​My PhD thesis is an in-depth study of the magnetic properties of a series of different lanthanide-based endohedral metallofullerenes. They are sphere-like shape carbon molecules (fullerenes) with embedded magnetic lanthanide elements inside, suitable for spintronic and high dense-data storage applications. In this work, I studied two families of endohedral metallofullerenes (di-lanthanides and Dy-oxides) which showed great versatility in the magnetic behavior, depending on the type of the encapsulated cluster, and the size and shape of the carbon cage.:Magnetic studies on lanthanide dimetallofullerenes Gd2@C80(CH2Ph) and Gd2@C79N Tb2@C80(CH2Ph) and Tb2@C79N TbY@C80(CH2Ph) Ho2@C80(CH2Ph) Er2@C80(CH2Ph) Magnetic studies on Dy-oxide clusterfullerenes Dy2O@C72 Dy2O@C74 Dy2O@C82 (three isomers)

This work gives insight in some key aspects for the understanding of the origin of high-temperature superconductivity in the newly discovered class of iron-based materials. In particular, thermodynamic methods, such as SQUID magnetometry, specific heat and dilatometry were used, in order to (i) assess the evolution of electronic correlations in a series of transition metal substitutions of the well-known BaFe2As2 as a function of 3d band filling and (ii) to re-investigate the phase diagram of Co-doped LaFeAsO on single crystals, with particular interest in the interplay between the nematic/magnetic phase of the parent compound and superconductivity induced by in-plane electron doping. In the first part of this work, the Sommerfeld coefficient (γ_exp) was extracted from the low temperature specific heat data and compared with the theoretical values obtained by band theory calculations, in order to obtain the mass enhancement (m∗/mb) in the series BaT2As2 (T = Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu). The results clearly show an overall decrease of the electronic correlations while departing from the half-filled (3d5) to the fully filled configuration (3d10), thus suggesting a highly correlated 3d5 state. The evolution of electronic correlations as a function of 3d band filling for n > 5 is in agreement with previous theoretical calculations, underlining the importance of Hund’s coupling in describing the normal-state properties of iron-based superconductors. In addition, it was found that the decrease in m∗/mb for n > 5 follows an increase of the crystal field splitting (Δ), determined by the progressive distortion of the As-T-As angle (α_bond) from the ideal tetrahedral environment. This study reveals a complex interplay between electronic correlations, band filling and crystal structure in determining the physical properties of 122 systems. In the second part, the phase diagram of Co-doped LaFeAsO was re-investigated using single crystals by thermodynamic methods. From magnetic susceptibility studies we track the doping evolution of the antiferromagnetic phase, revealing a continuous decrease of T_N up to 5% Co doping. In order to study the evolution of the so-called nematic phase, the temperature dependence of the length changes along the a and b orthorhombic directions, ΔL/L_0, was determined by high-resolution capacitance dilatometry. The results clearly show a gradual reduction of the orthorhombic distortion δ and of T_S with increasing Co content up to 4.5%, while it is completely suppressed for 7.5% Co. Bulk superconductivity with T_c = 10.5 K was found in a small doping region around 6% Co content, while both T_c and the superconducting volume fraction rapidly drop in the neighbouring doping regime. Ultimately, no microscopic coexistence between the superconducting and magnetic phases can be assessed within our resolution limit, in sharp contrast with other iron-pnictide families, e.g., electron- and hole-doped BaFe2As2.

