Hong Zheng

Suppressed magnetization at the surfaces and interfaces of ferromagnetic metallic manganites

What happens to ferromagnetism at the surfaces and interfaces of manganites? With the competition between charge, spin, and orbital degrees of freedom, it is not surprising that the surface behaviour may be profoundly different to that of the bulk. Using a powerful combination of two surface probes, tunnelling and polarized x-ray interactions, this paper reviews our work on the nature of the electronic and magnetic states at manganite surfaces and interfaces. The general observation is that ferromagnetism is not the lowest energy state at the surface or interface, which results in a suppression or even loss of ferromagnetic order at the surface. Two cases will be discussed ranging from the surface of the quasi-2D bilayer manganite (La(2-2x)Sr(1+2x)Mn(2)O(7)) to the 3D perovskite (La(2/3)Sr(1/3)MnO(3))/SrTiO(3) interface. For the bilayer manganite, which is ferromagnetic and conducting in the bulk, these probes present clear evidence for an intrinsic insulating non-ferromagnetic surface layer atop adjacent subsurface layers that display the full bulk magnetization. This abrupt intrinsic magnetic interface is attributed to the weak inter-bilayer coupling native to these quasi-two-dimensional materials. This is in marked contrast to the situation for the non-layered manganite system (La(2/3)Sr(1/3)MnO(3)/SrTiO(3)), whose magnetization near the interface is less than half the bulk value at low temperatures and decreases with increasing temperature at a faster rate than that for the bulk.

Stacked charge stripes in the quasi-2D trilayer nickelate La4Ni3O8.

Significance Competition between localized and itinerant electrons in highly correlated materials can lead to myriad insulating ground states, including spatially inhomogeneous but ordered charge superlattices. In layered transition metal oxides, such charge order can take the form of stripes, which typically arrange themselves in staggered formations to reduce Coulomb repulsion. Having achieved single-crystal growth of the layered nickelate La4Ni3O8, we show that its heretofore incompletely understood phase transition is associated with charge stripe ordering. We find that the stripes are stacked directly on top of one another within nickel oxide trilayers but staggered between successive trilayers. A unique, paradoxical ground state results, in which the electrostatic building principle is respected at long range but violated at short range. The quasi-2D nickelate La4Ni3O8 (La-438), consisting of trilayer networks of square planar Ni ions, is a member of the so-called T′ family, which is derived from the Ruddlesden–Popper (R-P) parent compound La4Ni3O10−x by removing two oxygen atoms and rearranging the rock salt layers to fluorite-type layers. Although previous studies on polycrystalline samples have identified a 105-K phase transition with a pronounced electronic and magnetic response but weak lattice character, no consensus on the origin of this transition has been reached. Here, we show using synchrotron X-ray diffraction on high-pO2 floating zone-grown single crystals that this transition is associated with a real space ordering of charge into a quasi-2D charge stripe ground state. The charge stripe superlattice propagation vector, q = (2/3, 0, 1), corresponds with that found in the related 1/3-hole doped single-layer R-P nickelate, La5/3Sr1/3NiO4 (LSNO-1/3; Ni2.33+), with orientation at 45° to the Ni-O bonds. The charge stripes in La-438 are weakly correlated along c to form a staggered ABAB stacking that reduces the Coulomb repulsion among the stripes. Surprisingly, however, we find that the charge stripes within each trilayer of La-438 are stacked in phase from one layer to the next, at odds with any simple Coulomb repulsion argument.

Optimization of Pulsed-Current Profile for Magnetizing High

Compared with conventional field cooling (FC) and zero field cooling magnetization methods, pulsed field magnetization (PFM) is a promising way to magnetize high-temperature superconductors (HTS) with the advantage of dramatically decreasing the size and complexity of the electromagnetic charging system. The effects of the amplitude, width, and ramp rate of the pulsed current are reported. Transient responses of the HTS to pulsed magnetic fields are discussed and analyzed. A series of three pulses was found to be adequate to magnetize the HTS monolith with optimal trapped field if proper pulse amplitudes and widths are applied. Experiments verified that the trapped magnetic fields of HTS by PFM were comparable to those obtained by FC magnetization

