title: Noncontact Atomic Force Microscope Dissipation Reveals a Central Peak of SrTiO_{3} Structural Phase Transition.
abstract: The critical fluctuations at second order structural transitions in a bulk crystal may affect the dissipation of mechanical probes even if completely external to the crystal surface. Here, we show that noncontact force microscope dissipation bears clear evidence of the antiferrodistortive phase transition of SrTiO_{3}, known for a long time to exhibit a unique, extremely narrow neutron scattering "central peak." The noncontact geometry suggests a central peak linear response coupling connected with strain. The detailed temperature dependence reveals for the first time the intrinsic central peak width of order 80 kHz, 2 orders of magnitude below the established neutron upper bound.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kisiel
authors.affiliation: SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy.|CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pellegrini
authors.affiliation: SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy.|CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy.|International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), P.O. Box 586, I-34151 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: G E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Santoro
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Samadashvili
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pawlak
authors.affiliation: Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland.|Institute for Materials Science and Max Bergmann Center of Biomaterials, TU Dresden, 01062 Dresden, Germany.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Benassi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Gysin
authors.affiliation: CNR-SPIN Institute for Superconductivity, Innovative Materials and Devices, C.so Perrone 24, 16152 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Buzio
authors.affiliation: CNR-SPIN Institute for Superconductivity, Innovative Materials and Devices, C.so Perrone 24, 16152 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gerbi
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Meyer
authors.affiliation: SISSA, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy.|CNR-IOM Democritos National Simulation Center, Via Bonomea 265, I-34136 Trieste, Italy.|International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), P.O. Box 586, I-34151 Trieste, Italy.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tosatti