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The creep motion of domain walls driven by external fields in magnetic thin films is described by universal features related to the underlying depinning transition. One key parameter in this description is the roughness exponent characterizing the growth of fluctuations of the domain wall position with its longitudinal length scale. The roughness amplitude, which gives information about the scale of fluctuations, however, has received less attention. Albeit their relevance, experimental reports of the roughness parameters, both exponent and amplitude, are scarce. We report here experimental values of the roughness parameters for different magnetic field intensities in the creep regime at room temperature for a Pt/Co/Pt thin film. The mean value of the roughness exponent is $\zeta = 0.74$, and we show that it can be rationalized as an effective value in terms of the known universal values corresponding to the depinning and thermal cases. In addition, it is shown that the roughness amplitude presents a significant increase with decreasing field. These results contribute to the description of domain wall motion in disordered thin magnetic systems., Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures

Magnetic field driven domain wall dynamics in a ferrimagnetic GdFeCo thin film with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy is studied using low temperature magneto-optical Kerr microscopy. Measurements performed in a practically athermal condition allow for the direct experimental determination of the velocity ($ \beta = 0.30 \pm 0.03 $) and correlation length ($ \nu = 1.3 \pm 0.3 $) exponents of the depinning transition. The whole family of exponents characterizing the transition is deduced, providing evidence that the depinning of magnetic domain walls is better described by the quenched Edwards-Wilkinson universality class., Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures. Ancillary Material with 10 pages and 4 figures is also included

Domain-wall dynamics and spatial fluctuations are closely related to each other and to universal features of disordered systems. Experimentally measured roughness exponents characterizing spatial fluctuations have been reported for magnetic thin films, with values generally different from those predicted by the equilibrium, depinning and thermal reference states. Here, we study the roughness of domain walls in GdFeCo thin films over a large range of magnetic field and temperature. Our analysis is performed in the framework of a model considering length-scale crossovers between the reference states, which is shown to bridge the differences between experimental results and theoretical predictions. We also quantify for the first time the size of the depinning avalanches below the depinning field at finite temperatures., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures. The first two authors contributed equally to this work

In this work we report the temperature and doping-level evolution of the crystallographic and magnetic properties of the Sr-doped cobaltates ${\mathrm{Ca}}_{1\ensuremath{-}x}{\mathrm{Sr}}_{x}{\mathrm{BaCo}}_{4}{\mathrm{O}}_{7}$. The noncollinear ferrimagnetic phase known for the magnetoelectric parent compound is found to persist only for a small amount of Sr doping ($x=0.02$) and is accompanied by a strong unit cell distortion. In turn, further Sr doping blurs this distortion of lattice parameters and favors other magnetic arrangements. In particular, this work focuses on an intermediate temperature region $62\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}lTl82\phantom{\rule{0.28em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}$ that shows a plateau in the magnetization. Using neutron powder diffraction at selected temperatures and compositions, we have solved the magnetic structure of this intermediate phase. By means of the superspace group theory and its implementation in the Rietveld refinement, we found that the phase belongs to the superspace group $Pna{2}_{1}{1}^{\ensuremath{'}}(1/2,1/2,g)qq0s$ with a basic orthorhombic structure and a modulation of the magnetic moments along the $c$ axis. The propagation vector is $\mathbf{k}=(\frac{1}{2},\frac{1}{2},g)$ with $g\ensuremath{\sim}0.02$ and possibly dependent on temperature. A modulated spin structure with distinct behaviors of the triangular and kagome cobalt sites is reported in ``114'' cobaltates.

Domain walls in magnetic thin films display a complex dynamical response when subject to an external drive. It is claimed that different dynamic regimes are correlated with the domain-wall roughness, i.e., with the fluctuations of domain-wall position due to the inherent disorder in the system. Therefore, key to understanding the dynamics of domain walls is to have a statistically meaningful measure of the domain-wall roughness. Here we present a thorough study of the roughness parameters, i.e., roughness exponent and roughness amplitude, for domain walls in a ferrimagnetic GdFeCo thin film in the creep regime. Histograms of roughness parameters are constructed with more than 40 independent realizations under the same experimental conditions, and the average values and standard deviations are compared in different conditions. We found that the most prominent feature of the obtained distributions is their large standard deviations, which is a signature of large fluctuations. We show that even if the roughness parameters for a particular domain wall are well known, these parameters are not necessarily representative of the underlying physics of the system. In the low field limit, within the creep regime of domain-wall motion, we found the average roughness exponent and roughness amplitude to be around 0.75 and 0.45 μm2, respectively. When an in-plane magnetic field is applied we observed that, even though the distributions are wide, changes in the mean values of roughness parameters can be identified; the roughness exponent decreasing to values around 0.72 while the roughness amplitude increases to 0.65 μm2. Our results call for a careful consideration of statistical averaging over different domains walls when reporting roughness exponents. Fil: Jordán Ringgold, Daniel. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro | Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Balseiro. Archivo Histórico del Centro Atómico Bariloche e Instituto Balseiro; Argentina Fil: Albornoz, Lucas Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Gorchon, Jon. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Estados Unidos Fil: Lambert, Charles Henri. University of California at Berkeley; Estados Unidos Fil: Salahuddin, Sayeef. University of California at Berkeley; Estados Unidos Fil: Bokor, Jeffrey. University of California at Berkeley; Estados Unidos. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Estados Unidos Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Bustingorry, Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; Argentina

