arXiv subjects

V. P. S. Awana

Publications and source records attributed to V. P. S. Awana.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Flux Free Single Crystal Growth and Detailed Physical Property Characterization of Bi1-xSbx (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) Topological Insulator

Here, we report the crystal growth, physical and transport properties of Bi1-xSbx (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) topological insulator. Single crystals of Bi1-xSbx (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) were grown by melting bismuth and antimony together using the facile self flux method. The XRD measurements displayed highly indexed 00l lines and confirmed the crystalline nature as well as the rhombohedral structure of the Bi1-xSbx (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15) crystals. Raman spectroscopy measurements for Bi1-xSbx system revealed four peaks within the spectral range of 10 to 250 cm-1 namely A1g and Eg modes corresponding to Bi-Bi and Sb-Sb vibrations. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive Temperature dependent electrical resistivity curves with and without applied magnetic field exhibited a metallic behaviour and linear non-saturating magneto-resistance (MR) respectively for all the antimony (Sb) concentrations of x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15. The lowest Sb concentration sample with x = 0.05 (Bi0.95Sb0.05) exhibited the highest MR value of about 1400%, followed by x = 0.1 and 0.15 samples (Bi0.9Sb0.1 and Bi0.85Sb0.05) with MR values reaching up to 500% and 110% respectively at 2K and 6Tesla applied field. The magneto-conductivity (MC) is fitted to the HLN (Hikami Larkin Nagaoka) equation and it is found that the charge conduction mechanism is mainly dominated by WAL (weak anti-localization) along with a small contribution from WL (weak localization) effect. Summarily, the short letter discusses the synthesis, interesting transport and magneto-transport properties of Bi1-xSbx (x = 0.05, 0.1 and 0.15), which could be useful in understanding the fascinating properties of topological insulators and their technological applications.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2019

Investigation of fundamental and higher harmonic AC magnetic susceptibility of FeSe0.5Te0.5 Superconductor

We present the complex harmonic magnetic susceptibilities of the FeSeTe polycrystalline superconducting sample. The ac magnetic susceptibility is measured as a function of various external perturbations such as temperature, the AC magnetic field amplitude, frequency, and the magnitude of DC bias field. The in phase and out of phase components of the fundamental and third harmonics of ac susceptibility are found to vary as a function of the AC drive field. The imaginary part of third harmonics shows two peaks as a function of frequency, one negative in magnitude and another is positive. The negative peak shifts towards the lower temperature and positive peak is shifted towards the higher temperature as we increase the frequency. To better understand the AC magnetic response under the influence of various perturbations, we have analyzed the polar plot of the complex ac susceptibility for both the harmonics. Our analysis suggests that the studied sample is in vortex glass state, characterized by a collective flux creep state within Beans model and the Kim Anderson model is ruled out.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2019

Detailed physical property characterization of FeTe1-xSex x = 0.0 to 0.50 single crystals

Here, we report self flux single crystal growth of FeTe1-xSex for x = 0 to 0.50 series via solid state reaction route,the resulted crystals as seen are shiny. X Ray diffraction performed on the surface of crystals elucidated the growth in 00l plane, i.e. orientation in c direction only. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images showed slab like morphology and EDX (Energy dispersive X ray analyzer) confirmed that the crystals are closed to their designed compositions. Rietveld analysis of the XRD patterns of crushed crystal powders showed that the cell parameters decrease with Se content increase. Coupled magnetic and structural phase transition temperature, seen as a step in resistivity for the lower Se concentration and it is not detected for higher x values. Superconductivity is observed by resistivity measurement for higher Se concentration with a maximum temperature of 14K at x = 0.50. Thermally Activated Flux Flow (TAFF) analysis based on high field transport measurements in superconducting region done for x = 0.20 crystal. Raman spectroscopy at room temperature of synthesized samples exhibits all the allowed phonon modes with slight shift to higher frequency with Se content. Mossbauer spectra of FeTe1-xSex crystals series were recorded at 300 and 5K. At 5K, the average hyperfine field decreases systematically with Se content increase from 10.6 to 6.1Tesla for x = 0.0 to x = 0.20 samples. This indicates a possibility of co-existing magnetism and superconductivity in x = 0.07 to 0.20 crystals. For x = 0.50 sample, no hyperfine field related to magnetic ordering is seen. Based on above results, detailed phase diagram of the FeTe1-xSex compounds is defined in the present study.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Growth, Characterization and High Field Magneto-Conductivity of Co0.1Bi2Se3 Topological Insulator

