We report detailed dc magnetization and linear and nonlinear ac susceptibility measurements on the hole doped disordered cobaltite La0.5Ba0.5CoO3. Our results show that the magnetically ordered state of the system consists of coexisting non-ferromagnetic phases along with percolating ferromagnetic clusters. The percolating ferromagnetic clusters possibly start a magnetic ordering at the Curie temperature of 201.5(5) K. The non-ferromagnetic phases mainly consist of antiferromagnetic clusters with size smaller than the ferromagnetic clusters. Below the Curie temperature the system exhibits an irreversibility in the field cooled and zero field cooled magnetization and a frequency dependence in the peak of ac susceptibility. These dynamical features indicate the possible coexistence of spin-glass phase along with ferromagnetic clusters similar to La(1-x)Sr(x)CoO3 (x ≥ 0.18), but the absence of field divergence in the third harmonic of ac susceptibility and zero field cooled memory clearly rule out any such possibility. We argue that the spin-glass phase in La(1-x)Sr(x)CoO3 (x ≥ 0.18) is associated with the presence of incommensurate antiferromagnetic ordering in non-ferromagnetic phases, which is absent in La0.5Ba0.5CoO3. Our analysis shows that the observed dynamical features in La0.5Ba0.5CoO3 may be due to progressive thermal blocking of ferromagnetic clusters, which is further confirmed by Wohlfarth's model of superparamagnetism. The frequency dependence of the peak of ac susceptibility obeys the Vogel-Fulcher law with τ0 ≈ 10(-9) s. This together with the existence of an AT-line in H-T space indicates the presence of significant inter-cluster interaction among these ferromagnetic clusters.

We report the quantum transport studies on Bi2Se3 single crystal with bulk carrier concentration of ∼1019 cm–3. The Bi2Se3 crystal exhibits metallic character, and at low temperatures, the field dependence of resistivity shows clear Shubnikov–de Haas (SdH) oscillations above 6 T. The analysis of these oscillations through Lifshitz–Kosevich theory reveals a non‐trivial π Berry phase coming from three‐dimensional (3D) Fermi surface, which is a strong signature of Dirac fermions with three‐dimensional dispersion. The large Dingle temperature and non zero slope of Williamson–Hall plot suggest the presence of enhanced local strain field in our system which possibly transforms the regions of topological insulator to 3D Dirac fermion metal state. (© 2015 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH &Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

We report the time dependent response of electrical resistivity in the non-magnetic perovskite oxide NdNiO(3) in its phase separated state and provide a physical explanation of the observations. We also model the system and make an accurate Monte Carlo simulation of the observed behavior. While cooling, a phase separation takes place in the system below its metal-insulator transition temperature and in this state the material exhibits various dynamical phenomena such as relaxation of resistivity, dependence of resistivity on cooling rate and rejuvenation of the material after ageing. These phenomena signal that the phase separated state of NdNiO(3) is not in thermodynamic equilibrium, and we conjecture that it consists of supercooled paramagnetic metallic and antiferromagnetic insulating phases. The supercooled phases are metastable and they switch over to the insulating equilibrium state stochastically, and this can account for the slow dynamics observed in our system. We also verify the predictive power of our model by simulating the result of a new experiment and confirming it by actual measurements.

We report detailed magnetization measurements on the perovskite oxide NdNiO3. This system has a first order metal-insulator (M-I) transition at about 200 K which is associated with charge ordering. There is also a concurrent paramagnetic to antiferromagnetic spin ordering transition in the system. We show that the antiferromagnetic state of the nickel sublattice is spin canted. We also show that the concurrency of the charge ordering and spin ordering transitions is seen only while warming up the system from low temperature. The transitions are not concurrent while cooling the system through the M-I transition temperature. This is explained based on the fact that the charge ordering transition is first order while the spin ordering transition is continuous. In the magnetically ordered state the system exhibits ZFC-FC irreversibility, as well as history-dependent magnetization and aging. Our analysis rules out the possibility of spin-glass or superparamagnetism and suggests that the irreversibility arises from magnetocrystalline anisotropy and domain wall pinning.

We report the observation of quantum Hall effect (QHE) in a Bi2Se3 single crystal having carrier concentration (n) ∼ 1.13 × 10 19 cm −3 , three dimensional Fermi surface and bulk transport characteristics. The plateaus in Hall resistivity coincide with minima of Shubnikov de Haas oscillations in resistivity. Our results demonstrate that the presence of perfect two dimensional transport is not an essential condition for QHE in Bi2Se3. The results of high resolution x-ray diffraction (HRXRD), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and residual resistivity measurements show the presence of enhanced crystalline defects and microstrain. We propose that the formation of localized state at the edge of each Landau level due to resonance between the bulk and defect band of Bi2Se3 causes the quantum Hall effect.