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The insulator-to-metal transition continues to be a challenging subject, especially when electronic correlations are strong. In layered compounds, such as La2-xSrxNiO4 and La2-xBaxCuO4, the doped charge carriers can segregate into periodically-spaced charge stripes separating narrow domains of antiferromagnetic order. Although there have been theoretical proposals of dynamically fluctuating stripes, direct spectroscopic evidence of charge-stripe fluctuations has been lacking. Here we report the detection of critical lattice fluctuations, driven by charge-stripe correlations, in La2-xSrxNiO4 using inelastic neutron scattering. This scattering is detected at large momentum transfers where the magnetic form factor suppresses the spin fluctuation signal. The lattice fluctuations associated with the dynamic charge stripes are narrow in q and broad in energy. They are strongest near the charge stripe melting temperature. Our results open the way towards the quantitative theory of dynamic stripes and for directly detecting dynamical charge stripes in other strongly-correlated systems, including high-temperature superconductors such as La2-xSrxCuO4., Comment: Nature Communications, in press, 9 pages 10 figures, completely new version

We report temperature dependence of low-energy phonons in magnetic nonsuperconducting TbNi2B2C single crystals measured by inelastic neutron scattering. We observed a low-temperature softening and broadening of two phonon branches, qualitatively similar to that previously reported for superconducting RNi2B2C (R= rare earth, Y) compounds. This result suggests that the superconductivity in TbNi2B2C compounds is absent not because of a weak electron-phonon coupling but as a result of pairbreaking due to magnetism.

We demonstrate the application of graphene as a support for imaging individual biological molecules in transmission electron microscope (TEM). A simple procedure to produce free-standing graphene membranes has been designed. Such membranes are extremely robust and can support practically any sub-micrometer object. Tobacco mosaic virus has been deposited on graphene samples and observed in a TEM. High contrast has been achieved even though no staining has been applied.

We demonstrate that optical transparency of any two-dimensional system with a symmetric electronic spectrum is governed by the fine structure constant and suggest a simple formula that relates a quasi-particle spectrum to an optical absorption of such a system. These results are applied to graphene deposited on a surface of oxidized silicon for which we measure ellipsometric spectra, extract optical constants of a graphene layer and reconstruct the electronic dispersion relation near the K point using optical transmission spectra. We also present spectroscopic ellipsometry analysis of graphene placed on amorphous quartz substrates and report a pronounced peak in ultraviolet absorption at 4.6 eV because of a van Hove singularity in graphene's density of states. The peak is downshifted by 0.5 eV probably due to excitonic effects., Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, accepted to Phys Rev B

We show that graphene deposited on a substrate has a non-negligible density of atomic scale defects. This is evidenced by a previously unnoticed D peak in the Raman spectra with intensity of about 1% with respect to the G peak. We evaluated the effect of such impurities on electron transport by mimicking them with hydrogen adsorbates and measuring the induced changes in both mobility and Raman intensity. If the intervalley scatterers responsible for the D peak are monovalent, their concentration is sufficient to account for the limited mobilities achievable in graphene on a substrate., Comment: version 2: several comments are taken into account and refs added

The discovery of the metal-insulator transition (MIT) in two-dimensional (2D) electron systems challenged the veracity of one of the most influential conjectures in the physics of disordered electrons, which states that `in two dimensions, there is no true metallic behaviour'; no matter how weak the disorder, electrons would be trapped and unable to conduct a current. However, that theory did not account for interactions between the electrons. Here we investigate the interplay between the electron-electron interactions and disorder near the MIT using simultaneous measurements of electrical resistivity and magnetoconductance. We show that both the resistance and interaction amplitude exhibit a fan-like spread as the MIT is crossed. From these data we construct a resistance-interaction flow diagram of the MIT that clearly reveals a quantum critical point, as predicted by the two-parameter scaling theory (Punnoose and Finkel'stein, Science 310, 289 (2005)). The metallic side of this diagram is accurately described by the renormalization group theory without any fitting parameters. In particular, the metallic temperature dependence of the resistance sets in when the interaction amplitude reaches gamma_2 = 0.45 - a value in remarkable agreement with the one predicted by the theory., Comment: as published

We measure thermodynamic magnetization of a low-disordered, strongly correlated two-dimensional electron system in silicon. Pauli spin susceptibility is observed to grow critically at low electron densities - behavior that is characteristic of the existence of a phase transition. A new, parameter-free method is used to directly determine the spectrum characteristics (Lande g-factor and the cyclotron mass) when the Fermi level lies outside the spectral gaps and the inter-level interactions between quasiparticles are avoided. It turns out that, unlike in the Stoner scenario, the critical growth of the spin susceptibility originates from the dramatic enhancement of the effective mass, while the enhancement of the g-factor is weak and practically independent of the electron density., Comment: As published

In the ballistic regime, the metallic temperature dependence of the conductivity in a two-dimensional electron system in silicon is found to change non-monotonically with the degree of spin polarization. In particular, it fades away just before the onset of complete spin polarization but reappears again in the fully spin-polarized state, being, however, suppressed relative to the zero-field case. Analysis of the degree of the suppression allows one to distinguish between the screening and the interaction-based theories.

We measure the thermodynamic magnetization of a low-disordered, strongly correlated two-dimensional electron system in silicon in perpendicular magnetic fields. A new, parameter-free method is used to directly determine the spectrum characteristics (Lande g-factor and the cyclotron mass) when the Fermi level lies outside the spectral gaps and the inter-level interactions between quasiparticles are avoided. Intra-level interactions are found to strongly modify the magnetization, without affecting the determined g* and m*., Comment: As published

We show that the Comment by Reznikov and Sivan (cond-mat/0410409) is erroneous because the authors do not distinguish between Pauli and Curie spin susceptibility.

Thermodynamic measurements reveal that the Pauli spin susceptibility of strongly correlated two-dimensional electrons in silicon grows critically at low electron densities - behavior that is characteristic of the existence of a phase transition., Comment: As published

We have accurately measured the effective mass in a dilute two-dimensional electron system in silicon by analyzing temperature dependence of the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the low-temperature limit. A sharp increase of the effective mass with decreasing electron density has been observed. Using tilted magnetic fields, we have found that the enhanced effective mass is independent of the degree of spin polarization, which points to a spin-independent origin of the mass enhancement and is in contradiction with existing theories.

We have studied corrections to conductivity due to the coherent backscattering in low-disordered two-dimensional electron systems in silicon for a range of electron densities including the vicinity of the metal-insulator transition, where the dramatic increase of the spin susceptibility has been observed earlier. We show that the corrections, which exist deeper in the metallic phase, weaken upon approaching to the transition and practically vanish at the critical density, thus suggesting that the localization is suppressed near and at the transition even in zero field., Comment: to appear in PRL