Specific-heat measurements of the gap structure of the organic superconductors kappa-(ET)2Cu[N(CN)2]Br and kappa-(ET)2Cu(NCS)2

We present high resolution heat capacity measurements of the organic superconductors kappa-(ET)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)]Br and kappa-(ET)(2)Cu(NCS)(2) in fields up to 14 T. We use the high field data to determine the normal state specific heat and hence extract the behavior of the electronic specific heat C(el) in the superconducting state in zero and finite fields. We find that in both materials for T/T(c) less or similar 0.3, C(el)(H=0) approximately T2 indicating d-wave superconductivity. The data are well described by a strong coupling d-wave model from our base temperature (T/T(c) approximately 0.1) right up to T(c). Our data help to resolve the controversy regarding the order parameter symmetry in these materials.     

Heat Capacity Under Pressure of CeCoIn 5

Among heavy-fermion (HF) superconductors, CeCoIn 5 exhibits a record high value of T c =2.3 K at ambient pressure [1]. CeCoIn 5 belongs to a new class of HF-superconductors that crystallize in the tetragonal HoCoGa 5 -structure. This structure can be regarded as alternating layers of CeIn 3 and CoIn 2 . Bulk CeIn 3 undergoes a transition from an antiferromagnetic (AFM) state at ambient pressure ( T N =10.2 K) to a superconducting state with very low T C =0.15 K at a critical pressure p c =2.8 GPa [2] at which long range magnetic order vanishes. It is, therefore, regarded as a possible candidate for magnetically mediated superconductivity (SC). We report on measurements of the heat capacity of CeCoIn 5 at hydrostatic pressures p h 1.5 GPa. While T c increases with increasing pressure, the effective mass of the quasi-particles m eff decreases, as indicated by the ratio C / T | T c . As a working hypothesis based on theories of a nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi-liquid (NAFFL), this may be interpreted as the stabilization of the superconducting state by an increase of the characteristic spin fluctuation temperature T_{SF} (T_{SF}\propto k_F^2/m_{\rm eff}).     

High T(c) superconductivity in MgB2 by nonadiabatic pairing

The evidence for the key role of the sigma bands in the electronic properties of MgB2 points to the possibility of nonadiabatic effects in the superconductivity of these materials. These are governed by the small value of the Fermi energy due to the vicinity of the hole doping level to the top of the sigma bands. We show that the nonadiabatic theory leads to a coherent interpretation of T(c) = 39 K and the boron isotope coefficient alphaB = 0.30 without invoking very large couplings and it naturally explains the role of the disorder on T(c). It also leads to various specific predictions for the properties of MgB2 and for the material optimization of these types of compounds.     

Theory of half-metallic ferrimagnetism in double perovskites

Double perovskites such as Sr(2)FeMoO(6) are rare examples of materials with half-metallic ground states and a ferrimagnetic T(c) above room temperature. We present a comprehensive theory of the temperature and disorder dependence of their magnetic properties by deriving and validating a new effective spin Hamiltonian for these materials, amenable to large-scale three-dimensional simulations. We show how disorder, ubiquitous in these materials, affects T(c), the magnetization, and the conduction electron polarization. We conclude with a novel proposal to enhance T(c) without sacrificing polarization.     

Metallic state in cubic FeGe beyond its quantum phase transition

We report on results of electrical resistivity and structural investigations on the cubic modification of FeGe under high pressure. The long-wavelength helical order (T(C) = 280 K) is suppressed at a critical pressure p(c) approximately 19 GPa. An anomaly at T(X)(p) and strong deviations from a Fermi-liquid behavior in a wide pressure range above p(c) suggest that the suppression of T(C) disagrees with the standard notion of a quantum critical phase transition. The metallic ground state persisting at high pressure can be described by band-structure calculations if zero-point motion is included. The shortest FeGe interatomic distance display discontinuous changes in the pressure dependence close to the T(C)(p) phase line.     

Epitaxial strain and superconductivity in La2-xSrxCuO4 thin films

The report that T(c) was doubled in underdoped La2-xSrxCuO4 films under compressive epitaxial strain has stirred great interest. We show that such films are extremely sensitive to oxygen intake, even at very low temperature, with startling consequences including colossal lattice expansion and a crossover from semiconductor to metallic behavior. We can bring T(c) up to 40 K in La2CuO4 films on SrTiO3 substrates-without any Sr doping and under tensile strain. On LaSrAlO4 substrates, we reached T(c)=51.5 K, the highest so far in La2-xSrxCuO4.     

