2010/03/05 by A. V. Tsvyashchenko, A. V. Nikolaev, Tsvyashchenko, A. V. +22
Earth and Planetary Sciences · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High-pressure geophysics and materials #Nuclear Materials and Properties #Other Condensed Matter (cond-mat.other) #Rare-earth and actinide compounds #Strongly Correlated Electrons (cond-mat.str-el) #cond-mat.other #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1003.1247
4 pages 3 figures
arxiv created 2010/03/05 · arxiv updated 2010/03/05 · openalex publication_date 2010/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Using a small amount of radioactive 111Cd atoms implanted in cerium lattice to probe the hyperfine electric quadrupole interaction, we have detected a quadrupole electron charge density component in alpha-Ce, which is absent in gamma-Ce. The appearance of the quadrupole density in alpha-Ce predicted by the quadrupole scenario of the phase transition demonstrates that the spacial symmetry is lowered at the gamma->alpha phase transition. This finding makes cerium the first element where the symmetry change is driven exclusively by the valence electron degrees of freedom while the atomic centers of mass (cerium nuclei) occupy the face centered cubic positions. We also report on nuclear quadrupole interactions in other high pressure phases of cerium: alpha' (C2/m space symmetry) and alpha' (alpha-U structure).