Nitric acid-stabilized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles studied with X-rays

Using density functional theory, we systematically investigate the adsorption geometries and electrical properties of (3,3) carbon nanotube (CNT) integrated on hydrogen-terminated Si(001):1?×?1 surface. Prior to adsorption of the CNT, the surface is patterned in two different ways by desorbing selective hydrogen atoms from the surface. The (3,3) CNT which is metallic in nature becomes semiconducting with a band gap around the fermi level when it is supported on patterned hydrogen-terminated Si(001):1?×?1 surface. However, the band gap is reduced when a transverse electric field is applied, allowing the (3,3) CNT on the patterned hydrogen-terminated Si(001):1?×?1 to become metallic at a critical field strength. The tuning of electrical properties of the (3,3) CNT integrated with Si surface may have potential technological applications.     

Single-gap s-Wave superconductivity near the charge-density-wave quantum critical point in CuxTiSe2

The in-plane thermal conductivity kappa of the layered superconductor CuxTiSe2 was measured down to temperatures as low as Tc/40, at x=0.06 near where the charge-density-wave order vanishes. The absence of a residual linear term at T-->0 is strong evidence for conventional s-wave superconductivity in this system. This is further supported by the slow magnetic field dependence, also consistent with a single gap, of uniform magnitude across the Fermi surface. Comparison with the closely related material NbSe2, where the superconducting gap is 3 times larger on the Nb 4d band than on the Se 4p band, suggests that in Cu0.06TiSe2 the Se 4p band is below the Fermi level and Cu doping into the Ti 3d band is responsible for the superconductivity.     

Absence of a holelike fermi surface for the iron-based K0.8F1.7Se2 superconductor revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy

We have performed an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the new iron-based superconductor K(0.8)Fe(1.7)Se(2) (T(c)～30 K). Clear band dispersion is observed with the overall bandwidth renormalized by a factor of 2.5 compared to our local density approximation calculations, indicating relatively strong correlation effects. Only an electronlike band crosses the Fermi energy, forming a nearly circular Fermi surface (FS) at M (π, 0). The holelike band at Γ sinks ～90 meV below the Fermi energy, with an indirect band gap of 30 meV, to the bottom of the electronlike band. The observed FS topology in this superconductor favors (π, π) inter-FS scattering between the electronlike FSs at the M points, in sharp contrast to other iron-based superconductors which favor (π, 0) inter-FS scattering between holelike and electronlike FSs.     

The measurement of frequency dependance of surface resistance in high Tc superconductor

We have measured the penetration depth and conductivity of high Tc superconductor at liquid nitrogen temperature by using microwave transmission method. After that we obtain the frequency dependance of surface resistance in high Tc superconductor. Experimental results show that the surface resistance of high Tc superconductor is proportional to the square of frequency as theoretical prediction. The advantage of microwave transmission method is broadband and easy to use.     

Thickness-dependent effective surface resistances of nearly ferroelectric superconductors

The effective surface resistance of nearly ferroelectric superconducting film in the dielectriclike response is theoretically investigated based on the electrodynamics of the nearly ferroelectric superconductors. We calculate the intrinsic film surface resistance for isolated thin film and the effective surface resistance for a superconductor/dielectric layered structure. It is found that the thickness-dependent surface resistance has two different behaviors separated by a critical film thickness being equal to the London penetration length. That is, a nonresonant dependence is seen when the film thickness is less than the London penetration length, and an anomalously resonant behavior is found when the film thickness is larger than the London penetration length. The nonresonant dependence is similar to that of a cuprate superconductor and it further is characterized by some other critical thicknesses. As for the anomalous resonant region it is seen only in a nearly ferroelectric superconductor.     

Anomalous density of states in hybrid normal metal-superconductor bilayers

In contact with a superconductor, the Andreev reflection of the electrons locally modifies the N metal electronic properties, including the local density of states (LDOS). We investigated the LDOS in superconductor-normal metal (Nb-Au) bilayers using a very low temperature (60 mK) STM on the normal metal side. High resolution tunneling spectra measured on the Au surface show a clear proximity effect with an energy gap of reduced amplitude compared to the bulk Nb gap. The dependence of this mini-gap width with the normal metal thickness is discussed in terms of the Thouless energy. Within the mini-gap, the density of states does not reach zero and shows clear sub-gap features. We compare the experimental spectra with the well-established quasi-classical theory.     

