This work contains a broad study of a variety of magnetic materials undergoing second order phase transitions. In general this leads to an overall increase in information and analytical methods to further the field of magnetocalorics. Specifically, critical aspects of magnetocaloric materials were compared within systems in relation to structure, stoichiometry, magnetic minority phases and magnetic contaminants. Detailed analyses were developed to quantify techniques which were in the past used mainly in a qualitative way, leading to a more complete understanding of how critical phenomena impacts the magnetocaloric response.

This thesis reports the results of light-scattering measurements and visual investigations of critical phenomena in the complex mixture 1-propanol (1P) + water (W) + potassium chloride (KCl) which has a special critical point (or a special thermodynamic state) known as the double critical point (DCP). The main theme of the thesis is the critical behavior on approaching a special critical point (i.e., the DCP) in a complex or associating mixture in contrast with that in simple, nonassociating mixtures. The asymptotic critical behavior in complex or associating fluids, such as polymer solutions and blends, ionic and nonionic micellar solutions, microemulsions, aqueous and nonaqueous electrolyte solutions, protein solutions, etc., is now commonly accepted to belong to the 3D-Ising universality class. However, the temperature range of the asymptotic regime in these fluids, with universal behavior, has a nonuniversal width and is, in general, smaller than that in simple or nonassociating fluids. In complex mixtures, which are made up of relatively large molecules or particle clusters of mesoscopic range, the coupling between the conventional correlation length of the critical fluctuations ( ξ) and an additional length scale associated with the mesoscale structures (ξD) is known to modify the approach towards the universal nonclassical critical behavior near their critical points. Nevertheless, the generality of this approach needs to be confirmed. There are also instances of a pure classical or close to classical behavior being observed in the critical domain of complex mixtures, although recent experimental results contradict the earlier observations. Therefore, further experimental evidences than that presently available are necessary before one can say how far the analogy between simple and complex fluids can be pushed. Variations in the effective dielectric constant of a mixture have been known to affect the critical behavior. Furthermore, we anticipate the presence of special critical points in complex mixtures to cause nontrivial modifications in the approach towards the universal asymptotic critical behavior. Special thermodynamic states are characterized by critical fluctuations with exceptionally large correlation length, and are displayed by multicomponent liquid mixtures, in which there are a multitude of thermodynamic paths by which a critical point can be approached, and offers rich information about the critical phenomena. These issues are being addressed in this research work. This thesis is organized into 7 Chapters. Chapter 1 begins with an account of the historical development of the field of critical point phenomena with a brief introduction to critical phenomena in simple fluids. Critical phenomena observed in various complex systems such as aqueous and nonaqueous ionic fluids, polymer solutions and blends, micellar and microemulsion systems, etc., are discussed, with particular attention to investigations into crossover from Ising to mean-field critical behavior observed in these systems, which are relevant to the present work. Theoretical attempts at modeling ionic criticality are cited and summarized. This is followed by a discussion of re-entrant phase transitions in multicomponent liquid systems. An account of the various types of special critical points, such as double critical point, critical double point, critical inflection point, quadruple critical point, etc., highlighting the critical behavior on approaching these special critical points, and some of the models of reentrant miscibility are briefly given. The Chapter ends with a statement on the goals of the present research work. Chapter 2 describes the instrumentation developed and the data acquisition procedures adopted for the study. Details of the thermostats and precision temperature controllers used for visual and light-scattering measurements are provided. The important design considerations relating to the achievement of a high degree of temperature stability (~ ±1 mK in the range 293-383 K) are elucidated clearly. The temperature sensors used in the present experiments and their calibration procedures are discussed. The light-scattering instrumentation is discussed in depth. The problems associated with the light-scattering techniques when it is used to study critical point phenomena, and the strategies adopted to overcome them are discussed. The sample cells used for visual investigations and light- scattering experiments, along with the procedure adopted for cleaning and filling of sample cells are also described. Chapter 3 essentially deals with the characterization of the system 1P + W + KCl. It begins with a brief introduction to the critical behavior in complex mixtures, and the motivation behind choosing the present system. The phase behavior in the present mixture, the generation of the coexistence curves and the line of critical points in the mixture, and the method used for preparation of the samples are described. The criticality of the samples is judged by the equal volume phase separation criterion through visual investigations. Addition of a small amount of salt (i.e., KCl) to the 1P + W solution induces phase separation in the mixture as a result of a salting-out process. Decreasing the salt concentration has the same effect as that of increasing pressure on the liquid-liquid demixing of this mixture. Therefore, KCl may be considered as an appropriate field variable analogous to pressure in this mixture. The mixture 1P + W + KCl exhibits reentrant phase transitions and has an array of lower (TL) and upper (TU) critical solution temperatures. It is found that the line of TL’s and TU’s, known as the line of critical points, merge (TU - TL = ΔT → 0) to form a special thermodynamic state known as the DCP. The DCP is approached as close as 509 mK (i.e., ΔT ~ 509 mK) in this work. An analysis of the critical line shows that it is roughly parabolic in shape, which is in consonance with the predictions of the lattice models and the Landau-Ginzburg theory of phase transition. In addition to the presence of a special critical point, various structure probing techniques like small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS), small angle neutron scattering (SANS), etc., indicate the presence of large-scale density inhomogeneities or clusters in 1P + W solution and its augmentation on adding small amount of KCl. Therefore, the present mixture provides a unique possibility to investigate the combined effects of molecular structuring as well as a special critical point on the critical behavior. Only a section of the coexistence surface of the mixture could be generated, owing to various experimental limitations and other problems inherent to the system. This limited further studies on the coexistence curves in the mixture. Chapter 4 reports the critical behavior of osmotic susceptibility in the present mixture. The behavior of the susceptibility exponent is deduced from static light-scattering measurements, on approaching the lower critical solution temperatures (TL’s) along different experimental paths by varying t [ =| (T - T TL)/ TL|] from the lower one-phase region. The light-scattering data analysis emphasizes the need for correction-to-scaling terms for a proper description of the data over the investigated t range. Renormalization of the critical exponents is observed as the critical line is approached along certain special paths. Experimental evidence for the doubling of the extended scaling exponent Δ1 near the DCP is shown. There is no signature of Fisher renormalization in the values of the critical exponents. The data analysis yields very large magnitudes for the correction amplitudes A1 and A2, with the first-correction amplitude A1 being negative, signifying a nonmonotonic crossover behavior of the susceptibility exponent in the mixture. The magnitudes of the correction amplitudes are observed to increase gradually as TL approaches the DCP. The increasing need for extended scaling in the neighborhood of special critical points has been noted earlier in several aqueous electrolyte solutions, in polymer-solvent systems, etc. However, the magnitudes of the correction amplitudes were not as large as that in the present case. Analysis of the effective susceptibility exponent γeff in terms of t indicate that, for the TL far away from the DCP, γeff displays a nonmonotonic crossover from its single limit 3D Ising value (~ 1.24) towards its mean-field value with increase in t. While for that closest to the DCP, γeff displays a sharp, nonmonotonic crossover from its nearly doubled 3D-Ising value (~ 