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Metamagnetism in antiferromagnets exhibits distinct critical behaviors and dynamics when invoking spin reversal and rotation. Here we show a 0.05% anisotropic strain suffices to in-situ modulate the metamagnetic critical field of the Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 by over 50%, enabling electrical switching of the transition. Resonant x-ray scattering and model simulation reveal that the transition is completely tuned from the spin-flop to spin-flip type as the strain introduces C4-symmetry-breaking magnetic anisotropy. Simultaneous transport study indicates the metamagnetic responses are reflected in the large elasto- and magnetoconductance, highlighting the active charge degree of freedom in the spin-orbit-coupled Mott state and its potential for spin-electronics.

We report results of Raman scattering experiments on twin-free BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ with the main focus placed on understanding the influence of electronic and spin degrees of freedom on the lattice dynamics. In particular, we scrutinize the $E_g$ modes and the As $A_{1g}$ mode. Each of the two $E_g$ phonons in the tetragonal phase is observed to split into a $B_{2g}$ and a $B_{3g}$ mode upon entering the orthorhombic stripe-magnetic phase. The splitting amounts to approximately 10\,cm$^{-1}$ and less than 5\,cm$^{-1}$ for the low- and the high-energy $E_g$ mode, respectively. The detailed study of the fully symmetric As mode using parallel incident and outgoing photon polarizations along either the antiferromagnetic or the ferromagnetic Fe-Fe direction reveals an anisotropic variation of the spectral weight with the energy of the exciting laser indicating a polarization-dependent resonance effect. Along with the experiments we present results from density functional theory calculations of the phonon eigenvectors, the dielectric function, and the Raman tensor elements. The comparison of theory and experiment indicates that (i) orbital-selective electronic correlations are crucial to understand the lattice dynamics and (ii) all phonon anomalies originate predominantly from the magnetic ordering and the corresponding reconstruction of the electronic bands at all energies.

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We measure the transport properties of mechanically strained single crystals of BaFe$_{2}$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_{2}$ over a wide range of $x$. The N\'eel transition is extremely sensitive to stress and this sensitivity increases as optimal doping is approached, even though the transition itself is strongly suppressed. Furthermore, we observe significant changes in the superconducting transition temperature with applied strain, which mirror changes as a function of the composition $x$. These experiments are a direct illustration of the intimate coupling between different degrees of freedom in iron-based superconductors, revealing the importance of magneto-elastic coupling to the magnetic and superconducting transition temperatures., Comment: 7 pages, 7 Figures and 4 appendices

High quality epitaxial thin films of Jeff=1/2 Mott insulator Sr2IrO4 with increasing in-plane tensile strain have been grown on top of SrTiO3(001) substrates. Increasing the in-plane tensile strain up to ~0.3% was observed to drop the c/a tetragonality by 1.2 %. X-ray absorption spectroscopy detected a strong reduction of the linear dichroism upon increasing in-plane tensile strain towards a reduced anisotropy in the local electronic structure. While the most relaxed thin film shows a consistent dependence with previously reported single crystal bulk measurements, electrical transport reveals a charge gap reduction from 200 meV down to 50 meV for the thinnest and most epitaxy-distorted film. We argue that the reduced tetragonality plays a major role in the change of the electronic structure, which is reflected in the change of the transport properties. Our work opens the possibility for exploiting epitaxial strain as a tool for both structural and functional manipulation of spin-orbit Mott systems.

Potassium lithium niobate crystals have been grown by the resistance heating Czochralski technique. The optical transmission spectrum of the crystal has been determined. The results showed that the spectrum properties of potassium lithium niobate crystals grown from a melt with a higher Li2O content are better than that of crystals grown from the melt with a lower Li2O content. The crystals grown by this method have good quality and second harmonic generation properties. Frequency doubling results of a quasi cw-Ti:sapphire laser using crystal samples showed that potassium lithium niobate can be used to double the frequency of near infrared quasi cw-lasers in the 890–960 nm wavelength range.

We use scanning SQUID microscopy to investigate the behavior of vortices in the presence of twin boundaries in the pnictide superconductor Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2. We show that the vortices avoid pinning on twin boundaries. Individual vortices move in a preferential way when manipulated with the SQUID: they tend to not cross a twin boundary, but rather to move parallel to it. This behavior can be explained by the observation of enhanced superfluid density on twin boundaries in Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2. The observed repulsion from twin boundaries may be a mechanism for enhanced critical currents observed in twinned samples in pnictides and other superconductors.

We provide optical reflectivity data collected over a broad spectral range and as a function of temperature on the ErTe$_3$ and HoTe$_3$ materials, which undergo two consecutive charge-density-wave (CDW) phase transitions at $T_{CDW1}$= 265 and 288 K and at $T_{CDW2}$= 157 and 110 K, respectively. We observe the temperature dependence of both the Drude component, due to the itinerant charge carriers, and the single-particle peak, ascribed to the charge-density-wave gap excitation. The CDW gap progressively opens while the metallic component gets narrow with decreasing temperature. An important fraction of the whole Fermi surface seems to be affected by the CDW phase transitions. It turns out that the temperature and the previously investigated pressure dependence of the most relevant CDW parameters share several common features and behaviors. Particularly, the order parameter of the CDW state is in general agreement with the predictions of the BCS theory.

