Doping effect on the carrier scattering in iron-pnictide superconductors studied by charge transport

In order to reveal the role of “carrier doping” in the iron-based superconductors, we investigated the transport properties of the oxygen-deficient iron-arsenides LnFeAsO_1−y (Ln=La, Ce, Pr and Nd) over a wide doping range. We found that the effect of “doping” in this system is mainly on the carrier scattering rather than carrier density, quite distinct from that in high-T_c cuprates. In the case of La system with lower T_c, the low temperature resistivity is dominated by T² term and fairly large magnetoresistance is observed. On the other hand, in the Nd system with higher T_c, carriers are subject to stronger scattering showing nearly T-linear resistivity and small magnetoresistance. Such strong scattering appears intimately correlated with high-T_c superconductivity in the iron-based system.     

Low-field anomaly of vortex dynamics in iron-pnictide superconductors

Magnetic relaxations in Ba(Fe_1?xCo_x)₂As₂ before and after swift particle irradiations are measured. The normalized relaxation rate S shows a clear suppression in a pristine sample at low fields below the self-field. Heavy-ion irradiations suppress these anomalies considerably, although there still remain weak features depending on ion species and/or energies. In a proton irradiated sample, the low-field anomaly of S survives although it is smeared compared with that in a pristine sample. All these results indicate that the low-field anomaly of S is suppressed by defects, and correlated defects have stronger effects. Possible origins of the low-field anomaly of S are discussed.     

Model of vortex states in hole-doped iron-pnictide superconductors

Based on a phenomenological model with competing spin-density-wave (SDW) and extended s-wave superconductivity, the vortex states in Ba(1-x)K(x)Fe2As2 are investigated by solving Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Our result for the optimally doped compound without induced SDW is in qualitative agreement with recent scanning tunneling microscopy experiment. We also propose that the main effect of the SDW on the vortex states is to reduce the intensity of the in-gap peak in the local density of states and transfer the spectral weight to form additional peaks outside the gap.     

Quasiparticle scattering interference in electron-doped cuprate superconductors

By considering the nonmonotonic d-wave gap effect, the energy and momentum dependence of quasiparticle scattering interference is studied in the presence of a single impurity. It is shown that the pattern of the quasiparticle scattering peaks in the full Brillouin zone of electron-doped cuprate superconductors is very different from that in the hole-doped case described by the Octet model. This difference is the result of the nonmonotonic d-wave superconducting gap in the electron-doped case. As the energy increases, the position of the local peaks in the Brillouin zone moves rapidly. In particular, the characteristic peaks of the electron-doped cuprate superconductors appear between the antinodal and nodal directions, unlike in the hole-doped case.     

Nonequilibrium dynamics in type-II superconductors with inhomogeneous vortex pinning

We study numerically the dynamics relating to negative vortex motion in inhomogeneous pinning systems. We show that this dynamical phenomenon results from the internal field effect produced by the growing local barriers with decreasing temperature. We find that the negative motion is characterized by a peak of negative voltage or resistance in resistance–temperature transport measurements. We also demonstrate that the time window to observe the negative motion is determined by the magnitude of driving force in addition to the temperature scanning rate.     

Electric field induced by vortex transport in percolation superconductors

The influence of fractal normal phase clusters on the electric field induced by the flow and creep of the magnetic flux in percolation superconductors has been considered. The current–voltage characteristics of such superconductors with allowance for the influence of the fractal dimension of cluster boundaries and the pinning barrier height have been obtained. The vortex dynamics in percolation superconductors with a fractal cluster structure in a viscous flow of the magnetic flux, the Anderson–Kim creep, and the collective flux creep has been analyzed. It has been discovered that the fractality of normal phase clusters reduces the electric field arising in the initial stage of the resistive transition.     

Effect of vortex pinning by point defects on the lower critical field in layered superconductors

The lower critical field H _c1 in layered superconductors is calculated under the assumption that vortex pinning by point defects is strong in these materials. We consider the case of a purely electromagnetic coupling of vortex pancakes and the case of both the electromagnetic and Josephson couplings of the pancakes in a vortex line. In the latter case, singularities in the temperature dependence of H _c1 are predicted at certain characteristic temperatures.     

高温超导体磁通钉扎和磁通动力学研究简介

ψ=ψ0eiφ行为用统一的波函数进行描述,其相位φ在宏观尺度上是相同的.当磁场低于一定值的时候,在超Φ0=h/2e保证最大的界面面积,降低系统能量.该最小的磁通束被称为磁通量子,其磁通量是(h为普朗克超导态是一个宏观量子相干态,其载流子是库珀对.在没有外加磁场和电流的时候,这些库珀对的运动导体的边界处穿透深度内会出现一...     

