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At least 955 records · Page 53

Direct observation of magnon-phonon coupling in yttrium iron garnet

The magnetic insulator yttrium iron garnet (YIG) with a ferrimagnetic transition temperature of ~ 560 K has been widely used in microwave and spintronic devices. Anomalous features in spin Seeback effect (SSE) voltages have been observed in Pt/YIG and attributed to magnon-phonon coupling. Here, we use inelastic neutron scattering to map out low-energy spin waves and acoustic phonons of YIG at 100 K as a function of increasing magnetic field. In this work, by comparing the zero and 9.1 T data, we find that instead of splitting and opening up gaps at the spin wave and acoustic phonon dispersion intersecting points, magnon-phonon coupling in YIG enhances the hybridized scattering intensity. These results are different from expectations of conventional spin-lattice coupling, calling for different paradigms to understand the scattering process of magnon-phonon interactions and the resulting magnon polarons.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Field-induced magnetic phase transitions and metastable states in Tb 3 Ni

In this study we report the detailed study of magnetic phase diagrams, low-temperature magnetic structures, and the magnetic field effect on the electrical resistivity of the binary intermetallic compound ${\mathrm{Tb}}_{3}\mathrm{Ni}$. The incommensurate magnetic structure of the spin-density-wave type described with magnetic superspace group $P{112}_{1}/a{1}^{{'}}(ab0)0ss$ and propagation vector ${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{IC}}=\left[0.506,0.299,0\right]$ was found to emerge just below Néel temperature ${T}_{\mathrm{N}}=61$ K. Further cooling below 58 K results in the appearance of multicomponent magnetic states: (i) a combination of ${\mathbf{k}}_{1}=\left[\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},0\right]$ and ${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{IC}}$ in the temperature range 51 < T < 58 K; (ii) a mixed magnetic state of ${\mathbf{k}}_{\mathrm{IC}}, {\mathbf{k}}_{1}$, and ${\mathbf{k}}_{2}=\left[\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{4},0\right]$ with the partially locked-in incommensurate component in the temperature range 48 < T < 51 K; and (iii) a low-temperature magnetic structure that is described by the intersection of two isotropy subgroups associated with the irreducible representations of two coupled primary order parameters (OPs) ${\mathbf{k}}_{2}=\left[\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{4},0\right]$ and ${\mathbf{k}}_{3}=\left[\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{3},0\right]$ and involves irreducible representations of the secondary OPs ${\mathbf{k}}_{1}=\left[\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},0\right]$ and ${\mathbf{k}}_{4}=\left[\frac{1}{2},0,0\right]$ below 48 K. An external magnetic field suppresses the complex low-temperature antiferromagnetic states and induces metamagnetic transitions towards a forced ferromagnetic state that are accompanied by a substantial magnetoresistance effect due to the magnetic superzone effect. Finally, the forced ferromagnetic state induced after application of an external magnetic field along the $b$ and $c$ crystallographic axes was found to be irreversible below 3 and 8 K, respectively.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Detailed study of the Fermi surfaces of the type-II Dirac semimetallic candidates X Te 2 ( X =Pd, Pt)

We present a detailed quantum oscillatory study on the Dirac type-II semimetallic candidates PdTe 2 and PtTe 2 via the temperature and the angular dependence of the de Haas–van Alphen and Shubnikov–de Haas effects. In high-quality single crystals of both compounds, i.e., displaying carrier mobilities between 10 3 and 10 4 cm 2 /Vs, we observed a large nonsaturating magnetoresistivity which in PtTe2 at a temperature T = 1.3 K leads to an increase in the resistivity up to (5 × 10 4 )% under a magnetic field μ0 H = 62 T. These high mobilities correlate with their light effective masses in the range of 0.04 to 1 bare electron mass according to our measurements. For PdTe 2 the experimentally determined Fermi surface cross-sectional areas show excellent agreement with those resulting from band structure calculations. Surprisingly, this is not the case for PtTe 2 , whose agreement between calculations and experiments is relatively poor even when electronic correlations are included in the calculations. Therefore, our study provides strong support for the existence of a Dirac type-II node in PdTe 2 and probably also for PtTe 2 . Band structure calculations indicate that the topologically nontrivial bands of PtTe 2 do not cross the Fermi level ε F . In contrast, for PdTe 2 the Dirac type-II cone does intersect ε F , although our calculations also indicate that the associated cyclotron orbit on the Fermi surface is located in a distinct k z plane with respect to that of the Dirac type-II node. Furthermore, it should yield a trivial Berry phase.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Potential energy surface of monatomic liquids