Die rasanten Fortschritte bei der Entwicklung neuartiger 2D-Materialien haben in den letzten Jahren auch das Forschungsfeld der Spintronik stetig bereichert aufgrund der vielseitigen physikalischen Eigenschaften und der Flexibilität hinsichtlich der Realisierung von Heterostrukturen. Das erst kürzlich entdeckte metastabile und geschichtete Material alpha-FeGe2 trägt das Potenzial, in die Klasse der bekannten 2D Materialien aufgenommen zu werden. In dieser Dissertation werden die elektrischen und magnetischen Eigenschaften von alpha-FeGe2 diskutiert, basierend auf elektrischen Transportmessungen bei unterschiedlichen äußeren Magnetfeldern und Temperaturen. Zur Untersuchung von magnetoresistiven Effekten wurden Spinventilstrukturen mit alpha-FeGe2 als Trennmaterial zwischen zwei metallische Ferromagnete verwendet. Es wird gezeigt, dass alpha-FeGe2 eine dickenabhängige kritische Temperatur besitzt, die bei etwa 100 K liegt und mit einem magnetischen Phasenübergang von der antiferromagnetischen Phase für T > 100 K in die ferromagnetische Phase bei T < 100 K verknüpft ist. Dieser Phasenübergang wird von Berechnungen aus der Dichtefunktionaltheorie (DFT) gestützt. Es wird gezeigt, dass die magnetische Ordnung in der alpha-FeGe2-Trennschicht einen starken Einfluss auf die Spinventilsignale ausübt. Insbesondere spielt hierbei die Auswirkung auf die magnetische Interschichtkopllung zwischen den ferromagnetischen Elektroden aus Fe3Si oder Co2FeSi eine entscheidende Rolle. Die magnetische Kopplung an der Grenzfläche zwischen antiferromagnetischem alpha-FeGe2 und Fe3Si führt zu einer Anisotropie in den Spinventilsignalen hinsichtlich der Orientierung des externen Magnetfeldes. Diese Anisotropie wird durch ein komplexes Zusammenspiel zwischen der Magnetisierung der ferromagnetischen Elektroden und der magnetischen Vorzugsrichtung des antiferromagnetischen alpha-FeGe2, die durch den sog. Néelvektor beschrieben wird, diskutiert. / The rapid progress in the development of new 2D materials have also enriched spintronic research in recent years, thanks to their versatile physical properties and flexibility with regard to the design of heterostructures. The prominent examples graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) have the prospect to represent the basis of future spintronic applications, in particular due to their tunability and multifunctionality. The recently discovered metastable layered material alpha-FeGe2 is a potential candidate for being added to this class of materials. In this work, the electrical and magnetic properties of alpha-FeGe2 are studied, based on results from electrical transport measurements at different external magnetic fields and temperatures. For the investigation of magnetoresistive effects, spin valve devices containing alpha-FeGe2 as a spacer layer between two metallic ferromagnets have been utilized. It is shown that alpha-FeGe2 exhibits a thickens dependent critical temperature around 100 K at which it undergoes a magnetic phase transition from an antiferromagnetic state at T > 100 K to a ferromagnetic state at T < 100 K. This phase transition is also predicted by density functional theory (DFT) calculations and reflected in a disappearing spin valve signal at low temperatures. It is demonstrated that the magnetic phase of the alpha-FeGe2 spacer strongly influences the performance of spin valves, particularly via the impact on the magnetic interlayer coupling between the ferromagnetic electrodes made of Fe3Si or Co2FeSi. The magnetic coupling at the interface between antiferromagnetic alpha-FeGe2 and Fe3Si was found to induce anisotropies in the spin valve signal with regard to the external magnetic field orientation. This anisotropy is explained in terms of a complex interplay between the misalignment between the ferromagnetic electrodes and the magnetically preferred direction of the antiferromagentic alpha-FeGe2 described by the Néel vector.

Solid state physics comprises many interesting physical phenomena driven by the complex interplay of the crystal structure, magnetic and orbital degrees of freedom, quantum fluctuations and correlation. The discovery of materials which exhibit exotic phenomena like low dimensional magnetism, superconductivity, thermoelectricity or multiferroic behavior leads to various applications which even directly influence our daily live. For such technical applications and the purposive modification of materials, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms in solids is a precondition. Nowadays DFT based band structure programs become broadly available with the possibility to calculate systems with several hundreds of atoms in reasonable time scales and high accuracy using standard computers due to the rapid technical and conceptional development in the last decades. These improvements allow to study physical properties of solids from their crystal structure and support the search for underlying mechanisms of different phenomena from microscopic grounds. This thesis focuses on the theoretical description of low dimensional magnets and intermetallic compounds. We combine DFT based electronic structure and model calculations to develop the magnetic properties of the compounds from microscopic grounds. The developed, intuitive pictures were challenged by model simulations