2.39) towards its nearly doubled mean-field value (~ 1.84) with increase in t. For the in-between TL’s, the limiting value of γeff in the asymptotic as well as nonasymptotic regimes gradually increases towards the DCP. The renormalized Ising regime extends over a relatively larger t range for the TL closest to the DCP, and a trend towards shrinkage in the renormalized Ising regime is observed as TL shifts away from the DCP. Nevertheless, the crossover behavior to the mean-field limit extends well beyond t > 10¯2 for the TL’s studied. The crossover behavior is discussed in terms of the emergence of a new lengthscale ξD associated with the enhanced ion-induced clustering seen in the mixture, as revealed by various structure probing techniques, while the observed unique trend in the crossover is discussed in terms of the varying influence of the DCP on the critical behavior along the TL line. The discussion is extended to explain the observed critical behavior in various re-entrant systems having other special critical points. The extended renormalized Ising regime towards the DCP is also reflected in a decrease in the correlation length amplitude (ξ0) as TL approaches the DCP. It is observed that the first-correction amplitude A1 corresponding to fit using two correction terms becomes more negative as TL approaches the DCP, implying an increase in the value of the parameter ū of the crossover model [by Anisimov et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 3146 (1995)] as the DCP is approached. This increase in reflected in a trend towards a relatively sharp crossover behavior of γeff as TL shifts towards the DCP, i.e., towards the high temperature critical points. The significance of the field variable tUL in understanding different aspects of reentrant phase transitions is manifested in the present system as well. Analysis of the data in terms of tUL led to the retrieval of universal values of the exponents for all TL’s. The effective susceptibility exponent as a function of tUL displays a nonmonotonic crossover from its asymptotic 3D-Ising value towards a value slightly lower than its nonasymptotic mean-field value of 1. The limited (TL _ T) range restricted such a behavior of the effective exponent (in terms of t as well as tUL) for the lowest TL. This feature of the effective susceptibility exponent is interpreted in terms of the possibility of a nonmonotonic crossover to the mean-field value from lower values in the nonasymptotic, high tUL region, as foreseen earlier in micellar systems. The effective susceptibility exponent in terms of tUL also indicates an increase in the sharpness of crossover towards the high temperature TL’s. An increase in the sharpness of crossover with polymer chain length has been observed in polymer solutions. Therefore, our results suggest the need for further composition and temperature-dependent study of molecular structuring in the present mixture. There is also a large decrease in the dielectric constant of the mixture towards the high temperature TL’s. In Chapter 5 the light-scattering measurements are performed on approaching the DCP along the line of the upper critical solution temperatures (i.e., TU’s), by varying t [ = (T - TU )/ TU ] from the high temperature one-phase region in the mixture. A trend towards shrinkage in the simple scaling region is observed as TU shifts away from the DCP. Such a trend was not visible in the data analysis of the TL’s using the correction terms, due to the varying (TL - T) ranges. The light-scattering data analysis substantiates the existence of a nonmonotonic crossover behavior of the susceptibility exponent in the mixture. As with the TL’s, for the TU closest to the DCP, γeff displays a nonmonotonic crossover from its 3D-Ising value towards its nearly doubled mean-field value with increase in t. While for that far away from the DCP, γeff displays a nonmonotonic crossover from its single limit Ising value towards a value slightly lower than its mean-field value of 1 with increase in t. The limited (TL – T) range restricted such a behavior of γeff for the TL far away from the DCP, This feature of γeff in the nonasymptotic, high t region is yet again interpreted in terms of the possibility of a nonmonotonic crossover to the mean-field value from below. Unlike TL’s, the crossover behavior in the present case is pronounced and more sharp for all TU’s. However, the variation in the width of the renormalized Ising regime on approaching the DCP along the TU line is quite similar to that observed along the TL line. The crossover behavior is attributed to the strong ion-induced structuring seen