Oxide interfaces play very important roles for the physical and chemical properties of nanostructured materials, such as an ionic conductivity, superconductivity, and magnetism. Gadolinia-doped Ceria (GDC) is commonly selected as the interlayer between (La,Sr)MnO3 and Y2O3-stabilized ZrO2 in fuel cells. The chemical expansions across the oxide interlayer were carefully examined at the atomic resolution in order to understand the cation diffusion and existence of oxygen deficiency at the interfaces.
The transport and magnetic properties of correlated La{0.53}Sr{0.47}MnO{3} ultrathin films, grown epitaxially on SrTiO{3}, show a sharp cusp at the structural transition temperature of the substrate. Using a combination of experiment and theory we show that the cusp is a result of resonant coupling between the charge carriers in the film and a soft phonon mode in the SrTiO{3}, mediated through oxygen octahedra in the film. The amplitude of the mode diverges towards the transition temperature, and phonons are launched into the first few atomic layers of the film affecting its electronic state.
Solar thermochemical hydrogen production (STCH) is a renewable alternative to hydrogen produced using fossil fuels. While serial bulk experimental methods can accurately measure STCH performance, screening chemically complex materials systems for new promising candidates is more challenging. Here we identify double-site Ce-substituted (Ba,Sr)MnO3 oxide perovskites as promising STCH candidates using a combination of bulk synthesis and high-throughput thin film experiments. The Ce substitution on the B-site in 10H-BaMnO3 and on the A-site in 4P-SrMnO3 lead to 2-3x higher hydrogen production compared to CeO2, but these bulk single-site substituted perovskites suffer from incomplete reoxidation. Double-site Ce substitution on both A- and B-site in (Ba,Sr)MnO3 thin films increases Ce solubility and extends the stability of 10H and 4P structures, which is promising for their thermochemical reversibility. This study demonstrates a high-throughput experimental method for screening complex oxide materials for STCH applications.
We report on the first Raman data of Cu substituted La(1-y)Sr(y)Mn(1-x)Cu(x)O3 (0 < x < 0.10 and 0.17 < y < 0.3, accordingly in order to have the same Mn(4+)/[Mn(4+)+Mn(3+)] ratio), collected in the frequency range 100-900 cm-1 and at room temperature, with parallel and crossed polarizations of the incident and scattered light. Spectra were fitted with a Drude-Lorentz model, and peaks at 190-220 and 430 cm-1, together with two broad structures centered at near 500 and 670 cm-1, have been found. We also have observed that the A1g mode is substantially shifted with increasing Cu substitution. The A1g phonon shift is a linear function of the tolerance factor t and the rhombohedral angle, thus following the structural changes of the MnO6 octahedra in the system.
We present measurements of the thermal expansion coefficient $alpha$ of polycrystalline RFeAsO (R = La,Ce,Pr,Sm,Gd). Anomalies at the magnetic ordering transitions indicate a significant magneto-elastic coupling and a negative pressure dependence of $T_{rm N}$ . The structural transitions are associated by large anomalies in $alpha$. Rare earth magnetic ordering in CeFeAsO, PrFeAsO, and SmFeAsO yields large positive anomalies at low temperatures.
The electronic properties of the Mn:GaSe interface, produced by evaporating Mn at room temperature on an epsilon-GaSe(0001) single crystal surface, have been studied by soft X-ray spectroscopies. Substitutional effects of Mn replacing Ga cations and Mn-Se hybridization effects are found both in core level and valence band photoemission spectra. The Mn cation valence state is probed by XAS measurements at the Mn L-edge, which indicate that Mn diffuses into the lattice as a Mn2+ cation with negligible crystal field effects. The Mn spectral weight in the valence band is probed by resonant photoemission spectroscopy at the Mn L-edge, which also allowed an estimation of the charge transfer and Mott-Hubbard energies on the basis of impurity-cluster configuration-interaction model of the photoemission process. The charge transfer energy is found to scale with the energy gap of the system. Competing effects of Mn segregation on the surface have been identified, and the transition from the Mn diffusion through the surface to the segregation of metallic layers on the surface has been tracked by core-level photoemission.