AC electrical conductivity of electron beam evaporated Cu-GeO2 thin cermet films

AC electrical properties of 410 nm think 30 at.wt% Cu-70 at.wt% GeO₂ thin films are reported for the frequency range 10⁴ to 10⁶ Hz and temperature range 150 to 425 K. The loss tangent (tan ) and the dielectric loss (/₀) are found to show striking minima around a cut-off frequency 10⁵ Hz. In the lower frequency range (10⁵ Hz), ₁() ^s T ⁿ is obeyed with s (0 to 0.51) increasing as a function of temperature and n (0.10 to 0.14) showing a very weak temperature dependence. In the higher frequency region (10⁵ Hz), ₁() and /₀ increase sharply leading to the quadratic behavior of ₁() with s equal to 2. These processes are discussed by analyzing an equivalent circuit which shows that at lower frequencies, the effects of series resistance in leads and contacts can be neglected, while at higher frequencies such effect give rise to spurious ² dependance for the conductance. A weakly activated AC conductivity and a frequency exponent s that increases with increasing temperature suggest that the low frequency behavior originates from carrier migration by tunneling process.     

Thermodynamic properties of the superconductorsBaPb 0.7 Bi 0.3 O 3 andBa 0.7 K 0.3 BiO 3 using Eliashberg theory

We present results of a thermodynamic analysis for the superconductors compounds BaPb_0.7Bi_0.3O₃ and Ba_0.7K_0.3BiO₃. The physical quantities are calculated making use of the Eliashberg theory and the electron-phonon spectra ²()F() as calculated by Shirai et al. For the superconductor BaPb_0.7Bi_0.3O₃, several models of the ²()F() were studied looking for a better agreement with experimental data. The best fit is achieved with a simple constant scaling (C = 1.25) of the Shirai's spectra. The functional derivative of the deviation function D(t) with respect to changes in ²()F() is also calculated.     

Impulse approximation in solid helium

The incoherent dynamic form factorS _i(Q, ) is evaluated in solid helium for comparison with the impulse approximation (IA). The purpose is to determine theQ values for which the IA is valid for systems such as helium where the atoms interact via a potential having a steeply repulsive but not infinite hard core. For³He,S _i(Q, ) is evaluated from first principles, beginning with the pair potential. The density of statesg() is evaluated using the self-consistent phonon theory andS _i(Q, ) is expressed in terms ofg(). For solid⁴He reasonable models ofg() using observed input parameters are used to evaluateS _i(Q, ). In both casesS _i(Q, ) is found to approach the impulse approximationS _IA(Q, ) closely for wave vector transfersQ20 Å^–1. The difference betweenS _i andS _IA, which is due to final state interactions of the scattering atom with the remainder of the atoms in the solid, is also predominantly antisymmetric in (–_R), where _R is the recoil frequency. This suggests that the symmetrization procedure proposed by Sears to eliminate final state contributions should work well in solid helium.     

Dielectric properties of chemically vapour-deposited Si3N4

The dielectric properties of chemically vapour-deposited (CVD) amorphous and crystalline Si₃N₄ were measured in the temperature range from room temperature to 800° C. The a.c. conductivity ( _a.c.) of the amorphous CVD-Si₃N₄ was found to be less than that of the crystalline CVD-Si₃N₄ below 500° C, but became greater than that of the crystalline CVD-Si₃N₄ over 500° C due to the contribution of d.c. conductivity ( _d.c.). The measured loss factor () and dielectric constant () of the amorphous CVD-Si₃N₄ are smaller than those of the crystalline CVD-Si₃N₄ in all of the temperature and frequency ranges examined. The relationships of ^n-1, (- ) ^n-1 and/(- ) = cot (n/2) (were observed for the amorphous and crystalline specimens, where is angular frequency andn is a constant. The values ofn of amorphous and crystalline CVD-Si₃N₄ were 0.8 to 0.9 and 0.6 to 0.8, respectively. These results may indicate that the a.c. conduction observed for both of the above specimens is caused by hopping carriers. The values of loss tangent (tan) increased with increasing temperature. The relationship of log (tan) T was observed. The value of tan for the amorphous CVD-Si₃N₄ was smaller than that of the crystalline CVD-Si₃N₄.     