In the last decade, significant progress has been made in the many-body Hamiltonian formulation of liquid dynamics theory. Earlier analysis of experimental data for a wide variety of elemental liquids had provided the reliable but qualitative description of the atomic motion: vibrations in a representative 3N -dimensional potential energy valley, plus transits, in which atoms cross the intersections between these valleys. Recent comparisons of first-principles theory with experiment for several elemental liquids at melt revealed a highly accurate and versatile theory. In the present work, we report on an extensive quench study of the entire condensed-matter structure-energy distribution for a metallic Na MD system. With these results, all that was learned from experimental data is confirmed, refined in detail, and made more accurate. Here, we show the entire structure-energy distribution, composed of widespread symmetrics and higher lying randoms, we show the increasing dominance of the randoms as N increases, until the symmetrics vanish completely, and we show the random distribution continue its spectacular narrowing as N continues to increase. This behavior certifies our early assignment of the random distribution to the liquid phase and our prediction of macroscopic uniformity of the random structures. Procedures are discussed to identify and calibrate a single random structure to represent the liquid, and the role of the structure energy in liquid thermodynamics is described. A comparison with other liquid dynamics theories is observed in the Introduction, and the relation to the equation-of-state program is noted in the Conclusion.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Gravity Probe Spin: Prospects for measuring general-relativistic precession of intrinsic spin using a ferromagnetic gyroscope

An experimental test at the intersection of quantum physics and general relativity is proposed: measurement of relativistic frame dragging and geodetic precession using intrinsic spin of electrons. Furthermore, the behavior of intrinsic spin in spacetime dragged and warped by a massive rotating body is an experimentally open question, hence the results of such a measurement could have important theoretical consequences. Such a measurement is possible by using mm-scale ferromagnetic gyroscopes in orbit around the Earth. Under conditions where the rotational angular momentum of a ferromagnet is sufficiently small, a ferromagnet’s angular momentum is dominated by atomic electron spins and is predicted to exhibit macroscopic gyroscopic behavior. If such a ferromagnetic gyroscope is sufficiently isolated from the environment, rapid averaging of quantum uncertainty via the spin-lattice interaction enables readout of the ferromagnetic gyroscope dynamics with sufficient sensitivity to measure both the Lense-Thirring (frame dragging) and de Sitter (geodetic precession) effects due to the Earth.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Josephson currents in neutron stars

We demonstrate that the interface between S-wave and P-wave paired superfluids in neutron stars induces a neutron supercurrent, a charge-neutral analog of the Josephson junction effect in electronic superconductors. The proton supercurrent entrainment by the neutron superfluid generates, in addition to the neutral supercurrent, a charged current across the interface. Beyond this stationary effect, the motion of the neutron vortex lines responding to secular changes in the neutron star’s rotation rate induces a time-dependent oscillating Josephson current across this interface when proton flux tubes are dragged along with them. We show that such motion produces radiation from the interface once clusters of proton flux tubes intersect the interface. The power of radiation exceeds by orders of magnitude the Ohmic dissipation of currents in neutron stars. As a result, this effect appears to be phenomenologically significant enough to heat the star and alter its cooling rate during the photon cooling era.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

