V. B. Filippov

Effects of disorder and isotopic substitution in the specific heat and Raman scattering in LuB12

Precision measurements of the specific heat and spectral intensity I(ω) of Raman scattering for LuNB12 single crystal samples with various boron isotopes (N = 10, 11, nat) have been performed at low and intermediate temperatures. A boson peak in the low-frequency part of the I(ω) spectrum has been observed for the first time for lutetium dodecaboride at liquid nitrogen temperatures. It has been shown that low-temperature anomalies in the specific heat, along with the features of Raman spectra, can be interpreted in terms of the transition to a cageglass state at T* = 50−70 K, which appears when Lu3+ ions are displaced from the centrosymmetric position in cavities of a rigid covalent boron sublattice towards the randomly located boron vacancies. The concentrations of various two-level systems that correspond to two types of vibrational clusters with correlation lengths of 12–15 and 18–22 Å, respectively, have been estimated. The vibrational density of states of LuB12 has been calculated from Raman spectra in the model of soft atomic potentials. An approach has been proposed to explain the dielectrization of the properties of the YbB12 compound at T < T*, as well as the features of the formation of magnetic structures in RB12 antiferromagnets (R = Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm) and the suppression of superconductivity in LuB12.

Electronic structure and bulk properties of MB6 and MB12 borides

Ab initio band structure calculations are carried out for the higher borides MB6 and MB12. High-precision measurements of the elastic constants are performed for the compounds ZrB12, HoB12, ErB12, TmB12, LuB12, YB6 and LaB6 at low temperatures. The bulk properties of the borides are analyzed on the basis of the calculated equations of states and balanced crystal orbital overlap populations. Our calculations indicate that hexaborides with divalent metals, CaB6, SrB6, BaB6, and YbB6, are semiconductors with small energy gaps. The metallic MB6 hexaborides with trivalent M atoms are found to possess larger bulk moduli values. For dodecaborides the bulk moduli are found to be higher for MB12 with increased filling of the conduction band (ZrB12, HfB12, UB12) in comparison with M3+B12 compounds. The total energy calculations for different magnetic configurations in YbB12 point to the possibility of antiferromagnetic coupling between Yb3+ ions.

Specific heat and magnetization of a Zr B 12 single crystal: Characterization of a type-II/1 superconductor

We measured the specific heat, the magnetization, and the magnetoresistance of a single crystal of ZrB12, which is superconducting below Tc ~ 6 K. The specific heat in zero field shows a BCS-type superconducting transition. The normal- to superconducting-state transition changes from first order (with a latent heat) to second order (without latent heat) with increasing magnetic field, indicating that the pure compound is a low-kappa, type-II/1 superconductor in the classification of Auer and Ullmaier [J. Auer and H. Ullmaier, Phys. Rev.B 7, 136 (1973)]. This behavior is confirmed by magnetization measurements. The H-T phase diagram based on specific-heat and magnetization data yields Hc2(0) =550 G for the bulk upper critical field, whereas the critical field defined by vanishing resistance is a surface critical field Hc3(0) ~ 1000 G.

Effect of electron-phonon coupling on the superconducting transition temperature in dodecaboride superconductors: A comparison of LuB 12 with ZrB 12

We report a detailed study of specific heat, electrical resistivity, and optical spectroscopy in the superconducting boride

Optical study of electronic structure and electron-phonon coupling in ZrB12

{\text{LuB}}_{12}

Low-frequency response in the surface superconducting state of single-crystal ZrB 12

({T}_{c}=0.4\text{ }\text{K})

Electronic Raman scattering and the electron–phonon interaction in YB6

, and compare it to the higher

Features of the local structure of rare-earth dodecaborides RB12 (R = Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu)

{T}_{c}

de Haas–van Alphen effect in the diborides ScB2, ZrB2, and HfB2

compound