with various experiments, probing microscopic and macroscopic properties, such as thermodynamic measurements, high field magnetization, nuclear magnetic resonance or electron spin resonance experiments. This combined approach allows to investigate the close interplay of the crystal structure and the magnetic properties of complex materials in close collaboration with experimentalists. In turn, the systematic variation of intrinsic parameters by substitution or of extrinsic factors, like magnetic field, temperature or pressure is an efficient way to probe the derived models. Especially pressure allows a continuous change of the crystal structure on a rather large energy scale without the chemical complexity of substitution, thus being an ideal tool to consistently alter the electronic structure in a controlled way. Our theoretical results not only provide reliable descriptions of real materials, exhibiting disorder, partial site occupation and/or strong correlations, but also predict fascinating phenomena upon extreme conditions. In parts this theoretical predictions were already confirmed by own experiments on large scale facilities. Whereas in the first part of this work the main purpose was to develop reliable magnetic models of low dimensional magnets, in the second part we unraveled the underlying mechanism for different phase transitions upon pressure. In more detail, the first part of this thesis is focused on the magnetic ground states of spin 1/2 transition metal compounds which show fascinating phase diagrams with many unusual ground states, including various types of magnetic order, like helical states exhibiting different pitch angles, driven by the intimate interplay of structural details and quantum fluctuations. The exact arrangement and the connection of the magnetically active building blocks within these materials determine the hybridization, orbital occupation, and orbital orientation, this way altering the exchange paths and strengths of magnetic interaction within the system and consequently being crucial for the formation of the respective ground states. The spin 1/2 transition metal compounds, which have been investigated in this work, illustrate the great variety of exciting phenomena fueling the huge interest in this class of materials. We focused on cuprates with magnetically active CuO4 plaquettes, mainly arranged into edge sharing geometries. The influence of structural peculiarities, as distortion, folding, changed bonding angles, substitution or exchanged ligands has been studied with respect to their relevance for the magnetic ground state. Besides the detailed description of the magnetic ground states of selected compounds, we attempted to unravel the origin for the formation of a particular magnetic ground state by deriving general trends and relations for this class of compounds. The details of the treatment of the correlation and influence of structural peculiarities like distortion or the bond angles are evaluated carefully. In the second part of this work we presented the results of joint theoretical and experimental studies for intermetallic compounds, all exhibiting an isostructural phase transition upon pressure. Many different driving forces for such phase transitions are known like quantum fluctuations, valence instabilities or magnetic ordering. The combination of extensive computational studies and high pressure XRD, XAS and XMCD experiments using synchrotron radiation reveals completely different underlying mechanism for the onset of the phase transitions in YCo5, SrFe2As2 and EuPd3Bx. This thesis demonstrates on a series of complex compounds that the combination of ab-initio electronic structure calculations with numerical simulations and with various experimental techniques is an extremely powerful tool for a successful description of the intriguing quantum phenomena in solids. This approach is able to reduce the complex behavior of real materials to simple but appropriate models, this way providing a deep understanding for the underlying mechanisms and an intuitive picture for many phenomena. In addition, the close interaction of theory and experiment stimulates the improvement and refinement of the methods in both areas, pioneering the grounds for more and more precise descriptions. Further pushing the limits of these mighty techniques will not only be a precondition for the success of fundamental research at the frontier between physics and chemistry, but also enables an advanced material design on computational grounds.