Critical dynamics of a sheared micellar solution

We have investigated the dynamic behavior of a nonionic micellar solution of tetra-ethylene glycoln-decylether (C₁₀ E₄) in water near its critical point in the presence of shear. The non-Newtonian behavior of the viscosity can be represented by * = [ 1 +a(S₄)=]², where* is the viscosity in the absence of shear,S is the shear rate. ₄ is the lifetime of the critical Iluctuations,a is a system-dependent constant, and = 0.02 In addition, we have found that, before attaining a steady state, the sheared mixture undergoing phase separation shows significant shear-dependent rheological effects due to the presence of concentration domains.Paper presented at the Twelfth Symposium on Thermophysical Properties, June 19–24. 1994, Boulder, Colorado, U.S.A.     

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.     

An unusual behavior in the melting region of isotactic polypropylene crystals revealed by temperature-modulated DSC

We present a new method to analyze irreversible transformation kinetics of melting in polymer crystals with temperature modulated differential scanning calorimetry (TMDSC). In the melting region of several polymers, the apparent heat capacity obtained with TMDSC can be expressed as C _s + (|F _melt|/)/(1 + i ()), with the true heat capacity,C _s, the endothermic heat flow of melting,F _melt, the angular frequency of temperature modulation, , and the mean time of melting of each crystallite, , depending on the underlying linear heating rate, . In the case of isotactic polypropylene, the frequency dependence cannot be approximated by this formula. The dependence suggests the possibility of the retardation in the melting kinetics to follow temperature modulation.     

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.     

Dielectric properties of thin solid films formed on silicon

We report on the measurement of the frequency-dependent complex permittivity, ()=()-i(), over the frequency range, 30 MHz to 6 GHz, of silicon wafers and of thin dielectric films formed on silicon. Measurements, as a function of temperature and time treatments, were obtained by means of an HP Network Analyzer and dielectric probe and the resulting ()and()plots for the silicon wafers are shown to have a Debye-type [1] profile, thereby indicating that the associated polarization mechanism is of the orientational variety.     

The athermal α → ω transformation in Zr-2 at% Nb alloy

The athermal transformation in Zr-2 at.% Nb alloy has been investigated by transmission electron microscopy. Analysis of the selected-area diffraction pattern has shown that the orientation relationships between the omega and the parent-phase in quenched Zr-2 at.% Nb alloy are the same as have been previously observed for the reaction in pure zirconium. Thus it was deduced that the direct transition has taken place in the alloy during cooling. The-originated -particles were visualized using the dark-field technique. The formation of the athermal omega in the-region of-stabilized Zr-Nb alloy is discussed in terms of the relative positions of the free energy equilibrium curvesT ₀ ,T ₀ ,T ₀ and the correspondingM _s ,M _s andT _s start curves. It is concluded that the omega phase can occur over a much wider range of alloy compositions than is usually recognized on the basis of transformation data.     

Phase transformations in Ti-Nb-Ta and Ti-Nb-Ta-Zr alloys

Phase transformations in solution treated and quenched Ti-(13-26) Nb-(22-38) Ta (wt.%) and Ti-(13-35.5) Nb-(5-22) Ta-(4-7.2) Zr alloys have been studied. It has been observed that phase transformations in these alloys are sensitive to both composition and cooling rate. In ternary alloys, water and oil quenching resulted in the formation of orthorhombic martensite () in a retained + _athermal matrix, whereas slower cooling showed evidence of fine and _isothermal formation within the matrix. Increase of Nb + Ta content decreases the volume percentage of martensite. Moreover, addition of Zr stabilized the phase, lowered the martensite start temperature and suppressed formation. Finally, dynamic moduli of air cooled quaternary alloys showed that the modulus was sensitive to the composition, a minima at Nb/Ta ratio of 12.0 and 5 at% Zr being observed, this minimum in dynamic modulus being consistent with phase suppression.     