Measurement of hydrodynamic growth near peak velocity in an inertial confinement fusion capsule implosion using a self-radiography technique

First measurements of hydrodynamic growth near peak implosion velocity in an inertial confinement fusion (ICF) implosion at the National Ignition Facility were obtained using a self-radiographing technique and a preimposed Legendre mode 40, λ = 140 μm, sinusoidal perturbation. These are the first measurements of the total growth at the most unstable mode from acceleration Rayleigh-Taylor achieved in any ICF experiment to date, showing growth of the areal density perturbation of ~7000×. Measurements were made at convergences of ~5 to ~10× at both the waist and pole of the capsule, demonstrating simultaneous measurements of the growth factors from both lines of sight. The areal density growth factors are an order of magnitude larger than prior experimental measurements and differed by ~2× between the waist and the pole, showing asymmetry in the measured growth factors. As a result, these new measurements significantly advance our ability to diagnose perturbations detrimental to ICF implosions, uniquely intersecting the change from an accelerating to decelerating shell, with multiple simultaneous angular views.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Tunable Lifshitz Transitions and Multiband Transport in Tetralayer Graphene

To begin, as the Fermi level and band structure of two-dimensional materials are readily tunable, they constitute an ideal platform for exploring the Lifshitz transition, a change in the topology of a material’s Fermi surface. Using tetralayer graphene that host two intersecting massive Dirac bands, we demonstrate multiple Lifshitz transitions and multiband transport, which manifest as a nonmonotonic dependence of conductivity on the charge density $n$ and out-of-plane electric field $D$, anomalous quantum Hall sequences and Landau level crossings that evolve with $n, D$ and $B$.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Deterministic Role of Collision Cascade Density in Radiation Defect Dynamics in Si

The formation of stable radiation damage in solids often proceeds via complex dynamic annealing (DA) processes, involving point defect migration and interaction. The dependence of DA on irradiation conditions remains poorly understood even for Si. Here, we use a pulsed ion beam method to study defect interaction dynamics in Si bombarded in the temperature range from ~ -30 °C to 210 °C with ions in a wide range of masses, from Ne to Xe, creating collision cascades with different densities. We demonstrate that the complexity of the influence of irradiation conditions on defect dynamics can be reduced to a deterministic effect of a single parameter, the average cascade density, calculated by taking into account the fractal nature of collision cascades. For each ion species, the DA rate exhibits two well-defined Arrhenius regions where different DA mechanisms dominate. These two regions intersect at a critical temperature, which depends linearly on the cascade density. The low-temperature DA regime is characterized by an activation energy of ~ 0.1 eV , independent of the cascade density. The high-temperature regime, however, exhibits a change in the dominant DA process for cascade densities above ~ 0.04 at.%, evidenced by an increase in the activation energy. These results clearly demonstrate a crucial role of the collision cascade density and can be used to predict radiation defect dynamics in Si.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

First Spectroscopy of the Near Drip-line Nucleus Mg 40

One of the most exotic light neutron-rich nuclei currently accessible for experimental study is 40 Mg , which lies at the intersection of the nucleon magic number N=28 and the neutron drip line. Low-lying excited states of 40 Mg have been studied for the first time following a one-proton removal reaction from 41 Al, performed at the Radioactive Isotope Beam Factory of RIKEN Nishina Center with the DALI2 γ-ray array and the ZeroDegree spectrometer. Two γ-ray transitions were observed, suggesting an excitation spectrum that shows unexpected properties as compared to both the systematics along the Z=12, N ≥ 20 Mg isotopes and available state-of-the-art theoretical model predictions. A possible explanation for the observed structure involves weak-binding effects in the low-lying excitation spectrum.