We report the crystal growth as well as transport properties of Co added Bi2Se3 single crystals. The values of the lattice parameters a and b for Co added sample were observed to increase as compared to the pure Bi2Se3. The Raman spectroscopy displayed higher Raman shift of corresponding vibrational modes for Co0.1Bi2Se3, and the resistivity curves with and without applied magnetic field shows a metallic behaviour. Both the crystals were subjected to magneto-resistance (MR) measurements under applied fields of 14Tesla. The value of MR is found to decrease from about 380 (5K, 14 Tesla) for Bi2Se3 to 200 degree for Co0.1Bi2Se3. To elaborate the transport properties of pure and Co added Bi2Se3 crystals, the magneto-conductivity is fitted to the HLN (Hikami Larkin Nagaoka) equation and it is found that the charge conduction is mainly dominated by surface driven WAL (weak anti-localization) with negligible bulk WL (weak localization) contribution in both crystals alike. The MH curves of Co0.1Bi2Se3 crystal at different temperatures displayed a combination of both ferromagnetic and diamagnetic behaviour. On the other hand, the Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) revealed that pure Bi2Se3 is diamagnetic whereas, Co orders ferro-magnetically with resonating field around 3422Oe at room temperature.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Proximity-induced supercurrent through topological insulator based nanowires for quantum computation studies

Proximity induced superconducting energy gap in the surface states of topological insulators has been predicted to host the much wanted Majorana fermions for fault tolerant quantum computation. Recent theoretically proposed architectures for topological quantum computation via Majoranas are based on large networks of Kitaevs one dimensional quantum wires, which pose a huge experimental challenge in terms of scalability of the current single nanowire based devices. Here, we address this problem by realizing robust superconductivity in junctions of fabricated topological insulator Bi2Se3 nanowires proximity coupled to conventional s wave superconducting W electrodes. Milling technique possesses great potential in fabrication of any desired shapes and structures at nanoscale level, and therefore can be effectively utilized to scale up the existing single nanowire based design into nanowire based network architectures. We demonstrate the dominant role of ballistic topological surface states in propagating the long range proximity induced superconducting order with high IcRN product in long Bi2Se3 junctions. Large upper critical magnetic fields exceeding the Chandrasekhar Clogston limit suggests the existence of robust superconducting order with spin triplet cooper pairing. An unconventional inverse dependence of IcRN product on the width of the nanowire junction was also observed.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Superconductivity in doped FeTe1-xSx (x= 0.00 to 0.25) single crystals

We report self flux growth and characterization of FeTe1-xSx (x= 0.00 to 0.25) single crystal series. Surface X-ray diffraction (XRD) exhibited crystalline nature with growth in (00l) plane. Micro-structural (electron microscopy) images of representative crystals showed the slab-like morphology and near stoichiometric composition. Powder XRD analysis (Rietveld) of single crystals exhibited tetragonal structure with P4/nmm space group and decreasing a and c lattice parameters with increase in x. Electrical resistivity measurements (R-T) showed superconductivity with Tconset at 9.5K and 8.5K for x =0.10 and x =0.25 respectively. The un-doped crystal exhibited known step like anomaly at around 70K. Upper critical field Hc2(0), as calculated from magneto transport for x =0.25 crystal is around 60Tesla and 45Tesla in H//ab and H//c directions. Thermal activation energy [U0(H)] calculated for x =0.10 and 0.25 crystals followed weak power law, indicating single vortex pinning at low fields. Mossbauer spectra for FeTe1-xSx crystals at 300K and 5K are compared with non superconducting FeTe. Both quadrupole splitting (QS) and isomer shift (IS) for S doped crystals were found to decrease. Also at 5K the hyperfine field for x =0.10 superconducting crystal is decreased substantially from 10.6Tesla (FeTe) to 7.2Tesla. For x =0.25 crystal, though small quantity of un-reacted Fe is visible at room temperature, but unlike x =0.10, the low temperature (5K) ordered FeTe hyperfine field is nearly zero.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Short Note on Superconductivity at Ambient Temperature and Pressure in Silver Embedded Gold Nano-particles: A Goldsmith job ahead