Transport properties of granular metals at low temperatures

We investigate transport in a granular metallic system at large tunneling conductance between the grains, g(T)>1. We show that at low temperatures, Tg(T)delta) behavior where conductivity is controlled by the scales of the order of the grain size. In three dimensions we predict the metal-insulator transition at the bare tunneling conductance g(C)(T)=(1/6pi)ln((E(C)/delta), where E(C) is the charging energy of a single grain. Corrections to the density of states of granular metals due to the electron-electron interaction are calculated. Our results compare favorably with the logarithmic dependence of resistivity in the high-T(c) cuprate superconductors indicating that these materials may have a granular structure.     

ab plane ac conductivity in the cuprates: pseudogap effects below Tc

Building on our understanding of the superfluid density rho(s)(T), we show how the pseudogap enters the in-plane optical conductivity sigma(omega,T) for temperatures T相似文献   

Enhanced heat capacity and a new temperature instability in superfluid 4He in the presence of a constant heat flux near t(lambda)

We present the first experimental evidence that the heat capacity of superfluid 4He, at temperatures very close to the lambda point T(lambda), is enhanced by a constant heat flux Q. The heat capacity at constant Q, C(Q), is predicted to diverge at a temperature T(c)(Q)相似文献   

Optical properties and electronic structure of simple cubic and f.c.c. T1I

T1I-layers with simple cubic and f.c.c. structure have been prepared by evaporation of CsI and RbI. The optical absorption spectra of these layers have been measured for the first time and are shown to be very similar to those of simple cubic and f.c.c. T1C1 and T1Br, respectively. Relativistic band-structure calculations explain the optical spectra as well as these similarities.     

Crystalline ferroelectrics with a glassy polarization phase

It is found that, far above the ferroelectric transition temperature, T_c, certain ferroelectric systems show a temperature dependent index of refraction, n(T), that is qualitatively different from ordinary ferroelectrics. We review measurements in these systems and show how some aspects of this n(T) data can be quantitatively understood. This is done by considering the polarization in these materials to arise from very small localized clusters of a few unit cells far above T_c. The strongly broken long range symmetry allows these effects to occur. Furthermore, we find a one-to-one correspondence between ferroelectrics that show this unusual high temperature behavior and those that show glass-like excitations at very low temperatures; this clarifies the ambiguities in the low temperature heat capacity and thermal conductivity results.     

Superconducting properties of the Fe-based layered superconductor LaFeAsO0.9F0.1-delta

We have employed a new route to synthesize single phase F-doped LaOFeAs compound and confirmed the superconductivity above 20 K in this Fe-based system. We show that the new superconductor has a rather high upper critical field of over 50 T. A clear signature of superconducting gap opening below T(c) was observed in the far-infrared reflectance spectra, with 2Delta/kT(c) approximately 3.5-4.2. Furthermore, we show that the new superconductor has electron-type conducting carriers with a rather low-carrier density.     

Collapse of 5 f -Electron Ferromagnetism in UPtAl Under High Pressures

UPtAl exhibits a ferromagnetic ordering of U magnetic moments at temperatures below T C =42.5 K. The magnetic-ordering transition is accompanied by an anomaly in the temperature dependence of electrical resistivity. This allows us to determine the value of Curie temperature from 𝜌 vs. T data that can be measured at very high pressures, at which reliable magnetization measurements are difficult. We report on resistivity measurements performed on an UPtAl single crystal under hydrostatic pressures p h 8 GPa. It was observed that the initial increase of T C with p becomes gradually reduced for p >2 GPa until the maximum T C value of , 48 K is reached between 4 and 6 GPa that is followed by a progressively developing downturn of the T C ( p ) curve. The latter result is attributed to the approaching collapse of the U 5 f -moment ferromagnetism. Low-temperature resistivity data point to a rapidly reduced magnetic anisotropy at highest pressures.     

Evidence of a precursor superconducting phase at temperatures as high as 180 K in RBa2Cu3O(7-δ) (R=Y, Gd, Eu) superconducting crystals from infrared spectroscopy

We show that a multilayer analysis of the infrared c-axis response of RBa2Cu3O(7-δ) (R=Y, Gd, Eu) provides important new information about the anomalous normal-state properties of underdoped cuprate high temperature superconductors. In addition to competing correlations which give rise to a pseudogap that depletes the low-energy electronic states below T*?T(c), it enables us to identify the onset of a precursor superconducting state below T(ons)>T(c). We map out the doping phase diagram of T(ons) which reaches a maximum of 180 K at strong underdoping and present magnetic field dependent data which confirm our conclusions.     

