It has been well established that both in bulk at ambient pressure and for films under modest strains, cubic SrCoO$_{3-delta}$ ($delta < 0.2$) is a ferromagnetic metal. Recent theoretical work, however, indicates that a magnetic phase transition to a
n antiferromagnetic structure could occur under large strain accompanied by a metal-insulator transition. We have observed a strain-induced ferromagnetic to antiferromagnetic phase transition in SrCoO$_{3-delta}$ films grown on DyScO$_3$ substrates, which provide a large tensile epitaxial strain, as compared to ferromagnetic films under lower tensile strain on SrTiO$_3$ substrates. Magnetometry results demonstrate the existence of antiferromagnetic spin correlations and neutron diffraction experiments provide a direct evidence for a G-type antiferromagnetic structure with Neel temperatures between $T_N sim 135,pm,10,K$ and $sim 325,pm,10,K$ depending on the oxygen content of the samples. Therefore, our data experimentally confirm the predicted strain-induced magnetic phase transition to an antiferromagnetic state for SrCoO$_{3-delta}$ thin films under large epitaxial strain.
New developments in the theory and numerical simulation of a recently proposed one-dimensional nonlinear time-dependent fluid model [K. Avinash, A. Bhattacharjee, and S. Hu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 075001 (2003)] for void formation in dusty plasmas are
presented. The model describes an initial instability caused by the ion drag, rapid nonlinear growth, and a nonlinear saturation mechanism that realizes a quasi-steady state containing a void. The earlier one-dimensional model has been extended to two and three dimensions (the latter, assuming spherical symmetry), using a more complete set of dynamical equations than was used in the earlier one-dimensional formulation. The present set of equations includes an ion continuity equation and a nonlinear ion drag operator. Qualitative features of void formation are shown to be robust with respect to different functional forms of the ion drag operator.
Raman spectroscopic investigations are carried out on one-dimensional nanostructures of InN,such as nanowires and nanobelts synthesized by chemical vapor deposition. In addition to the optical phonons allowed by symmetry; A1, E1 and E2(high) modes, t
wo additional Raman peaks are observed around 528 cm-1 and 560 cm-1 for these nanostructures. Calculations for the frequencies of surface optical (SO) phonon modes in InN nanostructures yield values close to those of the new Raman modes. A possible reason for large intensities for SO modes in these nanostructures is also discussed.