Microscopic theory of vortex pinning on columnar defects in conventional and chiral superconductors

The mechanisms of individual vortex pinning and stability of multivortex configurations in different super-conducting compounds and artificial structures are analyzed on the basis of microscopic theory, which allowed describing the corresponding modification of the anomalous spectral branches in the quasiparticle spectrum caused by the electron scattering at the defect. The individual pinning potentials and corresponding depinning currents are evaluated. The experimentally observable consequences for the scanning tunneling microscopy characteristics and high-frequency field response are discussed. The comparative study of the conventional and chiral superconductors allowed suggesting experimental tests probing the superconducting gap symmetry. The chiral superconductors are shown to reveal a strong dependence of the pinning characteristics on the mutual orientation of the magnetic field and internal angular momentum of the Cooper pair.     

Temporal chaotic behaviour of vortex motion in a type-II superconductors with periodically-distributed pinning centres

Temporal chaotic character of vortex motion in systems where defects are arranged in periodic arrays has been investigated by computer simulation. Due to the high nonlinearity of the vortex–defect interaction, the temporal evolution of the vortex motion is chaotic with a power spectrum similar to what have been observed in the experiments. It is found that the strength of both the vortex–vortex and vortex–defect interactions have no significant effects on the chaotic motion of the vortices, however, the mismatch between these two interactions causes attractor crisis of the system. Different from them, the Lorentz force is not the origin of the attractor crisis, but it causes a divergent motion of the vortex (i.e., the flux flow).     

Coupling between temporal and spatial chaos of vortex state in superconductors with periodical pinning arrays

Vortex motion in the background of many vortices is investigated by a mean field approach. Effects of the vortex–vortex coupling, the driving frequency, and the vortex viscosity on the vortex motion have been studied to reveal the interaction between the spatial and temporal chaos. It is found that the mean-field approach is a good approximation to describe the vortex motion in one dimensional vortex system. The vortex motion under the damping mode is a kind of self-organized motion. The spatial chaos can dominate the chaotic behavior of the system.     

Peak effect in the critical current of type II superconductors with strong magnetic vortex pinning

We perform 2D Langevin simulations studying the peak effect (PE) of the critical current taking into account the temperature dependence of the competing forces. We observe and report that the PE results from the competition of vortex-vortex interactions and vortex-pin interactions which have different temperature dependencies. The simulations reveal that the PE can take place only for certain pinning strengths, densities of pinning centers, and driving forces, which is in good agreement with experiments. No apparent vortex order-disorder transition is observed across the PE regime. In addition, the PE is a dynamical phenomenon, and thermal fluctuations can speed up the process for the formation of the PE.     

Low-lying quasiparticle states and hidden collective charge instabilities in parent cobaltate superconductors

We report a state-of-the-art photoemission (angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy) study of high quality single crystals of NaxCoO2 the series focusing on the fine details of the low-energy states. The Fermi velocity is found to be small (<0.5 eV A) and only weakly anisotropic over the Fermi surface at all dopings, setting the size of the pair wave function to be on the order of 10-20 nm. In the low-doping regime, the exchange interlayer splitting vanishes and two-dimensional collective instabilities such as 120 degrees -type fluctuations become kinematically allowed. Our results suggest that the unusually small Fermi velocity and the unique symmetry of kinematic instabilities distinguish cobaltates from most other oxide superconductors.     

Collective and plastic vortex motion probed by STM

The motion of flux line lattices (VL) in various single crystals of NbSe₂ has been observed using fast scanning tunneling microscopy. In crystals with intrinsic weak point disorder the VL creeps coherently as a large bundle along one of the principal axes of the VL. However, we observe striking and for the creep regime unanticipated velocity modulations in the direction of motion, related to the VL periodicity, i.e. with the “washboard” frequency. In the transverse direction the fluctuations of the center-of-mass displacement are random. In crystals with strong line disorder (correlated pinning) caused by columnar defects due to swift ion irradiation collective pinning is observed in fields up to almost double the dose-equivalent field Bφ while interesting plastic flow patterns are detected at 2Bφ.     

Field-angle dependence of the quasiparticle scattering inside a vortex core in unconventional superconductors

We theoretically investigate the quasiparticle scattering rate Γ inside a vortex core in the existence of non-magnetic impurities distributed randomly in a superconductor. We show that the dependence of Γ on the magnetic field direction is sensitive to the sign of the pair potential. The behavior of Γ is quite different between an s-wave and a d-wave pair potential, where these are assumed to have the same amplitude anisotropy, but a sign change only for the d-wave one. It is suggested that measurements of the microwave surface impedance with changing applied-field directions would be used for the phase-sensitive identification of pairing symmetry.