We measured the thermal expansion of the valence fluctuating phase of SmS (golden SmS) to construct a pressure vs temperature phase diagram. The obtained phase diagram is characterized by three lines. One is a crossover line that divides the paramagnetic phase into two regions. The other two lines correspond to a second-order Neel transition and a first-order Neel transition. The crossover line appears to emerge from a tricritical point that separates the first-order Neel transition from the second-order one. We argue that a valence jump occurs at the border of antiferromagnetism.
Electrical resistivity and ac-susceptibility measurements under high pressure were carried out in high-quality single crystals of $alpha$-Mn. The pressure-temperature phase diagram consists of an antiferromagnetic ordered phase (0<$P$<1.4 GPa, $T<T_{rm N}$), a pressure-induced ordered phase (1.4<$P$<4.2-4.4 GPa, $T<T_{rm A}$), and a paramagnetic phase. A significant increase was observed in the temperature dependence of ac-susceptibility at $T_{rm A}$, indicating that the pressure-induced ordered phase has a spontaneous magnetic moment. Ferrimagnetic order and parasitic ferromagnetism are proposed as candidates for a possible magnetic structure. At the critical pressure, where the pressure-induced ordered phase disappears, the temperature dependence of the resistivity below 10 K is proportional to $T^{5/3}$. This non-Fermi liquid behavior suggests the presence of pronounced magnetic fluctuation.
We report the pressure-dependent optical reflectivity spectra of a strongly correlated insulator, samarium monosulfide (SmS), in the far- and middle-infrared regions to investigate the origin of the pressure-induced phase transition from the black phase to the golden phase. The energy gap becomes narrow with increasing pressure in the black phase. A valence transition from Sm2+ in the black phase to mainly Sm3+ in the golden phase accompanied by spectral change from insulator to metal were observed at the transition pressure of 0.65 GPa. The black-to-golden phase transition occurs when the energy gap size of black SmS becomes the same as the binding energy of the exciton at the indirect energy gap before the gap closes. This result indicates that the valence transition originates from an excitonic instability.
The pressure-temperature phase diagram of the heavy-electron superconductor URu2Si2 has been reinvestigated by ac-susceptibility and elastic neutron-scattering (NS) measurements performed on a small single-crystalline rod (2 mm in diameter, 6 mm in length) in a Cu-Be clamp-type high-pressure cell (P < 1.1 GPa). At ambient pressure, this sample shows the weakest antiferromagnetic (AF) Bragg reflections reported so far, corresponding to the volume-averaged staggered moment of mord ~ 0.011 mB/U. Under applied pressure, the AF scattering intensity exhibits a sharp increase at P ~ 0.7 GPa at low temperatures. The saturation value of the AF scattering intensity above 0.7 GPa corresponds to mord ~ 0.41 mB/U, which is in good agreement with that (~ 0.39 mB/U) observed above 1.5 GPa in our previous NS measurements. The superconductivity is dramatically suppressed by the evolution of AF phase, indicating that the superconducting state coexists only with the hidden order phase. The presence of parasitic ferro- and/or antiferromagnetic phases with transition temperatures T1star =120(5) K, T2star = 36(3) K and T3star = 16.5(5) K and their relationship to the low-T ordered phases are also discussed.
We observe how the charge-ordering (CO) temperature of Nd1/2Sr1/2MnO3 decreases with the external pressure p from 160 K at p = 0 down to 30 K at p ~ 4.5 GPa, by measuring the values p, T where the far-infrared spectral weight of the metallic phase is fully recovered. We thus determine the (p, T) phase diagram of CO in that manganite. We also find that the parameter d(lnTCO)/dp which describes this metallization from the CO phase is equal and opposite to the quantity d(lnTc)/dp which governs the metallization of the paramagnetic state at comparable Curie temperatures Tc, in similar manganites at half doping.
We report the temperature-pressure-magnetic field phase diagram made from electrical resistivity measurements for the ferromagnetic (FM) Kondo lattice CeRuPO. The ground state at zero field changes from the FM state to another state, which is suggested to be an antiferromagnetic (AFM) state, above ~0.7 GPa, and the magnetically ordered state is completely suppressed at ~2.8 GPa. In addition to the collapse of the AFM state under pressure and a magnetic field, a metamagnetic (MM) transition from a paramagnetic state to a polarized paramagnetic state appears. CeRuPO will give us a rich playground for understanding the mechanism of the MM transition under comparable FM and AFM correlations in the Kondo lattice.