agrees with the observations in the antiferromagnets KCoF3 and KNiF3 with perovskite structure and negligible next-nearest neighbour coupling. The common behavior found for very different classes of cubic antiferromagnets suggests a universal dependence of the exchange-induced phonon splitting at the antiferromagnetic transition on the non-dominant exchange coupling.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2012

Absence of polar order in LuFe2O4

LuFe2O4 often is considered as a prototypical multiferroic with polar order arising from the electronic degrees of freedom only ("electronic ferroelectricity"). In the present work, we check the intrinsic nature of the dielectric response of this material by performing dielectric measurements of polycrystalline samples with different types of contact materials and with different grain sizes. In addition, frequency-dependent measurements of the electric-field dependent polarization are provided. The obtained results unequivocally prove that the reported colossal dielectric constants in LuFe2O4, which were interpreted in terms of electronic ferroelectricity, are of non-intrinsic surface-related origin. The intrinsic dielectric properties of this material show no indications of any ferroelectric order and, thus, LuFe2O4 is not multiferroic. Its intrinsic dielectric constant is close to 20 and its dielectric loss is dominated by charge transport via variable range hopping.

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arXiv2011

Reciprocal-space structure and dispersion of the magnetic resonant mode in the superconducting phase of Rb(x)Fe(2-y)Se2 single crystals

Inelastic neutron scattering is employed to study the reciprocal-space structure and dispersion of magnetic excitations in the normal and superconducting states of single-crystalline Rb0.8Fe1.6Se2. We show that the recently discovered magnetic resonant mode in this compound has a quasi-two-dimensional character, similar to overdoped iron-pnictide superconductors. Moreover, it has a rich in-plane structure that is dominated by four elliptical peaks, symmetrically surrounding the Brillouin zone corner, without sqrt(5) x sqrt(5) reconstruction. We also present evidence for the dispersion of the resonance peak, as its position in momentum space depends on energy. Comparison of our findings with the results of band structure calculations provides strong support for the itinerant origin of the observed signal. It can be traced back to the nesting of electron-like Fermi pockets in the doped metallic phase of the sample in the absence of iron-vacancy ordering.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Anisotropic magnetism, superconductivity, and the phase diagram of Rb(1-x)Fe(2-y)Se2

We report the crystal growth and structural, magnetic, conductivity, and specific heat investigations of Rb(1-x)Fe(2-y)Se2 single crystals with varying stoichiometry prepared by self-flux and Bridgman methods. The system exhibits a strongly anisotropic antiferromagnetic behavior below 400 K. For 1.53 <2-y< 1.6 superconductivity is found, whereas for Fe concentrations 2-y< 1.5 and 2-y> 1.6 insulating and semiconducting behavior is observed, respectively. The sharpest transition to the superconducting state and the highest transition temperature T_c of 32.4 K is found for compositions close to Rb2Fe4Se5. A critical current density j_c of 1.6*10^4 A/cm^2 (at 2 K) is obtained in the superconducting samples with the highest diamagnetic response. In these samples additional intense x-ray reflexes appear, which are incompatible with the tetragonal symmetry. Upper critical fields H_{c2} of ~250 kOe for the in-plane and 630 kOe for the inter-plane configurations are estimated from resistivity in magnetic fields parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis, respectively. In the non-superconducting samples with the Fe concentration below 1.45 both specific heat and susceptibility revealed an anomaly at 220 K which is not related to antiferromagnetic or structural transformations. Comparison with the magnetic behavior of non-superconducting samples provides evidence for the coexistence of superconductivity and static antiferromagnetic order.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Spin liquid in a single crystal of the frustrated diamond lattice antiferromagnet CoAl2O4

We study spin liquid in the frustrated diamond lattice antiferromagnet CoAl2O4 by means of single crystal neutron scattering in zero and applied magnetic field. The magnetically ordered phase appearing below TN=8 K remains nonconventional down to 1.5 K. The magnetic Bragg peaks at the q=0 positions remain broad and their profiles have strong Lorentzian contribution. Additionally, they are connected by weak diffuse streaks along the <111> directions. These observations are explained within the spiral spin liquid model as short-range magnetic correlations of spirals populated at these finite temperatures, as the energy minimum around q=0 is flat and the energy of excited states with q=(111) is low. The agreement is only qualitative, leading us to suspect that microstructure effects are also important. Magnetic field significantly perturbs spin correlations. The 1.5 K static magnetic moment increases from 1.58 mB/Co at zero field to 2.08 mB/Co at 10 T, while the magnetic peaks, being still broad, acquire almost Gaussian profile. Spin excitations are rather conventional spin waves at zero field, resulting in the exchange parameters J1=0.92(1) meV, J2=0.101(2) meV and the anisotropy term D=-0.0089(2) meV for CoAl2O4. The application of a magnetic field leads to a pronounced broadening of the excitations at the zone center, which at 10 T appear gapless and nearly featureless.

