RESUMEN
Palaeomagnetic measurements of meteorites suggest that, shortly after the birth of the Solar System, the molten metallic cores of many small planetary bodies convected vigorously and were capable of generating magnetic fields. Convection on these bodies is currently thought to have been thermally driven, implying that magnetic activity would have been short-lived. Here we report a time-series palaeomagnetic record derived from nanomagnetic imaging of the Imilac and Esquel pallasite meteorites, a group of meteorites consisting of centimetre-sized metallic and silicate phases. We find a history of long-lived magnetic activity on the pallasite parent body, capturing the decay and eventual shutdown of the magnetic field as core solidification completed. We demonstrate that magnetic activity driven by progressive solidification of an inner core is consistent with our measured magnetic field characteristics and cooling rates. Solidification-driven convection was probably common among small body cores, and, in contrast to thermally driven convection, will have led to a relatively late (hundreds of millions of years after accretion), long-lasting, intense and widespread epoch of magnetic activity among these bodies in the early Solar System.
RESUMEN
A surface layer ("skin") different from the bulk was found in single crystals of BiFeO(3). Impedance analysis and grazing incidence x-ray diffraction reveal a phase transition at T(*)â¼275±5 °C that is confined within the surface of BiFeO(3). X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and refraction-corrected x-ray diffraction as a function of incidence angle and photon wavelength indicate a reduced electron density and an elongated out-of-plane lattice parameter within a few nanometers of the surface. The skin will affect samples with large surface to volume ratios, as well as devices that rely on interfacial coupling such as exchange bias.
RESUMEN
A systematic x-ray magnetic circular dichroism study of the paramagnetic phase of ErCo(2) has recently allowed us to identify the inversion of the net magnetization of the Co net moment with respect to the applied field well above the ferrimagnetic ordering temperature, T(c). The study of small-angle neutron scattering measurements has also shown the presence of short range order correlations in the same temperature region. This phenomenon, which we have denoted parimagnetism, may be related to the onset of a Griffiths-like phase in paramagnetic ErCo(2). We have measured ac susceptibility on ErCo(2) as a function of temperature, applied field and excitation frequency. Several characteristics shared by systems showing a Griffiths phase are present in ErCo(2), namely the formation of ferromagnetic clusters in the disordered phase, the loss of analyticity of the magnetic susceptibility and its extreme sensitivity to an applied magnetic field. The paramagnetic susceptibility allows us to establish that the magnetic clusters are only formed by Co moments as well as the intrinsic nature of those Co moments.
RESUMEN
The reported observation of two anomalies in the intensity of the magnon Raman peaks of BiFeO3 at 140 and 200 K (Singh et al 2008 J. Phys.: Condens. Mater 20 252203; Cazayous et al 2008 Phys. Rev. Lett. 101 037601) led to the hypothesis that such anomalies might originate from a spin reorientation transition. In order to test this hypothesis, we have used temperature-dependent neutron diffraction to track the evolution of the magnetic configuration in single crystals of BiFeO3. Our results indicate that there is no average reorientation of the spins. This suggests that the magnon anomalies may instead be related to the freezing of modes that do not alter the average projection of the spins over the plane of the cycloid, as also reported for multiferroic TbMnO3 (Senff et al 2006 J. Phys.: Condens. Mater 18 2069).