Professor Stephen Blundell

Abstract:

Oxidation of the ferromagnetic B-site diluted manganese(III) perovskite La2GaMnO6 is investigated by synthesis of the La2-xSrxGaMnO6 series. At the x = 0.3 composition, which corresponds to diamagnetic element substitution at the B-site of metallic LaO.7SrO.3MnO3, the MnIII and MnIV valences order in real space at low temperature with an unusual lamellar motif. Orbital ordering at the MnIII centers in this array maintains ferromagnetism and enhances the static coherent Jahn-Teller distortion over that found for the pure MnIII end-member, facilitating eg electron hopping in the insulating state. Further oxidation to x = 0.5 completely suppresses the charge and orbital ordering, leading to glassy rather than long-range ordered magnetism.

Abstract:

We present the synthesis and structural characterization of a transition metal oxide hydride, LaSrCoO3H0.7, which adopts an unprecedented structure in which oxide chains are bridged by hydride anions to form a two-dimensional extended network. The metal centers are strongly coupled by their bonding with both oxide and hydride ligands to produce magnetic ordering at temperatures up to at least 350 kelvin. The synthetic route is sufficiently general to allow the prediction of a new class of transition metal--containing electronic and magnetic materials.

Abstract:

We present the results of muon-spin-relaxation experiments for two materials which show geometric frustration. ZnCr22O4 has a spinel structure with S = 3/2 spins on a lattice of corner-sharing tetrahedra. Our experiments show that a local magnetic field which is quasi-static on the muon timescale develops below Tc = 12.5 K, a transition which has been associated with a three-dimensional analogue of the spin-Peierls transition. In contrast, Gd3Ga5O12 has a garnet structure with S = 7/2 spins arranged on interpenetrating triangular sublattices. In this material the muon data exhibit a temperature-dependent spin-relaxation rate indicative of slow spin fluctuations. We discuss these differing behaviours and relate them to the underlying physics in the two materials.

Abstract:

We report a series of magnetic and magnetotransport studies performed on Ga-substituted manganite compounds La2-xSrxMnGaO6 (x≤0.7). We replace half of the Mn ions in LaMnO3 with diamagnetic ions Ga³⁺ and find that the system transforms into a ferromagnet as the result of local coherent and incoherent distortions. Following additional doping with Sr ions we find that the La2-xSrxMnGaO6 compounds remain ferromagnetic up to x∼0.3 but for higher concentrations the competition between the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions, together with the randomness in distribution of the magnetic ions, lead to magnetic frustration, cluster-glass and spin-glass behavior. All compounds are insulating and the activation energy decreases almost linearly with x. μSR measurements suggest the existence of short-range magnetic correlations in the high-temperature region. We measure a significant increase in the muon-spin relaxation rate at low temperatures due to fluctuations of random internal magnetic fields. The observed magnetoresistance in the high-temperature region is mainly a consequence of the reduction of the spin disorder on a local scale, and is as high as 50% in 14 T and T>100 K for samples with x=0.3 and x=0.5.

Abstract:

Peaks in the magnetoresistivity of the layered superconductor kappa - (BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)(2), measured in fields < or =45 T applied within the layers, show that the Fermi surface is extended in the interlayer direction and enable the interlayer transfer integral (t( perpendicular) approximately 0.04 meV) to be deduced. However, the quasiparticle scattering rate tau(-1) is such that Planck's over 2pi/tau approximately 6t( perpendicular), implying that kappa - (BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)(2) meets the criterion used to identify interlayer incoherence. The applicability of this criterion to anisotropic materials is thus shown to be questionable.