Magnetocrystalline anisotropy is a fundamental property of magnetic materials that determines the dynamics of magnetic precession, the frequency of spin waves, the thermal stability of magnetic domains, and the efficiency of spintronic devices. We combine torque magnetometry and density functional theory calculations to determine the magnetocrystalline anisotropy of the metallic antiferromagnet Fe2As. Fe2As has a tetragonal crystal structure with the Neel vector lying in the (001) plane. We report that the fourfold magnetocrystalline anisotropy in the (001) plane of Fe2As is extremely small, K-22 = -150 J/m(3) at T = 4 K, much smaller than the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic structure widely used in spintronic devices. K-22 is strongly temperature dependent and close to zero at T > 150 K. The anisotropy K-1 in the (010) plane is too large to be measured by torque magnetometry and we determine K-1 = -830 kJ/m(3) using first-principles density functional theory. Our simulations show that the contribution to the anisotropy from classical magnetic dipole-dipole interactions is comparable to the contribution from spin-orbit coupling. The calculated fourfold anisotropy in the (001) plane K-22 ranges from -290 to 280 J/m(3), the same order of magnitude as the measured value. We used K-1 from theory to predict the frequency and polarization of the lowest frequency antiferromagnetic resonance mode and find that the mode is linearly polarized in the (001) plane with f = 670 GHz.

Measurements of the thermal transport properties of biological fluids and tissues are important for biomedical applications such as thermal diagnostics and thermal therapeutics. Here, we describe a microscale thermoreflectance sensor to measure the thermal effusivity of fluids and biological samples in a minimally invasive manner. The sensor is based on ultrafast optical pump-probe techniques and employs a metal-coated optical fiber as both a photonic waveguide and a local probe. Calibration of the sensor with five liquids shows that the percentage deviation between experimentally measured effusivity and literature values is on average <3%. We further demonstrate the capability of the sensor by measuring the thermal effusivity of vegetable oil, butter, pork liver, and quail egg white and yolk. We relate the thermal effusivity of the samples to their composition and water content, and establish our technique as a powerful and flexible method for studying the local thermal transport properties of biological materials.

Materials with an abrupt transition between a low and a high thermal conductance state at a critical temperature would be useful for thermal regulation applications. Here, the authors report a high contrast reversible thermal conductivity change through the thermally-induced martensitic transition (MT) in Ni-Mn-In alloys. The authors measure the thermal conductivity of a wide temperature range 130 < T < 530 K using time-domain thermoreflectance (TDTR). The thermal conductivity of these alloys increases from approximate to 7.0-8.5 W m(-1) K-1 to approximate to 11.5-13.0 W m(-1) K-1 through the MT near 300 K as temperature rises, with a rate of change among the highest yet reported in solid-state materials with thermally-induced phase transitions. Based on Hall resistivity measurements, the authors further show that the change of thermal conductivity is dominated by the electronic contribution, which results from a unique carrier mobility change through the MT. Their findings highlight the interplay between the structural disorders and the thermal transport in alloys through solid-state phase transitions and open a new avenue in the search of high-performance materials for thermal regulation.

The linear magneto-optic Kerr effect (MOKE) is often used to probe magnetism of ferromagnetic materials, but MOKE cannot be applied to collinear antiferromagnets due to the cancellation of sublattice magnetization. Magneto-optic constants that are quadratic in magnetization, however, provide an approach for studying antiferromagnets on picosecond timescales. Here, we combine transient measurements of linear birefringence and optical reflectivity to study the optical response of Fe2As to small ultrafast temperature excursions. We performed temperature-dependent pump-probe measurements on crystallographically isotropic (001) and anisotropic (010) faces of Fe2As bulk crystals. We find that the largest optical signals arise from changes in the index of refraction along the z axis, perpendicular to the Ned vector. Both real and imaginary parts of the transient optical birefringence signal approximately follow the temperature dependence of the magnetic heat capacity, as expected if the changes in dielectric function are dominated by contributions of exchange interactions to the dielectric function.

We investigate the anisotropic superconducting and magnetic properties of single-crystal RbEuFe(4)As(4 )using magnetotransport and magnetization measurements. We determine a magnetic ordering temperature of the Eu moments of T-m = 15 K and a superconducting transition temperature of T-c = 36.8 K. The superconducting phase diagram is characterized by high upper critical field slopes of -70 and -42 kG/K for in-plane and out-of-plane fields, respectively, and a surprisingly low superconducting anisotropy of Gamma = 1.7. Ginzburg-Landau parameters of K-c similar to 67 and K-ab similar to 108 indicate extreme type-II behavior. These superconducting properties are in line with those commonly seen in optimally doped Fe-based superconductors. In contrast, Eu magnetism is quasi-two dimensional (2D), as evidenced by highly anisotropic in-plane and out-of-plane exchange constants of 0.6 K and <0.04 K. A consequence of the quasi-2D nature of the Eu magnetism are strong magnetic fluctuation effects, a large suppression of the magnetic ordering temperature as compared to the Curie-Weiss temperature, and a kinklike anomaly in the specific heat devoid of any singularity. Magnetization curves reveal a clear magnetic easy-plane anisotropy with in-plane and out-of-plane saturation fields of 2 and 4 kG.

