Extreme Fermi Surface Smearing in a Maximally Disordered Concentrated Solid Solution.

We show that the Fermi surface can survive the presence of extreme compositional disorder in the equiatomic alloy Ni_{0.25}Fe_{0.25}Co_{0.25}Cr_{0.25}. Our high-resolution Compton scattering experiments reveal a Fermi surface which is smeared across a significant fraction of the Brillouin zone (up to 40% of 2π/a). The extent of this smearing and its variation on and between different sheets of the Fermi surface have been determined, and estimates of the electron mean free path and residual resistivity have been made by connecting this smearing with the coherence length of the quasiparticle states.

Vacancies, disorder-induced smearing of the electronic structure, and its implications for the superconductivity of anti-perovskite MgC0.93Ni2.85.

The anti-perovskite superconductor MgC0.93Ni2.85 was studied using high-resolution x-ray Compton scattering combined with electronic structure calculations. Compton scattering measurements were used to determine experimentally a Fermi surface that showed good agreement with that of our supercell calculations, establishing the presence of the predicted hole and electron Fermi surface sheets. Our calculations indicate that the Fermi surface is smeared by the disorder due to the presence of vacancies on the C and Ni sites, but does not drastically change shape. The 20% reduction in the Fermi level density-of-states would lead to a significant (~70%) suppression of the superconducting T c for pair-forming electron-phonon coupling. However, we ascribe the observed much smaller T c reduction at our composition (compared to the stoichiometric compound) to the suppression of pair-breaking spin fluctuations.

Magnetic frustration, short-range correlations and the role of the paramagnetic Fermi surface of PdCrO2.

Frustrated interactions exist throughout nature, with examples ranging from protein folding through to frustrated magnetic interactions. Whilst magnetic frustration is observed in numerous electrically insulating systems, in metals it is a rare phenomenon. The interplay of itinerant conduction electrons mediating interactions between localised magnetic moments with strong spin-orbit coupling is likely fundamental to these systems. Therefore, knowledge of the precise shape and topology of the Fermi surface is important in any explanation of the magnetic behaviour. PdCrO2, a frustrated metallic magnet, offers the opportunity to examine the relationship between magnetic frustration, short-range magnetic order and Fermi surface topology. By mapping the short-range order in reciprocal space and experimentally determining the electronic structure, we have identified the dual role played by the Cr electrons in which the itinerant ones on the nested paramagnetic Fermi surface mediate the frustrated magnetic interactions between local moments.