Detailed study of the LDOS associated with the surface-state-band near a step-edge of the strong topological-insulator Bi2Te3, reveal a one-dimensional bound state that runs parallel to the stepedge and is bound to it at some characteristic distance. This bound state is clearly observed in the bulk gap region, while it becomes entangled with the oscillations of the warped surface band at high energy, and with the valence band states near the Dirac point. Using the full effective Hamiltonian proposed by Zhang et al., we obtain a closed formula for this bound state that fits the data and provide further insight into the general topological properties of the electronic structure of the surface band near strong structural defects., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

We present an ab-initio density function theory to investigate the electronic and magnetic structures of the bilayer graphene with intercalated atoms C, N, and O. The intercalated atom although initially positioned at the middle site of the bilayer interval will finally be adsorbed to one graphene layer. Both N and O atoms favor the bridge site (i.e. above the carbon-carbon bonding of the lower graphene layer), while the C atom prefers the hollow site (i.e. just above a carbon atom of the lower graphene layer and simultaneously below the center of a carbon hexagon of the upper layer). Concerning the magnetic property, both C and N adatoms can induce itinerant Stoner magnetism by introducing extended or quasilocalized states around the Fermi level. Full spin polarization can be obtained in N-intercalated system and the magnetic moment mainly focuses on the N atom. In C-intercalated system, both the foreign C atom and some carbon atoms of the bilayer graphene are induced to be spin-polarized. N and O atoms can easily get electrons from carbon atoms of bilayer graphene, which leads to Fermi level shifting downward to valence band and thus producing the metallic behavior in bilayer graphene., Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy studies on high-quality Bi$_2$Te$_3$ crystals exhibit perfect correspondence to ARPES data, hence enabling identification of different regimes measured in the local density of states (LDOS). Oscillations of LDOS near a step are analyzed. Within the main part of the surface band oscillations are strongly damped, supporting the hypothesis of topological protection. At higher energies, as the surface band becomes concave, oscillations appear which disperse with a particular wave-vector that may result from an unconventional hexagonal warping term., Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Revised manuscript with improved analysis and figures

Through a systematic high resolution angle-resolved photoemission study of the iron pnictide compounds (Ba,Sr)Fe$_2$As$_2$, we show that the electronic structures of these compounds are significantly reconstructed across the spin density wave ordering, which cannot be described by a simple folding scenario of conventional density wave ordering. Moreover, we find that LDA calculations with an incorporated suppressed magnetic moment of 0.5$\mu_{\tiny{\textrm{B}}}$ can match well the details in the reconstructed electronic structure, suggesting that the nature of magnetism in the pnictides is more itinerant than local, while the origin of suppressed magnetic moment remains an important issue for future investigations.

We report measurements of the Fermi surface (FS) of the ternary phosphide SrFe$_2$P$_2$ using the de Haas-van Alphen effect. The calculated FS of this compound is very similar to SrFe$_2$As$_2$, the parent compound of the high temperature superconductors. Our data show that the Fermi surface is composed of two electron and two hole sheets in agreement with bandstructure calculations. Several of the sheets show strong c-axis warping emphasizing the importance of three-dimensionality in the non-magnetic state of the ternary pnictides. We find that the electron and hole pockets have a different topology, implying that this material does not satisfy a nesting condition., Comment: 5 pages, 4 Figures, 1 Table

The Fermi surface (FS) of ErTe3 is investigated using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). Low temperature measurements reveal two incommensurate charge density wave (CDW) gaps created by perpendicular FS nesting vectors. A large Delta_1 = 175 meV gap arising from a CDW with c* - q_CDW1 ~ 0.70(0) c* is in good agreement with the expected value. A second, smaller Delta_2 = 50 meV gap is due to a second CDW with a* - q_CDW2 ~ 0.68(5) a*. The temperature dependence of the FS, the two gaps and possible interaction between the CDWs are examined., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures

The antiferromagnetic transition is investigated in the rare-earth (R) tritelluride RTe3 family of charge density wave (CDW) compounds via specific heat, magnetization and resistivity measurements. Observation of the opening of a superzone gap in the resistivity of DyTe3 indicates that additional nesting of the reconstructed Fermi surface in the CDW state plays an important role in determining the magnetic structure., 4 pages, 5 figures

The anharmonic response of charge-density wave (CDW) order to strong laser-pulse perturbations in 1T-TaS2 and TbTe3 is investigated by means of multiple-pump-pulse time-resolved femtosecond optical spectroscopy. We observe remarkable anharmonic effects hitherto undetected in systems exhibiting collective charge ordering. The efficiency for additional excitation of the amplitude mode by a laser pulse becomes periodically modulated after the mode is strongly excited into a coherently oscillating state. A similar effect is observed also for some other phonons, where the cross-modulation at the amplitude-mode frequency indicates anharmonic interaction of those phonons with the amplitude mode. By analyzing the observed phenomena in the framework of time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory we attribute the effects to the anharmonicity of the mode potentials inherent in the broken symmetry state of the CDW systems.

We report a neutron diffraction study of the magnetic phase transitions in the charge-density wave (CDW) TbTe 3 compound. We discover that in the paramagnetic phase there are strong 2D-like magnetic correlations, consistent with the pronounced anisotropy of the chemical structure. A long-range incommensurate magnetic order emerges in TbTe 3 at T mag1=5.78K as a result of continuous phase transitions. We observe that near the temperature T mag1 the magnetic Bragg peaks appear around the position (0, 0, 0.24) (or its rational multiples), that is fairly close to the propagation vector (0,0,0.29) associated with the CDW phase transition in TbTe 3. This suggests that correlations leading to the long-range magnetic order in TbTe 3 are linked to the modulations that occur in the CDW state.