No Arabic abstract
We investigated the temperature-dependence of the Raman spectra of a nine-layer BaRuO$_3$ single crystal and a four-layer BaRuO$_3$ epitaxial film, which show pseudogap formations in their metallic states. From the polarized and depolarized spectra, the observed phonon modes are assigned properly according to the predictions of group theory analysis. In both compounds, with decreasing temperature, while $A_{1g}$ modes show a strong hardening, $E_g$ (or $E_{2g}$) modes experience a softening or no significant shift. Their different temperature-dependent behaviors could be related to a direct Ru metal-bonding through the face-sharing of RuO$_6$. It is also observed that another $E_{2g}$ mode of the oxygen participating in the face-sharing becomes split at low temperatures in the four layer BaRuO$_3 $. And, the temperature-dependence of the Raman continua between 250 $sim $ 600 cm$^{-1}$ is strongly correlated to the square of the plasma frequency. Our observations imply that there should be a structural instability in the face-shared structure, which could be closely related to the pseudogap formation of BaRuO$_3$ systems.
We investiaged the optical properties of four-layer BaRuO$_{3}$, which shows a fermi-liquid-like behavior at low temperature. Its optical conductivity spectra clearly displayed the formation of a pseudogap and the development of a coherent peak with decreasing temperature. Temperature-dependences of the density $n$ and the scattering rate $1/tau$ of the coherent component were also derived. As the temperature decreases, both $n$ and $1/tau$ decrease for four-layer BaRuO$_{3}$. These electrodynamic responses were compared with those of nine-layer BaRuO$_{3}$, which also shows a pseudogap formation but has an insulator-like state at low temperature. It was found that the relative rates of change of both $n$ and $1/tau$ determine either metallic or insulator-like responses in the ruthenates. The optical properties of the four-layer ruthenate were also compared with those of other pseudogap systems, such as high $T_{c}$ cuprates and heavy electron systems.
Micro-Raman spectroscopy has been used to study lattice dynamics associated with the ferroelectric domains of a BiFeO$_3$ single crystal at low temperature. The phonon assignment shows a large frequency splitting between the transverse and longitudinal components of the A$_1$ phonon mode related to the Bi-O bonds in contrast with thin films where the splitting is negligible. Applying an external electric field induces frequency shifts of the low energy modes related to the Bi-O bonds. These softenings are due to a tensile stress via the piezoelectric effect. We give estimates of the phonon deformation potentials.
The interplay between spin dynamics and lattice vibration has been suggested as an important part of the puzzle of high-temperature superconductivity. Here we report the strong interaction between spin fluctuation and phonon in SmFeAsO, a parent compound of the iron arsenide family of superconductors, revealed by low-temperature Raman spectroscopy. Anomalous zone-boundary-phonon Raman scattering from spin superstructure was observed at temperatures below the antiferromagnetic ordering point, which offers compelling evidence on spin dependent electron-phonon coupling in pnictides.
We have measured the intricate temperature dependence of the Co L2,3 x-ray absorption spectra (2p-3d excitations) of CoO. To allow for accurate total electron yield measurements, the material has been grown in thin film form on a metallic substrate in order to avoid charging problems usually encountered during electron spectroscopic studies on bulk CoO samples. The changes in spectra due to temperature are in good agreement with detailed ligand-field calculations indicating that these changes are mostly due to thermal population of closely lying excited states, originating from degenerate t2g levels lifted by the spin-orbit coupling. Magnetic coupling in the ordered phase, modeled as a mean-field exchange field, mixes in excited states inducing a tetragonal charge density. The spin-orbit coupling induced splitting of the low energy states results in a non-trivial temperature dependence for the magnetic susceptibility.
We provide optical reflectivity data collected over a broad spectral range and as a function of temperature on the ErTe$_3$ and HoTe$_3$ materials, which undergo two consecutive charge-density-wave (CDW) phase transitions at $T_{CDW1}$= 265 and 288 K and at $T_{CDW2}$= 157 and 110 K, respectively. We observe the temperature dependence of both the Drude component, due to the itinerant charge carriers, and the single-particle peak, ascribed to the charge-density-wave gap excitation. The CDW gap progressively opens while the metallic component gets narrow with decreasing temperature. An important fraction of the whole Fermi surface seems to be affected by the CDW phase transitions. It turns out that the temperature and the previously investigated pressure dependence of the most relevant CDW parameters share several common features and behaviors. Particularly, the order parameter of the CDW state is in general agreement with the predictions of the BCS theory.