Thermal Conductivity of the Four-Leg Spin-Ladder System La2Cu2O5 Single Crystal

We have investigated the magnetic susceptibility, , and the thermal conductivity, , in magnetic fields for the four-leg spin-ladder system La₂Cu₂O₅ single crystal. The in a magnetic field parallel to the ladder exhibits a kink at 130 K in correspondence to the magnetic ordering. The along the ladder exhibits a peak at 25 K and a shoulder at 14 K, which are probably related to the thermal conductivity due to magnons, _magnon, and that due to phonons, _phonon, respectively. The perpendicular to the ladder, on the other hand, exhibits only one broad peak related to _phonon. The observed large anisotropy of has been explained based upon the anisotropy of _magnon.     

Thermal conductivity and phonon scattering mechanisms in La#x2212;x#x2212;x#x2212;xMxCuO4

The thermal conductivity of high density La_2–xM_xCuO₄ (M=Ba, Sr) sintered materials was measured between 15K and 150K for the various concentrations of Ba and the phonon thermal conductivity was analyzed comparing with that of Nd_2–xCe_xCuO₄. The pretty large value for pure La₂CuO₄ was drastically diminished by substituting La by a small amount of Ba atoms especially at low temperatures. It was found that a new type of the phonon scattering center such as a two-level tunneling must be taken account of in order to explain the observed reduction.     

Heat conduction in Ba1?xKxBiO3

We have investigated heat conduction of single crystal Ba_1–xK_xBiO₃ in the temperature range of 2–300 K and in a magnetic field of up to 6 Tesla. Temperature dependence of thermal conductivity(T) reveals the participation of both electrons and phonons with their relative contributions that depend critically on the potassium doping concentration. Crystals underdoped with potassium (samples with higherT _c) exhibit a strong suppression of and a glass-like temperature dependence. In contrast, those with a higher potassium content (lowerT _c) show an increase as temperature decreases with a peak near 23 K. Field dependence of(H) is also very sensitive to the level of potassium doping. Crystals exhibiting a large phonon contribution show an initial drop in(H) at low fields followed by a minimum and then a slow rise to saturation as the field increases. The initial drop is due to the additional phonon scattering by magnetic vortices as the sample enters a mixed state. The high field behavior of(H), arising from a continuous break-up of Cooper pairs, exhibits scaling which suggests the presence of an unconventional superconducting gap structure in this material.     

Thermal conductivity and heat capacity of titanium hydrides

We have measured the thermal conductivity and the heat capacity C of Ti, TiH _0.82 , TiH _1.7 , and TiH ₂ at 0.35 K T 4 K. Whereas (TiH _0.82 ) and (TiH _1.7 ) are substantially smaller than (Ti), we find (TiH ₂ ) – 3 (Ti). This latter remarkable result may arise from the enhanced electronic density of states — which is shown by the heat capacity data — and from a rather large electronic mean free path in this stoichiometric compound.     

Transport results from untwinned YBCO: Washboard frequency of the vortex lattice,and the quasiparticle mean free path

The washboard frequency of the moving vortex lattice in untwinned YBa₂ Cu₃ O_6.93 may be observed through mode-locking to an externally applied ac current of frequency _ext. The interference between and _ext results in jumps in the dc current-voltage characteristics when and _ext are harmonically related¹. The interference effect disappears in the vortex liquid state. The Hall conductivity _xy below T_c in YBCO contains contributions² from a positive quasiparticle (qp) term (H) and a negative vortex term (1/H). The qp term is surprisingly large well below T_c and implies a large gap anisotropy and a long qp mean free path (mfp). The thermal Hall effect³ _xy is closely related to the qp _xy; _xy is produced by asymmetric scattering of qp by pinned vortices. The qp mfp at H = 0, extracted from _xy and extended to low T by _xy, increases remarkably from 90 Å at T_c to more than 0.5m at 22 K.     

Temperature dependence of the experimental penetration depth of superconducting thin films

Experimental magnetic field penetration depths (t, d, H) of the stable and superheated Meissner state were calculated as a function of temperature for various applied magnetic fields and various film thicknesses for two cases: (1) (t)/d and (2) 2(t)/d ( is the Ginzburg-Landau penetration depth,d is the film thickness, is the GL parameter). The results of the first case should be a useful tool for obtaining (0) of amorphous superconducting thin films.¹ This work was supported in part by NSF Grant No. INT 8006927.     

Thermal conductivity of superconducting UPt3

The thermal conductivity of the heavy-fermion superconductor UPt₃ has been measured on two single crystals of different quality as a function of temperature and applied magnetic field for different orientations of the heat current relative to both the field and the crystalline axes. The temperature dependence of is far from exponential and nearly the same for both crystals, in which the heat current is, respectively, parallel and perpendicular to the hexagonalc axis, suggesting a gap structure with nodes in the basal plane and normal to it. The field dependence of is strongly anisotropic. In the best sample at low fields, where the scattering of heat carriers by vortices is thought to be important, (H) depends on the relative orientation of field and current. On the other hand, at high fields nearH _c2 (in both samples), (H) depends on the relative orientation of field and crystalline axes, reflecting an anisotropy in the gap structure and in the Fermi velocities.     

