Heat capacity of single-crystal La2CuO4 and polycrystalline La2-xSrxCuO4 (0 <= x <= 0.20) from 110 to 600 K

Witnessing the formation and relaxation of dressed quasi-particles in a strongly correlated electron system

The non-equilibrium approach to correlated electron systems is often based on the paradigm that different degrees of freedom interact on different timescales. In this context, photo-excitation is treated as an impulsive injection of electronic energy that is transferred to other degrees of freedom only at later times. Here, by studying the ultrafast dynamics of quasi-particles in an archetypal strongly correlated charge-transfer insulator (La2CuO(4+δ)), we show that the interaction between electrons and bosons manifests itself directly in the photo-excitation processes of a correlated material. With the aid of a general theoretical framework (Hubbard-Holstein Hamiltonian), we reveal that sub-gap excitation pilots the formation of itinerant quasi-particles, which are suddenly dressed by an ultrafast reaction of the bosonic field.

Magnetic and transport properties of PrRhSi3

We have investigated the magnetic and transport properties of a noncentrosymmetric compound PrRhSi3 by dc magnetic susceptibility χ(T), isothermal magnetization M(H), thermoremanent magnetization M(t), specific heat Cp(T), electrical resistivity ρ(T,H) and muon spin relaxation (μSR) measurements. At low fields χ(T) shows two anomalies near 15 and 7 K with an irreversibility between ZFC and FC data below 15 K. In contrast, no anomaly is observed in Cp(T) or ρ(T) data. M(H) data at 2 K exhibit very sharp increase below 0.5 T and a weak hysteresis. M(t) exhibits very slow relaxation, typical for a spin-glass system. Even though the absence of any anomaly in Cp(T) is consistent with the spin-glass type behavior, there is no obvious origin of spin-glass behavior in this structurally well ordered compound. The crystal electric field (CEF) analysis of Cp(T) data indicates a CEF-split singlet ground state lying below a doublet at 81(1) K and a quasi-triplet at 152(2) K. The ρ(T) data indicate a metallic behavior, and ρ(H) exhibits a very high positive magnetoresistance, as high as ~300% in 9 T at 2 K. No long range magnetic order or spin-glass behavior was detected in a μSR experiment down to 1.2 K.

Spin ordering and enhancement of electronic heat capacity in an organic system of (DI-DCNQI)(2)(Ag(1-x)Cu(x))

Thermodynamic measurements on the organic system of (DI-DCNQI)(2)(Ag(1-x)Cu(x)) (x = 0,0.05, 0.71, 0.90) were performed to study the change from the charge-ordered (CO) insulating state to the π-d hybridized metallic state. A thermal anomaly associated with the antiferromagnetic transition that occurred in the charge-ordered lattice was observed at 6.2 K from the temperature dependence of the heat capacity of (DI-DCNQI)(2)Ag. We have found that the magnetic entropy around the peak is only 1.5% of Rln2, corresponding to the full entropy expected for the formula unit of (DI-DCNQI)(2)Ag. This anomaly is suppressed down to about 3 K in the x = 0.05 sample owing to the disorders induced in the CO lattice. In the metallic concentration of x = 0.90, the low-temperature electronic heat capacity coefficient, γ was found to be enhanced by up to about 63.6 mJ K(-2) mol(-1) probably owing to the cooperative effect of π-d hybridization and intersite Coulomb interaction (V).

Thermodynamic investigation of the charge-ordered insulating state of the quasi-one-dimensional organic system (DI-DCNQI)2Ag

Heat capacity measurements of a charge-ordered organic conductor (DI-DCNQI)2Ag have been performed in a temperature range between 0.3 and 14 K. We found no thermal anomaly at the Néel temperature ( T(N) = 5.5 K) but instead a T-linear term suggestive of the spin excitations of one-dimensional character in the charge-ordered insulating state. The analysis of the T-linear term and the excess entropy indicates that the charge fluctuations in the charge-ordered state influence the growth of spin excitations at elevated temperatures, which seems to be a peculiar aspect of a 1D charge-ordered system.