Correlated Electron Crystals

A special issue of Crystals (ISSN 2073-4352). This special issue belongs to the section "Inorganic Crystalline Materials".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (20 June 2017) | Viewed by 44535

Special Issue Editor


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN 37996, USA
Interests: crystal growth; geometrically frustrated magentsim; quantum magnetism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The studies on “correlated electrons” have not slowed down for a hundred years. The complex physics behind correlated electron systems covers so many intriguing topics, involving many factors such as spin/lattice/orbital/charge couplings, geometrical frustration, quantum spin fluctuation, topological states, superconductivity, and so on. Several examples of recent focuses are quantum spin liquid, multiferroicity, strong spin orbital coupling in 4d and 5d electrons, and Weyl semimetal. The fast development of correlated electron systems puts a high demand on crystal growth of new materials and related characterizations. The discovery of new materials, and synthesis of not only polycrystalline, but also crystalline samples, has become essential for a better standing or the discovery of new physics of correlated electrons.

The Special Issue on “Correlated Electron Crystals” is intended to provide a unique international forum, aimed at introducing crystal growth, as well as the physical properties of various samples, covering a broad range of topics on correlated electron systems. Scientists working in a wide range of disciplines are invited to contribute to this cause.

The topics summarized under the keywords broadly cover examples of a great number of sub-topics in mind. The volume is especially open for any innovative contributions involving crystal growth and characterizations of correlated electron systems.

Dr. Haidong Zhou
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Crystals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • crystal growth
  • electrical properties
  • magnetic properties

Published Papers (6 papers)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

Jump to: Review

3189 KiB  
Article
Synthesis, Crystal Structure, and Magnetic Properties of Giant Unit Cell Intermetallics R117Co52+δSn112+γ (R = Y, La, Pr, Nd, Ho)
by Ping Chai, Mykola Abramchuk and Michael Shatruk
Crystals 2016, 6(12), 165; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6120165 - 20 Dec 2016
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 7654
Abstract
Ternary intermetallics R117Co52+δSn112+γ (R = Y, La, Pr, Nd, and Ho) have been prepared by arc-melting followed by annealing at 800 °C. All the compounds belong to the Tb117Fe52Ge112 structure type (space group [...] Read more.
Ternary intermetallics R117Co52+δSn112+γ (R = Y, La, Pr, Nd, and Ho) have been prepared by arc-melting followed by annealing at 800 °C. All the compounds belong to the Tb117Fe52Ge112 structure type (space group Fm 3 ¯ m) characterized by a complex giant cubic unit cell with a ~ 30 Å. The single-crystal structure determination of Y- and La-containing compounds reveals a significant structural disorder. A comparison of these and earlier reported crystal structures of R117Co52+δSn112+γ suggests that more extensive disorder occurs for structures that contain larger lanthanide atoms. This observation can be explained by the need to maintain optimal bonding interactions as the size of the unit cell increases. Y117Co56Sn115 exhibits weak paramagnetism due to the Co sublattice and does not show magnetic ordering in the 1.8–300 K range. Ho117Co55Sn108 shows ferromagnetic ordering at 10.6 K. Both Pr117Co54Sn112 and Nd117Co54Sn111 exhibit antiferromagnetic ordering at 17 K and 24.7 K, respectively, followed by a spin reorientation transition at lower temperature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Correlated Electron Crystals)
Show Figures

Figure 1

1291 KiB  
Article
Single Crystal Growth, Resistivity, and Electronic Structure of the Weyl Semimetals NbP and TaP
by Deepak Sapkota, Rupam Mukherjee and David Mandrus
Crystals 2016, 6(12), 160; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6120160 - 06 Dec 2016
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 6443
Abstract
We have successfully synthesized niobium monophosphide and tantalum monophosphide crystals by a chemical vapor transport technique. We report resistivity vs. temperature of both materials in the temperature range from 2 K to 300 K. We have also performed electronic structure calculations and present [...] Read more.
We have successfully synthesized niobium monophosphide and tantalum monophosphide crystals by a chemical vapor transport technique. We report resistivity vs. temperature of both materials in the temperature range from 2 K to 300 K. We have also performed electronic structure calculations and present the band structure and density of states of these two compounds. The calculations show that both compounds are semimetals, as their conduction and valence bands overlap near the Fermi energy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Correlated Electron Crystals)
Show Figures