Size-dependent Kohler slope in the transverse magnetoresistance of potassium

The Kohler slope of the linear magnetoresistance of potassium films measured in the Sondheimer geometry at 4.2 K depends on , the ratio of the film thickness to electron mean free path. The maximum value with a value of 0.1 occurs at =1. Calculations show that the slope decreases slowly from the maximum for smaller and larger values of . The slope is greater than 10^–3 for between 0.035 and 100. The dependence of the Kohler slope on the residual resistance ratio of annealed samples measured by Taub et al. is attributed to the dependence. The results show that samples of centimeter thickness are required to reduce significantly the size-dependent Kohler slope, and the slope must be shown to be independent of the sample thickness for the study of intrinsic effects.     

Anomalous phonon damping in insulating cuprates

Measurements of the in-plane (_ab) and out-of-plane (_c) thermal conductivity for insulating cuprate crystals are discussed along with new measurements for YBa₂Cu₃O₆, and PrBa₂Cu₃O₆, where both _ab and _c are twice the magnitude previously reported for this material. An unusual temperature (T) dependence of _ab in cuprates with apical oxygen indicates the onset of strong phonon damping for T < 200–250K. Along with dielectric and elastic anomalies reported in this regime, the data suggest the occurrence of a structural phase transition, involving rotations of the CuO polyhedra about an in-plane axis. The role of such local distortions in the thermal transport of superconducting compounds and the superconducting-state enhancement of _ab are discussed.     

On type-II superconductors with a first-order transition at the lower critical field

The free energy of a superconductor in the mixed state is obtained to first order in 1–(T/T _c) and – in terms of the solutions of the Ginzburg-Landau equations for = . The circular cell approximation is used to evaluate the lower critical field and the discontinuity in the magnetization at this field for those type-II materials displaying a first-order transition at the field of first flux penetration; the cases of both singly quantized and doubly quantized vortices are considered. The main result of the numerical calculations is that the critical value of for a first-order transition is identical to the critical value of for an attractive interaction between widely separated vortices.Supported in part by the National Research Council of Canada.     

Grain growth in the two-phase Al-Cu alloys

Grain and phase growth in the two-phase Al-Cu alloys containing 6, 11, 1 7, 24 and 33 wt % Cu were investigated by annealing at 535 °C for 0.5–100 h. The grain and phase sizes of the phase are seen to be larger than that of the phase. The size of phase decreases whereas the size of phase increases with increasing copper content in the alloy. As such, the phase- and grain-size distributions are broader than the phase- and grain-size distributions, but the size range depends on annealing time and alloy composition. The grain sizes of the ,d , and ,d , phases can be related to the volume fraction of the phase,f , according to the equationd = 0.497d /f .     

Resistive behavior of the superconducting surface sheath of alloys

Measurements are reported of the surface resistance of dirty type-II superconductors driven into the surface-sheath regime by a static magnetic field,H ₀ parallel or nearly parallel to the sample surfaces and transverse to the microwave current, in which condition the latter can excite fluctuations of the order parameter. A recent calculation by Maki has suggested that the surface resistance would be influenced by the presence of Kulik's vortex state even when the sample surface is polished and is as nearly as possible parallel toH ₀. It is therefore proposed that the sample surface should be decomposed into elements which make different angles withH ₀, and the distribution of these angles described by a Gaussian. ₂ (t) is deduced from the surface-resistance measurements nearH _c3, so interpreted, and a temperature variation, ₂ (t)/₂(1), is found which agrees reasonably with theory and with magnetization data, [₂(1)=lim_{t 1} (₂)]. It is suggested that the anomalously large variation of ₂ (t) reported by Fischer and Maki may have resulted from failure to take Kulik's vortices into account. In magnitude, present ₂(1) data agree with theory but not with magnetization data.     

Hydrodynamic heat flow in very dilute superfluid3He-4He mixtures

The superfluid hydrodynamics of heat flow is examined for very small mass concentrationsc of³He in⁴He in an effort to better understand recent results for the effective heat conductivity _eff, which appear to be in conflict with predictions. The full hydrodynamics contains a thermal boundary layer; within this layer the temperature and concentration gradients differ from those in the bulk fluid. An examination of finite heating effects based on the ansatz _eff c ^–p for smallc shows distinctly different behavior for experimental determinations of _eff whenp<1,p=1, andp>1. Thus, finite heating can be used as a probe to evaluate the exponentp.     

Influence of structural relaxation on the low-temperature thermal conductivity of ancient natural glasses

The thermal conductivities of two natural glasses, amber and obsidian, were measured over the temperature range 0.06–10 K both in the as-received condition and following heat-treatments near and above the glass-transition temperature. The of amber decreased 6% with heat treatment revealing that this glass had undergone configurational relaxation during the 10⁷ years prior to measurement, but with a relaxation time greater than seven years. The of the obsidian did not change with heat treatment, a null result possibly produced by the ratio of oxides comprising the glass.     

