Ferroelectric phase transitions in small particles and local regions.

Phase transitions in spherical particles of a cubic ferroelectric are considered within Landau-Ginzburg-Devonshire theory. Concentrating on effects of the depolarizing field, we study competition between states with homogeneous polarization and vortex structures. For large radii of the sphere (R>Rc), the phase transition is into a vortex state while for R

Adatom-adatom interaction mediated by an underlying surface phase transition.

Low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on the adsorption of single Pb adatoms on Si(111)-(square root 3 x square root 3)-Pb surfaces reveal the vertical displacement patterns induced on the substrate by these Pb adatoms as well as a novel adatom-adatom interaction. The origin of both can be traced back to the (square root 3 x square root 3)<-->(3 x 3) phase transition taking place at lower temperatures. A Landau-like approach explains the displacement patterns as due to the corresponding order parameter and shows that the vicinity of a surface phase transition gives rise to a nonmonotonic adatom-adatom interaction.

Smearing of phase transition due to a surface effect or a bulk inhomogeneity in ferroelectric nanostructures.

The boundary conditions, customarily used in the Landau-type approach to ferroelectric thin films and nanostructures, have to be modified to take into account that a surface of a ferroelectric is a defect of a field type. The surface (interface) field is coupled to a normal component of polarization and, as a result, the second order phase transitions are generally suppressed and anomalies in response are washed out, as observed experimentally.

[Formula: see text] ↔ (3 × 3) phase transition in Pb/Ge(111) and Sn/Ge(111): a phenomenological study on the phase transition anomalies and the role of defects.

A phenomenological study of the [Formula: see text] phase transitions occurring in the adsorption systems Pb/Ge(111) and Sn/Ge(111) is presented. The starting point of such a study is the Landau theory. The critical behaviour expected theoretically for the two interfaces, and the corresponding influence of defects, are discussed in detail. Symmetry arguments show that, contrary to general belief, the critical behaviours of Pb/Ge(111) and Sn/Ge(111) are essentially different. The Landau-like approach employed to study the influence of defects provides a consistent and general manner to interpret the existing experimental data. Special attention is paid to the influence of hopping defects in Sn/Ge(111).

Explanation of the glasslike anomaly in the low-temperature specific heat of incommensurate phases.

An explanation of the glasslike anomaly observed in the low-temperature specific heat of incommensurate phases is proposed. The key point of this explanation is to properly account for the phason damping when computing the thermodynamic magnitudes. The low-temperature specific heat of the incommensurate phases is discussed within three possible scenarios for the phason dynamics: no phason gap, static phason gap, and a phason gap of dynamical origin. Existing NMR and inelastic scattering data indicate that these scenarios are possible in biphenyl, blue bronze K(0.30)MoO(3), and bis (4-chlorophenyl) sulfone respectively. Estimates of the corresponding low-temperature specific heat are in reasonable agreement with the experiments.

Low frequency magnetic response in antiferromagnetically coupled Fe/Cr multilayers.

The magnetic field and temperature dependence of the low frequency magnetic response of antiferromagnetically coupled Fe/Cr(100) multilayers has been studied between +/-500 Oe, from 2 to 300 K. At T = 2 K the losses exhibit an unusually strong frequency dependence which can be described within a single relaxation time scheme. This relaxation time proves to be strongly field dependent. These phenomena are specific for epitaxial multilayers with large magnetoresistance. The behavior of the relaxation time at low temperatures might be related to some quantum tunneling processes.

Phase transitions, stability, and dielectric response of the domain structure in ferroelectric-ferroelastic thin films.

The first analytical study of phase transitions and domain structure in ferroelastic-ferroelectric epitaxial thin films is presented for an exactly solvable model. The emerging domain structure with domains of equal width (which may be exponentially large) remains stable irrespective of the film thickness. Shifts of the domain walls, unexpectedly, contribute nothing (or insignificantly) to the dielectric response of the film. Generally, the motion of the domain walls results in about the same contribution to the response as the one that comes from a standard bulk term. Therefore, no particular softening of the dielectric response is expected to occur due to the motion of domain walls.