Spectral shape dependence in the very strong coupling regime of Eliashberg theory

The effect of ² F() shape dependence on several physical properties of superconductors is studied at various values of the strong coupling indexT _c/ _ln . Our results indicate that the degree of shape dependence of each property is sensitive to the value ofT _c/ _ln . Generally, for the region we examine, 0.25T _c/ _ln 1.3, the dependence on shape is found to be higher than in the conventional strong coupling regimeT _c/ _ln 0.2. However, with the exception of the mass enhancement parameter , the amount of shape dependence does not increase steadily withT _c/ _ln and there appears to be regions of maximum shape sensitivity.     

Interpretation of Resistivity of Nd1.85Ce0.15CuO4: Electron–Phonon Mechanism

The temperature-dependent normal state resistivity of single crystal Nd_1.85Ce_0.15CuO_{4 –} is theoretically analyzed within the framework of classical electron–phonon i.e., Bloch-Gruneisen model of resistivity. For the reason of inherent acoustic (low frequency) phonons (_ac) as well as high-frequency optical phonons (_op), the contributions to the resistivity were first derived. The optical phonons of the oxygen breathing mode yields a relatively larger contribution to the resistivity compared to the contribution of acoustic phonons. Estimated contribution to in-plane resistivity by considering both phonons, i.e., _ac and _op, along with the zero-temperature-limited resistivity, when subtracted from single crystal data infers a quadratic temperature dependence over most of the temperature range [25 T 300]. Quadratic temperature dependence of _diff. = [_exp. – {₀ + _e–ph (=_ac + _op)}] is understood in terms of 3D electron–electron inelastic scattering. The comparison of single crystal experimental data appears favorable with the present analysis.     

Orbital pairing effects in fullerenes

We propose a theory of superconductivity for a crystal having multiple band structure. The theory is valid for the parameter(k _F)/1 when the splitting between bands(k _F ) is small in comparison with the phonon frequency. The theory may be applicable to the doped fullerenes where it is widely supposed that pairing occurs through high-energy intramolecular phonons. As in semiconductors, the bunch of bands is treated by ascribing the highest spin to electrons. We derive the analytic expression for the critical temperature, which strongly depends on the value of the total spin of the Cooper pair, which may be equal toY=0,1,.... In all cases the order parameter is a vector with components proportional to spherical harmonics and at the same time the superconducting gap has no zeros. The data may be fitted to doped fullerenes, if the superconductivity arises fromd-pairing.     

Absence of Phase-Fluctuation Contribution to the Low-Frequency Optical Conductivity in d-Wave Superconductors at Zero Temperature

The behavior of the low-frequency optical conductivity _reg() in superconducting cuprates is, at the present, an open and interesting issue. In particular, since the zero-temperature and zero-frequency limit of _reg() attains a value much larger than the universal value expected within a self-consistent T-matrix calculation, an intriguing possibility is that the collective mode can also contribute to _reg(). By taking into account the effect of dissipation on the collective mode in a d-wave superconductor, we evaluate the phase-fluctuation contribution to _reg(0) within the formalism of the phase-only action. We show that even though the collective mode contributes to _reg() at finite frequencies, approaching the zero-temperature and zero-frequency regime the corrections at _reg() due to phase fluctuations vanish.     

Delayed retardation phenomena of fatigue crack growth in various steels and alloys

The delayed retardation phenomena of fatigue crack growth resulting from a single application of overload were investigated for five steels, two aluminium alloys and a titanium alloy. As long as the small scale yielding condition was satisfied at the overloaded crack tips, the retardation behaviour of these materials was expressed consistently by four parameters; the peak/baseline stress ratio, r, the exponent in the Paris equation, m, the overload-affected zone size, _D, and the crack distance at the minimum rate of crack growth, _B. Then the parameters, _B and _D, characterizing the retardation phenomena for these materials were determined. The retardation of aluminium alloys was stronger than that of the other materials. This is attributed to the lower value of _B/ _D in aluminium alloys than in the other materials. In the case of r=2, the overload-affected zone sizes, _D, were nearly equal to 1.5 ₀ in HT80 steel and aluminium alloys, slightly lower than 1.5 ₀ in SNCM8 steel and much larger than 1.5 ₀ in A553 steel and the titanium alloy, where ₀ is the monotonic plastic zone size calculated according to the Dugdale model. The dependence of retardation on baseline stress intensity, K ₁, appeared somewhat complicated. In the cases of A553 steel and A2017 aluminium alloy the amount of retardation increased with increasing K ₁ value, while in the cases of HT80 steel and Ti-6A1-4V titanium alloy the tendency appeared in the reverse direction. The former behaviour was related to the change in the stress state from plane strain to plane stress at the overloaded crack tips and the latter was related to the threshold of stress intensity.     

