No Arabic abstract
Phonon density of states (PDOS) measurements have been performed on polycrystalline UO2 at 295 and 1200 K using time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering to investigate the impact of anharmonicity on the vibrational spectra and to benchmark ab initio PDOS simulations performed on this strongly correlated Mott-insulator. Time-of-flight PDOS measurements include anharmonic linewidth broadening inherently and the factor of ~ 7 enhancement of the oxygen spectrum relative to the uranium component by the neutron weighting increases sensitivity to the oxygen-dominated optical phonon modes. The first-principles simulations of quasi-harmonic PDOS spectra were neutron-weighted and anharmonicity was introduced in an approximate way by convolution with wavevector-weighted averages over our previously measured phonon linewidths for UO2 that are provided in numerical form. Comparisons between the PDOS measurements and the simulations show reasonable agreement overall, but they also reveal important areas of disagreement for both high and low temperatures. The discrepancies stem largely from an ~ 10 meV compression in the overall bandwidth (energy range) of the oxygen-dominated optical phonons in the simulations. A similar linewidth-convoluted comparison performed with the PDOS spectrum of Dolling et al. obtained by shell-model fitting to their historical phonon dispersion measurements shows excellent agreement with the time-of-flight PDOS measurements reported here. In contrast, we show by comparisons of spectra in linewidth-convoluted form that recent first-principles simulations for UO2 fail to account for the PDOS spectrum determined from the measurements of Dolling et al. These results demonstrate PDOS measurements to be stringent tests for ab initio simulations of phonon physics in UO2 and they indicate further the need for advances in theory to address lattice dynamics of UO2.
Magnetic response of uranium dioxide (UO2) has been investigated through temperature and magnetic field dependent dc magnetization measurements. UO2 is a paramagnet at room temperature. The magnetic susceptibility, however, deviates from Curie-Weiss (CW) like paramagnetic behavior below T = 280 K. Further down the temperature UO2 undergoes phase transition to an antiferromagnetic state below TN = 30.6 K. The zero field cooled (ZFC) and field cooled (FC) magnetizations exhibit some distinct thermomagnetic irreversibility below TN. The temperature dependence of the FC magnetization is more like a ferromagnet, whereas ZFC magnetization exhibits distinct structures not usually observed in the antiferromagnets. In low applied magnetic field this thermomagnetic irreversibility in magnetization exists in a subtle way even in the paramagnetic regime above TN up to a fairly high temperature, but vanishes in high applied magnetic fields. Deviation from CW law and irreversibility between ZFC and FC magnetization indicate that the paramagnetic state above TN is not a trivial one. Magnetic response below TN changes significantly with the increase in the applied magnetic field. Thermomagnetic irreversibility in magnetization initially increases with the increase in the strength of applied magnetic field, but then gets reduced in the high applied fields. A subtle signature of a magnetic field induced phase transition is also observed in the isothermal magnetic field vartaion of magnetization. All these experimetal results highlight the non-trivial nature of the antiferromagnetic state in UO2
Electronic states of PrCoO$_3$ are studied using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy. Pr 3d$_{5/2}$ core level and valence band (VB) were recorded using Mg K$_beta$ source. The core level spectrum shows that the 3d$_{5/2}$ level is split into two components of multiplicity 4 and 2, respectively due to coupling of the spin states of the hole in 3d$_{5/2}$ with Pr 4f holes spin state. The observed splitting is 4.5 eV. The VB spectrum is interpreted using density of states (DOS) calculations under LDA and LDA+U. It is noted that LDA is not sufficient to explain the observed VB spectrum. Inclusion of on-site Coulomb correlation for Co 3d electrons in LDA+U calculations gives DOS which is useful in qualitative explanation of the ground state. However, it is necessary to include interactions between Pr 4f electrons to get better agreement with experimental VB spectrum. It is seen that the VB consists of Pr 4f, Co 3d and O 2p states. Pr 4f, Co 3d and O 2p bands are highly mixed indicating strong hybridization of these three states. The band near the Fermi level has about equal contributions from Pr 4f and O 2p states with somewhat smaller contribution from Co 3d states. Thus in the Zaanen, Sawatzky, and Allen scheme PrCoO$_3$ can be considered as charge transfer insulator. The charge transfer energy $Delta$ can be obtained using LDA DOS calculations and the Coulomb-exchange energy U from LDA+U. The explicit values for PrCoO$_3$ are $Delta$ = 3.9 eV and U = 5.5 eV; the crystal field splitting and 3d bandwidth of Co ions are also found to be 2.8 and 1.8 eV, respectively.