Along with experiments, numerical simulations are key to gaining insight into the underlying mechanisms governing domain wall motion in thin ferromagnetic systems. However, a direct comparison between numerical simulation of model systems and experimental results still represents a great challenge. Here, we present a tuned Ginzburg-Landau model to quantitatively study the dynamics of domain walls in quasi two-dimensional ferromagnetic systems with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. This model incorporates material and experimental parameters and the micromagnetic prescription for thermal fluctuations, allowing us to perform material-specific simulations and at the same time recover universal features. We show that our model quantitatively reproduces previous experimental velocity-field data in the archetypal perpendicular magnetic anisotropy Pt/Co/Pt ultra-thin films in the three dynamical regimes of domain wall motion (creep, depinning and flow). In addition, we present a statistical analysis of the domain wall width parameter, showing that our model can provide detailed nano-scale information while retaining the complex behavior of a statistical disordered model., 18 pages, 8 figures

The domain wall response under constant external magnetic fields reveals a complex behavior where sample disorder plays a key role. Furthermore, the response to alternating magnetic fields has only been explored in limited cases and analyzed in terms of the constant field solution. Here we unveil phenomena in the evolution of magnetic domain walls under the application of alternating magnetic fields within the creep regime, well beyond a small fluctuation limit of the domain wall position. Magnetic field pulses were applied in ultrathin ferromagnetic films with perpendicular anisotropy, and the resulting domain wall evolution was characterized by polar magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy. Whereas the dc characterization is well predicted by the elastic interface model, striking unexpected features are observed under the application of alternating square pulses: Magneto-optical images show that after a characteristic number of cycles, domain walls evolve toward strongly distorted shapes concomitantly with a modification of domain area. The morphology of domain walls is characterized with a roughness exponent when possible and contrasted with alternative observables which are more suitable for the characterization of this transient evolution. The final stationary convergence as well as the underlying physics is discussed. Fil: Domenichini, Pablo Exequiel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; Argentina Fil: Quinteros, Cynthia Paula. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. University of Groningen; Países Bajos Fil: Granada, Mara. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche | Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnología - Nodo Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Collin, S.. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia Fil: George, J. M.. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia - Nodo Bariloche | Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia - Nodo Bariloche.; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina Fil: Bustingorry, Sebastian. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientificas y Tecnicas. Oficina de Coordinacion Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia - Nodo Bariloche | Comision Nacional de Energia Atomica. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia. Unidad Ejecutora Instituto de Nanociencia y Nanotecnologia - Nodo Bariloche.; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Capeluto, Maria Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina Fil: Pasquini, Gabriela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina

The use of FORC diagrams is becoming increasingly popular among researchers devoted to magnetism and magnetic materials. However, a thorough interpretation of this kind of diagrams, in order to achieve quantitative information, requires an appropriate model of the studied system. For that reason most of the FORC studies are used for a qualitative analysis. In magnetic systems thermal fluctuations "blur" the signatures of the anisotropy, volume and particle interactions distributions, therefore thermal effects in nanoparticles systems conspire against a proper interpretation and analysis of these diagrams. Motivated by this fact, we have quantitatively studied the degree of accuracy of the information extracted from FORC diagrams for the special case of single-domain thermal corrected Stoner– Wohlfarth (easy axes along the external field orientation) nanoparticles systems. In this work, the starting point is an analytical model that describes the behavior of a magnetic nanoparticles system as a function of field, anisotropy, temperature and measurement time. In order to study the quantitative degree of accuracy of our model, we built FORC diagrams for different archetypical cases of magnetic nanoparticles. Our results show that from the quantitative information obtained from the diagrams, under the hypotheses of the proposed model, is possible to recover the features of the original system with accuracy above 95%. This accuracy is improved at low temperatures and also it is possible to access to the anisotropy distribution directly from the FORC coercive field profile. Indeed, our simulations predict that the volume distribution plays a secondary role being the mean value and its deviation the only important parameters. Therefore it is possible to obtain an accurate result for the inversion and interaction fields despite the features of the volume distribution.

Understanding the effect of fabrication conditions on domain wall (DW) motion in thin films with perpendicular magnetization is a mandatory issue in order to tune their properties aiming to design spintronics devices based on such phenomenon. In this context, the present work intends to show how different growth conditions may affect DW motion in the prototypical system Pt/Co/Pt. The trilayers were deposited by dc sputtering, and the parameters varied in this study were the Co thickness, the substrate roughness and the base pressure in the deposition chamber. Magneto-optical Kerr effect-based magnetometry and microscopy combined with x-ray reflectometry, atomic force microscopy and transmission electron microscopy were adopted as experimental techniques. This permitted us to elucidate the impact on the hysteresis loops and on the DW dynamics, produced by different growth conditions. As other authors, we found that Co thickness is strongly determinant for both the coercive field and the DW velocity. On the contrary, the topographic roughness of the substrate and the base pressure of the deposition chamber evidence a selective impact on the nucleation of magnetic domains and on DW propagation, respectively, providing a tool to tune these properties.