in the mixture, while the observed trend in the crossover as TU shifts towards/away from the DCP is attributed to the varying influence of the DCP. The influence of the DCP on the critical behavior along the TU (or TL) line decreases as TU (or TL) shifts away from the DCP. Our observations indicate an increase in the sharpness of crossover as the critical temperature shifts from TL towards TU, or in other words, as the critical point shifts towards higher temperatures. SANS measurements on the present mixture indicate no difference in the growth of mesoscale clusters in the lower and upper one-phase regions in the mixture. Hence, the observed increase in the sharpness of crossover towards the TU’s is very puzzling. The dielectric constant of the major constituent (i.e., water, ~ 62 %) of the present mixture decreases from around 80 to 63 as the critical temperature shifts from TL towards TU. Therefore, our results suggest the need to look at the crossover phenomena probably from two perspectives, namely, the solvent or dielectric effect and the clustering effect. The increase in the sharpness of the crossover behavior on approaching the high temperature critical points is probably related to the macroscopic property of the mixture, i.e., to the decrease in the dielectric constant of the mixture, while the actual nonmonotonic character of the crossover behavior is related to the microscopic property of the mixture, i.e., to the clustering effects, the extent of which determines the width of the asymptotic critical domain. However, this conclusion is somewhat subtle and calls for rigorous theoretical and experimental efforts to unravel the exact dependence of the crossover behavior on the dielectric constant. Analysis using the field variable tUL in lieu of the conventional variable t led to the retrieval of unique, universal exponents for all TU’s irrespective of the ΔT value. For all TU’s, the effective susceptibility exponent in terms of tUL displays a nonmonotonic crossover from its asymptotic 3D-Ising value towards a value slightly lower than its nonasymptotic mean-field value of 1, as that observed in the t analysis of the effective exponent for the TU far away from the DCP. Like with the TL’s, the crossover behavior extends over nearly the same tUL range for the TU’s studied. However, the crossover is again sharper when compared to the TL’s. Chapter 6 reports light-scattering measurements (by heating as well as cooling) on a non phase-separating 1P + W + KCl mixture in the vicinity of the DCP. The results indicate that despite the lack of phase-separation or critical points, critical-phenomena-like fluctuations can still occur in homogeneous mixtures if they reside in some other direction than temperature or composition (like, pressure or salt concentration) of the phase diagram. Unlike earlier studies on non phase-separating mixtures, our results indicate a crossover behavior of the effective susceptibility exponent, in addition to the power-law behavior. Chapter 7 sums up the major findings of the work reported in this thesis. It also presents a range of open problems that need to be explored further in order to fully understand the results that are reported in this thesis, especially, regarding the exact dependence of dielectric constant of the mixture on the character of the crossover behavior.

Les manganites ont été particulièrement étudiés ces dernières années pour leurs propriétés de magnétorésistance colossale (CMR) et l'effet magnétocalorique. Ces oxydes de formule chimique T1-xDxMnO3, (T: terre-rare, D: alcalino-terreux) de structure pérovskite ABO3, présentent une valence mixte Mn3+/Mn4+. Les facteurs clés qui contrôlent les propriétés physiques sont le rayon moyen du site A (), le désaccord de taille des cations du site A (quantifié par la variance σ2 et la valence mixte du manganèse. Lors de notre étude, nous nous sommes focalisés sur l'effet du désordre gelé crée par la substitution aléatoire dans le site A de la structure pérovskite. Des échantillons poly-cristallins ont été synthétisés à cette fin. Les systèmes étudiés sont La0,8Pb0,1□0,1MnO3 et La0,8Pb0,1Na0,1MnO3 de composé mère La0,8Pb0,2MnO3 et La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3 de composé mère La0,7Pb0,3MnO3. Pour les deux premiers matériaux, l'étude structurale magnétique et électrique est présentée par ce manuscrit. Cette étude a permis de montrer l'existence des clusters ferromagnétique à haute température dans le contexte de la formation de la phase de Griffiths. De plus, nous avons mis en évidence l'existence des excitations magnétiques des ondes de spin à très