Solid state physics comprises many interesting physical phenomena driven by the complex interplay of the crystal structure, magnetic and orbital degrees of freedom, quantum fluctuations and correlation. The discovery of materials which exhibit exotic phenomena like low dimensional magnetism, superconductivity, thermoelectricity or multiferroic behavior leads to various applications which even directly influence our daily live. For such technical applications and the purposive modification of materials, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms in solids is a precondition. Nowadays DFT based band structure programs become broadly available with the possibility to calculate systems with several hundreds of atoms in reasonable time scales and high accuracy using standard computers due to the rapid technical and conceptional development in the last decades. These improvements allow to study physical properties of solids from their crystal structure and support the search for underlying mechanisms of different phenomena from microscopic grounds. This thesis focuses on the theoretical description of low dimensional magnets and intermetallic compounds. We combine DFT based electronic structure and model calculations to develop the magnetic properties of the compounds from microscopic grounds. The developed, intuitive pictures were challenged by model simulations with various experiments, probing microscopic and macroscopic properties, such as thermodynamic measurements, high field magnetization, nuclear magnetic resonance or electron spin resonance experiments. This combined approach allows to investigate the close interplay of the crystal structure and the magnetic properties of complex materials in close collaboration with experimentalists. In turn, the systematic variation of intrinsic parameters by substitution or of extrinsic factors, like magnetic field, temperature or pressure is an efficient way to probe the derived models. Especially pressure allows a continuous change of the crystal structure on a rather large energy scale without the chemical complexity of substitution, thus being an ideal tool to consistently alter the electronic structure in a controlled way. Our theoretical results not only provide reliable descriptions of real materials, exhibiting disorder, partial site occupation and/or strong correlations, but also predict fascinating phenomena upon extreme conditions. In parts this theoretical predictions were already confirmed by own experiments on large scale facilities. Whereas in the first part of this work the main purpose was to develop reliable magnetic models of low dimensional magnets, in the second part we unraveled the underlying mechanism for different phase transitions upon pressure. In more detail, the first part of this thesis is focused on the magnetic ground states of spin 1/2 transition metal compounds which show fascinating phase diagrams with many unusual ground states, including various types of magnetic order, like helical states exhibiting different pitch angles, driven by the intimate interplay of structural details and quantum fluctuations. The exact arrangement and the connection of the magnetically active building blocks within these materials determine the hybridization, orbital occupation, and orbital orientation, this way altering the exchange paths and strengths of magnetic interaction within the system and consequently being crucial for the formation of the respective ground states. The spin 1/2 transition metal compounds, which have been investigated in this work, illustrate the great variety of exciting phenomena fueling the huge interest in this class of materials. We focused on cuprates with magnetically active CuO4 plaquettes, mainly arranged into edge sharing geometries. The influence of structural peculiarities, as distortion, folding, changed bonding angles, substitution or exchanged ligands has been studied with respect to their relevance for the magnetic ground state. Besides the detailed description of the magnetic ground states of selected compounds, we attempted to unravel the origin for the formation of a particular magnetic ground state by deriving general trends and relations for this class of compounds. The details of the treatment of the correlation and influence of structural peculiarities like distortion or the bond angles are evaluated carefully. In the second part of this work we presented the results of joint theoretical and experimental studies for intermetallic compounds, all exhibiting an isostructural phase transition upon pressure. Many different driving forces for such phase transitions are known like quantum fluctuations, valence instabilities or magnetic ordering. The combination of extensive computational studies and high pressure XRD, XAS and XMCD experiments using synchrotron radiation reveals completely different underlying mechanism for the onset of the phase transitions in YCo5, SrFe2As2 and EuPd3Bx. This thesis demonstrates on a series of complex compounds that the combination of ab-initio electronic structure calculations with numerical simulations and with various experimental techniques is an extremely powerful tool for a successful description of the intriguing quantum phenomena in solids. This approach is able to reduce the complex behavior of real materials to simple but appropriate models, this way providing a deep understanding for the underlying mechanisms and an intuitive picture for many phenomena. In addition, the close interaction of theory and experiment stimulates the improvement and refinement of the methods in both areas, pioneering the grounds for more and more precise descriptions. Further pushing the limits of these mighty techniques will not only be a precondition for the success of fundamental research at the frontier between physics and chemistry, but also enables an advanced material design on computational grounds.:Contents List of abbreviations 1. Introduction 2. Methods 2.1. Electronic structure and magnetic models for real compounds 2.1.1. Describing a solid 2.1.2. Basic exchange and correlation