Atomic layer deposition (ALD) is a standard technique employed to grow thin-film oxides for a variety of applications. We describe the technique and demonstrate its use for obtaining memristive devices. The metal/insulator/metal stack is fabricated by means of ALD-grown HfO2, deposited on top of a highly doped Si substrate with an SiO2 film and a Ti electrode. Enhanced device capabilities (forming free, self-limiting current, non-crossing hysteretic current-voltage features) are presented and discussed. Careful analysis of the stack structure by means of X-ray reflectometry, atomic force microscopy, and secondary ion mass spectroscopy revealed a modification of the device stack from the intended sequence, HfO2/Ti/SiO2/Si. Analytical studies unravel an oxidation of the Ti layer which is addressed for the use of the ozone precursor in the HfO2 ALD process. A new deposition process and the model deduced from impedance measurements support our hypothesis: the role played by ozone on the previously deposited Ti layer is found to determine the overall features of the device. Besides, these ALD-tailored multifunctional devices exhibit rectification capability and long enough retention time to deserve their use as memory cells in a crossbar architecture and multibit approach, envisaging other potential applications.

Development of nanostructured electrodes for application in Li-ion batteries implies the control of particle morphology and size distribution. Using the high-temperature thermal decomposition synthesis for different temperatures and changing the reactant concentration, we obtained highly crystalline LiFePO4 nanoparticles with different morphologies and mean size. Our results show that an increase of the temperature produces an increase in crystallinity and size of the particles, whereas an increment in reactant concentration generates a slightly increase of the particle size without changes in morphology. The electrochemical capacity of annealed samples is enhanced for those synthesized at higher temperatures, indicating that changes induced by changing the synthesis temperature, as for example differences in the morphology of the particles, are important. Fil: Martinez, Pablo Sergio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina Fil: Lima, Enio Junior. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina Fil: Ruiz, Fabricio Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina Fil: Moreno, Mario Sergio Jesus. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina

Magnetic domain wall motion is at the heart of new magnetoelectronic technologies and hence the need for a deeper understanding of domain wall dynamics in magnetic systems. In this context, numerical simulations using simple models can capture the main ingredients responsible for the complex observed domain wall behavior. We present a scalar field model for the magnetization dynamics of quasi-two-dimensional systems with a perpendicular easy axis of magnetization which allows a direct comparison with typical experimental protocols, used in polar magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy experiments. We show that the thermally activated creep and depinning regimes of domain wall motion can be reached and the effect of different quenched disorder implementations can be assessed with the model. In particular, we show that the depinning field increases with the mean grain size of a Voronoi tessellation model for the disorder. Fil: Caballero, Nirvana Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Ferrero, Eduardo Ezequiel. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina Fil: Kolton, Alejandro Benedykt. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina Fil: Jeudy, Vincent. Université Paris Sud; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia. Université Paris–Saclay; Francia Fil: Bustingorry, Sebastián. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina

Designing magnetic materials for potential applications based on domain wall motion requires the knowledge of the relationship between physical properties and phenomenological parameters characterizing domain wall dynamics. We address in this work the study of magnetic-field-driven domain wall motion within the creep regime on a prototypical metallic Pt/Co/Pt stack with perpendicular magnetic anisotropy. By controlling the deposition characteristics, different magnetic properties are achieved, giving rise to different creep parameters. Those phenomenological parameters are found to collapse in a single linear dependence for all samples based on the same material. Moreover, using data in the literature, we show that the same behavior is observed in Au/Co/Au and Tb/Fe based samples. We therefore obtain a pair of global parameters that fully characterize the family of domain wall velocity-field curves within the creep regime for each group of samples, which can be used as input for the optimization of materials. Fil: Quinteros, Cynthia Paula. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Bustingorry, Sebastián. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina Fil: Granada, Mara. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

We study the ultra slow domain wall motion in ferromagnetic thin films driven by a weak magnetic field. Using time resolved magneto-optical Kerr effect microscopy, we access to the statistics of the intermittent thermally activated domain wall jumps between deep metastable states. Our observations are consistent with the existence of creep avalanches: roughly independent clusters with broad size and ignition waiting-time distributions, each one composed by a large number of spatio-temporally correlated thermally activated elementary events. Moreover, we evidence that the large scale geometry of domain walls is better described by depinning rather than equilibrium universal exponents., Comment: Corrected and updated version. Supplementary Information included in the ancillary material

Magnetic field driven domain wall velocities in [Co/Ni] based multilayers thin films have been measured using polar magneto-optic Kerr effect microscopy. The low field results are shown to be consistent with the universal creep regime of domain wall motion, characterized by a stretched exponential growth of the velocity with the inverse of the applied field. Approaching the depinning field from below results in an unexpected excess velocity with respect to the creep law. We analyze these results using scaling theory to show that this speeding up of domain wall motion can be interpreted as due to the increase of the size of the deterministic relaxation close to the depinning transition. We propose a phenomenological model to accurately fit the observed excess velocity and to obtain characteristic values for the depinning field Hd, the depinning temperature Td, and the characteristic velocity scale v0 for each sample. Fil: Caballero, Nirvana Belén. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Bariloche; Argentina Fil: Fernández Aguirre, Iván. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina Fil: Albornoz, Lucas Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina Fil: Kolton, Alejandro Benedykt. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo; Argentina Fil: Rojas Sanchez, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Université Paris Sud; Francia. Université de Lorraine. Institut Jean Lamour; Francia Fil: Collin, Sophie. Université Paris Sud; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia Fil: George, Jean Marie. Université Paris Sud; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia Fil: Diaz Pardo, Rebeca. Université Paris Sud; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia Fil: Jeudy, Vincent. Université Paris Sud; Francia. Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique; Francia Fil: Bustingorry, Sebastián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área Investigaciones y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (CAB). Grupo de Teoría de Sólidos; Argentina Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comision Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia de Área Investigaciones y Aplicaciones no Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche). División Resonancias Magnéticas; Argentina

