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Recent ab-initio calculations showed that oversized solute atoms (OSA) in BCC and FCC iron exhibit a very strong attraction with a nearby vacancy (V) at first neighbour distance (1NN). The attraction it is so large that the 1NN pair OSA+V is no longer stable and relaxes spontaneously towards a new configuration where the OSA sits in the middle of the bond, the two ends of which are decorated with two half-vacancies (V/2). Taking into account the formation of this complex V/2+OSA+V/2 in the migration process has never been done before: it requires a new formulation of correlation effects. This is the aim of the present contribution which establishes the expression of the diffusion coefficient of the OSA and evaluates exactly the correlation factor in BCC and FCC lattices, thanks to the introduction of macrojumps. The formalism is applied to the case of Y in BCC iron and its results are compared to those obtained by previous authors. It is shown that the smallness of the correlation factor is not due to the transport mechanism of the OSA but only to the jump frequencies of the vacancy in the vicinity of the OSA. This smallness of the correlation factor is however overcompensated by a large macrojump frequency, and, as a result, the Y atom diffuses more rapidly than iron at all temperatures by orders of magnitude in the two structures., Comment: 47 pages, 8 figures, 8 tables, 7 appendices

The decomposition of Fe-Cr solid solutions during thermal aging is modeled by Atomistic Kinetic Monte Carlo (AKMC) simulations, using a rigid lattice approximation with composition dependant pair interactions that can reproduce the change of sign of the mixing energy with the alloy composition. The interactions are fitted on ab initio mixing energies and on the experimental phase diagram, as well as on the migration barriers in iron and chromium rich phases. Simulated kinetics is compared with 3D atom probe and neutron scattering experiments., Comment: 6 pages, 5 figures, PTM 2010

The effects of spin-polarized quasiparticle transport in superconducting YBa2Cu3O_{7-\delta} (YBCO) epitaxial films are investigated by means of current injection into perovskite ferromagnet-insulator-superconductor (F-I-S) heterostructures. These effects are compared with the injection of simple quasiparticles into control samples of perovskite non-magnetic metal-insulator-superconductor (N-I-S). Systematic studies of the critical current density as a function of the injection current density, temperature and the thickness of the superconductor reveal drastic differences between the F-I-S and N-I-S heterostructures, with strong suppression of the critical currents and a rapidly increasing characteristic transport length near the superconducting transition temperature only in the F-I-S samples. The temperature dependence of the injection efficiency in the F-I-S samples is also in sharp contrast to that in the N-I-S samples. The characteristic times estimated from our studies are suggestive of anisotropic spin relaxation processes, possibly with spin-orbit interaction dominating the c-axis spin transport and exchange interaction prevailing within the CuO2 planes. Several alternative scenarios attempted to account for the suppression of critical currents in F-I-S samples are also critically examined, and are found to be neither compatible with experimental data nor with the established theory of nonequilibrium superconductivity., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Published in Physical Review B. Corresponding author: Nai-Chang Yeh (e-mail: ncyeh@caltech.edu)

The pairing symmetry and the superconducting gap in high-temperature superconducting cuprates are investigated as a function of the hole doping level (x) and temperature (T), using directional scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS).

The effect of spin-polarized quasiparticle currents on the critical current density (J-c) of cuprate superconductors is studied in perovskite F-I-S heterostructures as a function of insulator thickness and of underlying magnetic materials. A pulsed current technique is employed to minimize extraneous Joule heating on the superconductor. At temperatures near T-c, F-I-S samples with insulator thicknesses\1e2nm show precipitous decrease in J_c as current injection (I_m) is increased. In contrast, J_c in a controlled sample with a substituted non-magnetic material (N-I-S) exhibit no dependence on I_m. Similarly, a F-I-S sample with a 10 mn insulating barrier also show little J_c effect versus I_m. At low temperatures with I_m = 0, significant suppression of J-c is observed only in the thin barrier F-I-S samples, although T_c and the normal-state resistivity of all samples are comparable. These phenomena can be attributed to the Cooper pair breaking induced by externally-injected and internally-reflected spin-polarized quasiparticle currents. We estimate an order of magnitude range for the spin diffusion length of 100 nm to 100\ mum.

We report studies of the Hall effect and magnetoresistance in epitaxial films.

In this work, we report the observations of a giant ferromagnetic Hall effect and magnetoresistance in LCCO. The possible physical origin of these phenomena is discussed in the conteext of magnetic clusters and spin transitions due to the multiple spin configurations of the cobaltites.

Studies of La(sub 0.7)Ca(sub 0.3)MnO(sub 3) epitaxial films on substrates with a range of lattice constants reveal two dominant contributions to the occurence of colossal negative magnetoresistance (CMR) in these manganites:...We therefore suggest that lattice polaron conduction associated with Jahn-Teller coupling is essential for the occurence of CMR, and that lattice distortion further enhances the CMR effect in the manganites.

The effects of lattice distortion on the physical properties of La (sub 0.7)Ca(sub 0.3)MnO(sub 3) and La(sub 0.5)Ca(sub 0.5)CoO(sub 3) films are investigated. Our results suggest that larger substrate-induced lattice distortion gives rise to larger zero-field resistivity and larger negative magnetoresistance.

In summary, we have investigated the role of lattice distortion, polaron conduction and Jahn-Teller coupling in the occurrence of the colossal negative magnetoresistance in perovskite oxides. We conclude that larger lattice distortion gives rise to larger zero-field resistivity and larger magnitude of negative magnetoresistance.

The Scanning Multichannel Microwave Radiometer (SMMR) instrument, onboard the Nimbus-7 spacecraft, collected data from Oct. 1978 until Jun. 1986. The data were processed to physical parameter level products. Geophysical parameters retrieved include the following: sea-surface temperatures, sea-surface windspeed, total column water vapor, and sea-ice parameters. These products are stored on PARM-LO, PARM-SS, and PARM-30 tapes. The geophysical parameter retrieval algorithms and the quality of these products are described for the period between Nov. 1978 and Oct 1985. Additionally, data formats and data availability are included.