73 NUCLEAR PHYSICS AND RADIATION PHYSICS↗

Engineering Corner States from Two-Dimensional Topological Insulators

We theoretically demonstrate that the second-order topological insulator with robust corner states can be realized in two-dimensional $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological insulators by applying an in-plane Zeeman field. The Zeeman field breaks the time-reversal symmetry and thus destroys the $\mathbb{Z}_2$ topological phase. Nevertheless, it respects some crystalline symmetries and thus can protect the higher-order topological phase. By taking the Kane-Mele model as a concrete example, we find that spin-helical edge states along zigzag boundaries are gapped out by the Zeeman field whereas the in-gap corner state at the intersection between two zigzag edges arises, which is independent of the field orientation. In this work, we further show that the corner states are robust against the out-of-plane Zeeman field, staggered sublattice potentials, Rashba spin-orbit coupling, and the buckling of honeycomb lattices, making them experimentally feasible. Similar behaviors can also be found in the well-known Bernevig-Hughes-Zhang model.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Selective Enhancement of Spectroscopic Features by Quantum Optimal Control

Tailored light can be used to steer atomic motions into selected quantum pathways. In optimal control theory (OCT), the target is usually expressed in terms of the molecular wave function, a quantity that is not directly observable in experiment. In this study, we present simulations using OCT that optimize the spectroscopic signal itself. By shaping the optical pump, the x-ray stimulated Raman signal, which occurs solely during the passage through conical intersections, is temporally controlled and amplified by up to 2 orders of magnitude. This enhancement can be crucial in order to bring small coherence-based signatures above the detectable threshold. Our approach is applicable to any signal that depends on the expectation value of a positive definite operator.

74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS↗

Phase Diagram of Active Brownian Spheres: Crystallization and the Metastability of Motility-Induced Phase Separation

Motility-induced phase separation (MIPS), the phenomenon in which purely repulsive active particles undergo a liquid-gas phase separation, is among the simplest and most widely studied examples of a nonequilibrium phase transition. Here, we show that states of MIPS coexistence are in fact only metastable for three-dimensional active Brownian particles over a very broad range of conditions, decaying at long times through an ordering transition we call active crystallization. At an activity just above the MIPS critical point, the liquid-gas binodal is superseded by the crystal-fluid coexistence curve, with solid, liquid, and gas all coexisting at the triple point where the two curves intersect. Nucleating an active crystal from a disordered fluid, however, requires a rare fluctuation that exhibits the nearly close-packed density of the solid phase. The corresponding barrier to crystallization is surmountable on a feasible timescale only at high activity, and only at fluid densities near maximal packing. The glassiness expected for such dense liquids at equilibrium is strongly mitigated by active forces, so that the lifetime of liquid-gas coexistence declines steadily with increasing activity, manifesting in simulations as a facile spontaneous crystallization at incredibly high activity.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Visualization of Fast Ion Phase-Space Flow Driven by Alfvén Instabilities

Fast ion phase-space flow, driven by Alfven eigenmodes (AEs), is measured by an imaging neutral particle analyzer in the DIII-D tokamak. The flow firstly appears near the minimum safety factor at the injection energy of neutral beams, and then moves radially inward and outward by gaining and losing energy, respectively. The flow trajectories in phase space align well with the intersection lines of the constant magnetic moment surfaces and constant E – (ω/n)P ζ surfaces, where E, P ζ are energy and toroidal canonical momentum of ions; ω and n are angular frequencies and toroidal mode numbers of AEs. It is found that the flow is so destructive that the thermalization of fast ions is no longer observed in regions of strong interaction. Here, the measured phase-space flow is consistent with nonlinear hybrid kinetic-magnetohydrodynamics simulation. Calculations of the relatively narrow phase-space islands reveal that fast ions must transition between different flow trajectories to experience large-scale phase-space transport.