Very recent observation of superconductivity in both transport (resistance versus temperature) and magnetization (Zero field cooled) at around 235 K has obviously raised many eyebrows. The experimental fraternity in particular is more thrilled. Although the results presented in the paper are clean and both transport and magnetization measurements do approve the observation of superconductivity to some extent (the shielding fraction is low), the problem is to synthesize or fabricate the material. This I name a goldsmith job, primarily because one has to deal with Gold and Silver nano particles combination/amalgamation/alloying or even who knows the inter-facial new phase, which could be superconducting. This short note is written in view to let the spark continues and the interesting work of ) authors is reproduced independently.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

High Field Magneto-Conductivity Analysis of Bi2Se3 Single Crystal

We report the high field (up to 14Tesla) magneto-conductivity analysis of Bi2Se3 topological insulator grown via the self flux method. The detailed experimental investigations including crystal growth as well as the electrical, thermal and spectroscopic characterizations of the resultant Bi2Se3 single crystal are already reported by some of us. The current letter deals with high field magneto-conductivity analysis in terms of Hikami Larkin Nagaoka (HLN) model, which revealed that the electronic conduction is dominated by both surface states driven weak anti localization (WAL), as well the bulk WL (weak localization) states. Further, by applying the HLN equation we have extracted the fitting parameters i.e., phase coherence length and the pre-factor. The HLN equation exhibited values of [pre factor close to -1.0, indicating both WAL and WL contributions. On the other hand, the extracted phase coherence length is seen to decrease from 11.125 nm to 5.576 nm as the temperature is increased from 5K to 200K respectively. Summarily, the short letter discusses primarily the temperature dependent magneto-conductivity analysis of pristine Bi2Se3 single crystal by the HLN model.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Unexplored photoluminescence from bulk and mechanically exfoliated few layers of Bi2Te3

We report the exotic photoluminescence (PL) behaviour of 3D topological insulator Bi2Te3 single crystals grown by customized self-flux method and mechanically exfoliated few layers (18 plus minus 2 nm)/thin flakes obtained by standard scotch tape method from as grown Bi2Te3 crystals.The experimental PL studies on bulk single crystal and mechanically exfoliated few layers of Bi2Te3 evidenced a broad red emission in the visible region. These findings are in good agreement with our theoretical results obtained using the ab initio density functional theory framework.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Heat capacity and Mosssbauer study of Self flux grown FeTe Single Crystal

We report mainly the heat capacity and Mossbauer study of self flux grown FeTe single crystal, which is ground state compound of the Fe chalcogenides superconducting series, i.e., FeTe1-x(Se/S)x. The as grown FeTe single crystal is large enough to the tune of few cm and the same crystallizes in tetragonal structure having space group of P4/nmm. FeTe shows the structural/magnetic phase transition at 70K in both magnetic and resistivity measurements. Heat capacity measurement also confirms the coupled structural/magnetic transition at the same temperature. The Debye model fitting of low temperature (below 70K) heat capacity exhibited Debye temperature to be 324K. MÖssbauer spectra are performed at 300K and 5K. The 300K spectra showed two paramagnetic doublets and the 5K spectra exhibited hyperfine magnetic sextet with an average hyperfine field of 10.6Tesla matching with the results of Yoshikazu Mizuguchi et al.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2018

Hikami-Larkin-Nagaoka (HLN) treatment of the Magneto Conductivity of Bi2Te3 Topological Insulator

We report the magneto-conductivity analysis at different temperatures under magnetic field of up to 5Tesla of a well characterized Bi2Te3 crystal. Details of crystal growth and various physical properties including high linear magneto resistance are already reported by some of us. To elaborate upon the transport properties of Bi2Te3 crystal, the magneto conductivity is fitted to the known HLN (Hikami Larkin Nagaoka) equation and it is found that the conduction mechanism is dominated by both surface driven WAL (weak anti localization) and the bulk WL states. The value of HLN equation coefficient signifying the type of localization (WL, WAL or both WL and WAL) falls within the range of -0.5 to -1.5. In our case, the low field (0.25Tesla) fitting of studied crystal exhibited value close to -0.86 for studied temperatures of up to 50K, indicating both WAL and WL contributions. The phase coherence length is found to decrease from 98.266 to 40.314nm with increasing temperature. Summarily, the short letter reports the fact that bulk Bi2Te3 follows the HLN equation and quantitative analysis of the same facilitates to know the quality of studied crystal in terms of WAL to WL contributions and thus the surface to bulk conduction ratio.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2018

