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We have examined the effects of core-shell intermixing on the dynamical magnetism of γ-Fe2O3/ MnO nanoparticles. The core and shell phases were identified using x-ray diffraction, and x-ray absorption spectroscopy identified Mn ions in both octahedral and tetrahedral sites, consistent with a significant amount of substitution at the core-shell interface to form an Fe/Mn-ferrite. The dynamical response was probed by Mössbauer spectroscopy, which decouples surface and core spins, and suggested a change in the relaxation behaviour among the spin populations within γ-Fe2O3/MnO relative to the γ-Fe2O3 seed particles. Interestingly, the magnetic relaxation effects at the atomic scale, measured via Möossbauer spectroscopy, were enhanced, indicating that the addition of an MnO shell and intermixing affected the dynamical freezing process which altered the surface magnetism of the γ-Fe2O3 core. Our results show that both the MnO shell and the interfacial intermixed layer are important in determining the core-shell nanoparticle magnetism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The anisotropic transport properties of K0.8Fe1.65Se2 crystal have been investigated with the angle θ (between the magnetic field H and c-axis) varied from 0° to 180°. It is found that the angle dependencies of the mixed state resistivities near Tc0 show a small anomalous peak on the resistive valley for H//ab, probably due to the kinked vortex structure with a lower pinning energy in the phase-separated crystal. In the normal state, the resistivities increase with increasing angles and take a maximum at H//ab, which may be related to the larger resistivity when carriers move along the c-axis driven by Lorentz force. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The variations of carrier density and valence states in oxygen annealed Fe1.06Te0.6Se0.4 single crystals were studied systematically. It was found that the carrier density nH increases after oxygen annealing by Hall coefficient measurements. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy experiments reveal that the oxygen annealing changes Fe0 and Te0 states to Fe2+/3+ and Te4+, respectively, while the valence variation of Se is negligible. Our results indicate that the improvement of superconductivity, such as the zero resistance transition temperature Tczero, shielding and Meissner fraction value 4πχ and upper critical field Hc2, could be closely related to the proper manipulation of nH and the valence states by oxygen annealing in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The electronic characteristics of ZrCuGe2, ZrCuSi2, and HfCuSi2 are systematically investigated using 63Cu NMR spectroscopy. The quadrupole splittings, Knight shifts, and spin-lattice relaxation times on each individual compound have been identified. We found that the observed electric field gradient is consistent with the covalent bonding nature within the Cu atomic layers. The Knight shifts together with relaxation rates provide a measure of Cu d partial Fermi-level density of states, Nd(EF). Universally small Nd(EF) was found in all studied materials, suggests that the Cu d states are well below the Fermi energy and therefore the characteristic electronic structure near EF is primarily of sp type. We further pointed out that the low Nd(EF) value is an important factor for the lack of superconductivity in these Cu-based intermetallics within the ZrCuSiAs-type structure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of providing experimental information for the Nb deficiency enhanced superconducting temperature (TC) in the Nb1-xB2 samples, we carried out a study on Nb1-xB2 (x=0, 0.13, 0.20, and 0.26) by means of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Seebeck coefficient (S) measurements. From the 93Nb NMR spin-lattice relaxation rates, we can deduce the Nb 4d partial Fermi level density of states (DOS) Nd(EF) for each individual composition. The result indicates that Nb0.74B2 and Nb0.80B2 possess large Nd(EF) while the lowest one appears in Nb0.87B2. The Seebeck coefficient also shows smaller absolute values in Nb0.74B2 and Nb0.80B2, associated with higher Fermi level DOS in both compounds. Interestingly, the temperature variation in S exhibits a broad minimum in Nb0.87B2, which is attributed to the presence of a pseudogap near the Fermi level. These observations were found to be in good agreement with the prediction from band structure calculations based on the appearance of the Nb vacancies in Nb1-xB2. In addition, the present study clearly reveals that the observed Tc enhancement by Nb deficiency has no direct relevance to their electronic Fermi level DOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the aim of providing experimental information for the Nb deficiency enhanced superconducting temperature (TC) in the Nb1-xB2 samples, we carried out a study on Nb1-xB2 (x=0, 0.13, 0.20, and 0.26) by means of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and Seebeck coefficient (S) measurements. From the 93Nb NMR spin-lattice relaxation rates, we can deduce the Nb 4d partial Fermi level density of states (DOS) Nd(EF) for each individual composition. The result indicates that Nb0.74B2 and Nb0.80B2 possess large Nd(EF) while the lowest one appears in Nb0.87B2. The Seebeck coefficient also shows smaller absolute values in Nb0.74B2 and Nb0.80B2, associated with higher Fermi level DOS in both compounds. Interestingly, the temperature variation in S exhibits a broad minimum in Nb0.87B2, which is attributed to the presence of a pseudogap near the Fermi level. These observations were found to be in good agreement with the prediction from band structure calculations based on the appearance of the Nb vacancies in Nb1-xB2. In addition, the present study clearly reveals that the observed Tc enhancement by Nb deficiency has no direct relevance to their electronic Fermi level DOS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]