Partial breakdown of translation symmetry at a structural quantum critical point associated with a ferroelectric soft mode

Ishii, Yui*; Yamamoto, Arisa*; Sato, Naoki*; Nambu, Yusuke*; Kawamura, Seiko; Murai, Naoki; Ohara, Koji*; Kawaguchi, Shogo*; Mori, Takao*; Mori, Shigeo*

Physical Review B, 106(13), p.134111_1 - 134111_7, 2022/10

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.106.134111

Breakdown of linear spin-wave theory and existence of spinon bound states in the frustrated kagome-lattice antiferromagnet

Mattan, K.*; Ono, Toshio*; Kawamura, Seiko; Nakajima, Kenji; Nambu, Yusuke*; Sato, Taku*

Physical Review B, 105(13), p.134403_1 - 134403_8, 2022/04

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.105.134403

Spin dynamics of the spin-1/2 kagome-lattice antiferromagnet CsCuSnF was studied using high-resolution, time-of-flight inelastic neutron scattering. The flat mode, a characteristic of the frustrated kagome antiferromagnet, and the low-energy dispersive mode, which is dominated by magnons, can be well described by the linear spin-wave theory. However, the theory fails to describe three weakly dispersive modes between 9 and 14 meV. These modes could be attributed to two-spinon bound states, which decay into free spinons away from the zone center and at a high temperature, giving rise to continuum scattering.

Development of a hybrid piston cylinder cell for quasielastic neutron scattering experiments up to 1 GPa

Hattori, Takanori; Kawamura, Seiko; Kawasaki, Takuro

High Pressure Research, 42(2), p.226 - 235, 2022/00

https://doi.org/10.1080/08957959.2022.2068954

We have developed a hybrid piston cylinder cell for quasi-elastic neutron scattering (QENS) experiments up to about 1 GPa. It consists of a fretted cylinder made of the high tensile steel (SNCM439) liner and the Al alloy (NA700) jacket. Performance tests revealed that the cell can withstand a pressure of 0.8 GPa without irreversible damage and has 4.4 times larger neutron transmission at 3.14 meV (5.10 in wavelength) than that of a conventional CuBe monobloc cylinder. Combined with the sample assembly devised for suppressing multiple scattering, high quality QENS spectra of water were obtained up to 0.8 GPa. This study illustrates the efficacy of the hybrid cylinders not only for increasing maximum available pressure but also manipulating the available pressure and the signal intensity, depending on the purpose of the experiments.

Mode distribution analysis for superionic melt of CuI by coherent quasielastic neutron scattering

Kawakita, Yukinobu; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Tahara, Shuta*; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Maruyama, Kenji*; Yamauchi, Yasuhiro*; Kawamura, Seiko; Nakajima, Kenji

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011071_1 - 011071_6, 2021/03

BB2019-1144.pdf:0.7MB

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011071

CuI is a well-known superionic conductor in a high temperature solid phase where the mobile cations migrate between interstitial sites in the f.c.c. sublattice formed by iodine ions. Even in the molten state, it shows several features suggesting collective or cooperative ionic motion. MD results show that Cu diffuses much faster than I. The Cu-Cu partial structure factor have a FSDP which indicates a medium-range ordering of Cu ions. Moreover the Cu-Cu partial pair distribution deeply penetrates into the nearest neighboring Cu-I shell. To reveal origin such anomalous behaviors of molten CuI, we performed quaiselastic neutron scattering (QENS) by the disk-chopper spectrometer AMATERAS at MLF, J-PARC. To interpret the total dynamic structure factor obtained from coherent QENS, the mode distribution analysis was applied. It is found that the motion of iodine is a kind of fluctuating within an almost local area while Cu ions diffuse much faster than iodine ions.

Sequence-dependent hydration water dynamics of dodecameric DNA

Nakagawa, Hiroshi; Yonetani, Yoshiteru*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Kataoka, Mikio*; Kono, Hidetoshi*

JPS Conference Proceedings (Internet), 33, p.011101_1 - 011101_6, 2021/03

https://doi.org/10.7566/JPSCP.33.011101

Hydration water dynamics were measured by quasi-elastic neutron scattering with HnO/DO contrast for two DNA dodecamers, 5'CGCGCGCG'3 and 5'CGCGCGCG'3, which have been computationally shown to be structurally rigid and flexible, respectively. The dynamical transitions of the hydration water as well as DNA were observed for both sequences at approximately 240 K. Above the transition temperature, the mean square displacements of the hydration water for the rigid sequence were smaller than those for the flexible one. Furthermore, the relaxation time of the hydration water was longer in the rigid DNA than in the flexible DNA. We suggest that hydration water dynamics on the picosecond timescale are associated with sequence-dependent deformability of DNA.