basses température. A partir de la variation dans la température de Curie, la variation de la constante de raideur de l'onde de spin et l'évolution de la phase de Griffiths, nous avons pu montrer que le matériau La0,8Pb0,1□0,1MnO3 présente le rayon le plus faible et σ 2 le plus élevé comparé à La0,8Pb0,1Na0,1MnO3. Cette étude à montrer que le désordre est le mécanisme influençant sur les propriétés physiques de ces matériaux. Pour le système La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3, qui présente une température de Curie élevée (au dessus de l'ambiante) les propriétés magnétique ne montrent pas un effet considérable du désordre il est considéré régi par le mécanisme du double échange. Dans ce travail, nous nous sommes aussi intéressés à l'influence du désordre sur les exposants critiques et à l'effet magnétocalorique. L'analyse montre que les exposants critiques pour La0,8Pb0,1□0,1MnO3 sont proches à ceux du modèle de Heisenberg à dimension 3, alors qu'ils sont proches de ceux de la théorie du champ moyen pour La0,8Pb0,1Na0,1MnO3. Le désordre est quantifié d'être corrélé à court-distance ou non corrélé. Pour La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3, les exposants critiques appartiennent à la classe d'universalité de Heisenberg, comme prévu théoriquement. L'étude de l'effet magnétocalorique montre des valeurs intéressantes pour la variation d'entropie magnétique et la puissance relative du froid pour La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3. De plus, le caractère inhomogène de ces trois composés est affirmé par l'étude de l'exposant locale n qui varie avec le champ magnétique pour toute la gamme de température étudié. / Manganites have been extensively studied over the past several years, a result of their displaying a colossal magnetoresistance (CMR) and the magnetocaloric effect (MCE). These materials with a perovskite structure (ABO3) are characterized by the general formula T1- xDxMnO3, (T: rare earth, D: alkaline earth), x being the doping level, the latter causing changes in the valence state of the Mn ions to maintain charge neutrality. The key parameters that control the physical properties of these oxides are the mean radius of the site A (), the size mismatch of cations of the site A (quantified by the variance σ 2) and the mixed valence of manganese. In our study, we focused on the effect of the quenched disorder created by the random substitution in the A site of the perovskite structure. Polycrystalline samples were synthesized for this purpose. The systems studied are La0,8Pb0,1□0,1MnO3 and La0,8Pb0,1Na0,1MnO3 have a parent compound La0,8Pb0,2MnO3 and La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3 with parent compound La0,7Pb0,3MnO3. For the first two materials, structural, electrical and magnetic studies are presented in this manuscript. These studies reveal the existence of ferromagnetic clusters at high temperature in the context of the formation of the Griffiths phase. In addition, we have demonstrated the existence of magnetic excitations of spin waves at very low temperature. From the variation of the Curie temperature, the variation of the stiffness constant of the spin wave and the evolution of the Griffiths phase, we have shown that the material La0,8Pb0,1□0,1MnO3 has the lowest and highest σ2 compared to La0,8Pb0,1Na0,1MnO3. These studies showed that the disorder is the mechanism influencing the physical properties of these materials. For the system, La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3, which has a high Curie temperature (above ambient) magnetic properties do not show a significant effect of the disorder, which is considered to be governed by the mechanism of double exchange. In this work, we are also interested in the influence of disorder on the critical exponents and the magnetocaloric effect. The analysis shows that the critical exponents for La0,8Pb0,1□0,1MnO3 are close to those of the Heisenberg model in three dimensions, while they are very close to those of mean field theory La0,8Pb0,1Na0,1MnO3. The disorder is quantified to be correlated with short-range or uncorrelated. For La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3, the critical exponents belong to the Heisenberg universality class, as expected theoretically. The study of magnetocaloric effect shows interesting values of the magnetic entropy change and the relative cooling power La0,7Pb0,05Na0,25MnO3. In addition, the inhomogeneous nature of these three compounds is confirmed by the study of the local exponent “n” which varies with the magnetic field for the entire temperature range studied.

