No Arabic abstract
Temperature and applied magnetic field dependent magnetization measurements on 34 single crystalline samples of (R, R,R...)Ni2Ge2 compounds (R, R, R, etc. being primarily Gd-Lu, Y), were made. These measurements reveal that, despite extremes in local moment anisotropy, the average de Gennes parameter is a remarkably good predictor of the paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic ordering temperature. In addition, the pronounced metamagnetic phase transitions seen in the low temperature phase of TbNi2Ge2 are found to be remarkably robust to high substitution levels of Gd and 25% substitutions of other heavy rare earths.
In this study pseudoquaternary rare-earth nickel borocarbide superconductors RxR1-xNi2B2C have been investigated predominantly in the diluted limit x << 1 or (1 x) << 1. In all of these materials structural disorder results in a reduction of the superconducting transition temperature Tc . Depending on the selection of the rare earth elements R and R this disorder induced deterioration of superconductivity is combined with magnetic pair breaking of Abrikosov-Gorkov type or pair breaking of non-magnetic impurities in antiferromagnetic superconductors (Morozov-type of pair breaking).
Crystals of solid solutions Bi(1-x)R(x)FeO(3),here R= La, Dy, Gd, were obtained with x <=0.7. Solid solutions of the stated rare earths, as x is increased from 0 to 0.7, have one and the same sequence of five crystal structures (rhombohedral C3v 6, triclinic C1 1,orthorhombic D2 6,orthorhombic D2 5, orthorhombic C2v 9). The ferroelectric-paraelectric transition occurs in rhombohedral and triclinic crystals at T=810-560{deg}C.The high temperature modifications are orthorhombic and cubic. The orthorhombic structure C2v 9 holds up to 1180{deg}C.The ferroelectric domain structure was distinguished in all types of crystals. No magnetoelectric effect (MEE) was detected in the orthorhombic crystals with the D2 (222) symmetry class. But the mm2 crystals were found to have both quadratic and linear MEE.The value of the quadratic effect is considerably smaller than that ofthe linear one. Magnetoelectric hysteresis takes place in the crystals. The tensorial properties of the obtained crystals are analyzed from the viewpoint of crystal symmetry.
We report a Raman scattering study of six rare earth orthoferrites RFeO3, with R = La, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy. The use of extensive polarized Raman scattering of SmFeO3 and first-principles calculations enable the assignment of the observed phonon modes to vibrational symmetries and atomic displacements. The assignment of the spectra and their comparison throughout the whole series allows correlating the phonon modes with the orthorhombic structural distortions of RFeO3 perovskites. In particular, the positions of two specific Ag modes scale linearly with the two FeO6 octahedra tilt angles, allowing the distortion throughout the series. At variance with literature, we find that the two octahedra tilt angles scale differently with the vibration frequencies of their respective Ag modes. This behavior as well as the general relations between the tilt angles, the frequencies of the associated modes and the ionic radii are rationalized in a simple Landau model. The reported Raman spectra and associated phonon-mode assignment provide reference data for structural investigations of the whole series of orthoferrites.
We present a detailed characterization of the recently discovered i-$R$-Cd ($R$ = Y, Gd-Tm) binary quasicrystals by means of x-ray diffraction, temperature-dependent dc and ac magnetization, temperature-dependent resistance and temperature-dependent specific heat measurements. Structurally, the broadening of x-ray diffraction peaks found for i-$R$-Cd is dominated by frozen-in phason strain, which is essentially independent of $R$. i-Y-Cd is weakly diamagnetic and manifests a temperature-independent susceptibility. i-Gd-Cd can be characterized as a spin-glass below 4.6 K via dc magnetization cusp, a third order non-linear magnetic susceptibility peak, a frequency-dependent freezing temperature and a broad maximum in the specific heat. i-$R$-Cd ($R$ = Ho-Tm) is similar to i-Gd-Cd in terms of features observed in thermodynamic measurements. i-Tb-Cd and i-Dy-Cd do not show a clear cusp in their zero-field-cooled dc magnetization data, but instead show a more rounded, broad local maximum. The resistivity for i-$R$-Cd is of order 300 $mu Omega$ cm and weakly temperature-dependent. The characteristic freezing temperatures for i-$R$-Cd ($R$ = Gd-Tm) deviate from the de Gennes scaling, in a manner consistent with crystal electric field splitting induced local moment anisotropy.
We explore two methods for single crystal growth of the theoretically proposed magnetic Weyl semimetals $R$AlGe ($R$ = Pr,Ce), which prove that a floating zone technique, being both crucible- and flux-free, is crucial to obtain perfectly stoichiometric $R$AlGe crystals. In contrast, the crystals grown by a flux growth technique tend to be Al-rich. We further present both structural and elemental analysis, along with bulk magnetization and electrical resistivity data on the crystals prepared by the floating zone technique. Both systems with the intended 1:1:1 stoichiometry crystallize in the anticipated polar I4$_{1}$md (No. 109) space group, although neither displays the theoretically expected ferromagnetic ground state. Instead PrAlGe displays a spin-glass-like transition below 16 K with an easy-c-axis and CeAlGe has an easy-ab-plane antiferromagnetic order below 5 K. The grown crystals provide an ideal platform for microscopic studies of the magnetic field-tunable correlation physics involving magnetism and topological Weyl nodes.