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[Congress Report]Physical properties and novel materials


[Session speakers] High pressure studies can be serious business. Front row. (left to right) I. Goncharenko (chair), Y. Fujii (co-chair), and J. Akimitsu; Back row: M. Abd-Elmeguid, J.-M. Mignot.
This session covered a variety of topics at the boundary between traditional crystallography and others fields of condensed matter science: magnetism and superconductivity under very high pressures, unusual properties of carbon-based materials, and the theory of simple elements and compounds. J. Akimitsu (Aoyama-Gakuin U., Japan) presented high-pressure studies of superconductivity and magnetism in spin-ladder compounds having peculiar structural and electronic properties. M. M. Abd-Elmeguid (Cologne U., Germany) described Moessbauer results on pressure-induced magnetic order in Yb-based heavy-fermion compounds. Could somebody measure superconducting properties at pressures as high as 1 Mbar and temperatures as low as 0.1 K? An example of such study was given in an exciting talk by K. Amaya (Osaka U., Japan). J.-M. Mignot (LLB, Saclay, France) emphasized recent progress in precise neutron diffraction measurements under pressure, and the potential of this technique for studies of mixed-valence compounds. D.E. Sklovsky (Moscow State U., Russia) introduced high-pressure studies of recently discovered nanoscale materials, and discussed abnormal elasticity of carbon nanotubes. Pressures of a few thousand Mbar are only a dream for experimentalists, but someone hearing the talk of J. Tse (NRC Ottawa, Canada) on structural principles of simple elements and compounds would be pleased to see that theoreticians are already actively working in this pressure range. The poster oral presentations of K.Ohwada (Tokyo U., Japan) on a spin-Peierls transition in vanadates, of M. M. Abd-Elmeguid (as above) on f and d magnetism in Eu-Co compounds, and of D.Chasseau (CNRS, Bordeaux, France) on molecular systems under high pressures enlarged the programme of the session and stimulated further discussions.
I. N. Goncharenko, Chair
20 November 2008