Crystal Growth and Characterization of Bulk Sb2Te3Topological Insulator

The Sb2Te3 crystals are grown using the conventional self flux method via solid state reaction route, by melting constituent elements (Sb and Te) at high temperature (850 C), followed by slow cooling (2 C per hour).The weak anti localization (WAL) related low field (2 Tesla) magneto-conductance at low temperatures (2.5 K and 20 K) has been analysed and discussed using the Hikami- Larkin - Nagaoka (HLN) model. Summarily, the short letter reports an easy and versatile method for crystal growth of bulk Sb2Te3 topological insulator (TI) and its brief physical property characterization.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

High Field (up to 140kOe) Angle Dependent Magneto Transport of Bi2Te3 Single Crystals

We report the angle dependent high field (up to 140kOe) magneto transport of Bi2Te3 single crystals, a well-known topological insulator. The crystals were grown from melt of constituent elements via solid state reaction route by self-flux method. Details of crystal growth along with their brief characterization up to 5 Tesla applied field was reported by some of us recently [J. Magn. Mag. Mater. 428, 213 (2017)]. The angle dependence of the magneto-resistance (MR) of Bi2Te3 follows the cos Theta function i.e., MR is responsive, when the applied field is perpendicular (tilt angle Theta = o and/or 180) to the transport current. The low field (10 kOe) MR showed the signatures of weak anti localization (WAL) character with typical cusp near origin at 5 K. Further, the MR is linear right up to highest applied field of 140 kOe. The large positive MR are observed up to high temperatures and are above 250 and 150 percent at 140 kOe in perpendicular fields at 50 K and 100 K respectively. Heat capacity CP(T) measurements revealed the value of Debye temperature to be 135 K. ARPES (angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy) data clearly showed that the bulk Bi2Te3 single crystal consists of a single Dirac cone.

cond-mat.mtrl-sci↗

arXiv2017

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, Magnetotransport and Magnetization study of Nb2PdS5 superconductor

In the present report, we investigate various properties of the Nb2PdS5 superconductor. Scanning electron microscopy displayed slabs like laminar growth of Nb2PdS5while X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy exhibited the hybridization of Sulphur (2p) with both Palladium (3d)and Niobium (3d). High field (140kOe) magneto-transport measurements revealed that superconductivity (Tc onset =7K and Tc R = 0 = 6.2K) of the studied Nb2PdS5material is quite robust against magnetic field with the upper critical field (Hc2) outside the Pauli paramagnetic limit. Thermally activated flux flow (TAFF) of the compound showed that resistivity curves follow Arrhenius behaviour. The activation energy for Nb2PdS5 is found to decrease from 15.15meV at 10kOe to 2.35meV at 140kOe. Seemingly, the single vortex pinning is dominant in low field regions, while collective pinning is dominant in high field region. The temperature dependence of AC susceptibility confirmed the Tc at 6K, further varying amplitude and frequency showed well coupled granular nature of superconductivity. The lower critical field (Hc1) is extracted from DC magnetisation measurements at various T below Tc. It is found that Hc1(T) of Nb2PdS5 material seemingly follows the multiband nature of superconductivity.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Carrier Transport in Magnesium Diboride: Role of Nano-inclusions

Anisotropic-gap and two-band effects smear out the superconducting transition (Tc) in literature reported thermal conductivity of MgB2, where large electronic contributions also suppress anomaly-manifestation in their negligible phononic-parts. Present thermal transport results on scarcely explored specimens featuring nano-inclusions exhibit a small but clear Tc-signature, traced to relatively appreciable phononic conduction, and its dominant electronic-scattering. The self-formed MgO as extended defects strongly scatter the charge carriers and minutely the phonons with their longer-mean-free-path near Tc. Conversely, near room temperature, the shorter-dominant-wavelength phonon's transport is hugely affected by these nanoparticles, undergoing ballistic to diffusive crossover and eventually entering the Ioffe-Regel mobility threshold regime.

