Chemical Potential Derivative as Hallmark for Phase Transitions

• Authors: M. Pietruszka , M. Matlak
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

We study antiferromagnetic properties of the two-band extended s-f model with fluctuating valence in the context of two mutually bound new effects of chemical potential critical behaviour, as well as of critical electron redistribution. In order to exemplify both phenomena we build phase diagrams of the system displaying the dependence of the critical Néel temperatures (T_{N}) of the system versus 4f (5f) level positions. The phase diagram consists of two different areas corresponding to antiferromagnetic and paramagnetic phases. We plot the magnetizations and the correlation functions of the system as functions of temperature. Next, we investigate the temperature dependence of the relative average occupation numbers Δn^{f(d)} and the chemical potential Δμ for a given 4f (5f) level position E_{f}. Plotting this quantities along the E_{f} cross-section lines we observe small (of the order of 10^{-4}-10^{-3}) but well localized kinks exactly at the Néel temperature T_{N}. Last but not least, we plot the first derivative of the chemical potential dμ/dT which, as it shows clearly visible jumps at T_{N}, may turn out to be very accurate and sensitive (auxiliary) tool to find critical temperatures of the considered system. Moreover, we plot the difference μ_{AF}-μ_{PARA} where we subtract a chemical potential value of a reference paramagnetic sample from the actual value of the antiferromagnetic system. Also in this case we report the observation of discontinuous change in slope at T_{N}. Our observations can be extended to point out to a new practical possibility of how to find experimentally the critical temperatures of the antiferromagnetic systems exclusively from the chemical potential measurements. We expect that the same type of measurement, according to our recent and present results, would also apply to all types of critical phenomena in real solids.

Keywords

EN

64.60.-i; 75.40.Cx; 75.50.Ee

Discipline

• 75.50.Ee: Antiferromagnetics
• 75.40.Cx: Static properties (order parameter, static susceptibility, heat capacities, critical exponents, etc.)
• 64.60.-i: General studies of phase transitions(see also 63.70.+h Statistical mechanics of lattice vibrations and displacive phase transitions; for critical phenomena in solid surfaces and interfaces, and in magnetism, see 68.35.Rh, and 75.40.-s, respectively)

• Publisher: Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Acta Physica Polonica A
• Year: 1999
• Volume: 96
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 725-732

Dates

published

1999-12

received

1999-07-27

(unknown)

1999-10-15

Contributors

author

M. Pietruszka

• Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Silesia, Jagiellońska 28, 40-032 Katowice, Poland

author

M. Matlak

• Institute of Physics, University of Silesia, Uniwersytecka 4, 40-007 Katowice, Poland

Identifiers

DOI

10.12693/APhysPolA.96.725