Monolayer 2H-NbSe2 has recently been shown to be a 2-dimensional superconductor, with a coexisting charge-density wave (CDW). As both phenomena are intimately related to electron-lattice interaction, a natural question is how superconductivity and CDW are interrelated through electron-phonon coupling (EPC), which is important to the understanding of 2-dimensional superconductivity. This work investigates the superconductivity of monolayer NbSe2 in CDW phase using the anisotropic Migdal-Eliashberg formalism based on first principles calculations. The mechanism of the competition between and coexistence of the superconductivity and CDW is studied in detail by analyzing EPC. It is found that the intra-pocket scattering is related to superconductivity, leading to almost constant value of superconducting gaps on parts of the Fermi surface. The inter-pocket scattering is found to be responsible for CDW, leading to partial or full bandgap on the remaining Fermi surface. Recent experiment indicates that there is transitioning from regular superconductivity in thin-film NbSe2 to two-gap superconductivity in the bulk, which is shown here to have its origin in the extent of Fermi surface gapping of K and K pockets induced by CDW. Overall blue shifts of the phonons and sharp decrease of Eliashberg spectrum are found when the CDW forms.
We present the results of inelastic x-ray scattering for magnetite and analyze the energies and spectral widths of the phonon modes with different symmetries in a broad range of temperature 125<T<293 K. The phonon modes with X_4 and Delta_5 symmetries broaden in a nonlinear way with decreasing temperature when the Verwey transition is approached. It is found that the maxima of phonon widths occur away from high-symmetry points which indicates the incommensurate character of critical fluctuations. Strong phonon anharmonicity induced by electron-phonon coupling is discovered within ab initio calculations which take into account local Coulomb interactions at Fe ions. It (i) explains observed anomalous phonon broadening, and (ii) demonstrates that the Verwey transition is a cooperative phenomenon which involves a wide spectrum of phonons coupled to charge fluctuations condensing in the low-symmetry phase.
We investigate the microscopic mechanisms of the charge-density-wave (CDW) formation in a monolayer TiSe$_2$ using a realistic multiorbital $d$-$p$ model with electron-phonon coupling and intersite Coulomb (excitonic) interactions. First, we estimate the tight-binding bands of Ti $3d$ and Se $4p$ orbitals in the monolayer TiSe$_2$ on the basis of the first-principles band structure calculations. We thereby show orbital textures of the undistorted band structure near the Fermi level. Next, we derive the electron-phonon coupling using the tight-binding approximation and show that the softening occurs in the transverse phonon mode at the M point of the Brillouin zone. The stability of the triple-$q$ CDW state is thus examined to show that the transverse phonon modes at the M$_1$, M$_2$, and M$_3$ points are frozen simultaneously. Then, we introduce the intersite Coulomb interactions between the nearest-neighbor Ti and Se atoms that lead to the excitonic instability between the valence Se $4p$ and conduction Ti $3d$ bands. Treating the intersite Coulomb interactions in the mean-field approximation, we show that the electron-phonon and excitonic interactions cooperatively stabilize the triple-$q$ CDW state in TiSe$_2$. We also calculate a single-particle spectrum in the CDW state and reproduce the band folding spectra observed in photoemission spectroscopies. Finally, to clarify the nature of the CDW state, we examine the electronic charge density distribution and show that the CDW state in TiSe$_2$ is of a bond-type and induces a vortex-like antiferroelectric polarization in the kagome network of Ti atoms.