Survival of freezing by free-living Antarctic soil nematodes

Free-living microbivorous nematodes become numerically dominant in Antarctic terrestrial faunas as environmental conditions become more severe, while also reaching very high levels of abundance in moist, vegetated habitats. Nematodes have little resistance to freezing via exogenous ice nucleation, such as would occur as their microhabitat freezes. We report the results of experiments testing the ability of seven maritime Antarctic nematode taxa to survive freezing in small water droplets at high sub-zero temperatures. Isolated individuals of these species possessed supercooling characteristics similar to those previously reported (supercooling points -6 to -25 degree C). When frozen in water at -3 to -6 degree C, most showed high (> 70%) survival both (i) after rapid cooling (1 degree C/min) to c. -60 degree C followed by immediate rewarming, and (ii) when held for 7-12 h at either -10 or -30 degree C, although the proportions surviving varied between species. We propose that the ability to survive freezing while fully hydrated at high sub-zero temperatures is one of the most important aspects of these species' survival tactics.     

Model for reversible colloidal gelation

We report a numerical study, covering a wide range of packing fraction Phi and temperature T, for a system of particles interacting via a square well potential supplemented by an additional constraint on the maximum number n(max) of bonded interactions. We show that, when n(max)<6, the liquid-gas coexistence region shrinks, giving access to regions of low Phi where dynamics can be followed down to low T without an intervening phase separation. We characterize these arrested states at low densities (gel states) in terms of structure and dynamical slowing down, pointing out features which are very different from the standard glassy states observed at high Phi values.     

High temperature ferromagnetism in GaAs-based heterostructures with Mn delta doping

We show that suitably designed magnetic semiconductor heterostructures consisting of Mn delta (delta)-doped GaAs and p-type AlGaAs layers, in which the locally high concentration of magnetic moments of Mn atoms are controllably overlapped with the two-dimensional hole gas wave function, realized remarkably high ferromagnetic transition temperatures (T(C)). A significant reduction of compensative Mn interstitials by varying the growth sequence of the structures followed by low-temperature annealing led to high T(C) up to 250 K. The heterostructure with high T(C) exhibited peculiar anomalous Hall effect behavior, whose sign depends on temperature.     

Insensitivity of the superconducting gap to variations in the critical temperature of Zn-substituted Bi2Sr2CaCu2O(8+δ) superconductors

The phase diagram of the superconducting high-T(c) cuprates is governed by two energy scales: T*, the temperature below which a gap is opened in the excitation spectrum, and T(c), the superconducting transition temperature. The way these two energy scales are reflected in the low-temperature energy gap is being intensively debated. Using Zn substitution and carefully controlled annealing we prepared a set of samples having the same T* but different T(c)'s, and measured their gap using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). We show that T(c) is not related to the gap shape or size, but it controls the size of the coherence peak at the gap edge.     

Inhomogeneous superconductivity in organic conductors: the role of disorder and magnetic field

Several experimental studies have shown the presence of spatially inhomogeneous phase coexistence of superconducting and non-superconducting domains in low dimensional organic superconductors. The superconducting properties of these systems are found to be strongly dependent on the amount of disorder introduced in the sample regardless of its origin. The suppression of the superconducting transition temperature T(c) shows a clear discrepancy with the result expected from the Abrikosov-Gor'kov law giving the behavior of T(c) with impurities. On the basis of the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau theory, we derive a model to account for this striking feature of T(c) in organic superconductors for different types of disorder by considering the segregated texture of the system. We show that the calculated T(c) quantitatively agrees with experiments. We also focus on the effect of superconducting fluctuations on the upper critical fields H(c2) of layered superconductors showing slab structure where superconducting domains are sandwiched by non-superconducting regions. We found that H(c2) may be strongly enhanced by such fluctuations.     

Nuclear ordering in lithium and an upper limit on its ambient pressure superconducting transition temperature

We have discovered spontaneous ordering of nuclear spins in lithium metal by NMR measurements at very low temperatures. In low magnetic fields, B<0.2 mT, the NMR spectra show a pronounced low-frequency anomaly. Also, nonadiabatic response to a slowly varying magnetic field was observed. A rich phase diagram with three different nonparamagnetic regions is proposed. We estimate a critical spin temperature T(c) approximately 350 nK at B=0. We also report the absence of superconductivity in lithium at normal pressure down to T(e) approximately 100 microK (B<10 nT).