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Novel solid state vacuum quartz encapsulated growth of p-Terphenyl: the parent High Tc Oraganic Superconductor (HTOS)

We report an easy and versatile route for the synthesis of the parent phase of newest superconducting wonder material i.e. p-Terphenyl. Doped p-terphenyl has recently shown superconductivity with transition temperature as high as 120K. For crystal growth, the commercially available p-Terphenyl powder is pelletized, encapsulated in evacuated (10-4 Torr) quartz tube and subjected to high temperature (260C) melt followed by slow cooling at 5C/hour. Simple temperature controlled heating furnace is used during the process. The obtained crystal is one piece, shiny and plate like. Single crystal surface XRD (X-ray Diffraction) showed unidirectional (00l) lines, indicating that the crystal is grown along c-direction. Powder XRD of the specimen showed that as grown p-Terphenyl is crystallized in monoclinic structure with space group P21/a space group, having lattice parameters a = 8.08(2) A, b = 5.62(5) A and c= 13.58(3) A. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) pictures of the crystal showed clear layered slab like growth without any visible contamination from oxygen. Characteristic reported Raman active modes related to C-C-C bending, C-H bending, C-C stretching and C-H stretching vibrations are seen clearly for the studied p-Terphenyl crystal. The physical properties of crystal are yet underway. The short letter reports an easy and versatile crystal growth method for obtaining quality p-terphenyl. The same growth method may probably be applied to doped p-terphenyl and to subsequently achieve superconductivity to the tune of as high 120K for the newest superconductivity wonder i.e., High Tc Oraganic Superconductor (HTOS).

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Crystal Growth and Magneto-transport of Bi2Se3 Single crystals

In this letter, we report growth and characterization of bulk Bi2Se3 single crystals. The studied Bi2Se3 crystals are grown by self flux method through solid state reaction from high temperature (950C) melt of constituent elements and slow cooling (2C/hour). The resultant crystals are shiny and grown in [00l] direction, as evidenced from surface XRD. Detailed Reitveld analysis of PXRD (powder x-ray diffraction) of the crystals showed that these are crystallized in rhombohedral crystal structure with space group of R3m (D5) and the lattice parameters are a = 4.14(2)A, b = 4.14 (2) A and c = 28.7010(7) A. Temperature versus resistivity (R-T) plots revealed metallic conduction down to 2K, with typical room temperature resistivity (R300K) of around 0.53 mohm-cm and residual resistivity of 0.12 mohm-cm. Resistivity under magnetic field ] measurements exhibited large +Ve magneto resistance right from 2K to 200K. Isothermal magneto resistance [RH] measurements at 2K, 100K and 200K exhibited magneto resistance (MR) of up to 240, 130 and 60 percent respectively at 14 Tesla. Further the MR plots are non saturating and linear with field at all temperature. At 2K the MR plots showed clear quantum oscillations at above say 10 Tesla applied field. Also the Kohler plots i.e., were seen consolidating on one plot. Interestingly, the studied Bi2Se3 single crystal exhibited the Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations (SdH) at 2K under different applied magnetic fields ranging from 4Tesla to 14 Tesla

cond-mat.supr-con↗

arXiv2017

Electrical, Thermal and Spectroscopic Characterization of Bulk Bi2Se3 Topological Insulator

We report electrical (angular magneto-resistance, and Hall), thermal (heat capacity) and spectroscopic (Raman, x-ray photo electron, angle resolved photo electron) characterization of bulk Bi2Se3 topological insulator, which is being is grown by self flux method through solid state reaction from high temperature (950C) melt and slow cooling (2C/hour) of constituent elements. Bi2Se3 exhibited metallic behaviour down to 5K. Magneto transport measurements revealed linear up to 400% and 30% MR at 5K under 14 Tesla field in perpendicular and parallel field direction respectively. We noticed that the magneto-resistance (MR) of Bi2Se3 is very sensitive to the angle of applied field. MR is maximum when the field is normal to the sample surface, while it is minimum when the field is parallel. Hall coefficient (RH) is seen nearly invariant with negative carrier sign down to 5K albeit having near periodic oscillations above 100K. Heat capacity (Cp) versus temperature plot is seen without any phase transitions down to 5K and is well fitted (Cp = gammaT + betaT3) at low temperature with calculated Debye temperature (ThetaD) value of 105.5K. Clear Raman peaks are seen at 72, 131 and 177 cm-1 corresponding to A1g1, Eg2 and A1g2 respectively. Though, two distinct asymmetric characteristic peak shapes are seen for Bi 4f7/2 and Bi 4f5/2, the Se 3d region is found to be broad displaying the overlapping of spin - orbit components of the same. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data of Bi2Se3 revealed distinctly the bulk conduction bands (BCB), surface state (SS), Dirac point (DP) and bulk valence bands (BVB) and 3D bulk conduction signatures are clearly seen. Summarily, host of physical properties for as grown Bi2Se3 crystal are reported here.

cond-mat.str-el↗