Title: Electron properties of the substituted cerium compounds Author: Milan Klicpera Department: Department of Condensed Matter Physics Supervisor: doc. Mgr. Pavel Javorský Dr. Abstract: The subject of this work is the study of vibron states in tetragonal CeCuAl3 and CePd2Al2 compounds and their development with the substitution of constituent elements. After the preparation of single crystals and polycrystalline samples, the careful chemical and structural characterization was done. The structural, magnetic and superconducting phase transitions in samples were observed and thoroughly investigated. The crucial experiments were performed using the elastic and inelastic neutron scattering techniques leading to the refinement of magnetic structures in CeCuAl3, CePd2Al2 and CePd2Ga2. The energy spectra of substituted Ce(Cu,Al)4 and CePd2(Al,Ga)2 compounds were studied as well allowing to determine the crystal field excitations and their interaction with phonons (vibron states) in these materials. Keywords: cerium internetallic compounds, vibron states, electronic properties, neutron scattering

No description available.

Hemos desarrollado una técnica de medida a 4 puntas en corriente alterna con amplificadores “Lock-in” sincronizados para obtener la variación local de la capacidad entre los electrodos de un STM simultáneamente con su conductancia. La resolución a la que llegamos es de fF. En la evolución de la capacidad frente a la distancia entre electrodos distinguimos tres regiones: capacidad clásica (cuando los electrodos están más alejados), capacidad cuántica (en un régimen intermedio) y fuga de capacidad (cuando se entra en corriente túnel). En el régimen de emisión de campo, en los puntos en los que la energía incidente del electrón coincide con la de los niveles discretos por encima de la barrera túnel, se produce fuga de capacidad. Por otro lado, hemos encontrado evidencias de una emergencia del momento magnético en cadenas atómicas de platino que conectan dos electrodos hechos del mismo metal. El ajuste de las anomalías a voltaje de polarización cero a la función Kondo-Fano muestra un apantallamiento del momento magnético por parte de los electrones de conducción. Por último, hemos estudiado el papel que juegan los electrones f en el transporte electrónico en nanocontactos. Para ello, hemos realizado medidas de corriente eléctrica en nanocontactos hechos de gadolinio y europio, respectivamente. Hemos visto que para ambos metales la conductancia del contacto de un átomo está por debajo del cuanto de conductancia. Asimismo, los histogramas de conductancia en Gd son reproducibles lo cual contrasta con el caso de Eu en el que dichos histogramas no muestran tal reproducibilidad. Atribuimos este último hecho al desorden magnético que los electrones f causan en el metal. Con el ajuste de las anomalías a voltaje cero a la función Kondo-Fano hemos visto que los electrones f son apantallados por los de conducción. Además, en el caso de Gd vemos que presenta dos temperaturas Kondo, debidas al apantallamiento de los electrones d y f, respectivamente.