Thermodynamic Parameters of Single‐ or Multi‐Band Superconductors Derived from Self‐Field Critical Currents

Key questions for any superconductor include: what is its maximum dissipation‐free electrical current (its ‘critical current') and can this be used to extract fundamental thermodynamic parameters? Present models focus on depinning of magnetic vortices and implicate materials engineering to maximise pinning performance. But recently we showed that the self‐field critical current for thin films is a universal property, independent of microstructure, controlled only by the penetration depth. Here, using an extended BCS‐like model, we calculate the penetration depth from the temperature dependence of the superconducting energy gap thus allowing us to fit self‐field critical current data. In this way we extract from the T ‐dependent gap a set of key thermodynamic parameters, the ground‐state penetration depth, energy gap and jump in electronic specific heat. Our fits to 79 available data sets, from zinc nanowires to compressed sulphur hydride with critical temperatures of 0.65 to 203 K, respectively, are excellent and the extracted parameters agree well with reported bulk values. Samples include thin films, wires or nanowires of single‐ or multi‐band s ‐wave and d ‐wave superconductors of either type I or type II. For multiband or multiphase samples we accurately recover individual band contributions and phase fractions.     

A possibility of a new type of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov state

We propose a new type of the Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state with a cylindrical symmetric order-parameter. We study the Ginzburg-Landau (GL) theory of the strongly Pauli limited type II superconductor with a spherical symmetric fermi surface, near the critical magnetic field of the FFLO state in the ground state. We find that the cylindrical state has a lower energy than the stripe state, which has the lowest energy in the states examined so far.     

Muon spin relaxation and isotropic pairing in superconducting PrOs4Sb12

Transverse-field muon-spin rotation measurements in the vortex-lattice of the heavy-fermion (HF) superconductor PrOs4Sb12 yield a temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth lambda indicative of an isotropic or nearly isotropic energy gap. This is not seen to date in any other HF superconductor and is a signature of isotropic pairing symmetry, possibly related to a novel nonmagnetic "quadrupolar Kondo" HF mechanism in PrOs4Sb12. The T=0 relaxation rate sigma(s)(0)=0.91(1) micros(-1) yields an estimated magnetic penetration depth lambda(0)=3440(20) A, which is considerably shorter than in other HF superconductors.     

含超导材料Thue-Morse序列一维光子晶体传输特性研究

超导光子晶体是一类重要的带隙可调谐的光子晶体.利用传输矩阵法研究了含超导材料的Thue -Morse序列准周期结构—维光子晶体在可见光波段的传输特性.数值结果表明在正入射时,光子带隙宽度和位置基本不随序列项数的增加而改变;准周期超导光子晶体的传输特性可以通过改变传统电介质材料的结构参数和环境温度等来进行调节.     

Two regimes in the magnetic field response of superconducting MgB<Subscript>2</Subscript>

Using Scanning Tunneling Microscope at low temperature we explore the superconducting phase diagram in the π-band of the two-band superconductor MgB₂. In this band the peculiar shape of the local tunneling spectra and their dynamics in the magnetic field reveal the complex character of the quasiparticle density of states (DOS). The gap in the DOS is first rapidly filled with states in raising the magnetic field up to 0.5 T and then slowly approaches the normal state value: the gap is observed up to 2 T. Such a change in the DOS dynamics suggests the existence of two terms in the DOS of the π-band: a first one, reflecting an intrinsic superconductivity in the band and a second one, originating from an inter-band coupling to the σ-band. Our findings allow a deeper understanding of the unique phase diagram of MgB₂.     

Finite-difference time-domain studies of low-frequency stop band in superconductor-dielectric superlattice

<正>The transmission coefficients of electromagnetic(EM) waves due to a superconductor-dielectric superlattice are numerically calculated.Shift operator finite difference time domain(SO-FDTD) method is used in the analysis.By using the SO-FDTD method,the transmission spectrum is obtained and its characteristics are investigated for different thicknesses of superconductor layers and dielectric layers,from which a stop band starting from zero frequency can be apparently observed.The relation between this low-frequency stop band and relative temperature,and also the London penetration depth at a superconductor temperature of zero degree are discussed,separately.The low-frequency stop band properties of superconductor-dielectric superlattice thus are well disclosed.     

Isotropically gapped strong-coupling superconductivity in the beta-pyrochlore KOs2O6: evidence from penetration depth measurements

We report on measurements of the temperature dependence of the magnetic penetration depth down to 0.04 K in a high-quality sample of the beta-pyrochlore KOs2O6 (Tc=9.65 K) with a spin-frustrated lattice. We observe temperature-independent behavior below T approximately 0.3Tc, which is firm evidence for the presence of an isotropic superconducting gap in this material. In the whole temperature range the superfluid density is very well described, without the need of adjustable parameters, by a strong-coupling extension of the BCS model for an isotropic gap. Thus, the penetration depth results indicate that KOs2O6 is a strong-coupling superconductor with a fully developed energy gap. No effect of the second phase transition taking place at Tp=7.5 K was observed on the penetration depth, which suggests that the Cooper pairs remain unperturbed across this transition.     