We prepared the antiferromagnetic Ca 2 CoWO 6 , Sr 2 CoWO 6 and Ba 2 CoWO 6 double perovskites with different crystalline structures, which are monoclinic, tetragonal and cubic respectively. The crystalline structures affect the Co–O distances and the local octahedral symmetry. Magnetic susceptibility experiments were performed as a function of magnetic field and temperature. We found that the effective magnetic moment ( μ eff ) of Co 2+ is partially unquenched and we also found that μ eff increases with the average of Co–O distances that form the CoO 6 octahedra. A simple model associates the behavior of the effective magnetic moment with crystal field effects.

Magnetic properties of a single nanotube whose walls are constituted by nanograins of La2/3Sr1/3MnO3 are studied by means of Monte Carlo (MC) simulation. The system is considered as composed by ferromagnetic grains which couple via dipolar interaction. The grain size distribution is obtained from experimental measurements and the inter-grain distance distribution is obtained from a study of distance distribution among magnetic particles distributed in the tube walls. We show the magnetization behavior for a tube of 700 nm of diameter and 3.5 μm length. We discuss the simulation for different temperatures and external fields. As a main result, we show that the distribution of inter-granular distances has a unique behavior for tubular structures of similar diameter/length aspect ratio, independent of their sizes. This scaling relation allows us to perform the simulations using a tube of smaller dimensions. We succeed in explaining the magnetization curves, finding that dipolar interaction is necessary to explain the experimental behavior and that the grains behave as having magnetic dead layers.

We present a magnetic study of vanadium oxide nanotubes (VOx-NTs) with polyaniline (PAni). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows the tubular shape and the multi-wall structure of the nanotubes. The static magnetic susceptibility measured at different magnetic fields shows a Curie behavior, while the magnetization versus magnetic field presents a non-linear dependence at low temperatures. Both experiments can be explained by the presence of paramagnetic ions with S = 1/2. Using Electron Paramagnetic Resonance technique, we identified as V4+(3d1) the paramagnetic ions present in the nanostructures. All the experimental results can be explained by a fraction between 14% and 18% of V4+ with respect to the total V atoms in the system.

In this work we study the physical properties of the layered cobaltites YBaCo 2 O 5.5 , focussing on the role of cationic disorder and size effects by a partial substitution of Ba by Ca. We have synthesized the polycrystalline compounds Y ( Ba 1 - x Ca x ) Co 2 O 5.5 with x = 0 , 0.05 and 0.10. We characterized the samples within the 5–500 K temperature range, using neutron diffraction, magnetic measurements and electrical resistivity experiments. We have found the magnetic properties to be strongly affected by the cationic substitution. Although the “122” perovskite structure seems unaffected by Ca addition, the magnetic arrangements of Co ions are drastically modified: the antiferromagnetic (AFM) long-range order is destroyed, and a ferrimagnetic phase is stabilized below T ∼ 290 K . For the sample with x = 0.05 a small fraction of AFM phase seems to coexist with a ferrimagnetic one below T ∼ 190 K , whereas for x = 0.10 the AFM order is completely lost.

In this work, we present a characterization of a hybrid nanocomposite constituted by vanadium oxide (VO x )/ hexadecylamine (Hexa) and the effect of the addition of Ni ions on the magnetic properties. Micrographs of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) show that the nanostructures are multiwall nanotubes. The walls are constituted by the successive intercalation of VO x and Hexa layers. The number of vanadium atoms and the ratio Ni/V were measured by instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) and by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), respectively. Measurements of electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and DC magnetic susceptibility, as a function of temperature, reveal that the Ni doping reduces considerably the amount of V 4+ present in the system.

The shape instability of magnetic domain walls under current is investigated in a ferromagnetic (Ga,Mn)(As,P) film with perpendicular anisotropy. Domain wall motion is driven by the spin transfer torque mechanism. A current density gradient is found either to stabilize domains with walls perpendicular to current lines or to produce finger-like patterns, depending on the domain wall motion direction. The instability mechanism is shown to result from the non-adiabatic contribution of the spin transfer torque mechanism., 5 pages, 3 figures + supplementary materials

We have synthesized the layered cobaltites YBaCo 2 O 5 + δ with different oxygen contents ( δ 1 and δ 2 ), and characterized its structural and physical properties using various experimental techniques within the 80–500 K temperature range. Two superstructures have been identified due to the ordering of oxygen vacancies. One of them (corresponding to δ ≃ 0.50 ) shows a metal–insulator transition at room temperature, while both exhibit a sequence of magnetic transitions AFM–FM–PM as the temperature is increased. We have determined the second-order nature of the FM–PM magnetic transition using the Banerjee criterion. We also show that there exist intrinsic differences between both samples in terms of the charge carriers involved, which manifest in the transport properties.

A morphological and magnetic study of sub-micrometric nanostructures of a manganese oxide-based compound La0.325Pr0.300Ca0.375MnO3 is presented. Nanowires of 50 and 100 nm and tubes with external diameters of 200 and 800 nm were synthesized. Scanning electron microscopy with EDS microanalysis (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) allowed to characterize the morphology and microstructure of these nanostructures. The walls of the nanotubes are composed of on average 40 nm grain size particles, while in nanowires the grains are much smaller, in the range between 4 and 20 nm. In both situations, the small grains present a random crystalline orientation, as it is confirmed by TEM diffraction experiments. Magnetization measurements and hysteresis loops are presented and discussed based on magnetic interaction between the grains, anisotropy considerations and reversal magnetization mechanisms. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 75.47.Lx; 75.75.+a; 81.07.De

We present structural and magnetization measurements in large-grain ceramic samples of the family (La y Pr 1-y ) 0.5 Ca 0,5 MnO 3 with y=0, 0.15, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, 0.85 and 1.0. In this series, a change of the ionic radius in site A (r A ) modifies the structural parameters, which strongly affect the physical properties of these compounds. While the Neel temperature remains essentially constant through the series, the ferromagnetic (FM) critical temperature (T C ) decreases rapidly and the charge-order (CO) temperature (T CO ) increases on decreasing y. The crossover of T C and T CO determines a critical tolerance factor (t c 0.975) consistent with previous reports on other systems with the same Mn 3+ / Mn 4+ ratio. For tolerance factors t near t c we observe coexistence of a FM and CO phases of varying degrees depending on γ. For γ ≤ 0.15 we find no evidence of ferromagnetism.

We have studied the effect of irreversibility induced by repeated thermal cycles on the electric transport and magnetization of polycrystalline samples of La0.5Ca0.5MnO3 and La0.325Pr0.3Ca0.375MnO3. An increase of the resistivity and a decrease of the magnetization at different temperature ranges after cycling is obtained in the temperature range between 300 K and 30 K. Both compounds are known to exhibit intrinsic submicrometric coexistence of phases and undergo a sequence of phase transitions related to structural changes. Changes induced by thermal cycling can be partially inhibited by applying magnetic field and hydrostatic pressure. Our results suggest that the growth and coexistence of phases with different structures gives rise to microstructural tracks and strain accommodation, producing the observed irreversibility. Irrespective of the actual ground state of each compound, the effect of thermal cycling is towards an increase of the amount of the insulating phase in both compounds., to appear in Journal of Alloys and Compounds (2003)

Under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.-- et al., Cationic substitutions in the novel magnetoelectric compound CaBaCo4O7 lead to profound changes in its magnetic and electric behaviors. In this work, we present a structural study of the isovalent substitution Sr-for-Ca in CaBaCo4O7. X-ray diffraction, as well as neutron powder diffraction experiments, are reported for a series of samples Ca1- xSrxBaCo4O7 with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.10. Special emphasis is given to the identification of the substitution site, as Sr has also been reported to substitute for Ba in this crystal structure. The solubility limit for Sr at the Ca site is shown to be at x ≃ 0.08. The variation of lattice constants with Sr-doping firmly supports the Sr-for-Ca substitution. Rietveld refinements of the Sr-substituted samples are presented, and used as starting point to analyse the local structure around Sr by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy at the Sr K-edge. Both the near-edge absorption and the extended absorption fine-structure confirm the substitution of Sr for Ca, giving definite support to the proposed nominal formula. In addition, macroscopic magnetization measurements are presented which reveal the striking effects of Sr-substitution over the magnetic landscape of this puzzling compound., This work is part of a research project supported by Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica (Argentina), under Grant No. PICT-2011-0752, CONICET under Grant No. PIP 490 2012-2014, and Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. We acknowledge Soleil synchrotron for the beamtime allocation and the MinCyT-Soleil collaboration project for the financial support. We also acknowledge ILL and its staff for the beamtime allocation and technical assistance as well as the MinCyT of Argentina for funding the trip to perform the experiments. G.A. and J.C. thank the CONICET-CSIC program for scientific visits and Grant No. MAT2011-27233-C02-02.

In this work we present a magnetic study of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 (LSMO) and La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 (LCMO) nanotubes with nominal external diameters (ϕ) of 100, 200, 600 and 800 nm. The 800 nm diameter nanotubes have walls of around 50 nm thickness in all the cases. The walls are constituted by an assembly of nanoparticles with a non-Gaussian size distribution presenting a maximum at 24 ± 6 nm (LSMO) and 25 ± 8 nm (LCMO). We carried out isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM) and dc demagnetization (DCD) experiments. We determined that the crystallites are single magnetic domains with a magnetic dead layer on the surface which avoids exchange interactions among grains. We conclude that the dominating interactions are of dipolar type of the same magnitude for all the samples.

