arXiv subjects

Lei Fang

Publications and source records attributed to Lei Fang.

71 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2009

Impurity Scattering Effect on Superconductivity and the Violation of Anderson Theorem in Ba(Fe_{1-x}Co_x)_2As_2 Single Crystals

Low-temperature specific heat (SH) and resistivity were measured on Ba(Fe_{1-x}Co_x)_2As_2 single crystals in wide doping region. A sizeable residual specific heat coefficient γ_0 was observed in the low temperature limit of all samples. The specific heat jump near T_c, i.e. ΔC/T|_{T_c} and the upper critical field H_{c2}^c (H||c) were also determined. It is found that -γ_0, ΔC/T|_{T_c}, \sqrt{H_{c2}^c} and T_c all shared a similar evolution with doping. All these can be well understood within the model of S$^\pm$ pairing symmetry when accounting the Co-dopants as unitary scattering centers in the FeAs planes. Our results give a direct evidence for the violation of the Anderson theorem in FeAs-based superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2009

Superconductivity at 22.3 K in SrFe2-xIrxAs2

By substituting the Fe with the 5d-transition metal Ir in SrFe2As2, we have successfully synthesized the superconductor SrFe2-xIrxAs2 with Tc = 22.3 K at x = 0.5. X-ray diffraction indicates that the material has formed the ThCr2Si2-type structure with a space group I4/mmm. The temperature dependence of resistivity and dc magnetization both reveal sharp superconducting transitions at around 22 K. An estimate on the diamagnetization signal reveals a high Meissner shielding volume. Interestingly, the normal state resistivity exhibits a roughly linear behavior up to 300 K. The superconducting transitions at different magnetic fields were also measured yielding a slope of -dHc2/dT = 3.8 T/K near Tc. Using the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg (WHH) formula, the upper critical field at zero K is found to be about 58 T. Counting the possible number of electrons doped into the system in SrFe2-xIrxAs2, we argue that the superconductivity in the Ir-doped system is different from the Co-doped case, which should add more ingredients to the underlying physics of the iron pnictide superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Physical properties of noncentrosymmetric superconductor Ru$_7$B$_3$

Transition metal boride Ru$_7$B$_3$ was found to be a noncentrosymmetric superconductor with $T_{C}$ equal to 3.3 K. Superconducting and normal state properties of Ru$_7$B$_3$ were determined by a self-consistent analysis through resistivity($ρ_{xx}$ and $ρ_{xy}$), specific heat, lower critical field measurement and electronic band structure calculation. It is found that Ru$_7$B$_3$ belongs to an s-wave dominated single band superconductor with energy gap 0.5 meV and could be categorized into type II superconductor with weak electron-phonon coupling. Unusual 'kink' feature is clearly observed in field-broadening resistivity curves, suggesting the possible mixture of spin triplet induced by the lattice without inversion symmetry.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Growth and post-annealing studies of La-Bi2201 single crystals

Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+δ}$ (0$\leq x \leq$1.00) single crystals with high-quality have been grown successfully using the travelling-solvent floating-zone technique. The patterns of X-ray diffraction suggest high crystalline quality of the samples. After post-annealing in flowing oxygen at 600 $^o$C, the crystals show sharp superconducting transitions revealed by AC susceptibility. The hole concentration $p$ is deduced from superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$), which exhibits a linear relation with La doping level $x$. It ranges from the heavily overdoped regime ($p \approx$ 0.2) to the extremely underdoped side ($p \approx$ 0.08) where the superconductivity is absent. Comparing with the superconducting dome in Bi$_{2+x}$Sr$_{2-x}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ system, the effects from out-of-plane disorders show up in our samples. Besides the La doping level $x$, the superconductivity is also sensitive to the content of oxygen which could be tuned by post-annealing method over the whole doping range. The post-annealing effects on $T_c$ and $p$ for each La doping level are studied, which give some insights on the different nature between overdoped and underdoped regime.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Growth and Characterization of Bi$_{2+x}$Sr$_{2-x}$CuO$_{6+δ}$ Single Crystals

High-quality Bi$_{2+x}$Sr$_{2-x}$CuO$_{6+δ}$(0$<$x$\leq$0.5) single crystals have been grown successfully using the travelling-solvent floating-zone(TSFZ) technique. The samples with $x >$ 0.05 are in the underdoped level. The structure of these crystals was investigated by X-ray diffraction. The evolution of c-axis lattice parameters with varied \emph{x} is displayed, which is strongly associated with the behavior of $T_{c}$. The crystals exhibit superconducting transitions with $T_c=9$ to 0.8 K for the samples with $x=0.05$ to 0.20, while for samples with $x=0.25$ and above no superconductivity was discovered down to 1.6 K. The resistivity of samples with $x$=0.31, 0.40 and 0.50 exhibits a drastic divergence as temperature approaches 0 K.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Hall effect and magnetoresistance in single crystals of NdFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$

