Magnetic relaxation in dilute magnetic alloys

Author(s)

Krissia de Zawadzki

• Document type: Master's Dissertation
• Press: São Carlos.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/BT)
• Defense date: 2014-02-13

Examining board members

Luiz Nunes de Oliveira; Rodrigo Gonçalves Pereira; Edson Vernek

• Advisor: Luiz Nunes de Oliveira

Abstract

In the 1960s, Kondo showed that the resistivity minimum observed in a number of metals at low temperatures is due to the antiferromagnetic coupling between magnetic impurities and the conduction electrons of the metallic host. Although many theoretical and experimental results have been obtained since then, an interesting question remains unanswered: the structure of the cloud of conduction electrons that screen the magnetic moment of the impurity. To add insight into that structure, we here present a Numerical Renormalization Group (NRG) procedure to compute the NMR longitudinal relaxation rate 1⁄T1 of a probe at distance R from the impurity, as a function of R and of the temperature. We define a quantum basis containing two subsets of conduction states. The elements of one the subsets, denoted ƒn, are s-wave states coupled to the impurity and described by the Anderson Hamiltonian, which can be diagonalized by the traditional NRG procedure. Each element of the second subset, denoted cε is a linear combination of an s-wave state centered at the probe with the fns, the combination constructed to make cε orthogonal to the ƒns. By contrast with the ƒns, the cεs are decoupled from the impurity. On the basis of these definitions, we show that 1⁄T1 has three components, which we name scalar, vector and matrix. The scalar component, associated with the scattering of cε states off the probe, is temperature independent and weakly dependent on R. The matrix component (1⁄T1)mat, associated with the scattering of ƒn electrons, decays rapidly with R. The vector component (1⁄T1)vet is due to cross-chanel scattering between the ƒn and the cε subsets. We give central attention to the latter, which is dominant over (1⁄T1)mat at large distances R. The T-dependence of the relaxation rate changes as we cross RK ∝ T-1K. At high temperatures limit, we observe the (1⁄T1)vet(T) mapping in the universal conductance curves Gside(T⁄TK) e GSET (T⁄TK). Regarding the spatial dependence, we analize the Friedel oscillations. From our results we verify the relation i>RK = hvF⁄ KBTK for the radius of the Kondo screening cloud and also show that the phase of the Friedel oscillations changes as we are inside or outside the cloud. launch the idea of a shell around RK where screening effects remain important. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 12/02702-0 - Magnetic relaxation in dilute magnetic alloys
• Grantee: Krissia de Zawadzki
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master