PhD ceremony Ms. I.P. Handayani: Correlations between charge, orbital, and spin degree of freedom in magnetically competing systems

PhD ceremony: Ms. I.P. Handayani

Dissertation: Correlations between charge, orbital, and spin degree of freedom in magnetically competing systems

Promotor(s): prof. P.H.M. van Loosdrecht

Faculty: Mathematics and Natural Sciences

The rich variety of intriguing physical properties found in the transition metal oxides has sparked the ongoing research interest in this class of materials. In these materials, the interplay between charge, orbital, lattice, and spin degrees of freedom plays a major role in a number of exciting and novel phenomena, including high temperature superconductivity, colossal magnetoresistance, and multiferroic behavior. This thesis highlights the rich variety of charge, orbital, lattice, and spin ordered phases and the intriguing static and dynamic properties arising from these orderings in some of the transition metal oxides.

The systems investigated include TbMnO3, Pr0.5Ca1.5MnO4, and iron jarosite. We have addressed, by using a variety of static and time resolved techniques, some of the underlying physical interactions leading to a detailed insight into the physics of transition metal oxides. The main experimental tools used in these studies are optical spectroscopies in combination with characterization of structure, specific heat, electrical transport, and magnetic properties . A particular effort has been devoted to probe and explore charge-orbital ordering phenomena, formation of magnetically ordered phases, the stability and dynamics of the related phase transitions, the transient optical response, and structural changes.