Hall effect and magnetoresistance have been measured on single crystals of $NdFeAsO_{1-x}F_{x}$ with x = 0 ($T_c$ = 0 $ $K) and x = 0.18 ($T_c$ = 50 $ $K). For the undoped samples, strong Hall effect and magnetoresistance with strong temperature dependence were found below about 150 K. The magnetoresistance was found to be as large as 30% at 15 K at a magnetic field of 9 T. From the transport data we found that the transition near 155 K was accomplished in two steps: first one occurs at 155 K which may be associated with the structural transition, the second one takes place at about 140 K which may correspond to the spin-density wave like transition. In the superconducting sample with $T_c$ = 50 $ $K, it is found that the Hall coefficient also reveals a strong temperature dependence with a negative sign. But the magnetoresistance becomes very weak and does not satisfy the Kohler's scaling law. These dilemmatic results (strong Hall effect and very weak magnetoresistance) prevent to understand the normal state electric conduction by a simple multi-band model by taking account the electron and hole pockets. Detailed analysis further indicates that the strong temperature dependence of $R_H$ cannot be easily understood with the simple multi-band model either. A picture concerning a suppression to the density of states at the Fermi energy in lowering temperature is more reasonable. A comparison between the Hall coefficient of the undoped sample and the superconducting sample suggests that the doping may remove the nesting condition for the formation of the SDW order, since both samples have very similar temperature dependence above 175 K.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Nodal Superconductivity with Multiple Gaps in SmFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$

We report the observation of two gaps in the superconductor SmFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ (F-SmFeAsO) with $T_c=51.5K$ as measured by point-contact spectroscopy. Both gaps decrease with temperature and vanish at $T_c$ and the temperature dependence of the gaps are described by the theoretical prediction of the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory. A zero-bias conductance peak (ZBCP) was observed, indicating the presence of Andreev bound states at the surface of F-SmFeAsO. Our results strongly suggest an unconventional nodal superconductivity with multiple gaps in F-SmFeAsO.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Point-Contact Spectroscopy of Iron-Based Layered Superconductor LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1-δ}$FeAs

We present point-contact spectroscopy data for junctions between a normal metal and the newly discovered F-doped superconductor LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1-δ}$FeAs (F-LaOFeAs). A zero-bias conductance peak was observed and its shape and magnitude suggests the presence of Andreev bound states at the surface of F-LaOFeAs, which provides a possible evidence of an unconventional pairing symmetry with a nodal gap function. The maximum gap value $Δ_0\approx3.9\pm0.7$meV was determined from the measured spectra, in good agreement with the recent experiments on specific heat and lower critical field.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Angular dependence of resistivity in the superconducting state of NdFeAsO$_{0.82}$F$_{0.18}$ single crystals

We report the results of angle dependent resistivity of NdFeAsO$_{0.82}$F$_{0.18}$ single crystals in the superconducting state. By doing the scaling of resistivity within the frame of the anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau theory, it is found that the angle dependent resistivity measured under different magnetic fields at a certain temperature can be collapsed onto one curve. As a scaling parameter, the anisotropy $Γ$ can be determined for different temperatures. It is found that $Γ(T)$ increases slowly with decreasing temperature, varying from $Γ\simeq$ 5.48 at T=50 K to $Γ\simeq$ 6.24 at T=44 K. This temperature dependence can be understood within the picture of multi-band superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Doping Dependence of Superconductivity and Lattice Constants in Hole Doped $La_{1-x}Sr_xFeAsO$

By using solid state reaction method we have fabricated the hole doped $La_{1-x}Sr_xFeAsO$ superconductors with Sr content up to 0.13. It is found that the sharp anomaly at about 150 K and the low temperature upturn of resistivity are suppressed by doping holes into the parent phase. Interestingly both the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ and the lattice constants (a-axis and c-axis) increase monotonously with hole concentration, in sharp contrast with the electron doped side where the $T_c$ increases with a continuing shrinkage of the lattice constants either by dope more fluorine or oxygen vacancies into the system. Our data clearly illustrate that the superconductivity can be induced by doping holes via substituting the trivalent La with divalent Sr in the LaFeAsO system with single FeAs layer, and the $T_c$ in the present system exhibits a symmetric behavior at the electron and hole doped sides, as we reported previously.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Critical Fields and Anisotropy of NdO0.82F0.18FeAs Single Crystals

The newly discovered iron-based superconductors have stimulated enormous interests in the field of superconductivity. Since the new superconductor is a layered system, the anisotropy is a parameter with the first priority to know. Meanwhile any relevant message about the critical fields (upper critical field and irreversibility line) are essentially important. By using flux method, we have successfully grown the single crystals NdO0.82F0.18FeAs at ambient pressure. Resistive measurements reveal a surprising discovery that the anisotropy Γ= (mc/mab)^{1/2} is below 5, which is much smaller than the theoretically calculated results. The data measured up to 400 K show a continuing curved feature which prevents a conjectured linear behavior for an unconventional metal. The upper critical fields determined based on the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg formula are H_{c2}^{H||ab}(T=0 K) = 304 T and H_{c2}^{H||c}(T=0 K)=62-70 T, indicating a very encouraging application of the new superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Linear Temperature Dependence of the Lower Critical Field $H_{c1}$ in F-Doped LaOFeAs Superconductors

