No Arabic abstract
We have measured the intricate temperature dependence of the Co L2,3 x-ray absorption spectra (2p-3d excitations) of CoO. To allow for accurate total electron yield measurements, the material has been grown in thin film form on a metallic substrate in order to avoid charging problems usually encountered during electron spectroscopic studies on bulk CoO samples. The changes in spectra due to temperature are in good agreement with detailed ligand-field calculations indicating that these changes are mostly due to thermal population of closely lying excited states, originating from degenerate t2g levels lifted by the spin-orbit coupling. Magnetic coupling in the ordered phase, modeled as a mean-field exchange field, mixes in excited states inducing a tetragonal charge density. The spin-orbit coupling induced splitting of the low energy states results in a non-trivial temperature dependence for the magnetic susceptibility.
We have performed resonant X-ray diffraction experiments on the antiferromagnet GdRu$_{2}$Al$_{10}$ and have clarified that the magnetic structure in the ordered state is cycloidal with the moments lying in the $bc$ plane and propagating along the $b$ axis. The propagation vector shows a similar temperature dependence to the magnetic order parameter, which can be interpreted as being associated with the gap opening in the conduction band and the resultant change in the magnetic exchange interaction. Although the $S=7/2$ state of Gd is almost isotropic, the moments show slight preferential ordering along the $b$ axis. The $c$ axis component in the cycloid develops with decreasing temperature through a tiny transition in the ordered phase. We also show that the scattering involves the $sigma$-$sigma$ process, which is forbidden in normal $E1$-$E1$ resonance of magnetic dipole origin. We discuss the possibility of the $E1$-$E2$ resonance originating from a toroidal moment due to the lack of inversion symmetry at the Gd site. The spin-flop transition in a magnetic field is also described in detail.
We applied soft X-ray absorption spectroscopy to study the Ti L-edge in ferroelectric capacitors using a modified total electron yield method. The inner photo currents and the X-ray absorption spectra were polarization state dependent. The results are explained on the basis of photo electric effects and the inner potential in the ferroelectric capacitors as a result of back-to-back Schottky barriers superimposed by the potential due to the depolarization field. In general, the presented method offers the opportunity to investigate the electronic structure of buried metal-insulator and metal-semiconductor interfaces in thin film devices. Corresponding author:
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The electrodynamic response of organic spin liquids with highly-frustrated triangular lattices has been measured in a wide energy range. While the overall optical spectra of these Mott insulators are governed by transitions between the Hubbard bands, distinct in-gap excitations can be identified at low temperatures and frequencies which we attribute to the quantum spin liquid state. For the strongly correlated $beta^{prime}$-EtMe$_3$-Sb-[Pd(dmit)$_2$]$_2$, we discover enhanced conductivity below $175~{rm cm}^{-1}$, comparable to the energy of the magnetic coupling $Japprox 250$ K. For $omegarightarrow 0$ these low-frequency excitations vanish faster than the charge-carrier response subject to Mott-Hubbard correlations, resulting in a dome-shape band peaked at 100~cm. Possible relations to spinons, magnons and disorder are discussed.
Soft x-ray absorption experiments on the transition metal L2,3 edge of multiferroic MnWO4 and antiferromagnetic CoWO4 are presented. The observed linear polarization dependence, analyzed by full-multiplet calculations, is used to determine the ground state wave function of the magnetic Mn2+ and Co2+ ions. The impact of the local structure and the spin-orbit coupling on the orbital moment is discussed in terms of the single-ion anisotropy. It is shown that the orbital moment in CoWO4 is responsible for the collinear antiferromagnetism, while the small size of spin-orbit coupling effects make spiral magnetic order in MnWO4 possible, enabling the material to be multiferroic.
We have studied the local electronic structure of LaMn0.5Co0.5O3 using soft-x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Co-L_3,2 and Mn-L_3,2 edges. We found a high-spin Co^{2+}--Mn^{4+} valence state for samples with the optimal Curie temperature. We discovered that samples with lower Curie temperatures contain low-spin nonmagnetic Co^{3+} ions. Using soft-x-ray magnetic circular dichroism we established that the Co^{2+} and Mn^{4+} ions are ferromagnetically aligned. We revealed also that the Co^{2+} ions have a large orbital moment: m_orb/m_spin ~ 0.47. Together with model calculations, this suggests the presence of a large magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the material and predicts a non-trivial temperature dependence for the magnetic susceptibility.