Magnetic systems underlie the physics of quantum mechanics when reaching the limit of few or even single atoms. This behavior limits the minimum size of magnetic bits in data storage devices as spontaneous switching of the magnetization leads to the loss of information. On the other hand, exactly these quantum mechanic properties allow to use such systems in quantum computers. Proposals to realize qubits involve the spin states of single atoms as well as topologically protected Majorana zero modes, that emerge in coupled systems of magnetic atoms in proximity to a superconductor. In order to implement and control the proposed applications, a detailed understanding of atomic spins and their interaction with the environment is required. In this thesis, two different systems of magnetic adatoms coupled to metallic and superconducting surfaces are studied by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and spectroscopy: Co atoms on the clean Cu(111) were among the first systems exhibiting signatures of the Kondo effect in an individual atom. Yet, a recent theoretical work proposed an alternative interpretation of these early experimental results, involving a newly described many-body state. Spin-averaged and -polarized experiments in high magnetic fields presented in this thesis confirm effects beyond the Kondo effect that determine the physics in these Co atoms and suggest a potentially even richer phenomenology than proposed by theory. The second studied system are single and coupled Fe atoms on the superconducting Nb(110) surface. Magnetic impurities on superconducting surfaces locally induce Yu-Shiba-Rusinov (YSR) states inside the superconducting gap due to their pair breaking potential. Coupled systems of such impurities exhibit YSR bands and, if the bands cross the Fermi level such that the band structure is inverted, host Majorana zero modes. Using the example of Fe atoms on Nb(110), the YSR states’ dependence on the adatom–substrate interaction as well as the interatomic YSR state coupling is investigated. In the presence of oxygen on the Nb surface, the adatom–substrate interaction is shown to be heavily modified and the YSR states are found to undergo a quantum phase transition, which can be directly linked to a modified Kondo screening. STM tips functionalized with CO molecules allow to resolve self-assembled one-dimensional chains of Fe atoms on the clean Nb(110) surface to study the YSR states’ coupling. Mapping out the states’ wave functions reveals their symmetry, which is shown to alter as a function of the states’ energy and number of atoms in the chain. These experimental results are reproduced in a simple tight-binding model, demonstrating a straightforward possibility to describe also more complex YSR systems toward engineered, potentially topologically non-trivial states. / Magnetische Systeme unterliegen im Limit von wenigen Atomen den Gesetzen der Quantenmechanik. Diese Tatsache beschränkt die minimale Größe magnetischer Bits in der Datenspeicherung, da spontane Änderungen der Magnetisierung zu Datenverlust führen. Gleichzeitig ist es genau jenes quantenmechanische Verhalten, welches es erlaubt, diese Systeme in Quantencomputern zu verwenden. Vorschläge, die dafür notwendigen Qubits zu realisieren, umfassen die Spinzustände einzelner Atome sowie topologisch geschützte Majorana-Nullmoden, welche in Systemen gekoppelter magnetischer Atome in Supraleitern auftreten. Für die Umsetzung dieser Anwendungen sind detaillierte Kenntnisse über die Wechselwirkung atomarer Spins mit ihrer Umgebung nötig. In dieser Arbeit werden zwei verschiedene solcher Systeme aus magnetischen Adatomen auf Oberflächen mit der Methode der Rastertunnelmikroskopie (RTM) und -spektroskopie untersucht: Lange galten einzelne Co-Atome auf der Cu(111)-Oberfläche als prototypisches Modell für den Kondo-Effekt in Einzelatomen. Dies wurde jedoch vor Kurzem durch eine Theoriearbeit infrage gestellt, welche die bisherigen experimentellen Daten durch das Auftreten eines neu beschriebenen Vielteilchen-Zustands erklärt. In dieser Arbeit werden neue, spingemittelte und -aufgelöste Messungen in hohen Magnetfeldern präsentiert, welche das Auftreten von Effekten jenseits des Kondo-Effekts in diesem System bestätigen. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit werden einzelne und gekoppelte Fe-Atome auf der supraleitenden Nb(110)-Oberfläche untersucht. Magnetische Defekte erzeugen in Supraleitern aufgrund ihres Paarbrechungspotentials Yu-Shiba-Rusinov(YSR)-Zustände innerhalb der supraleitenden Bandlücke. Die Kopplung dieser Zustände resultiert in YSR-Bändern, und kann durch Inversion der Bandlücke zum Auftreten von Majorana-Nullmoden führen. Am Beispiel von Fe-Atomen auf Nb(110) wird hier der Einfluss der Adatom–Oberflächen-Wechselwirkung auf die YSR-Zustände sowie deren interatomare Kopplung untersucht. Es wird gezeigt, dass Sauerstoff die Wechselwirkung stark beeinflusst und die atomaren YSR-Zustände infolge dessen einen Quantenphasenübergang durchlaufen. Dieser kann direkt auf eine veränderte Kondo-Abschirmung zurückgeführt werden. Weiter werden mittels mit CO-Molekülen funktionalisierter RTM-Spitzen eindimensionale Ketten aus Fe-Atomen auf der sauberen Nb(110)-Oberfläche identifiziert, anhand derer die Kopplung der YSR-Zustände untersucht wird. Ortsaufgelöste Messungen der zugehörigen Wellenfunktionen decken die Symmetrie dieser Zustände auf, welche ein alternierendes Verhalten zwischen Ketten mit gerader und ungerader Atomzahl aufweist. Diese experimentellen Ergebnisse werden anschließend in einem tight-binding-Modell, welches auch auf komplexere Systeme angewandt werden kann, beschrieben.

In this dissertation, we study the most important microscopic aspects that grant molecules such as Single Molecule Magnets (SMMs) their preferential spin direction. We do so by proposing and solving a model that includes correlations between electrons occupying atomic orbitals. In addition, we study the relation between the non-equilibrium electronic transport signatures in a SMM model weakly coupled to a three-terminal single electron transistor device, and the interference features of the SMM model in the presence of a magnetic field. Finally, we investigate the equilibrium transport features in a giant-spin model of a SMM in the Kondo regime. We study how the magnetic field modulation of the energy in a highly anisotropic molecule can affect the conductance of the molecule in the Kondo regime.

No description available.

No description available.

