Subscribe to the gold package and get unlimited access to Shamra Academy
Register a new userUltrafast ferromagnetic fluctuations preceding magnetoelastic first-order transitions
84
0
0.0
(
0
)
Ask ChatGPT about the research
No Arabic abstract
First-order magnetic transitions are of both fundamental and technological interest given that a number of emergent phases and functionalities are thereby created. Of particular interest are giant magnetocaloric effects, which are attributed to first-order magnetic transitions and have attracted broad attention for solid-state refrigeration applications. While the conventional wisdom is that atomic lattices play an important role in first-order magnetic transitions, a coherent microscopic description of the lattice and spin degrees of freedom is still lacking. Here, we study the magnetic phase transition dynamics on the intermetallic LaFe13-xSix, which is one of the most classical giant magnetocaloric systems, in both frequency and time domains utilizing neutron scattering and ultrafast X-ray diffraction. We have observed a strong magnetic diffuse scattering in the paramagnetic state preceding the first-order magnetic transition, corresponding to picosecond ferromagnetic fluctuations. Upon photon-excitation, the ferromagnetic state is completely suppressed in 0.9 ps and recovered in 20 ps. The ultrafast dynamics suggest that the magnetic degree of freedom dominates this magnetoelastic transition and ferromagnetic fluctuations might be universally relevant for this kind of compounds.
rate research
Read More
The antiferromagnetic (AFM) to ferromagnetic (FM) first order phase transition of an epitaxial FeRh thin-film has been studied with x-ray magnetic circular dichroism using photoemission electron microscopy. The FM phase is magnetized in-plane due to shape anisotropy, but the magnetocrystalline anisotropy is negligible and there is no preferred in-plane magnetization direction. When heating through the AFM to FM phase transition the nucleation of the FM phase occurs at many independent nucleation sites with random domain orientation. The domains subsequently align to form the final FM domain structure. We observe no pinning of the FM domain structure.
Around discontinuous (first-order) magnetic phase transitions the strong caloric response of materials to the application of small fields is widely studied for the development of solid-state refrigeration. Typically strong magnetostructural coupling drives such transitions and the attendant substantial hysteresis dramatically reduces the cooling performance. In this context we describe a purely electronic mechanism which pilots a first-order paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition in divalent lanthanide compounds and which explains the giant non-hysteretic magnetocaloric effect recently discovered in a Eu$_2$In compound. There is positive feedback between the magnetism of itinerant valence electrons and the ferromagnetic ordering of local $f$-electron moments, which appears as a topological change to the Fermi surface. The origin of this electronic mechanism stems directly from Eus divalency, which explains the absence of a similar discontinuous transition in Gd$_2$In.
Many of the iron pnictides have strongly anisotropic normal-state characteristics, important for the exotic magnetic and superconducting behavior these materials exhibit. Yet, the origin of the observed anisotropy is unclear. Electronically driven nematicity has been suggested, but distinguishing this as an independent degree of freedom from magnetic and structural orders is difficult, as these couple together to break the same tetragonal symmetry. Here we use time-resolved polarimetry to reveal critical nematic fluctuations in unstrained Ba(Fe_(1-x)Co_x)_2As_2. The femtosecond anisotropic response, which arises from the two-fold in-plane anisotropy of the complex refractive index, displays a characteristic two-step recovery absent in the isotropic response. The fast recovery appears only in the magnetically ordered state, whereas the slow one persists in the paramagnetic phase with a critical divergence approaching the structural transition temperature. The dynamics also reveal a gigantic magnetoelastic coupling that far exceeds electron-spin and electron-phonon couplings, opposite to conventional magnetic metals.
Present work reports on the observation of multiple magnetic transitions in a Ni-excess ferromagnetic shape memory alloy with nominal composition Ni$_{2.048}$Mn$_{1.312}$In$_{0.64}$. The magnetization data reveal two distinct thermal hystereses associated with two different phase transitions at different temperature regions. The high temperature magnetic hysteresis is due to the martensitic phase transition whereas the low temperature hysteresis occurs around the magnetic anomaly signifying the transition from a paramagnetic-like state to the ferromagetic ground state within the martensite. Clear thermal hysteresis along with the sign of the curvatures of Arrott plot curves confirm the {it first order nature of both the transitions}. In addition, the studied alloy is found to be functionally rich with the observation of large magnetoresistance (-45% and -4% at 80 kOe) and magnetocaloric effect (+16.7 J.kg$^{-1}$.K$^{-1}$ and -2.25 J.kg$^{-1}$.K$^{-1}$ at 50 kOe) around these two hysteresis regions (300 K and 195 K respectively).
We used temperature dependent high-resolution x-ray powder diffraction and magnetization measurements to investigate structural, magnetic and electronic degrees of freedom across the ferromagnetic magneto-elastic phase transition in Mn1Fe1P0.6-wSi0.4Bw (w = 0, 0.02, 0.04, 0.06, 0.08). The magnetic transition was gradually tuned from a strong first-order (w = 0) towards a second-order magnetic transition by substituting P by B. Increasing the B content leads to a systematic increase in the magnetic transition temperature and a decrease in thermal hysteresis, which completely vanishes for w = 0.08. Furthermore, the largest changes in lattice parameter across the magnetic transition occur for w = 0, which systematically becomes smaller approaching the samples with w = 0.08. Electron density plots show a strong directional preference of the electronic distribution on the Fe site, which indicates the forming of bonds between Fe atoms and Fe and P/Si in the paramagnetic phase. On the other hand, the Mn-site shows no preferred directions resembling the behaviour of a free electron gas. Due to the low B concentrations (w = 0 - 0.08), distortions of the lattice are limited. However, even small amounts of B strongly disturb the overall topology of the electron density across the unit cell. Samples containing B show a strongly reduced variation in the electron density compared to the parent compound without B.
Log in to be able to interact and post comments
comments
Fetching comments
Sign in to be able to follow your search criteria
