Showing papers in "Physical Review in 2002"

Amorphization and Recrystallization of the ABO3Oxides

Abstract: Single crystals of the ABO3 phases CaTiO3, SrTiO3, BaTiO3, LiNbO3, KNbO3, LiTaO3, and KTaO3 were irradiated by 800 keV Kr+, Xe+, or Ne+ ions over the temperature range from 20 to 1100 K. The critical amorphization temperature, Tc, above which radiation-induced amorphization does not occur varied from approximately ∼450 K for the titanate compositions to more than 850 K for the tantalates. While the absolute ranking of increasing critical amorphization temperatures could not be explained by any simple physical parameter associated with the ABO3 oxides, within each chemical group defined by the B-site cation (i.e., within the titanates, niobates, and tantalates), Tc tends to increase with increasing mass of the A-site cation. Tc was lower for the Ne+ irradiations as compared to Kr+, but it was approximately the same for the irradiations with Kr+ or Xe+. Thermal recrystallization experiments were performed on the ion-beam-amorphized thin sections in situ in the transmission electron microscope (TEM). In the high vacuum environment of the microscope, the titanates recrystallized epitaxially from the thick areas of the TEM specimens at temperatures of 800–850 K. The niobates and tantalates did not recrystallize epitaxially, but instead, new crystals nucleated and grew in the amorphous region in the temperature range 825–925 K. These new crystallites apparently retain some `memory' of the original crystal orientation prior to ion-beam amorphization.

Magnetic ordering in a weakly coupled Fe/V (001) superlattice

Abstract: In the first part of this work, the influence of hydrogen on the structural and magnetic properties of Fe/V(001) superlattices was studied. The local structure of the vanadium-hydride layers was determined by extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements. The magnetic ordering in a weakly coupled Fe/V(001) superlattice was investigated using the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE). The interlayer exchange coupling is weakened upon alloying with hydrogen and a phase with short-range magnetic order was observed. The second part is concerned with first-principles calculations of magnetic materials, with a focus on magnetic recording applications. The uniaxial magnetic anisotropy energy (MAE) of Fe, Co, and Ni was calculated for tetragonal and trigonal structures. Based on an analysis of the electronic states of tetragonal Fe and Co at the center of the Brillouin zone, tetragonal Fe-Co alloys were proposed as a material that combines a large uniaxial MAE with a large saturation magnetization. This was confirmed by experimental studies on (Fe,Co)/Pt superlattices. The large uniaxial MAE of L10 FePt is caused by the large spin-orbit interaction on the Pt sites in connection with a strong hybridization between Fe and Pt. Furthermore, it was shown that the uniaxial MAE can be increased by alloying the Fe sublattice with Mn. The combination of the high-moment rare-earth (RE) metals with the high-TC 3d transition metals in RE/Cr/Fe multilayers (RE = Gd, Tb, Dy) gives rise to a strong ferromagnetic effective exchange interaction between the Fe layers and the RE layer. The MAE of hcp Gd was found to have two principal contributions, namely the dipole interaction of the large localized 4f spins and the band electron magnetic anisotropy due to the spin-orbit interaction. The peculiar temperature dependence of the easy axis of magnetization was reproduced on a qualitative level.

Threshold resummation for $B$ meson decays

Abstract: We argue that double logarithmic corrections $\alpha_s\ln^2 x$ need to be resumed in perturbative QCD factorization theorem for exclusive $B$ meson decays, when the end-point region with a momentum fraction $x\to 0$ is important. These double logarithms, being of the collinear origin, are absorbed into a quark jet function, which is defined by a matrix element of a quark field attached by a Wilson line. The factorization of the jet function from the decay $B\to\gamma l\bar u$ is proved to all orders. Threshold resummation for the jet function leads to a universal, {\it i.e.}, process-independent, Sudakov factor, whose qualitative behavior is analyzed and found to smear the end-point singularities in heavy-to-light transition form factors.