No Arabic abstract
Inelastic neutron scattering is used to measure the temperature dependent phonon dispersion in Ca$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$RuO$_{4}$ ($x=0.4$, 0.6). The in-plane $Sigma_{4}$ octahedral tilt mode softens significantly at the zone boundary of the high temperature tetragonal (HTT) textit{I4}$_{mathit{1}}$textit{/acd} structure as the temperature approaches the transition to a low temperature orthorhombic (LTO) textit{Pbca} phase. This behavior is similar to that in La$_2$CuO$_4$, but a new inelastic feature that is not found in the cuprate is present. An anomalous phonon mode is observed at energy transfers greater than the $Sigma_{4}$ albeit with similar dispersion. This anomalous phonon mode never softens below $sim 5$ meV, even for temperatures below the HTT-LTO transition. This mode is attributed to the presence of intrinsic structural disorder within the textit{I4}$_{mathit{1}}$textit{/acd} tetragonal structure of the doped ruthenate.
The magnetoelastic coupling in Ca$_{1.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$RuO$_4$ and in Ca$_{1.5}$Sr$_{0.5}$RuO$_4$ has been studied combining high-resolution dilatometer and diffraction techniques. Both compounds exhibit strong anomalies in the thermal-expansion coefficient at zero and at high magnetic field as well as an exceptionally large magnetostriction. All these structural effects, which are strongest in Ca$_{1.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$RuO$_4$, point to a redistribution of electrons between the different $t_{2g}$ orbitals tuned by temperature and magnetic field. The temperature and the field dependence of the thermal-expansion anomalies in Ca$_{1.8}$Sr$_{0.2}$RuO$_4$ yield evidence for a critical end-point lying close to the low-temperature metamagnetic transition; however, the expected scaling relations are not well fulfilled.
We report an electrical transport study in Ca$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$RuO$_4$ single crystals at high magnetic fields ($B$). For $x =0.2$, the Hall constant $R_{xy}$ decreases sharply at an anisotropic metamagnetic (MM) transition reaching its value for Sr$_2$RuO$_4$ at high fields. A sharp decrease in the $A$ coefficient of the resistivity $T^2$-term and a change in the structure of the angular magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) for $B$ rotating in the planes, confirms the reconstruction of the Fermi surface (FS). Our observations and LDA calculations indicate a strong dependence of the FS on the Ca concentration and suggest the coexistence of itinerant and localized electronic states in single layered ruthenates.
The alloy Ca$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$RuO$_4$ exhibits a complex phase diagram with peculiar magnetic metallic phases. In this paper some aspects of this alloy are discussed based on a mean field theory for an effective Kugel-Khomskii model of localized orbital and spin degrees of freedom. This model results from an orbital selective Mott transition which in the three-band system localized two orbitals while leaving the third one itinerant. Special attention is given to the region around a structure quantum phase transition at $ x approx 0.5 $ where the crystal lattice changes from tetragonal to orthorhombic symmetry while leaving the system metallic. This transition yields, a change from ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic spin correlations. The complete mean field phase diagram for this transition is given including orbital and spin order. The anisotropy of spin susceptibility, a consequence of spin-orbit coupling and orbital correlation, is a tell-tale sign of one of these phases. In the predominantly antiferromagnetic phase we describe a metamagnetic transition in a magnetic field and show that coupling of the itinerant band to the localized degrees of freedom yields an anomalous longitudinal magnetoresistance transition. Both phenomena are connected with the evolution of the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic domains in the external magnetic field and agree qualitatively with the experimental findings.
The realistic description of correlated electron systems has taken an important step forward a few years ago as the combination of density functional methods and the dynamical mean-field theory was conceived. This framework allows access to both high and low energy physics and is capable of the description of the specific physics of strongly correlated materials, like the Mott metal-insulator transition. A very important step in the procedure is the interface between the band structure method and the dynamical mean-field theory and its impurity solver. We present a general interface between a projector augmented wave based density functional code and many-body methods based on Wannier functions obtained from a projection on local orbitals. The implementation is very flexible and allows for various applications. Quantities like the momentum resolved spectral function are accessible. We present applications to SrVO$_3$ and the metal-insulator transition in Ca$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$RuO$_4$.
Quantum phase transitions (QPTs) have been studied extensively in correlated electron systems. Characterization of magnetism at QPTs has, however, been limited by the volume-integrated feature of neutron and magnetization measurements and by pressure uncertainties in NMR studies using powderized specimens. Overcoming these limitations, we performed muon spin relaxation ($mu$SR) measurements which have a unique sensitivity to volume fractions of magnetically ordered and paramagnetic regions, and studied QPTs from itinerant heli/ferro magnet to paramagnet in MnSi (single-crystal; varying pressure) and (Sr$_{1-x}$Ca$_{x}$)RuO$_{3}$ (ceramic specimens; varying $x$). Our results provide the first clear evidence that both cases are associated with spontaneous phase separation and suppression of dynamic critical behavior, revealed a slow but dynamic character of the ``partial order diffuse spin correlations in MnSi above the critical pressure, and, combined with other known results in heavy-fermion and cuprate systems, suggest a possibility that a majority of QPTs involve first-order transitions and/or phase separation.