Singularity parametersε andκ for interface cracks in transversely isotropic piezoelectric bimaterials

Two parameters, and (Suo et al., 1992), are of key importance in fracture mechanics of piezoelectric material interfaces. In this paper, it is shown, for any transversely isotropic piezoelectric (TIP) bimaterial, that one of the two parameters and always vanishes but the other one remains non-zero. Physically, it means that the non-oscillating crack-tip generalized stress field singularity exists for some TIP bimaterials (with vanishing ). Consequently, TIP bimaterials can be classified into two classes: one with vanishing performed crack tip generalized stress field oscillating singularity and the other one with vanishing is independent from the oscillating singularity. Some numerical results for and are given too.     

Thermal Conductivity Properties of Bi2-αTlαSr2Ca2Cu3O10+z Glass-ceramic HT c Superconductor Rods

The Glass rods with nominal composition of (Bi _2- Tl )Sr ₂ Ca ₂ Cu ₃ O _10+z , where =0.15, 0.25 and 0.35, have been prepared by melt casting technique. Preferably c-axis oriented grains were grown after the sintering process. The thermal conductivity (T) measurements were performed between 30K and 290K and calculations were made using Wiedemann-Franz law. The (T) values of the samples varied between 3.8 to 8.9 mW/cm.K and showed strong dependence to the heating temperatures and compositions. The best T _c and T _zero were obtained to be 122 K and 115 K respectively.     

Flux-line cutting in type II superconductors

Experimental evidence for flux-line cutting in superconductors (intersection and cross-joining of singly quantized vortices) is briefly reviewed. The interaction energy between two straight vortices tilted at an angle ( 0)is then shown to be finite in the London model, i.e., in the limit of vanishing core radius. Next, the activation energy and maximum interaction force are calculated for the vortices in an analytic approximation to the Ginzburg-Landau theory. Here two competing interactions determine the behavior. Electromagnetic repulsion (0 < < /2) varies as cos and decays over distances scaled by the penetration depth , while core attraction is independent of and varies over distances scaled by the coherence length . The force is always repulsive at large flux-line separation (0 < < /2) and its maximum decreases rapidly as decreases, so that flux-line cutting isexpected to be more probable in low- materials. The calculations provide a basis for explaining longitudinal flux-flow resistance as well as some intriguing magnetization behavior in the same configuration.This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences Division, and by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft.On leave from Max-Planck-Institut für Metallforschung, Institut für Physik, Stuttgart, West Germany.On leave from New University of Ulster, Coleraine, Northern Ireland.     

Comment on pulsed NMR thermometry at very low temperatures

At temperatures below 1 mK the rf power in pulsed NMR experiments is normally kept as low as possible in order to minimize eddy current heating in the metallic samples used for thermometry. However, for metallic samples with short Korringa constants a temperature dependence enters via the spin-lattice relaxation mechanism in addition to the paramagnetic dependence. It may cause systematic errors if the temperature of the conduction electrons is raised by eddy current heating due to the action of the rf pulse to a temperatureT _e which is not very small compared to ₁, with being the Korringa constant and ₁ the rotation frequency of the nuclear moments in the rf field.     

Interfacial Tension and Interface Delocalization Phase Boundary for Strongly Type-I Superconductors

We analytically determine the interface delocalization (or wetting) transition phase boundary in the limit of strongly type-I superconductors. In particular, within Ginzburg–Landau theory we derive an analytic expression for the reduced surface tension, _SC/N, of a type-I superconductor. We find that the truncated expansion (where is the Ginzburg–Landau parameter) is so accurate in the entire type-I regime that derivation of higher-order terms is unnecessary. We further derive an expression for the wall/superconductor interfacial tension which again proves accurate across a broad range of values. These expansions allow us to locate the low- interface delocalization phase boundary accurately, complementing previous numerical results for the wetting phase diagram.     

Thermal conductivity and quantum diffusion in solid H2

The thermal conductivity of solid H₂ and the NMR absorption signal of isolated o-H₂ were measured simultaneously along isotherms 0.07<T<1.5 K as a function of time after a rapid cooldown from 2 K. The o-H₂ concentration ranged from 3.4% to 0.4%, and the pressure was 90 atm. During the measurements, clustering of o-H₂ particles occurred as seen from the changes both of the NMR signal amplitude and of with time t. The difference ^–1 = ^–1 ()– ^–1(0) between the thermal resistivity ^–1 (t=0) just after cool down and in equilibrium, ^–1 (), was found to change sign near 0.23 K, and this result is discussed with respect to previous experiments. The equilibrium resistivity attributed to the o-H₂ impurities, , is derived and is compared with previous determinations and with predictions. An analysis of the equilibration process for ^–1 and for the NMR signal amplitude is presented. It shows that the characteristic times are of comparable but not equal magnitude. Comparison of the derived from NMR data atP=90 and 0 atm favors resonant ortho-para conversion over quantum tunneling as the leading mechanism for quantum diffusion.