The continuous phase transition in thin magnetic films and superlattices has been studied using the magneto-optical Kerr effect (MOKE) and polarized neutron scattering (PNR).  It has been shown that the critical behavior of amorphous thin films belonging to the 2D XY universality class can be described within the same theory as crystalline sample. This means that quenched disorder only serves as a marginal perturbation in systems with this symmetry. The connection between interlayer exchange coupling and the observed critical behavior in Fe/V superlattices was explored. The results prove that the origin of unusually high values of the exponent β can be traced to a position dependence of the magnetization at elevated temperatures. The magnetization of the outermost layers within the superlattice shows a more pronounced decrease at lower temperatures, compared to the inner layers, which in turn have a more abrupt decrease in the vicinity of the critical temperature. This translates to a high exponent, especially when the layers are probed by a technique where more weight is given to the layers close to the surface, e.g.MOKE.  The interlayer exchange coupling as a function of spacer thickness and temperature was also studied in its own right. The data was compared to the literature, and a dependence on the thickness of the magnetic layers was concluded. The phase transition in amorphous FeZr/CoZr multilayers, where the magnetization emanates from ferromagnetic proximity effects, was investigated. Even though the determined exponents of the zero-field magnetization, the susceptibility and the critical isotherm did not correspond to any universality class, scaling plots displayed an excellent data collapse. Samples consisting of Fe δ-layers (0.3-1.4 monolayers) embedded in Pd were studied using element-specific resonant x-ray magnetic scattering. The magnetization of the two constituents showed distinctly different temperature dependences.

The role and behavior of fluids in hydrothermal and magmatic environments have been studied. Experimental studies have been carried out to determine fluid properties, in natural environments and in both synthetic and natural fluid and melt inclusions. One of these studies dealt with the effect of composition on the critical P-T-X properties of aqueous salt solutions approximated by the H₂O-NaCl-KCl-CaCl₂ system. The results indicate a systematic variation in critical properties as a function of composition over the range of P-T-X studied. A technique for analyzing individual H₂O-CO₂ inclusions using Raman spectroscopy has also been developed. The resulting empirical equation relating Raman intensities and composition is valid for compositions ≤50mol% CO₂. The technique has been applied to H₂O-CO₂ inclusions from the Butte, MT Porphyry Cu-Mo deposit and the results agree with compositions estimated from microthermometric and petrographic observations. The aim of another study was to study water loss from melt inclusions during laboratory heating. Melt inclusions had lost insignificant amounts of water when held at experimental conditions (800°C, 1 kbar) for ≤24 hours. However, significant water loss was observed for longer duration experiments. Ocelli, which are globular bodies of felsic minerals are interpreted as products of magmatic melt immiscibility. As such, the carbonate aggregates in Cretaceous lamprophyres from Hungary with similar petrographic characteristics have also generally been interpreted to be products of magmatic immiscibility. Petrographic and geochemic studies have shown three three distinct genetic groups for these aggregates, none of which were consistent with a magmatic origin. / Ph. D.

In part to search for a possible critical point (CP) in the phase diagram of hot nuclear matter, a beam energy scan was performed at the Relativistic Heavy-Ion Collider at Brookhaven National Laboratory. The Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC (STAR) collected Au+Au data sets at beam energies, √sNN , of 7.7, 11.5, 19.6, 27, 39, 62.4, and 200 GeV. Such a scan produces hot nuclear matter at different locations in the phase diagram. Lattice and phenomenological calculations suggest that the presence of a CP might result in divergences of the thermodynamic susceptibilities and correlation lengths. The statistical moments of the identified-particle multiplicity distributions directly depend on both the thermodynamic susceptibilities and correlation lengths, possibly making the shapes of these multiplicity distributions sensitive tools for the search for the critical point. The statistical moments of the multiplicity distributions of a number of different groups of identified particle species were analyzed. Care was taken to remove a number of experimental artifacts that can modify the shapes of the multiplicity distributions. The observables studied include the lowest four statistical moments (mean, variance, skewness, kurtosis) and some products of these moments. These observables were compared to the predictions from several approaches lacking critical behavior, such as the Hadron Resonance Gas model, mixed events, (negative) binomial, and Poisson statistics. In addition, the data were analyzed after gating on the event-by-event antiproton-to-proton ratio, which is expected to more tightly constrain the event trajectories on the phase diagram.

No description available.