In the Gamma-Alpha phase transition in Cerium, the magnetic properties change from a temperature-dependent Curie-Weiss susceptibility in the high temperature gamma phase to a temperature-independent paramagnetic susceptibility in the low temperature alpha phase. Taking into account the crystal-field split Hamiltonian, the energy eigenvalues and eigenfunctions are calculated for the doublet and the quartet ground states which are then used to determine the Kondo temperature for different crystal field splittings. The susceptibility and B-T phase diagrams are obtained for both the ground states and it is concluded that the doublet ground state is in better agreement with the experimental results. The P-T phase diagram is obtained using the Anderson model and the Non-Crossing Approximation. This numerical method determines the free energy for a given hybridization and subsequently the susceptibility, specific heat and the Fermi-liquid temperature. Using these, the P-V phase diagram is first obtained and then the P-T phase diagram derived from it using Maxwell's equal area construction. CePdSb is one of the few ternary compounds which exhibit Kondo lattice behavior along with a ferromagnetic ground state. The competitions between the RKKY interaction and the Kondo interactions are consistent with expectations based on the Doniach phase diagram. The susceptibility in the high temperature regime calculated using the linear response theory concurs well with the experimental results. At low temperatures, the exchange interaction dominates the magnetic behavior of the system. Taking into consideration the single-ion anisotropy and the Heisenberg interaction, the spin-wave dispersion spectrum is obtained using the Holstein-Primakoff transformation and renormalized Stevens coefficients. The spin-spin correlation function is obtained and found to agree very well with the inelastic neutron scattering data. / Physics

The problem of the two-impurity Kondo problem is studied via the perturbative diagrammatical method. The high-temperature magnetic susceptibility is calculated to fourth order in the coupling constant J for different regimes. The integral equations for the ground state energy are established and solved numerically. The two-stage Kondo effect and corresponding energy scales are found which agree with the scaling results. / Ph. D.

[pt] Nesta tese estudamos as propriedades de transporte de estruturas de pontos quânticos (PQs) ligados a contatos metálicos (CM). Descrevemos o formalismo dos bósons escravos através de sua aplicação ao sistema de um PQ ligado a um CM. Estudamos a nuvem Kondo (NK) dentro deste CM e desenvolvemos uma metodologia para calcular sua extensão (csi). Mostramos que (csi) é inversamente proporcional a temperatura Kondo TK. Aplicamos o método ao sistema de dois PQs. Estudamos o Regime Kondo (RK) molecular de um elétron (1e), a concorrência entre o antiferromagnetismo e o RK de dois elétrons (2e), a constituição da NK dentro dos CM e o valor de Tk. Calculamos a extensão da NK e a TK para diferentes valores da conexão entre os PQs e comparamos com os resultados obtidos a temperatura finita (TF). Mostramos a diminuição da NK quando TK e a conexão entre os PQs aumentam. Obtivemos um comportamento exponencial para TK em função desta conexão. Estudamos o sistema de dois PQs interagentes que se enxergam através de um terceiro PQ não interagente. Obtivemos a coexistência entre o RK e a correlação ferro (CF) para o sistema com 2e. À TF obtivemos um comportamento parabólico para a TK em função da conexão com o sítio do meio. Estes resultados diferem dos obtidos para o sistema de dois PQs conectados diretamente entre si. Estudamos uma molécula de três PQs interagentes conectados a dois CM através do PQ do meio e identificamos o estabelecimento de um regime Kondo dois estágios. Observamos uma CF quando o PQ do meio está ocupado e uma correlação antiferro CAF quando está vazio. Esta propriedade permite o funcionamento deste sistema como uma porta quântica. Mostramos que a leitura da informação desta porta pode ser mediada pelo RK. / [en] In this thesis we study the transport properties of quantum dot structures (QD s) connected to metallic leads (ML).We describe the slave boson mean field approach through it s application to a system of one QD connected to a (ML). We study the Kondo cloud (KC) inside this ML and develop a method to calculate it s extension (csi). We prove that ξ is proportional to the inverse of Kondo temperature TK. We apply the method to the system of two QD s and study the molecular KR for the system with one electron (1e), the competition between the antiferromagnetism and the KR for the system with an occupations of two electrons (2e), the formation of the Kondo cloud inside the ML and the TK value. We calculate the extension (csi) and TK for diferent values of the connection between the QD s and compare with the results found to finite temperature (FT).We show the decrease of the KC when TK and the connection between the dots increases. We obtain an exponential behavior of TK as a function of this connection. We study the system of two QD s with Coulomb interaction U correlated though a non interacting QD. We obtain the coexistence between the KR and the ferromagnetic correlation (FC) for the system with 2e. In a regime of finete temperature we obtain a parabolic behavior to the TK as a function of the connection with the central QD. This results are different of that obtained for the system of two QD s directly connected to each other. We study the molecule of three interacting QD s connected to two ML through the central one and identify a two stage Kondo effect. We observe a FC when the central QD is charged with one electron and an anti-ferromagnetic correlation (AFC) when this PQ is empty(or occupied if an even number of electrons). This properties permits the operation of this system as a quantum gate device. We prove that the reading of the information of this gate can be mediated through the KR.