Superconductivity in Hole-Doped （S1-xKx）Fe2As2

A series of layered （Sr1-xKx）Fe2As2 compounds with nominal x = 0-0.40 are synthesized by solid state reaction method. Similar to other parent compounds of iron-based pnictide superconductors, pure SrFe2As2 shows a strong resistivity anomaly near 210 K, which was ascribed to the spin-density-wave instability. The anomaly temperature is much higher than those observed in LaOFeAs and BaFe2As2, the two prototype parent compounds with ZrCuSiAs- and ThCr2Si2-type structures. K-doping strongly suppresses this anomaly and induces superconductivity. Like in the case of K-doped BaFe2As2, sharp superconducting transitions at Tc ～ 38 K is observed. We perform the Hall coefficient measurement, and confirm that the dominant carriers are hole-type. The carrier density is enhanced by a factor of 3 in comparison to F-doped LaOFeAs superconductor.     

Optical properties of FeAs-based parent compound: A comparative study for polycrystalline EuFe2As2 and LaFeAsO

We report on a comparative optical investigation on EuFe₂As₂ and LaFeAsO polycrystalline samples. The spin-density wave (SDW) partial gap is observed for both compounds. The gap-like absorption peaks in the real part of conductivity for EuFe₂As₂ and LaFeAsO scale with their respective T _SDW. Most remarkably, the study reveals a substantial difference in optical reflectance spectra for the two prototype compounds of 122 and 1111 systems: EuFe₂As₂ shows a much higher reflectivity with fewer phonon modes than that of LaFeAsO. This yields optical evidence for much stronger anisotropy between ab-plane and c-axis in 1111-type compounds.