Polycrystalline Ca 2 NiWO 6 double perovskite has been prepared by solid-state reaction at 1150 °C. The crystal structure of this material has been confirmed by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). At room temperature, the crystal structure is monoclinic, space group P2 1 /n, with a =5.4061(2) A, b =5.5389(2) A, c =7.6895(3) A, β =90.232(2)°. Magnetic susceptibility and electron spin resonance experiments on Ca 2 NiWO 6 show at high temperature a Curie–Weiss behavior with a θ =−75 K. From the Curie–Weiss behavior, the effective magnetic moment is 2.85 μ B , which is in agreement with the presence of Ni 2+ in the system. At low temperatures, below 52.5(0.2) K, the magnetic susceptibility shows antiferromagnetic behavior. From the experimental data and the mean field theory of antiferromagnetism we estimated the Ni interactions among the nearest Ni neighbors and the second nearest Ni neighbors.

We present a magnetic phase diagram for the (La y Pr 1− y ) 0,5 Ca 0,5 MnO 3 family with different degrees of La–Pr substitution ( y ) based on electric resistivity, magnetization, X-ray diffraction at different temperatures and thermal expansion experiments. In this series, the structural distortion due to the variation of the mean ionic radius of site A ( r A ), by decreasing y , induces a rapid diminution of the ferromagnetic (FM) Curie temperature ( T C ) and an increase of the charge-order (CO) temperature ( T CO ). The crossover between T C and T CO determines a critical tolerance factor ( t c ≅0.975), which is consistent with previous reports on other manganites with the same Mn 3+ /Mn 4+ ratio. For tolerance factors close to t c , we observe the coexistence of different amounts of FM and CO phases depending on y . The disorder introduced by y and the presence of phase separation around t c induces a smooth and continuous variation of the structural, electrical and magnetic properties when crossing through t c .

We show experimental evidence of magnetization switching in a single (Ga,Mn)(As,P) semiconducting ferromagnetic layer, attributed to a strong reduction of the magnetization and the anisotropy due to current injection. The nucleation of magnetization reversal is found to occur even in the absence of a magnetic field and to be both anisotropic and stochastic. Our findings highlight a new mechanism of magnetization manipulation based on spin accumulation in a semiconductor material. Fil: Gorchon, J.. Universite Paris Sud; Francia Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Universite Paris Sud; Francia. Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures; Francia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comision Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia de Área Investigaciones y Aplicaciones no Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche). División Resonancias Magnéticas; Argentina Fil: Lemaître, A.. Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures; Francia Fil: Moisan, N.. Universite Paris Sud; Francia Fil: Cubukcu, M.. Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Francia Fil: Malinowski, G.. Universite Paris Sud; Francia Fil: Ulysse, C.. Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures; Francia Fil: Faini, G.. Laboratoire de Photonique et de Nanostructures; Francia Fil: Von Bardeleben, H.J.. Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Francia Fil: Jeudy, V.. Universite Paris Sud; Francia. Université Cergy-Pontoise; Francia

Hollow and solid cylindrical nanometric structures of mixed valent manganese oxide-based compounds were obtained by wetting sacrificial porous substrates. Plastic templates with pores ranging 0.05–1mm were employed; a twostage thermal process was performed to obtain La0.325Pr0.300Ca0.375MnO3 or La2/3Sr1/3MnO3. Polycrystalline selfstanding tubes were obtained for pore size higher than 0.2mm, while wires were obtained for diameters below 0.1mm. We discuss the role of the template pore size in determining the synthesis route, the formation of different intermediate compounds, and different morphologies. r 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

In this work, we report the morphological and electrical characterization of highly crystalline LiCuxFe1-xPO4 nanoparticles synthesized via the high-temperature (380 °C) thermal decomposition of organometallic precursors. The mean diameter of the studied nanoparticles was 30–40 nm. The Cu/Fe relations of 0, 0.001 and 0.042 for the three studied samples were obtained via particle-induced x-ray emission spectroscopy. Crystallographic and morphological studies were performed using x-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy techniques. We investigated the effects of incorporating copper on the electric transport properties of this highly crystalline nanometric system using impedance spectroscopy and DC transport techniques. The experimental evidence allowed us to conclude that in the frequency range f

International audience; We report experimental evidence of thermal effects on the displacement of vortex walls in NiFe nanostrips. With the use of nanosecond current pulses, a unidirectional motion of the magnetic domain walls towards the hotter part of the nanostrips is observed, in addition to current-induced domain wall motion. By tuning the heat dissipation in the samples and modeling the heat diffusion, we conclude that this unidirectional motion can only be explained by the presence of a temperature profile along the nanostrip. A quantitative analysis of the experiments shows that, on top of the classical thermodynamic pressure on the domain wall, another force, probably the magnonic spin Seebeck effect, is displacing the domain walls.

Current-driven domain-wall motion is studied in (Ga,Mn)(As,P) ferromagnetic semiconducting tracks with perpendicular anisotropy. A linear steady state flow regime is observed over a large temperature range of the ferromagnetic phase ($0.1{T}_{c}lTl{T}_{c}$). Close to 0 K, the domain-wall velocity is found to coincide with the spin drift velocity. This result is obtained below the intrinsic threshold for domain-wall motion which implies a nonadiabatic contribution to the spin transfer torque. The current spin polarization is deduced close to 0 K and to ${T}_{c}$. It suggests that the temperature dependence of the spin polarization can be inferred from the domain-wall dynamics.

