Z. Ding

Strain-modulated antiferromagnetic spin orientation and exchange coupling in Fe/CoO(001)

The effect of CoO spin orientation on exchange coupling was investigated in single-crystalline Fe/CoO/MnO/MgO(001) systems. An antiferromagnetic CoO spin reorientation transition from the in-plane direction to the out-of-plane direction was found to be associated with the in-plane strain transition in CoO film from compression to expansion. The induced uniaxial anisotropies by exchange coupling at the Fe/CoO interface are significantly stronger for the in-plane CoO spin orientation than for the out-of-plane CoO spin orientation. Our study provides a way to modify the exchange coupling in the ferromagnetic (FM)/antiferromagnetic (AFM) bilayer by modulating the strain in the AFM film.

Direct observation of how the heavy fermion state develops in CeCoIn5

Heavy fermion materials gain high electronic masses and expand Fermi surfaces when the high-temperature localized f electrons become itinerant and hybridize with the conduction band at low temperatures. However, despite the common application of this model, direct microscopic verification remains lacking. Here we report high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy measurements on CeCoIn5, a prototypical heavy fermion compound, and reveal the long-sought band hybridization and Fermi surface expansion. Unexpectedly, the localized-to-itinerant transition occurs at surprisingly high temperatures, yet f electrons are still largely localized at the lowest temperature. Moreover, crystal field excitations likely play an important role in the anomalous temperature dependence. Our results paint an comprehensive unanticipated experimental picture of the heavy fermion formation in a periodic multi-level Anderson/Kondo lattice, and set the stage for understanding the emergent properties in related materials.

Three-dimensional mapping of the anisotropic magnetoresistance in Fe3O4 single crystal thin films

The anisotropic magnetoresistance (AMR) effect with a magnetic field along arbitrary directions in single crystalline (001)-oriented Fe3O4 films was studied. A cubic symmetry term, an in-plane uniaxial term, and an out-of-plane uniaxial term could be quantitatively separated. The cubic term is independent of the current direction, and decreases with increasing temperature, but both in-plane and out-of-plane uniaxial terms are found to be strongly dependent on the current orientation. This three-dimensional magnetoresistance measurement provides a quantitative method for identifying the different contributions to the AMR effect.

Discovery of slow magnetic fluctuations and critical slowing down in the pseudogap phase of YBa2Cu3Oy

Muon relaxation experiments reveal a slowly fluctuating magnetic field in the pseudogap phase of a cuprate superconductor. The origin of the pseudogap region below a temperature T* is at the heart of the mysteries of cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Unusual properties of the pseudogap phase, such as broken time-reversal and inversion symmetry are observed in several symmetry-sensitive experiments: polarized neutron diffraction, optical birefringence, dichroic angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, second harmonic generation, and polar Kerr effect. These properties suggest that the pseudogap region is a genuine thermodynamic phase and are predicted by theories invoking ordered loop currents or other forms of intra-unit-cell (IUC) magnetic order. However, muon spin rotation (μSR) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments do not see the static local fields expected for magnetic order, leaving room for skepticism. The magnetic resonance probes have much longer time scales, however, over which local fields could be averaged by fluctuations. The observable effect of the fluctuations in magnetic resonance is then dynamic relaxation. We have measured dynamic muon spin relaxation rates in single crystals of YBa2Cu3Oy (6.72 < y < 6.95) and have discovered “slow” fluctuating magnetic fields with magnitudes and fluctuation rates of the expected orders of magnitude that set in consistently at temperatures Tmag ≈ T*. The absence of any static field (to which μSR would be linearly sensitive) is consistent with the finite correlation length from neutron diffraction. Equally important, these fluctuations exhibit the critical slowing down at Tmag expected near a time-reversal symmetry breaking transition. Our results explain the absence of static magnetism and provide support for the existence of IUC magnetic order in the pseudogap phase.

Antiferromagnetic proximity effect in epitaxial CoO/NiO/MgO(001) systems

Magnetic proximity effect between two magnetic layers is an important focus of research for discovering new physical properties of magnetic systems. Antiferromagnets (AFMs) are fundamental systems with magnetic ordering and promising candidate materials in the emerging field of antiferromagnetic spintronics. However, the magnetic proximity effect between antiferromagnetic bilayers is rarely studied because detecting the spin orientation of AFMs is challenging. Using X-ray linear dichroism and magneto-optical Kerr effect measurements, we investigated antiferromagnetic proximity effects in epitaxial CoO/NiO/MgO(001) systems. We found the antiferromagnetic spin of the NiO underwent a spin reorientation transition from in-plane to out-of-plane with increasing NiO thickness, with the existence of vertical exchange spring spin alignment in thick NiO. More interestingly, the Néel temperature of the CoO layer was greatly enhanced by the adjacent NiO layer, with the extent of the enhancement closely dependent on the spin orientation of NiO layer. This phenomenon was attributed to different exchange coupling strengths at the AFM/AFM interface depending on the relative spin directions. Our results indicate a new route for modifying the spin configuration and ordering temperature of AFMs through the magnetic proximity effect near room temperature, which should further benefit the design of AFM spintronic devices.

Current-direction dependence of the transport properties in single-crystalline face-centered-cubic cobalt films

Face-centered-cubic cobalt films are epitaxially grown on insulating LaAlO3(001) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy. Transport measurements are conducted in different current directions relative to the crystal axes. We find that the temperature dependent anisotropic magnetoresistance ratio strongly depends on the current direction. However, the anomalous Hall effect shows isotropic behavior independent of the current direction. Our results demonstrate the interplay between the current direction and the crystalline lattice in single-crystalline ferromagnetic films. A phenomenological analysis is presented to interpret the experimental data.

Superconducting gap structure in ambient-pressure-grown LaO 0.5 F 0.5 BiS 2

We have performed transverse-field muon spin relaxation (TF-

Broken time-reversal symmetry in superconducting Pr 1 − x Ce x Pt 4 Ge 12

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Quantum criticality and inhomogeneous magnetic order in Fe-doped α − YbAlB 4

SR) measurements on ambient-pressure-grown polycrystalline

Unusual angular dependent magnetoresistance in single-crystalline Co/Pt bilayers

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