functionals 2.1.3. Strong correlations 2.1.4. Band structure codes 2.1.5. Disorder and vacancies 2.1.6. Models on top of DFT 2.2. X-ray diffraction and x-ray absorption at extreme conditions 2.2.1. Diamond anvil cells 2.2.2. ID09 - XRD under pressure 2.2.3. ID24 - XAS and XMCD under pressure 3. Low dimensional magnets 3.1. Materials 3.1.1 AgCuVO4 - a model compound between two archetypes of Cu-O chains 3.1.2 Li2ZrCuO4 - in close vicinity to a quantum critical point 3.1.3 PbCuSO4(OH)2 -magnetic exchange ruled by H 3.1.4 CuCl2 and CuBr2 - flipping magnetic orbitals by crystal water 3.1.5 Na3Cu2SbO6 and Na2Cu2TeO6 - alternating chain systems 3.1.6 Cu2(PO3)2CH2 - magnetic vs. structural dimers 3.1.7 Cu2PO4OH - orbital order between dimers and chains 3.1.8 A2CuEO6 - an new family of spin 1/2 square lattice compounds 3.2. General trends and relations 3.2.1. Approximation for the treatment of strong correlation 3.2.2. Structural elements 4. Magnetic intermetallic compounds under extreme conditions 115 4.1. Itinerant magnets 4.1.1. YCo5 - a direct proof for a magneto elastic transition by XMCD 4.1.2. SrFe2As2 - symmetry-preserving lattice collapse 4.2. Localized magnets 4.2.1. EuPd3Bx - valence transition under doping and pressure 5. Summary and outlook A. Technical details B. Crystal Structures C. Supporting Material Bibliography List of Publications Acknowledgments

Viele neue Technologien basieren auf Materialien die im Nanometerbereich strukturiert sind. Damit diese im großen Maßstab zur Anwendung gebracht werden können, werden Methoden benötigt solche nanostrukturierten Materialien kostengünstig zu produzieren. Magnetische Felder sind eine vielversprechende Möglichkeit die Anordnung von Nanostrukturen zu beeinflussen. In dieser Doktorarbeit wird eine Methode für die Herstellung magnetischer Nanostrukturen in Lösung präsentiert. Die Herstellungsmethode ist skalierbar und kostengünstig. Die synthetisierten Strukturen haben zufällige Formen und bewegen sich unter dem Einfluss eines externen rotierenden Magnetfelds im rechten Winkel zu der Ebene in der das Magnetfeld rotiert. Die dimensionslosen Geschwindigkeiten dieser zufällig geformten Propeller sind vergleichbar mit jenen früher publizierter helikaler Propeller. Das beobachtete Verhältnis zwischen Anregungsfrequenz und Propellergeschwindigkeit konnte mittels eines Drehmomentgleichgewichts verstanden werden. Dieses vertiefte Verständnis der Propellerbewegung ermöglichte eine theoretische Studie zur Kontrolle von Propellerschwärmen. Hierbei werden mehrere Propeller entlang frei wählbarer Bahnen gesteuert. Eine Kontrollstrategie wurde gefunden, welche die magnetische Feldstärke minimiert, die zum Erreichen einer vorgegebenen Genauigkeit nötig ist. Schließlich wurde das kollektive Verhalten von großen Mengen von magnetischen Propellern untersucht. Sowohl zufällig geformte als auch helikale Propeller bilden Zusammenballungen, die im dynamischen Gleichgewicht kreisförmig sind und langsam rotieren. Gleichförmig helikale Propeller ordnen sich in diesen Zusammenballungen hexagonal an. Der Vergleich zwischen Beobachtungen und Simulationen zeigte, dass hydrodynamische Interaktionen für die Bildung der Zusammenballungen nicht notwendig sind, aber dazu führen dass sich eine Randregion bildet, in der die Winkelgeschwindigkeit der Propeller erhöht ist. / New ways to cheaply produce and assemble useful micro- and nanostructures are needed to facilitate their deployment in novel technologies. Magnetic fields are a promising possibility to guide the assembly of nanostructures. This thesis presents a method to synthesize magnetic nanostructures in solution which can be actuated by external rotating magnetic fields. The synthesis method is scalable and can cheaply produce randomly shaped magnetic nanostructures in large quantities. The synthesized structures have random shapes and were observed to propel under the influence of an external magnetic field, perpendicular to the plane in which the external field is rotating. The random shapes move with dimensionless speeds that are comparable to those of previously published, nanofabricated propellers with controlled helical geometries. The observed relationship between actuating frequency and propulsion speed could be understood with a simple torque balance model. This improved understanding opened the door for a theoretical study on swarm control, i.e. the steering of several magnetic propellers along independent trajectories. A particular control strategy (critical control) was found, that minimizes the required magnetic field strength needed to achieve a certain control precision. Finally, the collective behavior of large numbers of propellers, moving upwards against gravity and towards a glass surface, was investigated. Both randomly shaped, as well as nanofabricated propellers were observed to form clusters which are circular and rotate slowly in dynamic equilibrium. The nanofabricated propellers displayed hexagonal ordering inside the clusters. Comparing the observed cluster dynamics to simulations revealed that hydrodynamic interactions between the propellers are not necessary for cluster formation, but lead to the formation of a boundary layer at the cluster edge, in which the angular velocity of the propellers is higher than in the rest of the rotating cluster.