Gallium (Ga) displays several metastable phases. Superconductivity is strongly enhanced in the metastable beta-Ga with a critical temperature T-c = 6.04(5) K, while stable alpha-Ga has a much lower T-c < 1.2 K. Here we use a membrane-based nanocalorimeter to initiate the transition from alpha-Ga to beta-Ga on demand, as well as study the specific heat of the two phases on one and the same sample. The in situ transformation is initiated by bringing the temperature to about 10 K above the melting temperature of alpha-Ga. After such treatment, the liquid supercools down to 232 K, where beta-Ga solidifies. We find that beta-Ga is a strong-coupling type-I superconductor with Delta(0)/k(B)T(c) = 2.00(5) and a Sommerfeld coefficient gamma(n) = 1.53(4) mJ/molK(2), 2.55 times higher than that in the alpha phase. The results allow a detailed comparison of fundamental thermodynamic properties between the two phases.

We report on changes in the thermal conductivity of solid-state synthesized MnxMGe (M = Co, Ni, 0.98 < x < 1.02) alloys through their temperature-induced martensitic structural transition. The thermal conductivity is measured by time-domain thermoreflectance. Mn1.014NiGe exhibits an increase in thermal conductivity from 11 to 15.5 W m(-1) K-1 from approximately 575 to 625 K, and Mn1.007CoGe exhibits an increase in thermal conductivity from 7 to 8.5 W m(-1) K-1 from 500 to 550 K. In MnxNiGe, the transition temperature and the magnitude of the change in thermal conductivity are strongly dependent on the alloy composition. Our study advances the fundamental understanding of the thermal transport properties in the MnxMGe(M = Co, Ni) family of alloys and opens a new direction in the search for solid-state phase transition materials with potential applications as thermal regulators.

Recent advances in electronics and nanofabrication have enabled membrane-based nanocalorimetry for measurements of the specific heat of microgram-sized samples. We have integrated a nanocalorimeter platform into a 4.5 T split-pair vertical-field magnet to allow for the simultaneous measurement of the specific heat and x-ray scattering in magnetic fields and at temperatures as low as 4 K. This multi-modal approach empowers researchers to directly correlate scattering experiments with insights from thermodynamic properties including structural, electronic, orbital, and magnetic phase transitions. The use of a nanocalorimeter sample platform enables numerous technical advantages: precise measurement and control of the sample temperature, quantification of beam heating effects, fast and precise positioning of the sample in the x-ray beam, and fast acquisition of x-ray scans over a wide temperature range without the need for time-consuming re-centering and re-alignment. Furthermore, on an YBa2Cu3O7-delta crystal and a copper foil, we demonstrate a novel approach to x-ray absorption spectroscopy by monitoring the change in sample temperature as a function of incident photon energy. Finally, we illustrate the new insights that can be gained from in situ structural and thermodynamic measurements by investigating the superheated state occurring at the first-order magneto-elastic phase transition of Fe2P, a material that is of interest for magnetocaloric applications.

We investigate the electronic specific heat of superoptimally substituted BaFe2(As1-x P-x(x))(2) single crystals in the superconducting state using high-resolution nanocalorimetry. From the measurements, we extract the substitution dependence of the condensation energy, superconducting gap Delta, and related microscopic parameters. We find that the anomalous scaling of the specific heat jump Delta C proportional to T-c(3) , found in many iron-based superconductors, in this system originates from a T-c-dependent ratio Delta/k(B)T(c) in combination with a substitution-dependent density of states N(epsilon(F)). A clear enhancement is seen in the effective mass m* as the composition approaches the value that has been associated with a quantum critical point at optimum substitution. However, a simultaneous increase in the superconducting carrier concentration n(s) yields a penetration depth lambda that decreases with increasing T-c without sharp divergence at the quantum critical point. Uemura scaling indicates that T-c is governed by the Fermi temperature T-F for this multiband system.

We report on specific heat measurements on clean overdoped BaFe2(As1-xPx)(2) single crystals performed with a high resolution membrane-based nanocalorimeter. A nonzero residual electronic specific heat coefficient at zero temperature gamma(r) = C/T backslash(T -> 0) is seen for all doping compositions, indicating a considerable fraction of the Fermi surface ungapped or having very deep minima. The remaining superconducting electronic specific heat is analyzed through a two-band s-wave alpha model in order to investigate the gap structure. Close to optimal doping we detect a single zero-temperature gap of Delta(0) similar to 5.3 meV, corresponding to Delta(0)/k(B)T(c) similar to 2.2. Increasing the phosphorus concentration x, the main gap reduces till a value of Delta(0) similar to 1.9 meV for x = 0.55 and a second weaker gap becomes evident. From the magnetic field effect on gamma(r), all samples however show similar behavior [gamma(r)(H) -gamma(r)(H = 0) proportional to H-n, with n between 0.6 and 0.7]. This indicates that, despite a considerable redistribution of the gap weights, the total degree of gap anisotropy does not change drastically with doping.