Domain wall dynamics produced by spin transfer torques is investigated in (Ga, Mn)As ferromagnetic semiconducting tracks with perpendicular anisotropy, close to the Curie temperature. The domain wall velocities are found to follow a linear flow regime which only slightly varies with temperature. Using the Doring inequality, boundaries of the spin polarization of the current are deduced. A comparison with the predictions of the mean field k⋅p theory leads to an estimation of the carrier density whose value is compatible with results published in the literature. The spin polarization of the current and the magnetization of the magnetic atoms present similar temperature variations. This leads to a weak temperature dependence of the spin drift velocity and thus of the domain wall velocity. A combined study of field- and current-driven motion and deformation of magnetic domains reveals a motion of domain walls in the steady state regime without transition to the precessional regime. The ratio between the non-adiabatic torque β and the Gilbert damping factor α is shown to remain close to unity.

In this paper we present a neutron diffraction study of the effects of replacing Ba with smaller Sr cations in the layered cobaltite YBaCo(2)O(5+δ) for δ≈0.5. Neutron thermodiffractograms are reported in the temperature range 20 K≤T≤300 K, as well as high-resolution neutron diffraction experiments at selected temperatures. The systematic refinement of the series of samples with Sr substituting at the Ba site permits the understanding of the complex magnetic behaviour of this system, and reinforces a two-phase scenario for the parent compound. We have found that Sr addition destabilizes the ferrimagnetic spin state ordered phase, as well as the '122' order characteristic of cobaltites with δ = 0.5, favouring instead a tetragonal and less ordered structure.

Caliothrips phaseoli, a phytophagous insect, detects and responds to solar ultraviolet-B radiation (UV-B; λ ≤ 315 nm) under field conditions. A highly specific mechanism must be present in the thrips visual system in order to detect this narrow band of solar radiation, which is at least 30 times less abundant than the UV-A (315-400 nm), to which many insects are sensitive. We constructed an action spectrum of thrips responses to light by studying their behavioural reactions to monochromatic irradiation under confinement conditions. Thrips were maximally sensitive to wavelengths between 290 and 330 nm; human-visible wavelengths (λ ≥ 400 nm) failed to elicit any response. All but six ommatidia of the thrips compound eye were highly fluorescent when exposed to UV-A of wavelengths longer than 330 nm. We hypothesized that the fluorescent compound acts as an internal filter, preventing radiation with λ > 330 nm from reaching the photoreceptor cells. Calculations based on the putative filter transmittance and a visual pigment template of λmax =360 nm produced a sensitivity spectrum that was strikingly similar to the action spectrum of UV-induced behavioural response. These results suggest that specific UV-B vision in thrips is achieved by a standard UV-A photoreceptor and a sharp cut-off internal filter that blocks longer UV wavelengths in the majority of the ommatidia. Fil: Mazza, Carlos Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina Fil: Izaguirre, Miriam Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia de Área de Aplicaciones de la Tecnología Nuclear. Departamento de Radiobiología; Argentina Fil: Ballare, Carlos Luis. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía; Argentina

We study the effects of a partial substitution of Ba with the smaller cation Ca in the layered cobaltites YBaCo{sub 2}O{sub 5+{delta}} for {delta}{approx_equal}0.5. Neutron thermodiffractograms are reported for the compounds YBa{sub 0.95}Ca{sub 0.05}Co{sub 2}O{sub 5.5} (x{sub Ca}=0.05) and YBa{sub 0.90}Ca{sub 0.10}Co{sub 2}O{sub 5.5} (x{sub Ca}=0.10) in the temperature range 20 K{

We present a study on the magnetic properties of manganite ultrafine grains assembled in nanotubes of 800 nm of external diameter and 6-8 μm length. The study includes two homogeneous ferromagnetic compounds, La0.67 Ca0.33 Mn O3 and La0.67 Sr0.33 Mn O3, and one exhibiting ferromagnetic and charge-ordered phase coexistence, La0.325 Pr0.300 Ca0.375 Mn O3. From magnetic measurements, we conclude that the grains behave as single magnetic domains. Observations of dipolar interactions between magnetic grains are evidenced by isothermal remanent magnetization and direct current demagnetization experiments. These experiments suggest that the grain magnetic moments should be arranged in a fanning configuration at H=0. Also, a uniaxial shape anisotropy was observed on previously aligned ferromagnetic nanotubes by ferromagnetic-resonance experiences. In La0.325 Pr0.300 Ca0.375 Mn O3, we observe distinctive features related to its inhomogeneous character as compared with the ferromagnetic homogeneous nanotubes. Fil: Curiale, Carlos Javier. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Area de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina Fil: Sanchez, Rodolfo Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Area de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina Fil: Troiani, Horacio Esteban. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Area de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina Fil: Ramos, C. A.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Area de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina Fil: Pastoriza, Hernan. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Energía Nuclear. Instituto Balseiro; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Area de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia de Física (Centro Atómico Bariloche); Argentina Fil: Leyva de Guglielmino, Ana Gabriela. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Constituyentes; Argentina Fil: Levy, Pablo Eduardo. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Constituyentes; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina

The synthesis method for obtaining sub-micrometric structures of rare earth manganese-based mixed oxide compounds is described. Pore wetting of porous polycarbonate templates with the liquid precursor was followed by a two-stage thermal treatment to obtain single phase La0.325Pr0.300Ca0.375MnO3 hollow and solid structures, with external diameter determined by the sacrificial template pore size. The first thermal stage, a microwave assisted denitration process, determines the shape of the structures. The second treatment, performed at 1073 K, allows to obtain the crystallographic structure of the compound. A variety of techniques (scanning and transmission electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy) allowed to fully characterize the microstructure and morphology of these self-standing manganite nanostructures. For 1 mum pore size templates we obtained tubes, with external diameter around 800 nm and wall thickness around 150 nm; densely packed nanoparticles sized 20-50 nm are the building blocks of the walls. For pore size below 0. 1 mum, solid nanowires were obtained, the size of constituent crystallites being around 10 nm. Overall obtained material exhibits ferromagnetic ordering below 200 K.

