No Arabic abstract
We systematically study Raman spectroscopy of cleaved Na$_x$CoO$_2$ single crystals with 0.37 $leq$ x $leq$ 0.80. The Raman shift of A$_{1g}$ mode is found to be linearly dependent on Na content, while the Raman shift of E$_{1g}$ mode has an abnormal shift to high frequency around x = 0.5. The abnormal shift is ascribed to the occurrence of Na rearrangement in O1 structure. Temperature dependent Raman spectrum for x = 0.56 sample shows that Na rearrangement transition from O1 structure to H1 structure occurs around 240 K. Electronic transport and susceptibility for the sample with $x=0.56$ show a response to the Na rearrangement transition from O1 to H1 structure, and that different Na ordering pattern causes distinct physical properties. These results give a direct evidence to proved Na ordering effect on physical properties of Co-O plane.
Synchrotron X-ray diffraction investigations of two single crystals of Na_xCoO_2 from different batches with composition x = 0.525-0.530 reveal homogeneous incommensurate sodium ordering with propagation vector (0.53 0.53 0) at room-temperature. The incommensurate (qq0) superstructure exists between 220 K and 430 K. The value of q varies between q = 0.514 and 0.529, showing a broad plateau at the latter value between 260 K and 360 K. On cooling, unusual reversible phase segregation into two volume fractions is observed. Below 220 K, one volume fraction shows the well-known commensurate orthorhombic x = 0.50 superstructure, while a second volume fraction with x = 0.55 exhibits another commensurate superstructure, presumably with a 6a x 6a x c hexagonal supercell. We argue that the commensurate-to-incommensurate transition is an intrinsic feature of samples with Na concentrations x = 0.5 + d with d ~ 0.03.
Polarized Raman and optical spectra for the quasi one-dimensional metallic vanadate beta-Na0.33V2O3 are reported for various temperatures. The spectra are discussed in the light of the sodium and charge ordering transitions occurring in this material, and demonstrate the presence of strong electron phonon coupling.
A series of Yb2Ti2O7 doped samples demonstrates the effects of off-stoichiometry on Yb2Ti2O7s structure, properties, and magnetic ground state via x-ray diffraction, specific heat, and magnetization measurements. A stoichiometric single crystal of Yb2Ti2O7 grown by the traveling solvent floating zone technique (solvent = 30 wt% rutile TiO2 and 70 wt% Yb2Ti2O7) is characterized and evaluated in light of this series. Our data shows that upon positive x doping, the cubic lattice parameter a increases and the Curie-Weiss temperature decreases. Heat capacity measurements of stoichiometric Yb2Ti2O7 samples exhibit a sharp, first-order peak at T = 268(4) mK that is suppressed in magnitude and temperature in samples doped off ideal stoichiometry. The full entropy recovered per Yb ion is 5.7 J/K ~ Rln2. Our work establishes the effects of doping on Yb2Ti2O7s physical properties, which provides further evidence indicating that previous crystals grown by the traditional floating zone method are doped off ideal stoichiometry. Additionally, we present how to grow high-quality colorless single crystals of Yb2Ti2O7 by the traveling solvent floating zone growth method.
We develop the cluster self-consistent field method incorporating both electronic and lattice degrees of freedom to study the origin of ferromagnetism in Cs$_{2}$AgF$_{4}$. After self-consistently determining the harmonic and anharmonic Jahn-Teller distortions, we show that the anharmonic distortion stabilizes the staggered x$^{2}$-z$^{2}$/y$^{2}$-z$^{2}$ orbital and ferromagnetic ground state, rather than the antiferromagnetic one. The amplitudes of lattice distortions, Q$_{2}$ and Q$_{3}$, the magnetic coupling strengthes, J$_{x,y}$, and the magnetic moment, are in good agreement with the experimental observation.
The Monte Carlo Ferromagnetic Ising model was used to study the electrical properties of manganese oxides due to the charge ordering phase occurring at doping, x = 0.5. The half-doped manganites have an insulator antiferromagnetic ground state. We calculated the internal energy, specific heat, resistivity and the magneto-resistance, MR, with parallel and anti-parallel applied magnetic fields. Our simulation reveals that the resistivity decreases exponentially and the electric current increases with increasing temperature according the free charge increase, to transport from an insulator to conductor phase. The magnetoresistance has negative small values with parallel magnetic field but has positive high values with unti-parallel magnetic field. The obtained semiconductor-metal transition behavior candidates the half-doped manganites to be very good semiconductors diode junctions.