In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden die elektronischen Eigenschaften der c(2x2)MnCu/Cu(001) Oberfläche untersucht. Es wird eine Möglichkeit vorgestellt, unter Nutzung verschiedener Symmetrien der Brillouinzonen, Photoemissionsspektren voneinander zu trennen und damit die energetische Position des Mayoritätsspinbandes von Mangan in der c(2x2) Überstruktur zu bestimmen. Es konnte mittels Vergleich zu Rechnungen der Bandstruktur außerdem festgestellt werden, daß Teile des Minoritätsspinbandes besetzt werden. Die Fermioberfläche des c(2x2)MnCu/Cu(001) Systems wurde mittels Photoemission untersucht. Es konnte weiterhin gezeigt werden, daß Kupfer epitaktisch auf dieser Oberfläche aufwächst und weitere c(2x2)MnCu Sequenzen gewachsen werden können, wobei sich auch hier die Manganatome in einem magnetischen Grundzustand befinden. Es wird das Wachstum von Mangan auf Eisen, Kobalt und Nickel analysiert. Dafür werden dünne Eisen-, Kobalt- und Nickelschichten auf einem Kupfer-(001)-Einkristall präpariert und damit eine metastabile flächenzentrierte Oberfläche geschaffen, die wiederum als Substrat für das Mangan dient. Alle diese Zwischenschritte werden von Untersuchungen der elektronischen Eigenschaften mittels Photoemissionsmessungen begleitet, die dazu dienen, Aussagen über die Bandstruktur und die Fermi-Oberfläche zu erhalten. Diese experimentellen Daten werden anschließend mit theoretisch berechneten Daten verglichen und daraus Schlußfolgerungen für den Magnetismus in den einzelnen Systemen getroffen. / This thesis deals about the electronic properties of the c(2x2)MnCu/Cu(001) surface. Under use of different symmetries in the Brillouin zones, a possibility for the separation of photoemission spectra is presented and the energy position of the manganese spin majority band is determined. Furthermore, a comparison with theoretic studies found part of the spin minority band occupied. The Fermi surface of the c(2x2)MnCu/Cu(001) system was analysed. It could be shown, that copper grows epitaxially on top of this surface and a further growth of c(2x2)MnCu sequences is possible with the manganese atoms in a high spin ground state. Further, the growth of manganese on iron, cobalt, and nickel will be investigated. For this purpose thin iron, cobalt, and nickel films are prepared on a copper-(001) crystal and the resulting metastable face centred surface can be used as a substrate for the manganese. All these intermediate steps are accompanied by investigations of the electronic properties using photoemission, that give an insight in the band structure and the Fermi surface. The experimental data will be compared to theory and some conclusions about the magnetism of the systems can be drawn.

Die Wirkung von Seltenerd-Stoerelementen in Seltenerd-Seltenerd-Nickel-Borkarbid-Verbindungen, die im gleichen Temperaturbereich Supraleitung und magnetische Ordnung zeigen, wird in Hinblick auf die Unterdrueckung der Supraleitung untersucht. Sie aeussert sich in magnetischer Paarbrechung, ferngeordneten Magnetstrukturen und Unordnung. Die Verbindungen wurden entsprechend der an das Material gestellten Anforderungen mittels Lichtbogenschmelzen, Rascherstarrung oder durch Einkristallzucht hergestellt. Die Unterdrueckung der supraleitenden Uebergangstemperatur in diesen Mischreihen mit magnetischen und nichtmagnetischen Seltenerdionen wird durch den Einfluss des effektiven de Gennes-Faktors, der der Konzentration der magnetischen Seltenerdionen Rechnung traegt, des Kristallfeldes und der durch die unterschiedlichen Radien der Seltenerdionen verursachten Unordnung erklaert. Die Unordnung wird durch die Varianz der Ionenradien quantifiziert und ihre Auswirkung auf die supraleitende Uebergangstemperatur und das obere kritische Feld sowie dessen Kruemmung in der Naehe der Uebergangstemperatur beobachtet. Die Uebergagstemperatur von Yttrium-Seltenerd-Nickel-Borkabid-Verbindungen wird im Bereich schwacher Konzentration von magnetischer Seltenerdionen fuer alle magnetischen Seltenerdionen qualitativ erfasst. In antiferromagnetisch geordneten Seltenerd-Seltenerd-Nickel-Borkabid-Verbindungen wirken unmagnetische Verunreinigungen stark paarbrechend, wobei dieser Mechanismus durch die Unordnung verstaerkt wird. Durch Neutronenbeugungsexperimente wurden die magnetischen Strukturen der Seltenerd-Seltenerd-Nickel-Borkabid-Verbindungen nachgewiesen. Bei vollstaendig ausgebildeter antiferromagnetischer Ordnung verzerrt das Kristallgitter aufgrund magnetoelastischer Effekte. In Holmium-Seltenerd-Nickel-Borkabid-Verbindungen konnten die drei bekannten magnetischen Strukturen gefunden werden, wodurch die Korrelation zwischen dem reentrant-Verhalten und magnetischer Fernordnung nachgewiesen wurde. Im aeusseren Magnetfeld werden die Strukturen anhand eines bekannten Feld-Temperatur-Phasendiagramms erklaert, in dem die magnetischen Ueberstrukturen als Funktion von Feld und Temperatur aufgestellt wurden.