=0 long-range magnetic order in centennialite CaCu(OD)Cl 0.6DO; A Spin- perfect kagome antiferromagnet with --

Iida, Kazuki*; Yoshida, Hiroyuki*; Nakao, Akiko*; Jeschke, H. O.*; Iqbal, Y.*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Munakata, Koji*; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Murai, Naoki; et al.

Physical Review B, 101(22), p.220408_1 - 220408_6, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.101.220408

Crystal and magnetic structures of the mineral centennialite CaCu(OD)Cl 0.6DO are investigated by means of synchrotron X-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction measurements complemented by density functional theory (DFT) and pseudofermion functional renormalization group (PFFRG) calculations. In CaCu(OD)Cl 0.6DO, Cu ions form a geometrically perfect kagome network with antiferromagnetic . No intersite disorder between Cu and Ca ions is detected. CaCu(OD)Cl 0.6DO enters a magnetic long-range ordered state below = 7.2 K, and the =0 magnetic structure with negative vector spin chirality is obtained. The ordered moment at 0.3 K is suppressed to 0.58(2)B. Our DFT calculations indicate the presence of antiferromagnetic and ferromagnetic superexchange couplings of a strength which places the system at the crossroads of three magnetic orders (at the classical level) and a spin- PFFRG analysis shows a dominance of =0 type magnetic correlations, consistent with and indicating proximity to the observed =0 spin structure. The results suggest that this material is located close to a quantum critical point and is a good realization of a -- kagome antiferromagnet.

Magnetic-field and composition tuned antiferromagnetic instability in the quantum spin-liquid candidate NaYbO

Guo, J.*; Zhao, X.*; Kawamura, Seiko; Ling, L.*; Wang, J.*; He, L.*; Nakajima, Kenji; Li, B.*; Zhang, Z.*

Physical Review Materials (Internet), 4(6), p.064410_1 - 064410_7, 2020/06

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.4.064410

Multiple magnetic bilayers and unconventional criticality without frustration in BaCuSiO

Allenspach, S.*; Biffin, A.*; Stuhr, U.*; Tucker, G. S.*; Kawamura, Seiko; Kofu, Maiko; Voneshen, D. J.*; Boehm, M.*; Normand, B.*; Laflorencie, N.*; et al.

Physical Review Letters, 124(17), p.177205_1 - 177205_7, 2020/05

https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.177205

Background issues encountered by cold-neutron chopper spectrometer AMATERAS

Kikuchi, Tatsuya*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; Inamura, Yasuhiro; Nakamura, Mitsutaka; Wakai, Daisuke*; Aoyama, Kazuhiro*; Iwahashi, Takaaki*; Kambara, Wataru*

Physica B; Condensed Matter, 564, p.45 - 53, 2019/07

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physb.2019.02.015

Details of the background, that is, unwanted signals accumulated by the data acquisition system of neutron instruments, observed by the cold-neutron chopper spectrometer AMATERAS installed at the Materials and Life Science Experimental Facility at J-PARC are reported. In the design phase of AMATERAS, we carefully considered the achievement of high signal-to-noise ratio, and possible countermeasures were implemented. Actually, recent scientific outputs from AMATERAS indicates that the spectrometer is one of excellent neutron instruments with low background. In spite of that, in nine years of AMATERAS operation, we have encountered unwanted signals due to various reasons, including gamma-rays emitted at materials on or near the beam line including the sample itself, scattered neutrons from the beam line devices, air scattering, electronic noise in data acquisition system, cosmic rays, T0 burst, and other unknown sources. In this report, we discuss the background observed by AMATERAS, especially in the conditions of without samples, comprehensively. The possible sources of these signals and the countermeasures considered against the above sources are discussed, which may be helpful to those who are engaged in other existing or planned neutron-scattering instruments.

Evidence for singular-phonon-induced nematic superconductivity in a topological superconductor candidate SrBiSe

Wang, J.*; Ran, K.*; Li, S.*; Ma, Z.*; Bao, S.*; Cai, Z.*; Zhang, Y.*; Nakajima, Kenji; Kawamura, Seiko; ermk, P.*; et al.

Nature Communications (Internet), 10, p.2802_1 - 2802_6, 2019/06

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-10942-2