We present the first experimental results of the lower critical field $H_{c1}$ of the newly discovered F-doped superconductor LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$FeAs (F-LaOFeAs) by global and local magnetization measurements. It is found that $H_{c1}$ showed an clear linear-$T$ dependence down to a temperature of 2 K, indicative of an unconventional pairing symmetry with a nodal gap function. Based on the d-wave model, we estimated a maximum gap value $Δ_0=4.0 \pm 0.6$ meV, in consistent with the recent specific heat and point-contact tunneling measurements. Taking the demagnetization factor into account, the absolute value of $H_{c1}(0)$ is determined to be about 54 Oe, manifesting a low superfluid density for LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$FeAs.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Superconductivity at 36 K in Gadolinium-arsenide Oxides GdO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$FeAs

In this paper we report the fabrication and superconducting properties of GdO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$FeAs. It is found that when x is equal to 0.17, GdO$_{0.83}$F$_{0.17}$FeAs is a superconductor with the onset transition temperature T$_{c}^{on}\approx$ 36.6K. Resistivity anomaly near 130K was observed for all samples up to x = 0.17, such a phenomenon is similar to that of LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$FeAs. Hall coefficient indicates that GdO$_{0.83}$F$_{0.17}$FeAs is conducted by electron-like charge carriers.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Synthesizing and characterization of hole doped nickel based layer superconductor (La$_{1-x}$Sr$_{x}$)ONiAs

We report the synthesizing and characterization of the hole doped Ni-based superconductor ($La_{1-x}Sr_{x})ONiAs$. By substituting La with Sr, the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ is increased from 2.75 K of the parent phase $LaONiAs$ to 3.7 K at the doping levels x= 0.1 - 0.2. The curve $T_c$ versus hole concentration shows a symmetric behavior as the electron doped samples $La(O_{1-x}F_{x})NiAs$. The normal state resistivity in Ni-based samples shows a good metallic behavior and reveals the absence of an anomaly which appears in the Fe-based system at about 150 K, suggesting that this anomaly is not a common feature for all systems. Hall effect measurements indicate that the electron conduction in the parent phase $LaONiAs$ is dominated by electron-like charge carriers, while with more Sr doping, a hole-like band will emerge and finally prevail over the conduction, and accordingly the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ increases.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Hall effect and magnetoresistance in the normal state of the superconductor LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1-x}$FeAs

By using a two-step method, we successfully synthesized the iron based new superconductor LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1-x}$FeAs. The Hall effect and magnetoresistance were measured in wide temperature region. A negative Hall coefficient R_H has been found implying a dominant conduction by electron-like charge carriers in this material. The charge carrier density determined at 100K is about 9.8E20 cm-3, which is close to the cuprate superconductors. It is further found that the magnetoresistance does not follow the Kohler's law. Meanwhile, the Hall coefficient, the resistivity at 0T, and magnetoresistance all have an anomalous property at about 240K, which may be induced by the multi-band effect or by some exotic scattering mechanism.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Superconductivity at 25 K in hole doped $(La_{1-x}Sr_x)OFeAs$

By partially substituting the tri-valence element La with di-valence element Sr in $LaOFeAs$, we introduced holes into the system. For the first time, we successfully synthesized the hole doped new superconductors $(La_{1-x}Sr_x)OFeAs$. The maximum superconducting transition temperature at about 25 K was observed at a doping level of x = 0.13. It is evidenced by Hall effect measurements that the conduction in this type of material is dominated by hole-like charge carriers, rather than electron-like ones. Together with the data of the electron doped system $La(O_{1-x}F_x)FeAs$, a generic phase diagram is depicted and is revealed to be similar to that of the cuprate superconductors.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2008

Nodal Gap in Fe-Based Layered Superconductor LaO_0.9F_{0.1-delta}FeAs Probed by Specific Heat Measurements

We report the specific heat measurements on the newly discovered Fe-based layered superconductor LaO_0.9F_{0.1-delta}FeAs with the onset transition temperature T_c \approx 28 K. A nonlinear magnetic field dependence of the electronic specific heat coefficient gamma(H) has been found in the low temperature limit, which is consistent with the prediction for a nodal superconductor. The maximum gap value Delta_0 \approx 3.4$\pm$0.5 meV was derived by analyzing gamma(H) based on the d-wave model. We also detected the electronic specific heat difference between 9 T and 0 T in wide temperature region, a specific heat anomaly can be clearly observed near T_c. The Debye temperature of our sample was determined to be about 315.7 K. Our results suggest an unconventional mechanism for this new superconductor.

cond-mat.supr-con↗