The description of the magnetic properties of interacting many-particle systems has been one of the most important goals of physics. The problem is to derive the magnetic properties of such systems from quantum mechanical principles. It is well understood that the magnetization in an atom described by quantum numbers, spin (S), orbital (L), and total angular momentum (J) of its electrons. A set of guidelines, known as Hund's rules, discovered by Friedrich Hermann Hunds help us to determine the quantum numbers for the ground states of free atoms. The question ``to which extent are Hund's rules applicable on different systems such as molecules and solids?'' is still on the agenda. The main problem is that of finding the ground state of the considered system. Density functional theory (DFT) methods apparently are the most widely spread self-consistent methods to investigate the ground state properties. This is due to their high computational efficiency and very good accuracy. In the framework of DFT, usually the total energy is decomposed into kinetic energy, Coulomb energy, and a term called the exchange-correlation energy. Taking into account the relativistic kinetic energy leads to direct and indirect relativistic effects on the electronic structure of a solid. The most pronounced direct effect (although not the biggest in magnitude) is the spin-orbit splitting of band states. A well-known indirect relativistic effect is the change of screening of valence electrons from the nuclear charge by inner-shell electrons. One can ask that how relativistic effects come into play in ordinary density functional theory. Of course ordinary density functional theory does not include those effect. Four-current density functional theory (CDFT), the quantum electrodynamic version of the Hohenberg-Kohn theory is a powerful tool to treat relativistic effects. Although it is principally designed for systems in strong magnetic fields, CDFT can also be applied in situations where currents are present without external magnetic fields. As already pointed out by Rajagopal and Callaway (1973), the most natural way to incorporate magnetism into DFT is the generalization to CDFT. These authors, however, treated its most simple approximation, the spin density functional theory (SDFT), which keeps the spin current only and neglects completely correlation effects of orbital currents. By using the Kohn-Sham-Dirac (KSD) equation, spin-orbit coupling is introduced kinematically. The part of the orbital magnetism that is a consequence of Hund's second rule coupling is absent in this theory and there is not any more a one-to-one mapping of spin densities onto external fields. In solids, in particular in metals, the importance of Hund's second rule coupling (orbital polarization) and Hund's third rule (spin-orbit coupling) is usually interchanged in comparison to atoms. Thus, in applications of the relativistic CDFT to solids, the usual way has been to keep the spin-orbit coupling in the KSD equation (an extension to ordinary Kohn-Sham (KS) equation) and to neglect the orbital contribution to the total current density and approximate exchange-correlation energy functional with spin density only. This scheme includes a spontaneous exchange and correlation spin polarization. Orbital polarization, on the other hand, comes into play not as a correlation effect but also as an effect due to the interplay of spin polarization and spin-orbit coupling: In the presence of both couplings, time reversal symmetry is broken and a non-zero orbital current density may occur. Application of this scheme to 3d and 4f magnets yields orbital moments that are smaller than related experimental values by typically a factor of two. Orbital magnetism in a solid is strongly influenced by the ligand field, originating from the structural environment and geometry of the solid. The orbital moments in a solid with cubic symmetry are expected to be quenched if spin-orbit coupling is neglected. However, spin-orbit coupling induces orbital moments, accordingly. The relativistic nature of the spin-orbit coupling requires orbital magnetism to be treated within QED, and the treatment of QED in solids is possible in the frame of current density functional theory. The kinematic spin-orbit coupling is accounted for in many DFT calculations of magnetic systems within the LSDA. However, a strong deviation of the LSDA orbital moments from experiment is found in such approaches. To avoid such deviations, orbital polarization corrections would be desirable. In this Thesis, those corrections have been investigated in the framework of CDFT. After a short review for CDFT in Chapter 2, in Chapter 3, an &amp;quot;ad hoc&amp;quot; OP correction term (OPB) suggested by Brooks and Eriksson is given. This