We have studied magnetic and transport properties on different manganese oxide based compounds exhibiting phase separation: polycrystalline La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 (y=0.3) and La1/2Ca1/2Mn1-zFezO3 (z = 0.05), and single crystals of La5/8-yPryCa3/8MnO3 (y=0.35). Time dependent effects indicate that the fractions of the coexisting phases are dynamically changing in a definite temperature range. We found that in this range the ferromagnetic fraction f can be easily tuned by application of low magnetic fields (< 1 T). The effect is persistent after the field is turned off, thus the field remains imprinted in the actual value of f and can be recovered through transport measurements. This effect is due both to the existence of a true phase separated equilibrium state with definite equilibrium fraction f0, and to the slow growth dynamics. The fact that the same global features were found on different compounds and in polycrystalline and single crystalline samples, suggests that the effect is a general feature of some phase separated media., Proceedings of the MISM-2002 Moscow International Symposium on Magnetism, Moscow, 20-24 June 2002. To appear in Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials

We have measured magnetic and transport response on the polycrystalline La 5 / 8 - y Pr x Ca 3 / 8 MnO 3 (y = 0.30, average grain size 2 microns) compound In the temperature range where ferromagnetic metallic and insulating regions coexist, we observed a persistent memory of low magnetic fields ( < I T) that is determined by the actual amount of the ferromagnetic phase. The possibility to manipulate this fraction with relatively small external perturbations is related to the phase-separated nature of these manganese-oxide-based compounds The colossal magnetoresistance figures obtained (about 80%) are determined by the fraction enlargement mechanism. Self-shielding of the memory to external fields is found under certain described circumstances. We show that this nonvolatile memory has multilevel capability associated with different applied low magnetic-field values.

We investigate numerically and experimentally the Joule heating produced by current pulses and its contribution to current-induced domain wall (DW) motion in a (Ga,Mn)As ferromagnetic semiconductor. Different thermal coupling between tracks and substrates are explored. A direct contact leads to a logarithmic transient temperature rise and a stationary state determined by the substrate thickness. The introduction of a low thermal conducting (Ga,In)As interlayer produces an additional temperature rise whose time variation and magnitude are analyzed. Experimentally, the measured temperature rises present a good agreement with predictions over more than four orders of magnitude in time for values of the heat conductivity and of the heat capacity close to those reported in the literature. The Joule heating is shown to produce non-linearities in the domain wall velocity versus current density characteristics. A correction of Joule heating is proposed and permits the identification of the flow regimes from a com...

In this work we present an electrical characterization of La2/3Ca1/3MnO3 particles obtained by spray pyrolysis. We optimized the synthesis conditions to obtain the desired compound with the expected structure and the ferromagnetic transition at the same temperature as the bulk material. We found that a post-deposition thermal treatment enhances the magnetic properties of the samples. The study of structural, morphological and magnetic properties shows that the walls of the hollow spheres are constituted by grains on the nanometer scale. The I?V characterization shows typical signatures of tunneling transport. This behavior can be associated with the grain boundaries within the microparticle's wall acting as tunnel barriers.

We investigate the Joule heating produced by current pulses in (Ga,Mn)(As,P) ferromagnetic semiconducting nanotracks. The transient and the stationary heating regimes are determined experimentally. A good quantitative agreement is obtained with simulations and analytical calculations. The temperature of the tracks is shown to be essentially determined by the heat diffusion through the substrate. Implications for current-induced domain wall motion experiments are discussed.

We present experimental evidence on the physical origin of a magnetic dead layer (MDL) in manganite nanoparticles. The studied nanoparticles constitute the wall of La0.67Sr0.33MnO3 and La0.67Ca0.33MnO3 manganite nanotubes. Magnetic properties analysis and high resolution transmission electron microscopy show a shell of approximately 2 nm thickness with different properties from the core. In this shell the atoms are in a noncrystalline array that perfectly explains the 50% reduction of the magnetization compared to the bulk. Moreover, we present experimental evidence that the internal magnetic structure of the MDL is constituted by small ferromagnetic clusters in a frustrated configuration.

We report magnetization experiments in two magnetically isolated ferromagnetic nanotubes of perovskite La$_{0.67}$Ca$_{0.33}$MnO$_3$. The results show that the magnetic anisotropy is determined by the sample shape although the coercive field is reduced by incoherent magnetization reversal modes. The temperature dependence of the magnetization reveals that the magnetic behavior is dominated by grain surface properties. These measurements were acquired using a Silicon micro-mechanical oscillator working in its resonant mode. The sensitivity was enough to measure the magnetic properties of these two samples with a mass lower than 14 picograms and to obtain for the first time the magnetization loop for one isolated nanotube., 12 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Journal of Applied Physics