We report unusual magnetic behavior in iron oxide hollow nanospheres of 9.3 $nm$ in diameter. The large fraction of atoms existing at the inner and outer surfaces gives rise to a high magnetic disorder. The overall magnetic behavior can be explained considering the coexistence of a soft superparamagnetic phase and a hard phase corresponding to the highly frustrated cluster-glass like phase at the surface regions.
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 rel
axation 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
Traces of superconductivity (SC) at elevated temperatures (up to 65 K) were observed by magnetic measurements in three different inhomogeneous sulfur doped amorphous carbon (a-C) systems: (a) in commercial and (b) synthesized powders and (c) in a-C t
hin films. (a) Studies performed on commercial (a-C) powder which contains 0.21% of sulfur, revealed traces of non-percolated superconducting phases below Tc = 65 K. The SC volume fraction is enhanced by the sulfur doping. (b) a-C powder obtained by pyrolytic decomposition of sucrose did not show any sign for SC above 5 K. This powder was mixed with sulfur and synthesized at 400 C (a-CS). The inhomogeneous products obtained, show traces of SC phases at TC= 17 and 42 K. (c) Non-superconducting composite a-C-W thin films were grown by electron-beam induced deposition. SC emerged at Tc = 34.4 K only after heat treatment with sulfur. Other parts of the pyrolytic a-CS powder, show unusual magnetic features. (i) Pronounced irreversible peaks around 55-75 K appear in the first zero-field-cooled (ZFC) sweep only. Their origin is not known. (ii) Unexpectedly these peaks are totally suppressed in the second ZFC runs measured a few minutes later. (iii) Around the peak position the field-cooled (FC) curves cross the ZFC plots (ZFC>FC). These peculiar magnetic observations also ascribed to a-CS powder prepared from the commercial a-C powder and are connected to each other. All SC and magnetic phenomena observed are intrinsic properties of the sulfur doped a-C materials. It is proposed that the a-CS systems behave similarly to well known high TC curates and/or pnictides in which SC emerges from magnetic states.
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 f
rom 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.
In this article, we examine the superconducting properties of low- and high-$T_c$ magnetic superconductors in magnetic fields close to the first penetration field. Attention is paid to the properties that relate to the interactions between antiferrom
agnetism and superconductivity. It is suggested that several features characterizing the interplay between magnetic and superconducting subsystems in low-$T_c$ superconductors can also be present in high-$T_c$ materials, however, they have not been observed for any non-substituted antiferromagnetic superconductors of the Y123 type. For the Gd$_{1+x}$Ba$_{2-x}$Cu$_3$O$_{7-delta}$ compound, a peak in the temperature dependence of the ac susceptibility has been found for $x = 0.2$ near the N{e}el temperature of the Gd sublattice. This peak is attributed to the suppression of superconducting persistent currents due to the pair breaking effect that results from the enhanced magnetic fluctuations in the vicinity of the phase transition temperature. This observation indicates that the interaction between magnetic and conducting electrons is present for the composition with $x = 0.2$, where magnetism is enhanced and superconductivity diminished.
The process of magnetic relaxation was studied in bismuth ferrite BiFeO3 multiferroic micro-cubes obtained by means of microwave assisted Pechini process. Two different mechanisms of relaxation were found. The first one is a rapid magnetic relaxation
driven by the domain reorientations and/or pinning and motion of domain walls. This mechanism is also responsible for the irreversible properties at low temperatures. The power-law decay of the magnetic moment confirms that this relaxation takes place in the system of weakly interacting ferromagnetic or superferromagnetic domains. The second mechanism is a longterm weak magnetic relaxation due to spin glass-phase.