correction in some cases gives quite reasonable corrections to orbital moments of magnetic materials. Another OP correction (OPE), which has been introduced recently, was derived from the CDFT in the non-relativistic limit. Unfortunately, the program can only incompletely be carried through, as there are reasonable but uncontrolled approximations to be made in two steps of the derivation. Nevertheless, the result is quite close to the &amp;quot;ad hoc&amp;quot;ansatz. The calculated OPE energies for 3d and 4f free ions are in qualitative agreement with OPB energies. In Chapter 4, both corrections are implemented in the FPLO scheme to calculate orbital moments in solids. We found that both OPB and OPE corrections implemented in FPLO method, yield reasonably well the orbital magnetic moments of bcc Fe, hcp Co and fcc Ni compared with experiment. In Chapter 5, the effect of spin-orbit coupling and orbital polarization corrections on the spin and orbital magnetism of full-Heusler alloys is investigated by means of local spin density calculations. It is demonstrated, that OP corrections are needed to explain the experimental orbital moments. Model calculations employing one ligand field parameter yield the correct order of magnitude of the orbital moments, but do not account for its quantitative composition dependence. The spin-orbit coupling reduces the degree of spin polarization of the density of states at Fermi level by a few percent. We have shown that the orbital polarization corrections do not change significantly the spin polarization degree at the Fermi level. We also provide arguments that Co2FeSi might not be a half-metal as suggested by recent experiments. In Chapter 6, to understand recent XMCD data for Co impurities in gold, the electronic structure of Co impurities inside gold has been calculated in the framework of local spin density approximation. The orbital and spin magnetic moment have been evaluated. In agreement with experimental findings, the orbital moment is enhanced with respect to Co metal. On the other hand, internal relaxations are found to reduce the orbital moment considerably, whereas the spin moment is less affected. Both OPB and OPE yield a large orbital moment for Co impurities. However, those calculated orbital moments are almost by a factor of two larger than the experimental values. We also found that the orbital magnetic moment of Co may strongly depend on pressure.

The physics of transition metal oxides is controlled by the combination and competition of several degrees of freedom, in particular the charge, the spin and the orbital state of the electrons. One important parameter responsible for the physical properties is the density of charge carriers which determines the oxidization state of the transition metal ions. The central objective in this work is the study of transition metal oxides in which the charge carrier density is adjusted and controlled via lithium intercalation/deintercalation using electrochemical methods. Lithium exchange can be achieved with a high degree of accuracy by electrochemical methods. The magnetic properties of various intermediate compounds are studied. Among the materials under study the mixed valent vanadium-oxide multiwall nanotubes represent a potentially technologically relevant material for lithium-ion batteries. Upon electron doping of VOx-NTs, the data confirm a higher number of magnetic V4+ sites. Interestingly, room temperature ferromagnetism evolves after electrochemical intercalation of Li, making VOx-NTs a novel type of self-assembled nanoscaled ferromagnets. The high temperature ferromagnetism was attributed to formation of nanosize interacting ferromagnetic spin clusters around the intercalated Li ions. This behavior was established by a complex experimental study with three different local spin probe techniques, namely, electron spin resonance (ESR), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and muon spin relaxation spectroscopies. Sr2CuO2Br2 was another compound studied in this work. The material exhibits CuO4 layers isostructural to the hole-doped high-Tc superconductor La2-xSr2CuO4. Electron doping is realized by Li-intercalation and superconductivity was found below 9K. Electrochemical treatment hence allows the possibility of studying the electronic phase diagram of LixSr2CuO2Br2, a new electron doped superconductor. The effect of electrochemical lithium doping on the magnetic properties was also studied in tunnel-like alpha-MnO2 nanostructures. Upon lithium intercalation, Mn4+ present in alpha-MnO2 will be reduced to Mn3+, resulting in a Mn mixed valency in this compound. The mixed valency and different possible interactions arising between magnetic spins give a complexity to the magnetic properties of doped alpha-MnO2.