T_rm C

The energy gap for electronic excitations is one of the most important characteristics of the superconducting state, as it directly reflects the pairing of electrons. In the copper–oxide high-temperature superconductors (HTSCs), a strongly anisotropic energy gap, which vanishes along high-symmetry directions, is a clear manifestation of the d-wave symmetry of the pairing. There is, however, a dramatic change in the form of the gap anisotropy with reduced carrier concentration (underdoping). Although the vanishing of the gap along the diagonal to the square Cu–O bond directions is robust, the doping dependence of the large gap along the Cu–O directions suggests that its origin might be different from pairing. It is thus tempting to associate the large gap with a second-order parameter distinct from superconductivity. We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to show that the two-gap behavior and the destruction of well-defined electronic excitations are not universal features of HTSCs, and depend sensitively on how the underdoped materials are prepared. Depending on cation substitution, underdoped samples either show two-gap behavior or not. In contrast, many other characteristics of HTSCs, such as the dome-like dependence of on doping, long-lived excitations along the diagonals to the Cu–O bonds, and an energy gap at the Brillouin zone boundary that decreases monotonically with doping while persisting above (the pseudogap), are present in all samples, irrespective of whether they exhibit two-gap behavior or not. Our results imply that universal aspects of high- superconductivity are relatively insensitive to differences in the electronic states along the Cu–O bond directions.

Bulk YBCO Superconductors

Ca2Co2O5 in the brownmillerite form was synthesized using a high-pressure optical-image floating zone furnace, and single crystals with dimensions up to 1.4 × 0.8 × 0.5 mm3 were obtained. At room temperature, Ca2Co2O5 crystallizes as a fully ordered brownmillerite variant in the orthorhombic space group Pcmb (No. 57) with unit cell parameters a = 5.28960(10) A, b = 14.9240(2) A, and c = 10.9547(2) A. With decreasing temperature, it undergoes a re-entrant sequence of first-order structural phase transitions (Pcmb → P2/c11 → P121/m1 → Pcmb) that is unprecedented among brownmillerites, broadening the family of space groups available to these materials and challenging current approaches for sorting the myriad variants of brownmillerite structures. Magnetic susceptibility data indicate antiferromagnetic ordering in Ca2Co2O5 occurs near 240 K, corroborated by neutron powder diffraction. Below 140 K, the specimen exhibits a weak ferromagnetic component directed primarily along the b axis that shows a pronounced ...

Universal features in the photoemission spectroscopy of high-temperature superconductors

High-temperature cuprate superconductivity remains a defining problem in condensed-matter physics. Among myriad approaches to addressing this problem has been the study of alternative transition metal oxides with similar structures and 3d electron count that are suggested as proxies for cuprate physics. None of these analogues has been superconducting, and few are even metallic. Here, we report that the low-valent, quasi-two-dimensional trilayer compound Pr4Ni3O8 avoids a charge-stripe-ordered phase previously reported for La4Ni3O8, leading to a metallic ground state. X-ray absorption spectroscopy showsxa0that metallic Pr4Ni3O8 exhibits a low-spin configuration with significant orbital polarization and pronounced character in the unoccupied states above the Fermi energy, a hallmark of the cuprate superconductors. Density functional theory calculations corroborate this finding, and reveal that the orbital dominates the near-Ef occupied states as well. Belonging to a regime of 3d electron count found for hole-doped cuprates, Pr4Ni3O8 thus represents one of the closest analogues to cuprates yet reported and a singularly promising candidate for high-Tc superconductivity if electron doping could bexa0achieved. A careful study of the low-valent, quasi-two-dimensional trilayer metallic nickelate Pr4Ni3O8 is presented, revealing this system to be a close analogue of cuprate systems, and offering tantalizing hope that it may superconduct if appropriate electron doping can be achieved.

Brownmillerite Ca2Co2O5: Synthesis, Stability, and Re-entrant Single Crystal to Single Crystal Structural Transitions

We show evidence that the competition between the antiferromagetic metallic phase and the charge- and orbital-ordered insulating phase at the reentrant phase boundary of a layered manganite, La0.99Sr2.01Mn2O7, can be manipulated using ultrafast optical excitation. The time-dependent evolution of the Jahn-Teller superlattice reflection, which indicates the formation of the charge and orbital order, was measured at different laser fluences. The laser-induced enhancement and reduction the Jahn-Teller reflection intensity shows a reversal of sign between earlier (~10 ns) and later (~150 ns) time delays during the relaxation after photo excitation. This effect is consistent with a scenario whereby the laser excitation modulates the local competition between the metallic and the insulating phases.