Figure 1

3808 KiB  
Article
Polarized Light Microscopy Study on the Reentrant Phase Transition in a (Ba1 – xKx)Fe2As2 Single Crystal with x = 0.24
by Yong Liu, Makariy A. Tanatar, Erik Timmons and Thomas A. Lograsso
Crystals 2016, 6(11), 142; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6110142 - 09 Nov 2016
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 5732
Abstract
A sequence of structural/magnetic transitions on cooling is reported in the literature for hole-doped iron-based superconductor (Ba1 − xKx)Fe2As2 with x = 0.24. By using polarized light microscopy, we directly observe the formation of orthorhombic domains [...] Read more.
A sequence of structural/magnetic transitions on cooling is reported in the literature for hole-doped iron-based superconductor (Ba1 − xKx)Fe2As2 with x = 0.24. By using polarized light microscopy, we directly observe the formation of orthorhombic domains in (Ba1 − xKx)Fe2As2 (x = 0.24) single crystal below a temperature of simultaneous structural/magnetic transition TN ~ 80 K. The structural domains vanish below ~30 K, but reappear below T = 15 K. Our results are consistent with reentrance transformation sequence from high-temperature tetragonal (HTT) to low temperature orthorhombic (LTO1) structure at TN ~ 80 K, LTO1 to low temperature tetragonal (LTT) structure at Tc ~ 25 K, and LTT to low temperature orthorhombic (LTO2) structure at T ~ 15 K. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Correlated Electron Crystals)
Show Figures

Graphical abstract

4328 KiB  
Article
Determination of the Projected Atomic Potential by Deconvolution of the Auto-Correlation Function of TEM Electron Nano-Diffraction Patterns
by Liberato De Caro, Francesco Scattarella and Elvio Carlino
Crystals 2016, 6(11), 141; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6110141 - 03 Nov 2016
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 7624
Abstract
We present a novel method to determine the projected atomic potential of a specimen directly from transmission electron microscopy coherent electron nano-diffraction patterns, overcoming common limitations encountered so far due to the dynamical nature of electron-matter interaction. The projected potential is obtained by [...] Read more.
We present a novel method to determine the projected atomic potential of a specimen directly from transmission electron microscopy coherent electron nano-diffraction patterns, overcoming common limitations encountered so far due to the dynamical nature of electron-matter interaction. The projected potential is obtained by deconvolution of the inverse Fourier transform of experimental diffraction patterns rescaled in intensity by using theoretical values of the kinematical atomic scattering factors. This novelty enables the compensation of dynamical effects typical of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) experiments on standard specimens with thicknesses up to a few tens of nm. The projected atomic potentials so obtained are averaged on sample regions illuminated by nano-sized electron probes and are in good quantitative agreement with theoretical expectations. Contrary to lens-based microscopy, here the spatial resolution in the retrieved projected atomic potential profiles is related to the finer lattice spacing measured in the electron diffraction pattern. The method has been successfully applied to experimental nano-diffraction data of crystalline centrosymmetric and non-centrosymmetric specimens achieving a resolution of 65 pm. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Correlated Electron Crystals)
Show Figures

Figure 1

1603 KiB  
Article
Single Crystal Growth of URu2Si2 by the Modified Bridgman Technique
by Andrew Gallagher, William L. Nelson, Kuan Wen Chen, Tiglet Besara, Theo Siegrist and Ryan E. Baumbach
Crystals 2016, 6(10), 128; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst6100128 - 02 Oct 2016
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 7077
Abstract
We describe a modified Bridgman growth technique to produce single crystals of the strongly correlated electron material URu2Si2 and its nonmagnetic analogue ThRu2Si2. Bulk thermodynamic and electrical transport measurements show that the properties of crystals produced [...] Read more.
We describe a modified Bridgman growth technique to produce single crystals of the strongly correlated electron material URu2Si2 and its nonmagnetic analogue ThRu2Si2. Bulk thermodynamic and electrical transport measurements show that the properties of crystals produced in this way are comparable to those previously synthesized using the Czochralski or conventional molten metal flux growth techniques. For the specimens reported here, we find residual resistivity ratios R R R = ρ 300 K / ρ 0 as large as 116 and 187 for URu2Si2 and ThRu2Si2, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Correlated Electron Crystals)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Review

Jump to: Research

10658 KiB  
Review
(Li1−xFex)OHFeSe Superconductors: Crystal Growth, Structure, and Electromagnetic Properties
by Guo-Yong Zhang, Mitch Ming-Chi Chou and Cheng-Tian Lin
Crystals 2017, 7(6), 167; https://doi.org/10.3390/cryst7060167 - 06 Jun 2017
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 9291
Abstract
This review focuses on the growth of high-quality (Li1−xFex)OHFeSe single crystals by a hydrothermal method using floating-zone-grown AxFe2−ySe2 (A = K, Rb, and Cs) as precursors. The structure, superconductivity, and magnetic [...] Read more.
This review focuses on the growth of high-quality (Li1−xFex)OHFeSe single crystals by a hydrothermal method using floating-zone-grown AxFe2−ySe2 (A = K, Rb, and Cs) as precursors. The structure, superconductivity, and magnetic behavior of the obtained crystals are highly influenced by the growth conditions, such as time, temperature, and composition. A phase diagram with temperature against the c-lattice constant is summarized including the antiferromagnetic spin density wave, superconducting, and paramagnetic phases. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Correlated Electron Crystals)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop