Professor Paolo G. Radaelli OSI

Abstract:

The crystal structure of barium-germanium clathrate Ba6Ge25 was studied using neutron powder diffraction in the temperature range 20-300K. The compound was found to be cubic (S.G. P4_1 23) in the entire temperature range. However, the fully-ordered model of the crystal structure (no split sites) is marginal at room temperature, and clearly fails at low temperature. A much better description of the crystal structure below 250K is given in terms of two split Ba sites, with random occupancies, for two out of three types of cages present in the Ba6Ge25 structure. The Ba atoms were found to interact strongly with the Ge host. The separation of the split Ba sites grows with decreasing temperature, with a sudden increase on cooling through the 200-250K temperature range, accompanied by an expansion of the entire crystal structure. We propose a simple model for this transition, based on temperature-induced de- trapping of Ba from a deep double-well potential. This transition is associated with sizeable anomalies in the transport and magnetic properties. The most significant of these effects, that is, the drop in electrical conductivity on cooling, can be easily explained within our model through the enhanced structural disorder, which would affect the relaxation time for all portions of the Fermi surface. We suggest that the other anomalies (increase in the absolute value of the negative Seebeck coefficient, decrease in the magnetic susceptibility) can be explained within the framework of the one-electron semi- classical model, without any need to invoke exotic electron-electron interaction mechanisms.

Abstract:

This work aims at understanding the large reduction of superconducting critical temperature Tc observed in YSr2Cu3O6+χ as compared to its YBa2Cu3O6+χ counterpart (ΔTc=-30 K). We report on a combined study of structural and electronic properties of RESr2Cu3O6+χ (RE=Y, Yb) polycrystalline samples. Neutron diffraction data and Cu NQR spectra show that, contrary to REBa2Cu3O6+χ RESr2Cu3O6+χ is locally tetragonal and no CuO chains are formed. This arises from the random occupancy of oxygen along the a- or b- direction in the basal planes. Ab-initio calculations of the electronic structure using the full-potential linearized-augmented-plane-wave method (FLAPW) in the local density approximation (LDA) suggest that the CuO chains are not formed because of the large elastic strain associated with the orthorhombic distortion produced by the chain formation. In addition, by using a 2α√ x 2α√ supercell simulating the absence of chains, we find that oxygen disorder greatly alters the band structure near the Fermi level. Our analysis indicates that this alteration leads to a reduction of hole transfer from the CuO chains to the CuO2 planes, which accounts for the reduction of Tc experimentally observed.

Abstract:

MnAs is a commercially available material, intensively studied, both theoretically and experimentally, since the beginning of the last century. Interest in this compound could come up again as a consequence of new ideas and conjectures formulated during the last decade in connection with the study of the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) response in Mn perovskites. Among these ideas is the invocation of a phase separation scenario for CMR manganese oxides and related materials that might be of particular relevance in systems, like MnAs, where first-order phase transitions occur.

Abstract:

MnAs exhibits a first-order phase transition from a ferromagnetic, high-spin metal hexagonal phase to a paramagnetic, lower-spin insulator orthorhombic phase at T(C)=313 K. Here, we report the results of neutron diffraction experiments showing that an external magnetic field, B, stabilizes the hexagonal phase above T(C). The phase transformation is reversible and constitutes the first demonstration of a bond-breaking transition induced by a magnetic field. The field-induced phase transition is accompanied by an enhanced magnetoresistance of about 17% at 310 K. The phenomenon appears to be similar to that of the colossal magnetoresistance response observed in the Mn [corrected] perovskite family.