Examining the influence of turbulence on viscosity measurements of molten germanium under reduced gravity.

The thermophysical properties of liquid germanium were recently measured both in parabolic flight experiments and on the ISS in the ISS-EML facility. The viscosity measurements differed between the reduced gravity experiments and the literature values. Since the oscillating drop method has been widely used in EML, further exploration into this phenomenon was of interest. Models of the magnetohydrodynamic flow indicated that turbulence was present during the measurement in the ISS-EML facility, which accounts for the observed difference.

Magnetic-Field-Induced Suppression of Jahn-Teller Phonon Bands in (La0.6Pr0.4)0.7Ca0.3MnO3: the Mechanism of Colossal Magnetoresistance shown by Raman Spectroscopy.

A long-standing issue in the physics of the colossal magnetoresistance is the role of electron-phonon coupling, which manifests itself as Jahn-Teller polarons. The origin and architecture of polarons makes it possible to study their behavior by Raman spectroscopy, which allows to analyze the polaronic behavior in an applied magnetic field. We performed magnetic-field-dependent Raman spectroscopy on thin films of (La0.6Pr0.4)0.7Ca0.3MnO3 in a range of H = 0-50 kOe and compared the obtained Raman spectra with the magnetic field behavior of the electrical resistivity. In the vicinity of the Curie temperature, TC = 197 K, the intensity of the Jahn-Teller stretching mode at 614 cm-1 and of the bending mode at 443 cm-1 was found to be suppressed and enhanced, respectively. This observed behavior has a remarkable similarity with the field and temperature dependence of the colossal magnetoresistance in (La0.6Pr0.4)0.7Ca0.3MnO3. Our work provides direct evidence that the reduction of the amount of Jahn-Teller polarons at the phase transition is the main mechanism underlying the colossal magnetoresistance.

Dynamic singularity in multicomponent glass-forming metallic liquids.

In the liquid state, glass-forming Ni59.5Nb40.5 and Ni60Nb34.8Sn5.2 alloys exhibit an extraordinarily high packing fraction. The self-correlation functions measured using quasielastic neutron scattering clearly show the slowing down of microscopic dynamics with an increase in packing fraction. The self-diffusivity in liquid Ni60Nb34.8Sn5.2 decreases by about 2 orders of magnitude within a temperature range of 360 K. For these highly fragile systems, the critical packing fraction obtained form the analysis of incoherent data is in excellent agreement with the prediction made by mode-coupling theory. Our results provide the first experimentally observed value for the critical packing fraction in glass-forming metallic liquids.

A-site ordering versus electronic inhomogeneity in colossally magnetoresistive manganite films.

Epitaxial La(3/4)Ca(1/4)MnO3/MgO(100) (LCMO) thin film shows an unusual rhombohedral (R-3c) structure with a new perovskite superstructure at room temperature due to the CE-type ordering of La and Ca with modulation vector q=1/4[011]. A-site ordered film was found to be electronically homogeneous down to the 1 nm scale as revealed by scanning tunnelling microscopy/spectroscopy. In contrast, orthorhombic and A-site disordered LCMO demonstrate a mesoscopic phase separation far below the Curie temperature (TC). Unique La/Ca ordering compensates the cation mismatch stress within one supercell, a(S) approximately 1.55 nm, and enhances the electronic homogeneity. The phase separation does not seem to be a unique mechanism for the colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) as very large CMR approximately 500% was also observed in A-site ordered films.

Structural phase transition at the percolation threshold in epitaxial (La0.7Ca0.3MnO3)1-x:(MgO)x nanocomposite films.

'Colossal magnetoresistance' in perovskite manganites such as La0.7Ca0.3MnO3 (LCMO), is caused by the interplay of ferro-paramagnetic, metal-insulator and structural phase transitions. Moreover, different electronic phases can coexist on a very fine scale resulting in percolative electron transport. Here we report on (LCMO)1-x:(MgO)x (0 < x < or = 0.8) epitaxial nano-composite films in which the structure and magnetotransport properties of the manganite nanoclusters can be tuned by the tensile stress originating from the MgO second phase. With increasing x, the lattice of LCMO was found to expand, yielding a bulk tensile strain. The largest colossal magnetoresistance of 10(5)% was observed at the percolation threshold in the conductivity at xc 0.3, which is coupled to a structural phase transition from orthorhombic (0 < x < or 0.1) to rhombohedral R3c structure (0.33 < or = x < or = 0.8). An increase of the Curie temperature for the Rc phase was observed. These results may provide a general method for controlling the magnetotransport properties of manganite-based composite films by appropriate choice of the second phase.

Intrinsic inhomogeneities in manganite thin films investigated with scanning tunneling spectroscopy.

Thin films of La0.7Sr0.3MnO3 on MgO show a metal insulator transition and colossal magnetoresistance. The shape of this transition can be explained by intrinsic spatial inhomogeneities, which give rise to a domain structure of conducting and insulating domains at the submicrometer scale. These domains then undergo a percolation transition. The tunneling conductance and tunneling gap measured by scanning tunneling spectroscopy were used to distinguish and visualize these domains.