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arXiv2011

Magnetic Resonant Mode in the Low-Energy Spin-Excitation Spectrum of Superconducting Rb2Fe4Se5 Single Crystals

We have studied the low-energy spin-excitation spectrum of the single-crystalline Rb2Fe4Se5 superconductor (Tc = 32 K) by means of inelastic neutron scattering. In the superconducting state, we observe a magnetic resonant mode centered at an energy of 14 meV and at the (0.5 0.25 0.5) wave vector (unfolded Fe-sublattice notation), which differs from the ones characterizing magnetic resonant modes in other iron-based superconductors. Our finding suggests that the 245-iron-selenides are unconventional superconductors with a sign-changing order parameter, in which bulk superconductivity coexists with the sqrt(5) x sqrt(5) magnetic superstructure. The estimated ratios of the resonance energy to Tc and the superconducting gap indicate moderate pairing strength in this compound, similar to that in optimally doped 1111- and 122-pnictides.

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arXiv2011

Optical conductivity of superconducting Rb2Fe4Se5

We report the complex dielectric function of high-quality nearly-stoichiometric Rb2Fe4Se5 (RFS) single crystals with Tc=32 K determined by wide-band spectroscopic ellipsometry and time-domain transmission spectroscopy in the spectral range 1 meV<=$\hbar$ω<=6.5 eV at temperatures 4 K<=T<=300 K. This compound simultaneously displays a superconducting and a semiconducting optical response. It reveals a direct band-gap of 0.45 eV determined by a set of spin-controlled interband transitions. Below 100 K we observe in the lowest THz spectral range a clear metallic response characterized by the negative dielectric permittivity ε1 and bare (unscreened) ωpl=100 meV. At the superconducting transition this metallic response exhibits a signature of a superconducting gap below 8 meV. Our findings suggest a coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism in this compound as two separate phases.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Phase separation in superconducting and antiferromagnetic Rb0.8Fe1.6Se2 probed by Mössbauer spectroscopy

57Fe-Mössbauer studies of superconducting Rb0.8Fe1.6Se2.0 with TC = 32.4 K were performed on single-crystalline and polycrystalline samples in the temperature range 4.2 K to 295 K. They reveal the presence of 88% magnetic and 12% non-magnetic Fe2+ species with the same polarization dependence of their hyperfine spectra. The magnetic species are attributed to the 16i sites of the \surd5 x \surd5 x 1 superstructure, and non-magnetic species to a nano-sized phase postulated from recent studies of superconducting KxFe2-ySe2 systems. The 57Fe-spectrum of a single-crystalline sample in an external field of 50 kOe applied parallel to the crystallographic c-axis confirms the antiferromagnetic order between fourfold ferromagnetic Fe(16i) supermoments. The results are discussed with respect to the coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism as well as nano-scale phase separation in AxFe2-ySe2 systems.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2011

Magneto-structural transitions in a frustrated magnet at high fields

Ultrasound and magnetization studies of bond-frustrated ZnCr2S4 spinel are performed in static magnetic fields up to 18 T and in pulsed fields up to 62 T. At temperatures below the antiferromagnetic transition at T_N1 14 K the sound velocity as function of magnetic field reveals a sequence of steps followed by plateaus indicating a succession of crystallographic structures with constant stiffness. At the same time, the magnetization evolves continuously with field up to full magnetic polarization without any plateaus in contrast to geometrically frustrated chromium oxide spinels. The observed high-field magneto-structural states are discussed within a H-T phase diagram taking into account the field and temperature evolution of three coexisting spin structures and subsequent lattice transformations induced by magnetic field.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Evidence for local lattice distortions in giant magnetocapacitive CdCr2S4

