No Arabic abstract
We report the first comprehensive study of the high temperature form ($alpha$-phase) of iron disilicide. Measurements of the magnetic susceptibility, magnetization, heat capacity and resistivity were performed on well characterized single crystals. With a nominal iron $d^6$ configuration, and a quasi-two dimensional crystal structure that strongly resembles that of LiFeAs, $alpha$-FeSi$_2$ is a potential candidate for unconventional superconductivity. Akin to LiFeAs, $alpha$-FeSi$_2$ does not develop any magnetic order, and we confirm its metallic state down to the lowest temperatures ($T$=1.8 K). However, our experiments reveal that paramagnetism and electronic correlation effects in $alpha$-FeSi$_2$ are considerably weaker than in the pnictides. Band theory calculations yield small Sommerfeld coefficients of the electronic specific heat $gamma=C_e/T$ that are in excellent agreement with experiment. Additionally, realistic many-body calculations further corroborate that quasi-particle mass enhancements are only modest in $alpha$-FeSi$_{2}$ . Remarkably, we find that the natural tendency to vacancy formation in the iron sublattice has little influence on the iron valence and the density of states at the Fermi level. Moreover, Mn doping does not significantly change the electronic state of the Fe ion. This suggests that the iron valence is protected against hole doping, and indeed the substitution of Co for Fe causes a rigid-band like response of the electronic properties. As a key difference from the pnictides, we identify the smaller inter-iron layer spacing, which causes the active orbitals near the Fermi level to be of a different symmetry in $alpha$-FeSi$_2$. This change in orbital character might be responsible for the lack of superconductivity in this system, providing constraints on pairing theories in the iron based pnictides and chalcogenides.
We report the magnetization ($chi$, $M$), specific heat ($C_{text{P}}$), and neutron powder diffraction results on a quasi-two-dimensional $S$ = 2 square lattice antiferromagnet Ba$_2$FeSi$_2$O$_7$ consisting of FeO$_4$ tetragons with a large compressive distortion (27%). Despite of the quasi-two-dimensional lattice structure, both $chi$ and $C_{text{P}}$ present three dimensional magnetic long-range order below the Neel temperature $T_{text{N}}$ = 5.2 K. Neutron diffraction data shows a collinear $Q_{m}$ = (1,0,0.5) antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure with the in-plane ordered magnetic moment suppressed by 26% below $T_{text{N}}$. Both the AFM structure and the suppressed moments are well explained by the Monte Carlo simulation with a large single-ion ab-plane anisotropy $D$ = 1.4 meV and a rather small in-plane Heisenberg exchange $J_{text{intra}}$ = 0.15 meV. The characteristic two dimensional spin fluctuations can be recognized in the magnetic entropy release and diffuse scattering above $T_{text{N}}$. This new quasi-2D magnetic system also displays unusual non-monotonic dependence of the $T_{text{N}}$ as a function of magnetic field $H$.
We investigated the precise crystal structures and electronic states in a quasi-two-dimensional molecular conductor ${alpha}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ at ambient pressure. The electronic resistivity of this molecular solid shows metal-to-insulator (MI) crossover at $T_{MI}$=50 K. Our x-ray diffraction and $^{13}$C nuclear magnetic resonance experiments revealed that ${alpha}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ maintains the inversion symmetry below $T_{MI}$. First-principles calculations found a pair of anisotropic Dirac cones at a general k-point, with the degenerate contact points at the Fermi level. The origin of the insulating state in this system is a small energy gap of ~2 meV opened by the spin-orbit interaction. The Z$_2$ topological invariants indicate that this system is a weak topological insulator. Our results suggest that ${alpha}$-(BETS)$_2$I$_3$ is a promising material for studying the bulk Dirac electron system in two dimensions.
We report the results of the angular-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMROs), which can determine the shape of bulk Fermi surfaces in quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) systems, in a highly hole-doped Fe-based superconductor KFe$_2$As$_2$ with $T_c approx$ 3.7 K. From the AMROs, we determined the two Q2D FSs with rounded-square cross sections, corresponding to 12% and 17% of the first Brillouin zone. The rounded-squared shape of the FS cross section is also confirmed by the analyses of the interlayer transport under in-plane fields. From the obtained FS shape, we infer the character of the 3d orbitals that contribute to the FSs.
Here we report on the formation of two and three magnon bound states in the quasi-one-dimensional antiferromagnet $alpha$-NaMnO$_2$, where the single-ion, uniaxial anisotropy inherent to the Mn$^{3+}$ ions in this material provides a binding mechanism capable of stabilizing higher order magnon bound states. While such states have long remained elusive in studies of antiferromagnetic chains, neutron scattering data presented here demonstrate that higher order $n>2$ composite magnons exist, and, specifically, that a weak three-magnon bound state is detected below the antiferromagnetic ordering transition of NaMnO$_2$. We corroborate our findings with exact numerical simulations of a one-dimensional Heisenberg chain with easy-axis anisotropy using matrix-product state techniques, finding a good quantitative agreement with the experiment. These results establish $alpha$-NaMnO$_2$ as a unique platform for exploring the dynamics of composite magnon states inherent to a classical antiferromagnetic spin chain with Ising-like single ion anisotropy.
We show how angular momentum conservation can stabilise a symmetry-protected quasi-topological phase of matter supporting Majorana quasi-particles as edge modes in one-dimensional cold atom gases. We investigate a number-conserving four-species Hubbard model in the presence of spin-orbit coupling. The latter reduces the global spin symmetry to an angular momentum parity symmetry, which provides an extremely robust protection mechanism that does not rely on any coupling to additional reservoirs. The emergence of Majorana edge modes is elucidated using field theory techniques, and corroborated by density-matrix-renormalization-group simulations. Our results pave the way toward the observation of Majorana edge modes with alkaline-earth-like fermions in optical lattices, where all basic ingredients for our recipe - spin-orbit coupling and strong inter-orbital interactions - have been experimentally realized over the last two years.