No Arabic abstract
We reported a systematic change in the average magnetic relaxation rate, after the application and removal of a 5 T magnetic field, in a polycrystalline sample of La0.5Ca0.5MnO3. Magnetic relaxation measurements and magnetization versus field curves were taken from 10 K to 160 K. The long time behavior of the relaxation curves was approximately logarithmic in all cases. Keywords: Charge Ordering, Relaxation, Magnetic measurements
We have carried out a systematic magnetic relaxation study, measured after applying and switching off a 5 T magnetic field to polycrystalline samples of La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 and Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3. The long time logarithmic relaxation rate (LTLRR), decreased from 10 K to 150 K and increased from 150 K to 195 K in La0.5Ca0.5MnO3. This change in behavior was found to be related to the complete suppression of the antiferromagnetic phase above 150 K and in the presence of a 5 T magnetic field. At 195 K, the magnetization first decreased, and after a few minutes increased slowly as a function of time. Moreover, between 200 K and 245 K, the magnetization increased throughout the measured time span. The change in the slope of the curves, from negative to positive at about 200 K was found to be related to the suppression of antiferromagnetic fluctuations in small magnetic fields. A similar temperature dependence of the LTLRR was found for the Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 sample. However, the temperature where the LTLRR reached the minimum in Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 was lower than that of La0.5Ca0.5MnO3. This result agrees with the stronger ferromagnetic interactions that exist in Nd0.5Sr0.5MnO3 in comparison to La0.5Ca0.5MnO3. The above measurements suggested that the general temperature dependence of the LTLRR and the underlying physics were mainly independent of the particular charge ordering system considered. All relaxation curves could be fitted using a logarithmic law at long times. This slow relaxation was attributed to the coexistence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic interactions between Mn ions, which produced a distribution of energy barriers.
We present an extensive study of the time dependence of the magnetization in a polycrystalline and low temperature charge ordered La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 sample. After application and removal of a 5 T magnetic field, a systematic variation of the magnetic relaxation rate from 10 K to 245 K was found. At 195 K, the magnetization decreases in a very short time and after that it increases slowly as a function of time. Moreover, between 200 and 245 K, an increase in magnetization, above the corresponding value just after removing the 5 T magnetic field, was measured. This unusual behavior was tested in several other relaxation procedures. PACS: 70, 74.25 Ha, 75.60.-d, 76.60.Es
Anisotropic low-temperature properties of the cubic spinel helimagnet ZnCr2Se4 in the single-domain spin-spiral state are investigated by a combination of neutron scattering, thermal conductivity, ultrasound velocity, and dilatometry measurements. In an applied magnetic field, neutron spectroscopy shows a complex and nonmonotonic evolution of the spin-wave spectrum across the quantum-critical point that separates the spin-spiral phase from the field-polarized ferromagnetic phase at high fields. A tiny spin gap of the pseudo-Goldstone magnon mode, observed at wave vectors that are structurally equivalent but orthogonal to the propagation vector of the spin helix, vanishes at this quantum critical point, restoring the cubic symmetry in the magnetic subsystem. The anisotropy imposed by the spin helix has only a minor influence on the lattice structure and sound velocity but has a much stronger effect on the heat conductivities measured parallel and perpendicular to the magnetic propagation vector. The thermal transport is anisotropic at T < 2 K, highly sensitive to an external magnetic field, and likely results directly from magnonic heat conduction. We also report long-time thermal relaxation phenomena, revealed by capacitive dilatometry, which are due to magnetic domain motion related to the destruction of the single-domain magnetic state, initially stabilized in the sample by the application and removal of magnetic field. Our results can be generalized to a broad class of helimagnetic materials in which a discrete lattice symmetry is spontaneously broken by the magnetic order.
We present powder and single-crystal neutron diffraction and bulk measurements of the Kagome-staircase compound Ni3V2O8 (NVO) in fields up to 8.5T applied along the c-direction. (The Kagome plane is the a-c plane.) This system contains two types of Ni ions, which we call spine and cross-tie. Our neutron measurements can be described with the paramagnetic space group Cmca for T < 15K and each observed magnetically ordered phase is characterized by the appropriate irreducible representation(s). Our zero-field measurements show that at T_PH=9.1K NVO undergoes a transition to an incommensurate order which is dominated by a longitudinally-modulated structure with the spine spins mainly parallel to the a-axis. Upon further cooling, a transition is induced at T_HL=6.3K to an elliptically polarized incommensurate structure with both spine and cross-tie moments in the a-b plane. At T_LC=4K the system undergoes a first-order phase transition, below which the magnetic structure is a commensurate antiferromagnet with the staggered magnetization primarily along the a-axis and a weak ferromagnetic moment along the c-axis. A specific heat peak at T_CC=2.3K indicates an additional transition, which we were however not able to relate to a change of the magnetic structure. Neutron, specific heat, and magnetization measurements produce a comprehensive temperature-field phase diagram. The symmetries of the two incommensurate magnetic phases are consistent with the observation that only one phase has a spontaneous ferroelectric polarization. All the observed magnetic structures are explained theoretically using a simplified model Hamiltonian, involving competing nearest- and next-nearest-neighbor exchange interactions, spin anisotropy, Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya and pseudo-dipolar interactions.
The local structure about the Mn site in the half doped system La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 was measured in magnetic fields up 10 T to probe the melting of the charge ordered state. Examination of the Mn-O and Mn-Mn correlations reveal three distinct regions in the structure-field diagram. A broad region with weak field dependence (mainly antiferromatnetic phase below 7.5 T), a narrow-mixed phase region near ~ 8.5 T followed by a ferromagnetic phase region with strong field-structure coupling. At high field the Mn-O radial distribution becomes Gaussian and the Mn-Mn correlations are enhanced - consistent with the dominance of a ferromagnetic phase. The exponential change in resistivity in the first region (observed in transport measurements) is dominated by the reordering of the moments on the Mn sites from CE type antiferromagnetic to ferromagnetic order with only a weak change in the local distortions of the MnO6 octahedra.