No Arabic abstract
Although the isotope effect in superconducting materials is well-documented, changes in the magnetic properties of antiferromagnets due to isotopic substitution are seldom discussed and remain poorly understood. This is perhaps surprising given the possible link between the quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) antiferromagnetic and superconducting phases of the layered cuprates. Here we report the experimental observation of shifts in the N{e}el temperature and critical magnetic fields ($Delta T_{rm N}/T_{rm N}approx 4%$; $Delta B_{rm c}/B_{rm c}approx 4%$) in a Q2D organic molecular antiferromagnets on substitution of hydrogen for deuterium. These compounds are characterized by strong hydrogen bonds through which the dominant superexchange is mediated. We evaluate how the in-plane and inter-plane exchange energies evolve as the hydrogens on different ligands are substituted, and suggest a possible mechanism for this effect in terms of the relative exchange efficiency of hydrogen and deuterium bonds.
Quasi-two dimensional itinerant fermions in the Anti-Ferro-Magnetic (AFM) quantum-critical region of their phase diagram, such as in the Fe-based superconductors or in some of the heavy-fermion compounds, exhibit a resistivity varying linearly with temperature and a contribution to specific heat or thermopower proportional to $T ln T$. It is shown here that a generic model of itinerant AFM can be canonically transformed such that its critical fluctuations around the AFM-vector $Q$ can be obtained from the fluctuations in the long wave-length limit of a dissipative quantum XY model. The fluctuations of the dissipative quantum XY model in 2D have been evaluated recently and in a large regime of parameters, they are determined, not by renormalized spin-fluctuations but by topological excitations. In this regime, the fluctuations are separable in their spatial and temporal dependence and have a dynamical critical exponent $z =infty.$ The time dependence gives $omega/T$-scaling at criticality. The observed resistivity and entropy then follow directly. Several predictions to test the theory are also given.
We re-examine the experimental results for the magnetic response function $chi({bf q}, E, T)$, for ${bf q}$ around the anti-ferromagnetic vectors ${bf Q}$, in the quantum-critical region, obtained by inelastic neutron scattering, on an Fe-based superconductor, and on a heavy Fermion compound. The motivation is to compare the results with a recent theory, which shows that the fluctuations in a generic anti-ferromagnetic model for itinerant fermions map to those in the universality class of the dissipative quantum-XY model. The quantum-critical fluctuations in this model, in a range of parameters, are given by the correlations of spatial and of temporal topological defects. The theory predicts a $chi({bf q}, E, T)$ (i) which is a separable function of $({bf q -Q})$ and of ($E$,$T$), (ii) at crticality, the energy dependent part is $propto tanh (E/2T)$ below a cut-off energy, (iii) the correlation time departs from its infinite value at criticality on the disordered side by an essential singularity, and (iv) the correlation length depends logarithmically on the correlation time, so that the dynamical critical exponent $z$ is $infty$ . The limited existing experimental results are found to be consistent with the first two unusual predictions from which the linear dependence of the resistivity on T and the $T ln T$ dependence of the entropy also follow. More experiments are suggested, especially to test the theory of variations on the correlation time and length on the departure from criticality.
Spontaneous symmetry breaking is deeply related to dimensionality of system. The Neel order going with spontaneous breaking of $U(1)$ symmetry is safely allowed at any temperature for three-dimensional systems but allowed only at zero temperature for purely two-dimensional systems. We closely investigate how smoothly the ordering process of the three-dimensional system is modulated into that of the two-dimensional one with reduction of dimensionality, considering spatially anisotropic quantum antiferromagnets. We first show that the Neel temperature is kept finite even in the two-dimensional limit although the Neel order is greatly suppressed for low-dimensionality. This feature of the Neel temperature is highly nontrivial, which dictates how the order parameter is squashed under the reduction of dimensionality. Next we investigate this dimensional modulation of the order parameter. We develop our argument taking as example a coupled spin-ladder system relevant for experimental studies. The ordering process is investigated multidirectionally using theoretical techniques of a mean-field method combined with analytical (exact solutions of quantum field theories) or numerial (density-matrix renormalization-group) method, a variational method, a renormalization-group study, linear spin-wave theory, and quantum Monte-Carlo simulation. We show that these methods independent of each other lead to the same conclusion about the dimensional modulation.
Changing the interactions between particles in an ensemble-by varying the temperature or pressure, for example-can lead to phase transitions whose critical behaviour depends on the collective nature of the many-body system. Despite the diversity of ingredients, which include atoms, molecules, electrons and their spins, the collective behaviour can be grouped into several families (called universality classes) represented by canonical spin models1. One kind of transition, the Mott transition2, occurs when the repulsive Coulomb interaction between electrons is increased, causing wave-like electrons to behave as particles. In two dimensions, the attractive behaviour responsible for the superconductivity in high-transition temperature copper oxide3,4 and organic5-7 compounds appears near the Mott transition, but the universality class to which two-dimensional, repulsive electronic systems belongs remains unknown. Here we present an observation of the critical phenomena at the pressure-induced Mott transition in a quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor using conductance measurements as a probe. We find that the Mott transition in two dimensions is not consistent with known universality classes, as the observed collective behaviour has previously not been seen. This peculiarity must be involved in any emergent behaviour near the Mott transition in two dimensions.
We investigated the effect of magnetic field on the highly correlated metal near the Mott transition in the quasi-two-dimensional layered organic conductor, $kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)$_{2}$Cu[N(CN)$_{2}$]Cl, by the resistance measurements under control of temperature, pressure, and magnetic field. It was demonstrated that the marginal metallic phase near the Mott transition is susceptible to the field-induced localization transition of the first order, as was predicted theoretically. The thermodynamic consideration of the present results gives a conceptual pressure-field phase diagram of the Mott transition at low temperatures.