Raman scattering experiments on CdCr2S4 single crystals show pronounced anomalies in intensity and frequency of optical phonon modes with an onset temperature T*=130 K that coincides with the regime of giant magnetocapacitive effects. A loss of inversion symmetry and Cr off-centering are deduced from the observation of longitudinal optical and formerly infrared active modes for T<T_c=84 K. The intensity anomalies are attributed to the enhanced electronic polarizability of displacements that modulate the Cr-S distance and respective hybridization. Photo doping leads to an annihilation of the symmetry reduction. Our scenario of multiferroic effects is based on the near degeneracy of polar and nonpolar modes and the additional low energy scale due to hybridization.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Interplay of Spin and Lattice Degrees of Freedom in the Frustrated Antiferromagnet CdCr_2O_4: High-field and Temperature Induced Anomalies of the Elastic Constants

Temperature and magnetic field studies of the elastic constants of the chromium spinel CdCr_2O_4 show pronounced anomalies related to strong spin-phonon coupling in this frustrated antiferromagnet. A detailed comparison of the longitudinal acoustic mode propagating along the [111] direction with theory based on an exchange-striction mechanism leads to an estimate of the strength of the magneto-elastic interaction. The derived spin-phonon coupling constant is in good agreement with previous determinations based on infrared absorption. Further insight is gained from intermediate and high magnetic field experiments in the field regime of the magnetization plateau. The role of the antisymmetric Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction discussed and we compare the spin-phonon coupling in CdCr_2O_4 in both the ordered and disordered states.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2011

Anomalous optical phonons in FeTe pnictides: spin state, magnetic order, and lattice anharmonicity

Polarized Raman-scattering spectra of non-superconducting, single-crystalline FeTe are investigated as function of temperature. We have found a relation between the magnitude of ordered magnetic moments and the linewidth of A1g phonons at low temperatures. This relation is attributed to the intermediate spin state (S=1) and the orbital degeneracy of the Fe ions. Spin-phonon coupling constants have been estimated based on microscopic modeling using density-functional theory and analysis of the local spin density. Our observations show the importance of orbital degrees of freedom for the Fe-based superconductors with large ordered magnetic moments, while small magnetic moment of Fe ions in some iron pnictides reflects the low spin state of Fe ions in those systems.

cond-mat.str-el↗

arXiv2010

Improvement of superconducting properties of FeSe0.5Te0.5 single crystals by Mn substitution

We report on structural, susceptibility, conductivity, and heat-capacity studies of FeSe0.5Te0.5 single crystals with 2% substitution of Mn for Fe. Mn-doped samples show a higher onset temperature, a narrower width of the superconducting transition, and a higher magnitude of the jump in the specific heat at Tc in compared to undoped samples. From the resistivity data in magnetic fields parallel to the c axis we derived an upper critical field Hc2 of ~580 kOe for doped samples compared to 490 kOe for pure samples. Using a single-band BCS model we can describe the electronic specific heat in the superconducting state with a gap Delta(T=0) = 31 K for the Mn doped sample in comparison to 26 K for pure FeSe0.5Te0.5.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2010

Physical properties of FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ single crystals grown under different conditions

We report on structural, magnetic, conductivity, and thermodynamic studies of FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ single crystals grown by self-flux and Bridgman methods. The samples were prepared from starting materials of different purity at various temperatures and cooling rates. The lowest values of the susceptibility in the normal state, the highest transition temperature $T_c$ of 14.5 K, and the largest heat-capacity anomaly at $T_c$ were obtained for pure (oxygen-free) samples. The critical current density $j_c$ of $8 \times 10^4$ A/cm$^2$ (at 2 K) achieved in pure samples is attributed to intrinsic inhomogeneity due to disorder at the cation and anion sites. The impure samples show increased $j_c$ up to $2.3 \times 10^5$ A/cm$^2$ due to additional pinning centers of Fe$_3$O$_4$. The upper critical field $H_{c2}$ of $\sim 500$ kOe is estimated from the resistivity study in magnetic fields parallel to the \emph{c}-axis. The anisotropy of the upper critical field $γ_{H_{c2}} = H_{_{c2}}^{ab}/H_{_{c2}}^{c}$ reaches a value $\sim 6$ at $T\longrightarrow T_c$. Extremely low values of the residual Sommerfeld coefficient for pure samples indicate a high volume fraction of the superconducting phase (up to 97%). The electronic contribution to the specific heat in the superconducting state is well described within a single-band BCS model with a temperature dependent gap $Δ_0 = 27(1)$ K. A broad cusp-like anomaly in the electronic specific heat of samples with suppressed bulk superconductivity is ascribed to a splitting of the ground state of the interstitial Fe$^{2+}$ ions. This contribution is fully suppressed in the ordered state in samples with bulk superconductivity.

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