No Arabic abstract
The tetragonal compound YbRu$_{2}$Ge$_{2}$ exhibits a non-magnetic transition at $T_0$=10.2K and a magnetic transition at $T_1$=6.5K in zero magnetic field. We present a model for this material based on a quasi-quartet of Yb$^{3+}$ crystalline electric field (CEF) states and discuss its mean field solution. Taking into account the broadening of the specific heat jump at $T_0$ for magnetic field perpendicular to [001] and the decrease of $T_0$ with magnetic field parallel to [001], it is shown that ferro-quadrupole order of either O$_{2}^{2}$ or O$_{rm xy}$ - type are prime candidates for the non-magnetic transition. Considering the matrix element of these quadrupole moments, we show that the lower CEF states of the level scheme consist of a $Gamma_{6}$ and a $Gamma_{7}$ doublet. This leads to induced type of O$_{2}^{2}$ and O$_{rm xy}$ quadrupolar order parameters. The quadrupolar order introduces exchange anisotropy for planar magnetic moments. This causes a spin flop transition at low fields perpendicular [001] which explains the observed metamagnetism. We also obtain a good explanation for the temperature dependence of magnetic susceptibility and specific heat for fields both parallel and perpendicular to the [001] direction.
The nature of the magnetic transition of the half-filled triangular antiferromagnet Ag$_{2}$NiO$_2$ with $T_{rm N}$=56K was studied with positive muon-spin-rotation and relaxation ($mu^+$SR) spectroscopy. Zero field $mu^+$SR measurements indicate the existence of a static internal magnetic field at temperatures below $T_{rm N}$. Two components with slightly different precession frequencies and wide internal-field distributions suggest the formation of an incommensurate antiferromagnetic order below 56 K. This implies that the antifrerromagnetic interaction is predominant in the NiO$_2$ plane in contrast to the case of the related compound NaNiO$_2$. An additional transition was found at $sim$22 K by both $mu^+$SR and susceptibility measurements. It was also clarified that the transition at $sim$260 K observed in the susceptibility of Ag$_{2}$NiO$_{2}$ is induced by a purely structural transition.
We present a crystal field theory of transition metal impurities in semiconductors in a trigonally distorted tetrahedral coordination. We develop a perturbative scheme to treat covalency effects within the weak ligand field case (Coulomb interaction dominates over one-particle splitting) and apply it to ZnO:Co$^{2+}$ (3d$^7$). Using the large value of the charge transfer energy $Delta_{pd}$ compared to the $p$-$d$ hoppings, we perform a canonical transformation which eliminates the coupling with ligands to first order. As a result, we obtain an effective single-ion Hamiltonian, where the influence of the ligands is reduced to the one-particle crystal field acting on $d$-like-functions. This derivation allows to elucidate the microscopic origin of various crystal field parameters and covalency reduction factors which are usually used empirically for the interpretation of optical and ESR experiments. The connection of these parameters with the geometry of the local environment becomes transparent. The experimentally known $g$-values and the zero-field splitting 2D are very well reproduced by the exact diagonalization of the effective single-ion Hamiltonian with only one adjustable parameter $Delta _{pd}$. Alternatively to the numerical diagonalization we use perturbation theory in the weak field scheme (Coulomb interaction $gg$ cubic splitting $gg$ trigonal splitting and spin-orbit coupling) to derive compact analytical expressions for the spin-Hamiltonian parameters that reproduce the result of exact diagonalization within 20% of accuracy.
By means of muon spin spectroscopy, we have found that K$_{0.49}$CoO$_2$ crystals undergo successive magnetic transitions from a high-T paramagnetic state to a magnetic ordered state below 60 K and then to a second ordered state below 16 K, even though K_{0.49}CoO_2 is metallic at least down to 4 K. An isotropic magnetic behavior and wide internal-field distributions suggest the formation of a commensurate helical spin density wave (SDW) state below 16 K, while a linear SDW state is likely to exist above 16 K. It was also found that K_{0.49}CoO_2 exhibits a further transition at 150 K presumably due to a change in the spin state of the Co ions. Since the T dependence of the internal-field below 60 K was similar to that for Na_{0.5}CoO_2, this suggests that magnetic order is more strongly affected by the Co valence than by the interlayer distance/interaction and/or the charge-ordering.
We report extremely large positive magnetoresistance of 1.72 million percent in single crystal TaSb$_{2}$ at moderate conditions of 1.5 K and 15 T. The quadratic growth of magnetoresistance (MR $propto,B^{1.96}$) is not saturating up to 15 T, a manifestation of nearly perfect compensation with $<0.1%$ mismatch between electron and hole pockets in this semimetal. The compensation mechanism is confirmed by temperature-dependent MR, Hall and thermoelectric coefficients of Nernst and Seebeck, revealing two pronounced Fermi surface reconstruction processes without spontaneous symmetry breaking, textit{i.e.} Lifshitz transitions, at around 20 K and 60 K, respectively. Using quantum oscillations of magnetoresistance and magnetic susceptibility, supported by density-functional theory calculations, we determined that the main hole Fermi surface of TaSb$_{2}$ forms a unique shoulder structure along the $F-L$ line. The flat band top of this shoulder pocket is just a few meV above the Fermi level, leading to the observed topological phase transition at 20 K when the shoulder pocket disappears. Further increase in temperature pushes the Fermi level to the band top of the main hole pocket, induced the second Lifshitz transition at 60 K when hole pocket vanishes completely.
Nematic phases, breaking spontaneously rotational symmetry, provide for ubiquitously observed states of matter in both classical and quantum systems. These nematic states may be further classified by their $N$--fold rotational invariance described by cyclic groups $C_N$ in 2+1D. Starting from the space groups of underlying $2d$ crystals, we present a general classification scheme incorporating $C_N$ nematic phases that arise from dislocation-mediated melting and discuss the conventional tensor order parameters. By coupling the $O(2)$ matter fields to the $Z_N$ lattice gauge theory, an unified $O(2)/Z_N$ lattice gauge theory is constructed in order to describe all these nematic phases. This lattice gauge theory is shown to reproduce the $C_N$ nematic-isotropic liquid phase transitions and contains an additional deconfined phase. Finally, using our $O(2)/Z_N$ gauge theory framework, we discuss phase transitions between different $C_N$ nematics.