70 PLASMA PHYSICS AND FUSION TECHNOLOGY↗

Effective Model for Fractional Topological Corner Modes in Quasicrystals

High-order topological insulators (HOTIs), as generalized from topological crystalline insulators, are characterized with lower-dimensional metallic boundary states protected by spatial symmetries of a crystal, whose theoretical framework based on band inversion at special k points cannot be readily extended to quasicrystals because quasicrystals contain rotational symmetries that are not compatible with crystals, and momentum is no longer a good quantum number. In this work, we develop a low-energy effective model underlying HOTI states in 2D quasicrystals for all possible rotational symmetries. By implementing a novel Fourier transform developed recently for quasicrystals and approximating the long-wavelength behavior by their large-scale average, we construct an effective k · p Hamiltonian to capture the band inversion at the center of a pseudo-Brillouin zone. We show that an in-plane Zeeman field can induce mass kinks at the intersection of adjacent edges of a 2D quasicrystal topological insulators and generate corner modes (CMs) with fractional charge, protected by rotational symmetries. Our model predictions are confirmed by numerical tight-binding calculations. Furthermore, when the quasicrystal is proximitized by an s-wave superconductor, Majorana CMs can also be created by tuning the field strength and chemical potential. Our work affords a generic approach to studying the low-energy physics of quasicrystals, in association with topological excitations and fractional statistics.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Modular Commutators in Conformal Field Theory

The modular commutator is a recently discovered entanglement quantity that quantifies the chirality of the underlying many-body quantum state. In this Letter, we derive a universal expression for the modular commutator in conformal field theories in 1 + 1 dimensions and discuss its salient features. We show that the modular commutator depends only on the chiral central charge and the conformal cross ratio. We test this formula for a gapped (2 + 1)-dimensional system with a chiral edge, i.e., the quantum Hall state, and observe excellent agreement with numerical simulations. Furthermore, we propose a geometric dual for the modular commutator in certain preferred states of the AdS/CFT correspondence. Finally, for these states, we argue that the modular commutator can be obtained from a set of crossing angles between intersecting Ryu-Takayanagi surfaces.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗

Continuous Spin Excitations in the Three-Dimensional Frustrated Magnet K 2 Ni 2 ⁢(SO 4 ) 3

Continuous spin excitations are widely recognized as one of the hallmarks of novel spin states in quantum magnets, such as quantum spin liquids (QSLs). Here, we report the observation of such kind of excitations in K 2 Ni 2 (SO 4 ) 3 , which consists of two sets of intersected spin-1 (Ni 2+ ) trillium lattices. Our inelastic neutron scattering measurement on single crystals clearly shows a dominant excitation continuum, which exhibits a distinct temperature-dependent behavior from that of spin waves and is rooted in strong quantum spin fluctuations. Further using the self-consistent-Gaussian-approximation method, we determine that the fourth- and fifth nearest-neighbor exchange interactions are dominant. These two bonds together form a unique three-dimensional network of corner-sharing tetrahedra, which we name as a “hypertrillium” lattice. In conclusion, our results provide direct evidence for the existence of QSL features in K 2 Ni 2 (SO 4 ) 3 and highlight the potential for the hypertrillium lattice to host frustrated quantum magnetism.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

Observation of a Giant Goos-Hänchen Shift for Matter Waves

The Goos-Hänchen (GH) shift describes a phenomenon in which a specularly reflected beam is translated along the reflecting surface such that the incident and reflected rays no longer intersect at the surface. Using a neutron spin-echo technique and a specially designed magnetic multilayer mirror, we have measured the relative phase between the reflected up and down neutron spin states in total reflection. The relative GH shift calculated from this phase shows a strong resonant enhancement at a particular incident neutron wave vector, which is due to a waveguiding effect in one of the magnetic layers. Calculations based on the observed phase difference between the neutron states indicate a propagation distance along the waveguide layer of 0.65 mm for the spin-down state, which we identify with the magnitude of the giant GH shift. The existence of a physical GH shift is confirmed by the observation of neutron absorption in the waveguide layer. Here, we propose ways in which our experimental method may be exploited for neutron quantum-enhanced sensing of thin magnetic layers.

72 PHYSICS OF ELEMENTARY PARTICLES AND FIELDS↗