No Arabic abstract
The origin of the resistivity minimum observed in strongly phase separated manganites has been investigated in single crystalline thin films of LPCMO (x~0.42, y~0.40). The antiferromagnetic/charge ordered insulator (AFM/COI)-ferromagnetic metal (FMM) phase transition, coupled with the colossal hysteresis between the field cool cooled and field cooled warming magnetization demonstrates strongly phase separated nature, which gives rise to non-equilibrium magnetic liquid state that freezes into a magnetic glass. The thermal cycling and magnetic field dependence of the resistivity unambiguously shows that the pronounced resistivity minimum observed during warming is a consequence non-equilibrium states resulting from the magnetic frustration created by the delicate coexistence of the FMM and AFM/COI phases. The non-equilibrium states and hence the resistivity minimum is extremely sensitive to the relative fraction of the coexisting phases and can be tuned by intrinsic and extrinsic perturbations like the defect density, thermal cycling and magnetic field.
Combined in-situ x-ray photoemission spectroscopy, scanning tunnelling spectroscopy and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy of molecular beam epitaxy grown Bi2Te3 on lattice mismatched substrates reveal high quality stoichiometric thin films with topological surface states without a contribution from the bulk bands at the Fermi energy. The absence of bulk states at the Fermi energy is achieved without counter doping. We observe that the surface morphology and electronic band structure of Bi2Te3 are not affected by in-vacuo storage and exposure to oxygen, whereas major changes are observed when exposed to ambient conditions. These films help define a pathway towards intrinsic topological devices.
We examine magnetic relaxation in polycrystalline Fe films with strong and weak crystallographic texture. Out-of-plane ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements reveal Gilbert damping parameters of $approx$ 0.0024 for Fe films with thicknesses of 4-25 nm, regardless of their microstructural properties. The remarkable invariance with film microstructure strongly suggests that intrinsic Gilbert damping in polycrystalline Fe is a local property of nanoscale crystal grains, with limited impact from grain boundaries and film roughness. By contrast, the in-plane FMR linewidths of the Fe films exhibit distinct nonlinear frequency dependences, indicating the presence of strong extrinsic damping. To fit our experimental data, we have used a grain-to-grain two-magnon scattering model with two types of correlation functions aimed at describing the spatial distribution of inhomogeneities in the film. However, neither of the two correlation functions is able to reproduce the experimental data quantitatively with physically reasonable parameters. Our finding points to the need to further examine the fundamental impact of film microstructure on extrinsic damping.
The magnetic and magnetotransport properties of single crystalline La1-x-yPryCaxMnO3 (x=0.42, y=0.40) thin films (~140 nm) deposited on (110) oriented LaAlO3 and SrTiO3 substrates exhibit a crossover from the high temperature antiferromagnetic-charge ordered insulator (AFM-COI) phase (T>TN) to strain glass (T<Tg). At intermediate temperatures (Tg<T<TN) dynamical liquid having prominent thermal-magneto-resistive hysteresis dominates in the cooling cycle, while in the warming cycle it is preceded by ferromagnetic metal (FMM) phase. Magnetic field required to drive AFM-COI to FMM phase transition are higher than that for the strain glass. The magneto-electric nature and temperature span of the distinct magnetic regimes are sensitive to the thermal cycling and substrate induced strain.
Ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) technique has been used to study the magnetization relaxation processes and magnetic anisotropy in two different series of the Co2FeSi (CFS) Heusler alloy thin films, deposited on the Si(111) substrate by UHV sputtering. While the CFS films of fixed (50 nm) thickness, deposited at different substrate temperatures (TS) ranging from room temperature (RT) to 600^C, constitute the series-I, the CFS films with thickness t varying from 12 nm to 100 nm and deposited at 550^C make up the series-II. In series-I, the CFS films deposited at TS = RT and 200^C are completely amorphous, the one at TS = 300^C is partially crystalline, and those at TS equal 450^C, 550^C and 600^C are completely crystalline with B2 order. By contrast, all the CFS films in series-II are in the fully-developed B2 crystalline state. Irrespective of the strength of disorder and film thickness, angular variation of the resonance field in the film plane unambiguously establishes the presence of global in-plane uniaxial anisotropy. Angular variation of the linewidth in the film plane reveals that, in the CFS thin films of varying thickness, a crossover from the in-plane local four-fold symmetry (cubic anisotropy) to local two-fold symmetry (uniaxial anisotropy) occurs as t exceeds 50 nm. Gilbert damping parameter {alpha} decreases monotonously from 0.047 to 0.0078 with decreasing disorder strength (increasing TS) and jumps from 0.008 for the CFS film with t = 50 nm to 0.024 for the film with t equal 75 nm. Such variations of {alpha} with TS and t are understood in terms of the changes in the total (spin-up and spin-down) density of states at the Fermi level caused by the disorder and film thickness.
We analyze the temperature dependence of conductivity in thick granular ferromagnetic compounds NiSiO2 and in thin weakly coupled films of Fe, Ni and Py in vicinity of metal-insulator transition. Development of resistivity minimum followed by a logarithmic variation of conductivity at lower temperatures is attributed to granular structure of compounds and thin films fabricated by conventional deposition techniques. Resistivity minimum is identified as a transition between temperature dependent intra-granular metallic conductance and thermally activated inter-granular tunneling.