No Arabic abstract
While pyrochlore iridate thin films are theoretically predicted to possess a variety of emergent topological properties, experimental verification of these predictions can be obstructed by the challenge in thin film growth. Here we report on the pulsed laser deposition and characterization of thin films of a representative pyrochlore compound Bi2Ir2O7. The films were epitaxially grown on yttria-stabilized zirconia substrates and have lattice constants that are a few percent larger than that of the bulk single crystals. The film composition shows a strong dependence on the oxygen partial pressure. Density-functional-theory calculations indicate the existence of Bi_Ir antisite defects, qualitatively consistent with the high Bi: Ir ratio found in the films. Both Ir and Bi have oxidation states that are lower than their nominal values, suggesting the existence of oxygen deficiency. The iridate thin films show a variety of intriguing transport characteristics, including multiple charge carriers, logarithmic dependence of resistance on temperature, antilocalization corrections to conductance due to spin-orbit interactions, and linear positive magnetoresistance.
Weyl fermions scattering from a random Coulomb potential are predicted to exhibit resistivity versus temperature $rho space alpha space T^{-4}$ in a single particle model. Here we show that, in closed environment-grown polycrystalline samples of $Y_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7}$, $rho = rho_{0} T^{-4}$ over four orders of magnitude in $rho$. While the measured prefactor, $rho_{0}$, is obtained from the model using reasonable materials parameters, the $T^{-4}$ behavior extends far beyond the models range of applicability. In particular, the behavior extends into the low-temperature, high-resistivity region where the Ioffe-Regel parameter, $k_{T} ell ll 2pi$. Strong on-site Coulomb correlations, instrumental for predicting a Weyl semimetal state in $Y_{2}Ir_{2}O_{7}$, are the possible origin of such bad Weyl semimetal behavior.
The irreversible magnetization of the layered high-T_{c} superconductor Bi_{2+x}Sr_{2-(x+y)}Cu_{1+y}O_{6 +- delta} (Bi-2201) has been measured by means of a capacitive torquemeter up to B=28 T and down to T=60 mK. No magnetization jumps, peak effects or crossovers between different pinning mechanisms appear to be present. The deduced irreversibility field B_{irr} can not be described by the law B_{irr}(T)=B_{irr}(0)(1-T/T_{c})^n based on flux creep, but an excellent agreement is found with the analytical form of the melting line of the flux lattice as calculated from the Lindemann criterion. The behavior of B_{irr}(T) obtained here is very similar to the resistive critical field of a Bi-2201 thin film, suggesting that magnetoresistive experiments are likely to be strongly influenced by flux lattice melting.
We investigated the electronic structures of the bandwidth-controlled ruthenates, Y$_{2}$Ru$_{2}$O$_{7}$, CaRuO$_{3}$, SrRuO$_{3}$, and Bi$_{2}$Ru$% _{2}$O$_{7}$, by optical conductivity analysis in a wide energy region of 5 meV $sim $ 12 eV. We could assign optical transitions from the systematic changes of the spectra and by comparison with the O 1$s$ x-ray absorption data. We estimated some physical parameters, such as the on-site Coulomb repulsion energy and the crystal-field splitting energy. These parameters show that the 4$d$ orbitals should be more extended than 3$d$ ones. These results are also discussed in terms of the Mott-Hubbard model.
CaFe2O4 is a highly anisotropic antiferromagnet reported to display two spin arrangements with up-up-down-down (phase A) and up-down-up-down (phase B) configurations. The relative stability of these phases is ruled by the competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions between Fe3+ spins arranged in two different environments, but a complete understanding of the magnetic structure of this material does not exist yet. In this study we investigate epitaxial CaFe2O4 thin films grown on TiO2 (110) substrates by means of Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD). Structural characterization reveals the coexistence of two out-of-plane crystal orientations and the formation of three in-plane oriented domains. The magnetic properties of the films, investigated macroscopically as well as locally, including highly sensitive Mossbauer spectroscopy, reveal the presence of just one order parameter showing long-range ordering below T = 185 K and the critical nature of the transition. In addition, a non-zero in-plane magnetization is found, consistent with the presence of uncompensated spins at phase or domain boundaries, as proposed for bulk samples.
We theoretically study the magnon spin thermal transport using a strong coupling approach in pyrochlore iridate trilayer thin films grown along the [111] direction. As a result of the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI), the spin configuration of the ground state is an all-in/all-out ordering on neighboring tetrahedra of the pyrochlore lattice. In such a state, the system has an inversion symmetry and a Nernst-type thermal spin current response is well defined. We calculate the temperature dependence of the magnon Nernst response with respect to the magnon band topology controlled by the spin-orbit coupling parameters and observe topologically protected chiral edge modes over a range of parameters. Our study complements prior work on the magnon thermal Hall effect in thin-film pyrochlore iridates and suggests that the [111] grown thin-film pyrochlore iridates are a promising candidate for thermal spin transport and spin caloritronic devices.