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Solid State Chemistry Group

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Solid State Chemistry Group

at the Laboratory for Multiscale materials eXperiments

We are working on the synthesis and characterization of ceramic and single crystal materials with novel electronic and magnetic properties. Numerous complex oxide materials have been successfully crystallized by the Traveling Solvent Floating Zone (TSFZ) method using an optical furnace. This includes cuprates, manganates, orthoferrites, cobaltites, borates and phosphates. Novel chalcogenide iron superconductors have been synthesized as powders and single crystals (Bridgman method). read more


News

16 July 2019

PhD Defence Fei Li

On 31.05.2019, Fei Li passed successfully his PhD defence at the ETH Materials Department. The title of his thesis is "Crystal and Magnetic Structure of R1/3Sr2/3FeO3 (R = La,Pr,Nd)”

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18 March 2019

DGKK Award for young researchers 2019 for Pascal Puphal

Dr Pascal Puphal (currently a Postdoc at PSI, LMX, Solid State Chemistry Group) has recently been awarded with the DGKK young researcher price from the German Crystal Growth Community on his Ph.D. work performed in the group of Cornelius Krellner at the Geothe University Frankfurt am Main on the topic "Tuning two dimensional Cu-based quantum spin systems". The work covers the stabilization and proof of a 2D dimer structure by Sr substitution in Han Purple and the research of novel kagome materials of the prominent quantum spin liquid candidate herbertsmithite by the hydrothermal route.

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Scientific Highlight

30 October 2020
Shang et al npj

Re(1−x)Mox as an ideal test case of time-reversal symmetry breaking in unconventional superconductors

Non-centrosymmetric superconductors (NCSCs) are promising candidates in the search for unconventional and topological superconductivity. The α-Mn-type rhenium-based alloys represent excellent examples of NCSCs, where spontaneous magneticfields, peculiar to time-reversal symmetry (TRS) breaking, have been shown to develop in the superconducting phase. By converse, TRS is preserved in many other isostructural NCSCs, thus leaving the key question about its origin fully open. Here, we consider ...

 

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21 September 2020
Paris et al PNAS

Strain engineering of the charge and spin-orbital interactions in Sr2IrO4

Understanding the relationship between entangled degrees of freedom (DOF) is a central problem in correlated materials and the possibility to influence their balance is promising toward realizing novel functionalities. In Sr2IrO4, the interaction between spin–orbit coupling and electron correlations induces an exotic ground state with magnetotransport properties promising for antiferromagnetic spintronics applications.

 

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24 March 2020
Balsini PNAS

Electron–phonon-driven three-dimensional metallicity in an insulating cuprate

Elucidating the role of different degrees of freedom in a phase transition is crucial in the comprehension of complex materi- als. A phase transformation that attracts significant interest is the insulator-to-metal transition of Mott insulators, in which the electrons are thought to play the dominant role. Here, we use ultrafast laser spectroscopy and theoretical calculations ....

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17 January 2020
destraz_natqm_2020

Magnetism and anomalous transport in the Weyl semimetal PrAlGe: possible route to axial gauge fields

In magnetic Weyl semimetals, where magnetism breaks time-reversal symmetry, large magnetically sensitive anomalous transport responses are anticipated that could be useful for topological spintronics. The identification of new magnetic Weyl semimetals is therefore in high demand, particularly since in these systems Weyl node configurations may be easily modified using magnetic fields. Here we explore experimentally the magnetic semimetal PrAlGe, and unveil a direct correspondence between easy-axis Pr ferromagnetism and anomalous Hall and Nernst effects. 

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7 January 2020
puphal_prl_t.jpg

Topological Magnetic Phase in the Candidate Weyl Semimetal CeAlGe

We report the discovery of topological magnetism in the candidate magnetic Weyl semimetal CeAlGe. Using neutron scattering we find this system to host several incommensurate, square-coordinated multi-k⃗ magnetic phases below TN. The topological properties of a phase stable at intermediate magnetic fields parallel to the c axis are suggested by observation of a topological Hall effect. 

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10 September 2019
guguchia_npj_t.jpg

Nodeless superconductivity and its evolution with pressure in the layered dirac semimetal 2M-WS2

Recently, the transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD) system 2M-WS2 has been identified as a Dirac semimetal exhibiting both superconductivity with the highest Tc ~ 8.5 K among all the TMD materials and topological surface states. Here we report on muon spin rotation (μSR) and density functional theory studies of microscopic SC properties and the electronic structure in 2M-WS2 at ambient and under hydrostatic pressures (pmax = 1.9 GPa).

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21 February 2019
Photos of (a) the cast CeAlGe rod, and the floating-zone-grown crystals of (b) CeAlGe and (c) PrAlGe.

Bulk single-crystal growth of the theoretically predicted magnetic Weyl semimetals RAlGe (R = Pr, Ce)

We explore two methods for single-crystal growth of the theoretically proposed magnetic Weyl semimetals RAlGe (R = Pr, Ce), which prove that a floating-zone technique, being both crucible- and flux-free, is crucial to obtain perfectly stoichiometric RAlGe crystals. In contrast, the crystals grown by a flux-growth technique tend to be Al-rich. We further present both structural and elemental analyses, along with bulk magnetization and electrical resistivity data on the crystals prepared by the floating-zone technique. Both systems with the intended 1:1:1 stoichiometry crystallize in the anticipated polar I41md (No. 109) space group, although neither displays the theoretically expected ferromagnetic ground state.

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29 November 2018
(a) Schematic picture of the Cu2+ hexamers in the compounds A2Cu3O(SO4)3 (A = Na, K). The parameters Jij denote the exchange coupling scheme adopted to describe the observed spin excitations. (b) Energies of the spin excitations observed for A2Cu3O(SO4)3 (A = Na, K) denoted by Si , Ti, and Qi for the singlet, triplet, and quintet states, respectively. from Fig. 1

Spin triplet ground-state in the copper hexamer compounds A2Cu3O(SO4)3 (A = Na, K)

The compounds A2Cu3O(SO4)3(A=Na,K) are characterized by copper hexamers which are weakly coupled along the b axis to realize one-dimensional antiferromagnetic chains below TN≈3K, whereas the interchain interactions along the a and c axes are negligible. We investigated the energy-level splittings of the copper hexamers by inelastic neutron scattering below and above TN.

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25 September 2018

Evidence of a Coulomb-Interaction-Induced Lifshitz Transition and Robust Hybrid Weyl Semimetal in Td-MoTe2

Using soft x-ray angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy we probed the bulk electronic structure of Td-MoTe2. We found that on-site Coulomb interaction leads to a Lifshitz transition, which is essential for a precise description of the electronic structure. A hybrid Weyl semimetal state with a pair of energy bands touching at both type-I and type-II Weyl nodes is indicated by comparing the experimental data with theoretical calculations.

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Contact

Solid State Chem. Group
Laboratory for Multiscale materials eXperiments
PSI
CH-5232 Villigen PSI
Switzerland


Head of Group
Dr. Ekaterina Pomjakushina
+41 56 310 32 07
ekaterina.pomjakushina@psi.ch

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Research with Neutrons and Muons NUM Division at PSI


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PSI Scientific Reports

Archive 2006-2012. The Scientific Reports – containing accounts of research topics from all the different areas – provide an impression of the variety of subjects researched at PSI.

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