No Arabic abstract
We investigate the doping dependence of the nanoscale electronic and magnetic inhomogeneities in the hole-doping range 0.002<x<0.1 of cobalt based perovskites, La{1-x}Sr_xCoO_3. Using single crystal inelastic neutron scattering and magnetization measurements we show that the lightly doped system exhibits magneto-electronic phase separation in form of spin-state polarons. Higher hole doping leads to a decay of spin-state polarons in favor of larger-scale magnetic clusters, due to competing ferromagnetic correlations of Co^{3+} ions which are formed by neighboring polarons. The present data give evidence for two regimes of magneto-electronic phase separation in this system: (i) x<0.05, dominated by ferromagnetic intrapolaron interactions, and (ii) x>0.05, dominated by Co^{3+}-Co^{3+} intracluster interactions. Our conclusions are in good agreement with a recently proposed model of the phase separation in cobalt perovskites [He et al., Europhys. Lett. 87, 27006 (2009)].
We study long wavelength magnetic excitations in lightly doped La_{2-x}Sr_{x}CuO_{4} (x < 0.03) detwinned crystals. The lowest energy magnetic anisotropy induced gap can be understood in terms of the antisymmetric spin interaction inside the antiferromagnetic (AF) phase. The second magnetic resonace, analyzed in terms of in-plane spin anisotropy, shows unconventional behavior within the AF state and led to the discovery of collective spin excitations pertaining to a field induced magnetically ordered state. This state persists in a 9 T field to more than 100 K above the N{e}el temperature in x = 0.01.
We present a study of the thermal conductivity k and the thermopower S of single crystals of La_{1-x}Sr_xCoO_3 with 0<= x <= 0.3. For all Sr concentrations La_{1-x}Sr_xCoO_3 has rather low k values, whereas S strongly changes as a function of x. We discuss the influence of the temperature- and the doping-induced spin-state transitions of the Co ions on both, S and k. From S, k, and the electrical resistivity rho we derive the thermoelectric figure of merit Z=S^2/(k*rho). For intermediate Sr concentrations we find notably large values of Z indicating that Co-based materials could be promising candidates for thermoelectric cooling.
By using solid state reaction method we have fabricated the hole doped $La_{1-x}Sr_xFeAsO$ superconductors with Sr content up to 0.13. It is found that the sharp anomaly at about 150 K and the low temperature upturn of resistivity are suppressed by doping holes into the parent phase. Interestingly both the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ and the lattice constants (a-axis and c-axis) increase monotonously with hole concentration, in sharp contrast with the electron doped side where the $T_c$ increases with a continuing shrinkage of the lattice constants either by dope more fluorine or oxygen vacancies into the system. Our data clearly illustrate that the superconductivity can be induced by doping holes via substituting the trivalent La with divalent Sr in the LaFeAsO system with single FeAs layer, and the $T_c$ in the present system exhibits a symmetric behavior at the electron and hole doped sides, as we reported previously.
The in-plane and out-of-plane magnetoresistance (MR) of single crystals of La_2CuO_4, lightly doped (x=0.03) with either Sr (La_{2-x}Sr_xCuO_4) or Li (La_2Cu_{1-x}Li_xO_4), have been measured in the fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the CuO_2 planes. Both La_{1.97}Sr_{0.03}CuO_4 and La_2Cu_{0.97}Li_{0.03}O_4 exhibit the emergence of a positive MR at temperatures (T) well below the spin glass (SG) transition temperature T_{sg}, where charge dynamics is also glassy. This positive MR grows as T->0 and shows hysteresis and memory. In this regime, the in-plane resistance R_{ab}(T,B) is described by a scaling function, suggesting that short-range Coulomb repulsion between two holes in the same disorder-localized state plays a key role at low T. The results highlight similarities between this magnetic material and a broad class of well-studied, nonmagnetic disordered insulators.
Inelastic neutron scattering (INS), electron spin (ESR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements were employed to establish the origin of the strong magnetic signal in lightly hole-doped La_{1-x}Sr_xCoO_3, x=0.002. Both, INS and ESR low temperature spectra show intense excitations with large effective g-factors ~10-18. NMR data indicate the creation of extended magnetic clusters. From the Q-dependence of the INS magnetic intensity we conclude that the observed anomalies are caused by the formation of octahedrally shaped spin-state polarons comprising seven Co ions.