Possible spin-tripletf-wave pairing due to disconnected fermi surfaces in NaxCoO2.yH2O

We propose that the spin-triplet pairing mechanism due to disconnected Fermi surfaces proposed in our previous study [Phys. Rev. B 63, 174507 (2001)]] may be at work in a recently discovered superconductor NaxCoO2.yH2O. We introduce a single band effective model that takes into account the pocketlike Fermi surfaces along with the van Hove singularity near the K point found in the band calculation results. Applying the fluctuation exchange method and solving the linearized Eliashberg equation, the most dominant pairing is found to have spin-triplet f-wave symmetry, where the nodes of the gap function do not intersect the pocket Fermi surfaces. The presence of finite Tc is suggested in sharp contrast to cases when the gap nodes intersect the Fermi surface.     

Distribution of a local magnetic field in superconductors with an uncorrelated random lattice of abrikosov vortices

The distribution of a local magnetic field near the surface of a uniaxial anisotropic type-II superconductor is determined in the framework of the London model in the case when the Abrikosov vortices are randomly distributed in the superconductor. The distribution of a local magnetic field is obtained as a function of the distance from the surface of the superconductor. It is demonstrated that the shape of the distribution of the local magnetic field near the surface differs substantially from that in the bulk of the superconductor. This difference should be taken into account in interpreting experimental data on the local magnetic field in the surface region of the superconductor and in thin superconducting films (with a thickness of less than or equal to λ, where λ is the depth of penetration of the magnetic field into the superconductor). It is shown that, as in the case of a regular lattice of vortices, the value of λ can be determined from observations of the distribution of the local magnetic field in type-II superconductors with an uncorrelated random lattice of vortices.     

Magnetic imaging of pearl vortices in artificially layered (Ba0.9Nd0.1CuO2+x)m/(CaCuO2)n systems

We have used scanning SQUID magnetometry to image vortices in ultrathin (Ba0.9Nd0.1CuO2+x)(m)/(CaCuO2)(n) high temperature superconductor samples, with as few as three superconducting CuO2 planes. The Pearl lengths (Lambda=2lambda(2)(L)/d, lambda(L) the London penetration depth, d the superconducting film thickness) in these samples, as determined by fits to the vortex images, agree with those by local susceptibility measurements, and can be as long as 1 mm. The in-plane penetration depths lambda(ab) inferred from the Pearl lengths are longer than many bulk cuprates with comparable critical temperatures. We speculate on the causes of the long penetration depths, and on the possibility of exploiting the unique properties of these superconductors for basic experiments.     

有关运动超导体电磁性质的几点讨论

在伦敦方程和电磁场的洛伦兹变换的基础上讨论了在磁场中运动的第一类超导平板的电磁性质。结果表明临界磁场将随超导体的速度的增加而减小 ;在穿透层内有一指数衰减的屏蔽电荷分布 ,其符号与超导体表面由运动感生的电荷相反、数量相等。屏蔽电荷屏蔽了表面电荷产生的感应电场 ,使电场和磁场一样在穿透层内指数衰减 ,在远离表面的内部 ,感应电场被完全屏蔽     

Scanning tunneling spectroscopy in MgB2

We present scanning tunneling microscopy measurements of the surface of superconducting MgB2 with a critical temperature of 39 K. In zero magnetic field the conductance spectra can be analyzed in terms of the standard BCS theory with a smearing parameter gamma. The value of the superconducting gap is 5 meV at 4.2 K, with no experimentally significant variation across the surface of the sample. The temperature dependence of the gap follows the BCS form, fully consistent with phonon-mediated superconductivity in this novel superconductor. The application of a magnetic field induces strong pair breaking as seen in the conductance spectra in fields up to 6 T.     

二氧化硅胶体球自组装光子晶体的研究

光子晶体由于具有光子带隙和光子局域等一系列优异的光学特性而受到了人们广泛的关注。由于采用胶体颗粒自组装法制备光子晶体制备工艺简单,所需要的费用也较低,因此已成为制备可见光至红外波段三维光子晶体的一种简便有效的方法。采用垂直沉积法制得了三维光子晶体薄膜,并用扫描电子显微镜和紫外-可见光-近红外分光光度计对其显微结构和光学特性进行了详细的研究。结果表明,自组装薄膜在三维方向上都具有有序结构,其密排面平行于载波片的表面。制备的光子晶体薄膜具有明显的光子带隙特性,带隙中心波长为956nm。研究了带隙中心波长同入射线与密排面法线夹角之间的变化关系,其结果与理论值吻合得很好。     

On surface states at superconductor oxide interfaces

Localized electron states in oxides on metal surfaces hybridize with conduction electrons leaking into the oxide and form so a metallic layer and a new type of surface state. For a superconductor such surface states weaken the superconductivity. Because these surface states extend into the oxide, they cause an enhanced tunnel conductivity, which is finite below the gap voltage due to resonance tunneling via the surface states below the gap.