Electrolytes in regimes of strong confinement: surface charge modulations, osmotic equilibrium and electroneutrality

In this work, we investigate the interplay between osmotic ionic equilibrium and induced interactions between planar surfaces with nanopatterned charged domains.

Tuning from failed superconductor to failed insulator with magnetic field

Do charge modulations compete with electron pairing in high-temperature copper oxide superconductors? We investigated this question by suppressing superconductivity in a stripe-ordered cuprate compound at low temperature with high magnetic fields. With increasing field, loss of three-dimensional superconducting order is followed by reentrant two-dimensional superconductivity and then an ultraquantum metal phase. Circumstantial evidence suggests that the latter state is bosonic and associated with the charge stripes. These results provide experimental support to the theoretical perspective that local segregation of doped holes and antiferromagnetic spin correlations underlies the electron-pairing mechanism in cuprates.

Crystallographic Features of Electronic States in the Highly-Correlated Electronic System Sr1-xSmxMnO3 around x = 0.50

The highly-correlated electron system Sr1-xSmxMnO3 (SSMO) with the simple-perovskite structure has been found to exhibit fascinating electronic states accompanying antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic orderings. It was, in particular, reported that the electronic state for 0.46 ≤ x ≤ 0.54 was characterized by the coexistence state consisting of the A-type antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic states. However, the features of the coexistence state in this Sm-content range have not been understood yet. We have thus investigated the crystallographic features of prepared SSMO samples with 0.46 ≤ x ≤ 0.55, mainly by transmission electron microscopy. As a result, all prepared SSMO samples were first confirmed to have the orthorhombic-Pnma structure at 300 K. When the temperature was lowered from 300 K, in the case of x=0.47, the disordered-Pnma state was found to be transformed into an orbital-modulated (OM) state accompanying an incommensurate modulation. The notable feature of the OM state is that the state becomes unstable with increasing Sm contents at 100 K. In other words, the OM state was never changed into the CE-type state with the orbital and charge modulations. In addition, no orbital-ordered state for the A-type antiferromagnetic ordering was also found for 0.46 ≤ x ≤ 0.55.

Features of Electronic States in the Highly-Correlated Electronic System Sr1-xNdxMnO3 around x = 0.50

In the highly-correlated electron system Sr1-xNdxMnO3 (SNMO) having the simple perovskite structure, there are interesting electronic states, which are related to degrees of charge, orbital, and spin freedoms for eg electrons in Mn ions. Among these states, in the case of SNMO, the C-, A-and CE-type antiferromagnetic states were reported for 0.20 ≤ x ≤ 0.38, for 0.38 ≤ x ≤ 0.48, and for 0.48 ≤ x ≤ 0.52, respectively. The points to note here are that these antiferromagnetic states are directly associated with corresponding orbital orderings, and that the CE-type state also accompanies charge ordering. Because of these features, we were interested in the (A → CE) state change in SNMO. The crystallographic features of prepared SNMO samples with 0.46 ≤ x ≤ 0.50 have thus been investigated mainly by means of a transmission electron microscope equipped with a low-temperature holder. As a result, the state around 100 K for x = 0.48 was first understood to be identified as the Imma state, which includes a large number of orbital-modulated (OM) regions with an average size of about 10 nm. The feature of such regions is that the orbital modulation has an incommensurate periodicity and a charge modulation is absent in them. On the other hand, the CE-type state having the commensurate orbital and charge modulations was also confirmed to be present for x = 0.50. In addition to these two states, the state around 100 K for x = 0.46 was found to be characterized by the coexistence state consisting of the C-type orbital-ordered state and the Imma states including OM regions. In other words, the presence of the A-type orbital-ordered state could not be confirmed in the temperature range between 300 K and about 100 K for 0.46 ≤ x ≤ 0.50 in this study.