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The layered chalcogenide Ta2NiSe5 has recently attracted much interest as a strong candidate for the long sought excitonic insulator (EI). Since the physical properties of an EI are expected to depend sensitively on the external pressure, it is important to clarify the pressure evolution of microscopic electronic state in Ta2NiSe5. Here we report the optical conductivity [s(w)] of Ta2NiSe5 measured at high pressures to 10 GPa and at low temperatures to 8 K. With cooling at ambient pressure, s(w) develops an energy gap of about 0.17 eV and a pronounced excitonic peak at 0.38 eV, as already reported in the literature. Upon increasing pressure, the energy gap becomes narrower and the excitonic peak is broadened. Above a structural transition at Ps~3 GPa, the energy gap becomes partially filled, indicating that Ta2NiSe5 is a semimetal after the EI state is suppressed by pressure. At higher pressures, s(w) exhibits metallic characteristics with no energy gap. The detailed pressure evolution of s(w) is presented, and discussed mainly in terms of a weakening of excitonic correlation with pressure., Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, submitted

A charge excitation in a two-dimensional Mott insulator is strongly coupled with the surrounding spins, which is observed as magnetic-polaron formations of doped carriers and a magnon sideband in the Mott-gap transition spectrum. However, the dynamics related to the spin sector are difficult to measure. Here, we show that pump-probe reflection spectroscopy with 7-fs laser pulses can detect the optically induced spin dynamics in Nd$_2$CuO$_4$, a cuprate Mott insulator. The bleaching signal at the Mott-gap transition is enhanced at $\sim$18 fs, which corresponds to the spin-relaxation time in magnetic-polaron formations and is characterized by the exchange interaction. More importantly, ultrafast coherent oscillations appear in the time evolutions of the reflectivity changes, and their frequencies (1400-2700 cm$^{-1}$) are equal to the probe energy measured from the Mott-gap transition peak. These oscillations originate from interferences between charge excitations with two magnons and provide direct evidence for charge-spin coupling., Comment: 20 pages including 4 figures (Supplementary materials: 11 pages including 4 figures)

Coronal jets represent important manifestations of ubiquitous solar transients, which may be the source of significant mass and energy input to the upper solar atmosphere and the solar wind. While the energy involved in a jet-like event is smaller than that of "nominal" solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs), jets share many common properties with these phenomena, in particular, the explosive magnetically driven dynamics. Studies of jets could, therefore, provide critical insight for understanding the larger, more complex drivers of the solar activity. On the other side of the size-spectrum, the study of jets could also supply important clues on the physics of transients close or at the limit of the current spatial resolution such as spicules. Furthermore, jet phenomena may hint to basic process for heating the corona and accelerating the solar wind; consequently their study gives us the opportunity to attack a broad range of solar-heliospheric problems., Comment: 53 pages, 24 figures

We report on the development of highly sensitive SQUIDs featuring sub-micrometer loop dimensions. The integration of high quality and low capacitance SIS Nb/AlOx/Nb cross-type Josephson tunnel junctions results in white flux noise levels as low as 66 n$\Phi_0$/Hz$^{ 1/2} $, well below state-of-the-art values of their Nb-based counterparts based on constriction type junctions. Estimation of the spin sensitivity of the best SQUIDs yield $S_\mu^{ 1/2} < 7 \mu_B$/Hz$^{ 1/2} $ in the white noise region, suitable for the investigation of small spin systems. We discuss fabrication challenges, show results on the electrical characterization of devices with various pickup loops, and describe options for further improvement, which may push the sensitivity of such devices even to single spin resolution., Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures

The chirality, i.e. left or right handedness, is an important notion in a broad range of science. In condensed matter, this occurs not only in molecular or crystal forms but also in magnetic structures. A magnetic skyrmion, a topologically-stable spin vortex structure, as observed in chiral-lattice helimagnets is one such example; the spin swirling direction (skyrmion helicity) should be closely related to the underlying lattice chirality via the relativistic spin-orbit coupling (SOC). Here, we report on the correlation between skyrmion helicity and crystal chirality as observed by Lorentz transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and convergent-beam electron diffraction (CBED) on the composition-spread alloys of helimagnets Mn1-xFexGe over a broad range (x = 0.3 - 1.0) of the composition. The skyrmion lattice constant or the skyrmion size shows non-monotonous variation with the composition x, accompanying a divergent behavior around x = 0.8, where the correlation between magnetic helicity and crystal chirality is reversed. The underlying mechanism is a continuous x-variation of the SOC strength accompanying sign reversal in the metallic alloys. This may offer a promising way to tune the skyrmion size and helicity., Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

We have studied the relationship between the velocity and temperature of a solar EUV jet. The highly accelerated jet occurred in the active region NOAA 10960 on 2007 June 5. Multi-wavelength spectral observations with EIS/Hinode allow us to investigate Doppler velocities at the wide temperature range. We analyzed the three-dimensional angle of the jet from the stereoscopic analysis with STEREO. Using this angle and Doppler velocity, we derived the true velocity of the jet. As a result, we found that the cool jet observed with \ion{He}{2} 256 \AA $\log_{10}T_e[\rm{K}] = 4.9$ is accelerated to around $220 \rm{km/s}$ which is over the upper limit of the chromospheric evaporation. The velocities observed with the other lines are under the upper limit of the chromospheric evaporation while most of the velocities of hot lines are higher than that of cool lines. We interpret that the chromospheric evaporation and magnetic acceleration occur simultaneously. A morphological interpretation of this event based on the reconnection model is given by utilizing the multi-instrumental observations., Comment: Accepted for publication in ApJ

We have investigated the electronic structures of recently discovered superconductor FeSe by soft-x-ray and hard-x-ray photoemission spectroscopy with high bulk sensitivity. The large Fe 3d spectral weight is located in the vicinity of the Fermi level (EF), which is demonstrated to be a coherent quasi-particle peak. Compared with the results of the band structure calculation with local-density approximation, Fe 3d band narrowing and the energy shift of the band toward EF are found, suggesting an importance of the electron correlation effect in FeSe. The self energy correction provides the larger mass enhancement value (Z^-1=3.6) than in Fe-As superconductors and enables us to separate a incoherent part from the spectrum. These features are quite consistent with the results of recent dynamical mean-field calculations, in which the incoherent part is attributed to the lower Hubbard band., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, 1 talble

Versatile features of impurity doping effects on perovskite manganites, $R_{0.6}$Sr$_{0.4}$MnO$_{3}$, have been investigated with varying the doing species as well as the $R$-dependent one-electron bandwidth. In ferromagnetic-metallic manganites ($R$=La, Nd, and Sm), a few percent of Fe substitution dramatically decreases the ferromagnetic transition temperature, leading to a spin glass insulating state with short-range charge-orbital correlation. For each $R$ species, the phase diagram as a function of Fe concentration is closely similar to that for $R_{0.6}$Sr$_{0.4}$MnO$_{3}$ obtained by decreasing the ionic radius of $R$ site, indicating that Fe doping in the phase-competing region weakens the ferromagnetic double-exchange interaction, relatively to the charge-orbital ordering instability. We have also found a contrastive impact of Cr (or Ru) doping on a spin-glass insulating manganite ($R$=Gd). There, the impurity-induced ferromagnetic magnetization is observed at low temperatures as a consequence of the collapse of the inherent short-range charge-orbital ordering, while Fe doping plays only a minor role. The observed opposite nature of impurity doping may be attributed to the difference in magnitude of the antiferromagnetic interaction between the doped ions., Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures

Structural features of the charge/orbital ordering (CO/OO) in single-layered manganites Pr1-xCa1+xMnO4 have been investigated systematically by transmission electron microscopy. Analyses of electron diffraction patterns as well as dark-field images have revealed that the CO/OO shows a striking asymmetric behavior as the hole doping x deviates from x = 0.5. The modulation wavenumber linearly decreases with increasing x in the over-hole-doped (x > 0.5) crystals, while much less dependent on x in the under-hole-doped (x < 0.5) crystals. A temperature-induced incommensurate-commensurate crossover is observed in 0.35 < x < 0.5 and x = 0.65. The correlation length of CO/OO in x = 0.3 was proven to become shorter than that in x > 0.3., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures

Single Crystals of Nd$_{1-x}$Ca$_{1+x}$MnO$_{4}$ have been prepared by the traveling floating-zone method, and possible evidence of a charge -orbital density wave in this material presented earlier [PRB68,092405 (2003)] using High Resolution Electron Microscopy [HRTEM] and Electron Diffraction [ED]. In the current note we present direct evidence of charge-orbital ordering in this material using heat capacity measurements. Our heat capacity measurements indicate a clear transition consistent with prior observation. We find two main transitions, one at temperature $T_{_H}^{HC}=310-314$ K, and other in the vicinity of $T_{_A}^{HC}=143$ K. In addition, we may also conclude that there is a strong electron-phonon coupling in this material. In order to further study and confirm theseanomalies we have performed dc magnetization measurements. The dc magnetic measurements confirm these two transitions. Again,we find two main transitions, one at temperature $T_{_H}^{M}=318-323$ K, and other at around $T_{_A}^{M}=164$ K., Comment: 24 pages, 17 figures

Phase diagrams in the plane of $r_A$ (the average ionic radius, related to one-electron bandwidth $W$) and $\sigma^2$ (the ionic radius variance, measuring the quenched disorder), or ``bandwidth-disorder phase diagrams'', have been established for perovskite manganites, with three-dimensional (3$D$) Mn-O network. Here we establish the intrinsic bandwidth-disorder phase diagram of half-doped layered manganites with the two-dimensional (2$D$) Mn-O network, examining in detail the ``mother state'' of the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) phenomenon in crystals without ferromagnetic instability. The consequences of the reduced dimensionality, from 3$D$ to 2$D$, on the order-disorder phenomena in the charge-orbital sectors are also highlighted., Comment: REVTeX 4 style; 5 pages, 4 figures

Heat Capacity of needle-like [length=5mm, diameter=1 mm] $\beta$-FeSi$_{2}$ single crystal, grown by chemical vapor transport has been measured. Two anomalies are found, a broad deviation centered around 160 K and a clear deviation at a temperature of 255 K approximately. We have attempted to relate these to the anomalies previously reported in the case of the resistivity data. The Transient Thermoelectric Effect [TTE] results lead us to the inference that the system under goes from single carrier system to at least two carrier system at 220 K-our heat capacity results seem to provide further independent evidence for this transition in this system., Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures

Misfit-layered (ML) cobalt oxides of the general formula of [MmA2Om+2]qCoO2 have been proven to be efficient thermoelectric materials as the structure is capable in accommodating the two seemingly contradictory characteristics of high electrical conductivity and large thermo-electric power. They are also potential hosts for other oxymoron-like functions. The known phases all contain one or two square-planar MO (M = Co, Bi, Pb, Tl, etc.) layers sandwiched together with AO (A = Ca, Sr, Ba, etc.) planes of square symmetry and CoO2 layers of hexagonal symmetry. Here we report realization of the simplest (m = 0) ML phase forming in the Sr-Co-O system with the cation ratio, Sr/Co = 1. Atomic-resolution TEM imaging confirms for the new phase the parent three-layer crystal structure, SrO-SrO-CoO2, which is compatible with the formula of [Sr2O2]qCoO2. Electron diffraction reveals that the phase is rather commensurate, i.e. the "misfit parameter" q is 0.5. Nevertheless, in terms of the transport-property characteristics the new ML parent is comparable to its earlier-established and more complex derivatives., Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, to appear in Chemistry of Materials

We found a new cobalt oxide (CaOH)1.14CoO2 by utilizing the high-pressure technique. X-ray and electron diffraction studies revealed that the compound has layer structure which consists of CdI2-type CoO2 layers and rock-salt-type double CaOH atomic layers. The two subcells have incommensurate periodicity along the a-axis, resulting in modulated crystal structure due to the inter-subcell interaction. The structural modulation affects carrier conduction through the potential randomness. We found that the two-dimensional (2-D) variable-range hopping (VRH) regime with hole conduction is dominant at low temperature for this compound, and that the conduction mechanism undergoes crossover from the 2-D VRH regime to thermal activation-energy type one with increasing temperature. Based on the experimental results of resistivity, thermoelectric power, magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements, we suggested a possible electronic-band structure model to explain these results. The cobalt t2g-derivative band crosses Fermi energy level near the band edge, yielding small finite density of localized states at the Fermi level in the band. The observed resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, large Pauli paramagnetic component in the magnetic susceptibility and comparatively small Sommerfeld constant in the specific heat are principally attributed to the holes in the t2g-derivative band. We estimated the Wilson ratio to be about 2.8, suggesting the strong electron correlation realized in this compound., Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures

Single Crystals of Nd$_{1-x}$Ca$_{1+x}$MnO$_{4}$ have been prepared by the travelling floating-zone method, and possible evidence of a charge -orbital density wave in this material presented earlier [PRB68,092405 (2003)] using High Resolution Electron Microscopy [HRTEM] and Electron Diffraction [ED]. In the current note we present direct evidence of charge-orbital ordering in this material using heat capacity measurements. Our heat capacity measurements indicate a clear transition consistent with prior observation. We find two main transitions, one at temperature $T_{_H}=310-314$ K, and other at $T_{_A}=143$ K. In addition, we may also conclude that there is a strong electron-phonon coupling in this material., Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures

In this sturdy, we determine the roles of two successive phase transitions in the new spin-Peierls system TiOBr by electron and synchrotron X-ray diffraction analyses. Results show an incommensurate superstructure along the h- and k-directions between Tc1=27K and Tc2=47K, and a twofold superstructure which is related to a spin-Peierls lattice distortion below Tc1. The diffuse scattering observed above Tc2 indicates that a structural correlation develops at a high temperature. We conclude that Tc2 is a second-order lock-in temperature, which is related to the spin-Peierls lattice distortion with the incommensurate structure, and that Tc1 is from incommensurate to commensurate phase transition temperature accompanying the first-order spin-Peierls lattice distortion., Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures

Recently an interesting multi-ferroic system PbVO3 [Chem. Mater. 2004] was successfully prepared using a high-pressure and high-temperature technique. The crystallographic features were reported. In this note we concentrate on the theoretical XANES spectra by considering the K-edge of Vanadium. The tetragonality [c/a=1.229 at 300 K] of PbVO3 is the largest in the PbTiO3 family of compounds. Thus one is led naturally to examine the effect of the change of tetragonality and the axial oxygen position on the electronic structure [i.e. XANES spectrum]. We study this effect in two ways. At a given temperature we vary the tetragonality and the axial oxygen position and quantify it in terms of XANES difference spectrum. Secondly, we compute the XANES spectra at three different temperatures, 90 K, 300 K, and 530 K and quantify the change in terms of the difference spectrum. We note that in this compound the tetragonality increases almost monotonically with temperature from 12 K to 570 K without transition to the cubic phase under ambient pressure. A key objective of the current investigation is to gain an understanding of various absorption features in the vicinity of K-edge of V, in terms of valence, local site symmetry, local coordination geometry, local bond distances, charge transfer, and local projected density of states. We consider both the polarized and the unpolarized XANES spectra. In short we have performed a local electronic study, which nicely complements the crystallographic features reported recently in PbVO3., Comment: 16 pages, 7 pdf figures

The sodium rhodate NaRh2O4 was synthesized for the first time and characterized by neutron and x-ray diffraction studies, measurements of magnetic susceptibility, specific heat, electrical resistivity, and the Seebeck coefficient. NaRh2O4 crystallizes in the CaFe2O4-type structure, which is comprised of a characteristic RhO6 octahedra network. The compound is metallic in nature, probably reflecting the 1 to 1 mixed valence character of Rh(III) and Rh(IV) in the network. For further studies of the compound, the Rh valence was varied significantly by means of an aliovalent substitution: the full range solid solution between NaRh2O4 and CaRh2O4 was achieved and characterized as well. The metallic state was dramatically altered, and a peculiar magnetism developed in the low Na concentration range., Comment: Accepted for publication in Chem. Mater

