Molecular dynamics, phase diagrams and electronic properties of fullerenes and alkali fullerides: insights from solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements have made important contributions to the current understanding of the structural, dynamical, and electronic properties of fullerenes (C₆₀ and C₇₀) and the alkali fullerides A_xC₆₀ (A = alkali metal). These measurements and their interpretation are reviewed. One- and two-dimensional ¹³C NMR lineshapes and spin-lattice relaxation rates provide evidence for rapid molecular rotations and orientational order-disorder transitions in the fullerenes and alkali fullerides. The kinetics of molecular reorientations are determined from the NMR data. ¹³C and alkali metal NMR spectra indicate that the alkali fullerides are stoichiometric compounds. Each stable, stoichiometric phase has distinctive NMR signatures. ¹³C and alkali metal NMR spectra and relaxation measurements provide valuable and unique information about the electronic properties of the metallic, superconducting, and non-metallic phases of the alkali fullerides.     

Nonadiabatic superconductivity in K3C60 and Rb3C60

We discuss the validity of Migdal–Eliashberg theory applied to the superconductor fullerides K₃C₆₀ and Rb₃C₆₀. Recently, the relevant superconductor properties have been measured, like the isotope coefficient, the energy gap and critical temperatures for these compounds and compared with their optical properties. They all present a very disperse band of phonon frequencies, running from very small to very large energies, the latter being close to the Fermi edge. Therefore, these materials exceed the limit of validity of the adiabatic Migdal theorem, measured with a nonadiabatic parameter m=w₀/E_F, where w₀ is a characteristic phonon frequency and E_F=250 meV, the Fermi level. We examine previous theories incorporating vertex corrections into the Eliashberg equations to deal with such a situation. We compare these approaches by calculating the critical temperatures using a multimodal Eliashberg spectral function ²F(w) to study the contribution of the various phononic modes. We arrive at the conclusion that the optical modes, not the intramolecular ones, are among those which maximize T_c independently of including vertex corrections or not. This result goes in the direction to understand why doped fullerides A₃C₆₀ are superconductors.     

Superconductivity and crystal structure of the solid solutions of Ba8−δSi46−xGex (0?x?23) with Type I clathrate structure

The solid solutions of barium containing Type I clathrate, Ba_8−δSi_46−xGe_x (0?x?23) were prepared under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions of 3 GPa at 800°C. All the solid solutions showed superconductivity, and the transition temperature (T_c) decreased from 8.0 to 2.0 K as the germanium content increased from x=0 to 23 in Ba_8−δSi_46−xGe_x. The single crystals with five different compositions were obtained and the structures, compositions, and site occupancies were determined from X-ray single-crystal analysis. A slight barium deficiency was observed at Ba1 (2a) sites for all the clathrates. The Ge atoms replaced the Si atoms at the Si3 (24k) site in the composition range of x<8, and then at the Si2 (16i) site. The crystals had a slight deficiency in the covalent (Si, Ge) network and the deficiency increased with the increase of the Ge content.     

电子型超导体(Ln1.85Ce0.15)CuO4-y的结构和超导性

自La-Ba(Sr)-Cu-O高温超导体发现以来,已经得到了许多含铜的氧化物超导体,这些超导体中都含有一个Cu以八面体或四方锥配位的CuO_2平面,载流子是空穴。1989年初日本Tokura等人首先发现了电子型超导体(Ln_(1.85)Ce_(0.15))CuO_(4-y),Ln=Pr,Nd,Sm。相继报导了这一系列的其他几个超导体:(Pr_(1.85)Th_(0.15))CuO_(4-y)和(Eu_(1.85)Ce_(0.15))CuO_(4-y)(Nd_(1.85)Th_(0.15))CuO_(4-y),Nd_2CuO_(4-y)Fy。这类超导体的Tc都在20K左右,载流子是电子,CuO_2面内的Cu为四方形配位。将这一类超导体的结构称为T′相结构,相应地称K_2NiF_4型的La_(2-x)Sr_xCuO_4的结构为T相结构。两种晶体结构示于图1。两年多来,寻找更高T_c的电子型超导体是超导界所关心的问题之一,具     

Study of single phase YBa2Cu3O7−δ compound around 1–2–3 stoichiometry

The structural changes accompanying small stoichiometric variations around 1–2–3 composition in the Y-Ba-Cu-O compound have been investigated. Ba-deficient composition is found to give considerable orientation along (001). This oriented powder gives a higher current density compared to the unoriented powder. The temperature has been correlated with stoichiometry.     

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.     

Possible superconductivity in metallic Xenon

Abstract

We report here metallization and possible superconductivity in Xenon when it is subjected to a pressure of the order of 137 GPa. The metal is found to be in the hcp phase at this pressure and our band structure calculations done using the linear muffin-tin orbital method show that the band gap closes around this pressure.     

Pinning efficiency of splayed columnar defects in Bi-2212 single crystal: Evidence of a cage pinning effect

A three-directional configuration of columnar defects has been induced in a Bi₂Sr₂CaCu₂O₈ single crystal by irradiation with heavy ions of high energy. Persistent current densities have been extracted, using the Bean model, from hysteresis loops recorded in the orientation H||c. We have shown that improvements in pinning properties are larger in this three-directional splayed configuration than in the one obtained with columnar defects parallel to the c-axis. This effect exists only for H larger than H_Φ, where H_Φ is the matching field, and disappears as temperature is increased and vortices become less stiff. This is the first time that such a beneficial effect is reported for a compound of such a high electronic anisotropy.     

Relaxation processes in mesoscopic superconductors

We investigate the possibility of a novel kind of optical pump probe spectroscopy where the two laser pulses are focused on different areas of the sample. The response to the destruction of the superconducting state in a large part of a mesoscopic ring is studied numerically. We use the time dependent Ginzburg-Landau equations with periodic boundary conditions and external magnetic field. We evaluate the relaxation rates of the superconducting order parameter as well as the voltage induced by the charge imbalance. Computer simulations confirm that the perturbation of superconductivity on one part of the ring induces a voltage which decelerates the superconducting electrons on the other part of the ring. This deceleration results in the decrease of the superconducting current and the superfluid density. The relaxation times are of the order of the picosecond, the induced voltage of few millivolts and the variation of the superconducting gap of 10% which we believe to be suitable for time resolved femtosecond optical spectroscopy.     

高温铜氧化物超导体的某些新进展评论

文中对近年来有关高温铜氧化物超导体(HTS)的某些重要实验的进展情况作了评述。强调目前处于HTS实验研究应起主导作用的阶段,特别是对HTS电子液体中反常电荷分布的观察,察微观瞬的技术改进实验结果,有助于解决对HTS超导机制的争论。对HTS的应用基础技术提出了建议方向。