Unexpected Giant Superconducting Fluctuation and Anomalous Semiconducting Normal State in NdO1-xFxBi1-yS2 Single Crystals

Abstract

The BiS2-based superconductors were discovered recently. The superconductivity has been proved by many other groups. Since the previous experiments were all done on polycrystalline samples, therefore there remains a concern whether the superconductivity is really derived from the materials intrinsically or from some secondary phases. Experiments on single crystals are highly desired. In this paper, we report the successful growth of the NdO1-xFxBi1-yS2 single crystals. Resistive and magnetic measurements reveal that the bulk superconducting transition occurs at about 5 K, while an unexpected giant superconducting fluctuation appears at temperatures as high as 2-4 kBTC. Analysis based on the anisotropic Ginzbaug-Landau theory gives an anisotropy of 30-45. Two gap features with magnitudes of about 3.5+-0.3 meV and 7.5+-1 meV were observed by scanning tunneling spectroscopy. The smaller gap is associated with the bulk superconducting transition at about 5 K yielding a huge ratio 2Delta_s/kBTc =16.8, the larger gap remains up to about 26 K. The normal state recovered by applying a high magnetic field shows an anomalous semiconducting behavior. All these suggest that the superconductivity in this newly discovered superconductor cannot be formatted into the BCS theory.