X-ray Absorption Near Edge Structure [XANES] of FePt nanoclusters has been studied using a full multiple scattering, self-consistent field [SCF], real-space Green`s function approach realized via the powerful ab initio FEFF8 code. One purpose of our study is to determine the sensitivity of Pt L3 edge with respect to the size and shape of the FePt nanoclusters. We also give the results of the calculations with respect to the Fe L3 edge. Calculations are made with and without core-hole for two main reasons, to check and cross-check the FEFF code and also since in some cases it is known such as Pt clusters that better results are obtained without the core-hole. This is mainly because the screening electron will occupy empty d or f states and correspondingly reduce the white line intensity., Comment: TeX version 3.14159, LaTex2e, 6 pages with 6 figures

Bismuthate superconductor Ba(1-x)K(x)BiO3 (x=0.27-0.49, Tc=25-32K) grown by an electrolysis technique was studied by electron diffraction and high-resolution electron microscopy. The crystalline structure thereof has been found to be non-cubic, of the layered nature, and non-centrosymmetric, with the lattice parameters a ~ ap, c ~ 2ap (ap is a simple cubic perovskite cell parameter) containing an ordered arrangement of barium and potassium. The evidence for the layered nature of the bismuthate superconductor removes the principal crystallographic contradiction between bismuthate and cuprate high-Tc superconductors., Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, to be published in Physical Review B as a Rapid Communication

Neutrino-oscillation solutions for the atmospheric neutrino anomaly and the solar neutrino deficit can determine the texture of the neutrino mass matrix according to three types of neutrino mass hierarchies as Type A: $m_1^{} \ll m_2^{} \ll m_3^{}$, Type B: $m_1^{} \sim m_2^{} \gg m_3^{}$, and Type C: $m_1^{} \sim m_2^{} \sim m_3^{}$, where $m_i$ is the $i$-th generation neutrino absolute mass. The relative sign assignments of neutrino masses in each type of mass hierarchies play the crucial roles for the stability against quantum corrections. Actually, two physical Majorana phases in the lepton flavor mixing matrix connect among the relative sign assignments of neutrino masses. Therefore, in this paper we analyze the stability of mixing angles against quantum corrections according to three types of neutrino mass hierarchies (Type A, B, C) and two Majorana phases. Two phases play the crucial roles for the stability of the mixing angles against the quantum corrections., Comment: LaTeX2e, 15 pages, 8 figures

We investigate whether the lepton flavor mixing angles in the so-called democratic type of mass matrix are stable against quantum corrections or not in the minimal supersymmetric standard model with dimension five operator which induces neutrino mass matrix. By taking simple breaking patterns of $S_3{}_L \times S_3{}_R$ or $O(3)_L \times O(3)_R$ flavor symmetries and the scale where democratic textures are induced as $O(10^{13})$ GeV, we find that the stability of the lepton flavor mixing angles in the democratic type of mass matrix against quantum corrections depends on the solar neutrino solutions. The maximal flavor mixing of the vacuum oscillation solution is spoiled by the quantum corrections in the experimental allowed region of $\tan \beta$. The large angle MSW solution is spoiled by the quantum corrections in the region of $\tan \beta > 10$. The condition of $\tan \beta \leq 10$ is needed in order to obtain the suitable mass squared difference of the small angle MSW solution. These strong constraints must be regarded for the model building of the democratic type of mass matrix, Comment: 12pages,LaTeX

In the case of two generation neutrinos, the energy-scale dependence of the lepton-flavor mixing matrix with Majorana phase can be governed by only one parameter r, which is the ratio between the diagonal elements of neutrino mass matrix. By using this parameter r, we derive the analytic solutions to the renormalization group equations of the physical parameters, which are the mixing angle, Majorana phase, and the ratio of the mass-squared difference to the mass squared of the heaviest neutrino. The energy-scale dependence of the Majorana phase is clarified by using these analytic solutions. The instability of the Majorana phase causes in the same parameter region in which the mixing angle is unstable against quantum corrections., Comment: LaTeX2e, 9 pages, 6 figures