Some electrical characteristics of lithium and yttrium sialons

Some electrical properties of hot-pressed lithium sialons, Li _x/8Si_6–3x/4Al_5x/8O _x N_8–x havingx<5 and an yttrium sialon were measured between 291 and 775 K; the former consisted essentially of a single crystalline phase whereas the latter contained 98% glassy phase. For lithium sialons, the charging and discharging current followed al(t) t ^–nlaw withn=0.8 at room temperature. The d.c. conductivities were about 10^–13 ohm^–1 cm^–1 at 291 K and rose to 5×10^–7 ohm^–1 cm^–1 at 775 K. At high temperatures electrode polarization effects were observed in d.c. measurements. The variation of the conductivity over the frequency range 200 Hz to 9.3 GHz followed the () ⁿ law. The data also fitted the Universal dielectric law,() ^n–1 well, and approximately fitted the Kramers-Kronig relation()/()– =cot (n/2) withn decreasing from 0.95 at 291 K to 0.4 at 775 K. The temperature variations of conductivities did not fit linearly in Arrhenius plots. Very similar behaviour was observed for yttrium sialon except that no electrode polarization was observed. The results have been compared with those obtained previously for pure sialon; the most striking feature revealed being that _d.c. for lithium sialon can be at least 10³ times higher than that of pure sialon. Interpretation of the data in terms of hopping conduction suggests that very similar processes are involved in all three classes of sialon.     

Thermal response of a3He-superfluid-4He mixture

The response of a layer of superfluid mixture to an ac heat source,Q(t)=Q ₀ exp(it), is determined. In the low-frequency regime, the temperature response at the heated side of a superfluid layer is essentially identical to that of an ordinary fluid having a thermal conductivity _eff and a thermal diffusion coefficient ₀ /2. Here _eff is the effective conductivity of Khalatnikov, and ₀ is the diffusion coefficient of Griffin. At much higher frequencies, the results are more complicated. The low-frequency regime is defined in terms of the second sound velocityu ₂ by u ₂ ² / ₀ . The ac response function is valuable in a number of ways. It can be used to obtain the system response to more complicated time-dependent variations inQ such as step changes inQ. A knowledge of the response function in the low-frequency regime provides a mechanism for directly determining the Kapitza resistance in mixtures. Finally, a knowledge of the response function provides an additional opportunity to test two-fluid hydrodynamics. Alternative tests of superfluid hydrodynamics are of particular interest in light of recent experiments that show anomalous values for _eff in the low ³ He concentration limit     

On the resonance of acoustic waves in slightly deformed and slowly moving slabs

The stability is studied of acoustic waves generated by a time harmonic force in slabs described by: 0z1±g(x, y). By using a recently developed method, the exact solution of the Dirichlet problem is found for =0. It is shown that the solution is unstable against values of the frequency: =n,n. This is in agreement with the result already known in the literature, but found by other means. In a slightly deformed slab, 0<1, it is shown that stabilization of the resonant wave occurs at a time of order ^–. This is valid if the upper boundary is a concave surface. In case of a slab with slowly moving upper boundary, only the growth rate of the amplitude of the resonant wave is reduced. This holds for a non-oscillating motion of the upper boundary. In the case of an oscillating motion a further resonance is produced.     

Preparation of epitaxially grown LaSrCoO3 thin films on SrTiO3(100) substrates by the dipping-pyrolysis process

LaSrCoO₃ thin films were spin-coated onto SrTiO₃(100) substrates by the dipping-pyrolysis process. X-ray diffraction -2 scans and X-ray diffraction scans were used to determine the crystallinity and in-plane alignment behavior of the films. The X-ray diffraction pattern shows the film obtained by annealing at 800°C was highly oriented. The X-ray diffraction pole-figure analysis and reciprocal-space mapping (-2 scans) of the resulting film showed that the film comprising the pseudocubic phase had an epitaxial relationship with the SrTiO₃ substrate.