Here we report the fabrication and superconductivity of the iron-based arsenic-oxide GdFeAsO1-delta compound with oxygen-deficiency, which has an onset resistivity transition temperature at 53.5 K. This material has a same crystal structure as the newly discovered high-Tc ReFeAsO1-delta family (Re = rare earth metal) and a further reduced crystal lattice, while the Tc starts to decrease compared with the SmFeAsO1-delta system.
We report superconductivity in as synthesized Nb2PdSe5, which is similar to recently discovered Nb2PdS5 compound having very high upper critical field, clearly above the Pauli paramagnetic limit [Sci. Rep. 3, 1446 (2013)]. A bulk polycrystalline Nb2PdSe5 sample is synthesized by solid state reaction route in phase pure structure. The structural characterization has been done by X ray diffraction, followed by Rietveld refinements, which revealed that Nb2PdSe5 sample is crystallized in monoclinic structure with in space group C2/m. Structural analysis revealed the formation of sharing of one dimensional PdSe2 chains. Electrical and magnetic measurements confirmed superconductivity in Nb2PdSe5 compound at 5.5K. Detailed magneto-resistance results, exhibited the value of upper critical field to be around 8.2Tesla. The estimated Hc2(0) is within Pauli Paramagnetic limit, which is unlike the Nb2PdS5.
The iron arsenide RbFe_2As_2 with the ThCr_2Si_2-type structure is found to be a bulk superconductor with T_c=2.6 K. The onset of diamagnetism was used to estimate the upper critical field H_c2(T), resulting in dH_c2/dT=-1.4 T/K and an extrapolated H_c2(0)=2.5 T. As a new representative of iron pnictide superconductors, superconducting RbFe_2As_2 contrasts with BaFe_2As_2, where the Fermi level is higher and a magnetic instability is observed. Thus, the solid solution series (Rb,Ba)Fe_2As_2 is a promising system to study the crossover from superconductivity to magnetism.
Organic materials are believed to be potential superconductor with high transition temperature (TC). Organic superconductors mainly have two families: the quasi-one dimensional (TMTSF)2X and two dimensional (BEDT-TTF)2X (Ref. 1 and 2), in which TMTSF is tetramethyltetraselenafulvalene (C10H12Se4) and BEDT-TTF or ET is bis(ethylenedithio)tetrathiafulvalene (C10H8S8). One key feature of the organic superconductors is that they have {pi}-molecular orbitals, and the {pi}-electron can delocalize throughout the crystal giving rise to metallic conductivity due to a {pi}-orbital overlap between adjacent molecules. The introduction of charge into C60 solids and graphites with {pi}-electron networks by doping to realize superconductivity has been extensively reported3,4. Very recently, superconductivity in alkali-metal doped picene with {pi}-electron networks was reported5. Here we report the discovery of superconductivity in potassium doped Phenanthrene with TC~5 K. TC increases with increasing pressure, and the pressure of 1 GPa leads to an increase of 20% in TC, suggesting that the potassium doped phenanthrene shows unconventional superconductivity. Both phenanthrene and picene are polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, and contain three and five fused benzene rings, respectively. The ribbon of fused benzene rings is part of graphene. Therefore, the discovery of superconductivity in K3Phenanthrene produces a novel broad class of superconductors consisting of fused hydrocarbon benzene rings with {pi}-electron networks. The fact that TC increases from 5 K for KxPhenanthrene with three benzene rings to 18 K for Kxpicene with five benzene rings suggests that such organic hydrocarbons with long benzene rings is potential superconductor with high TC.
A new iron arsenide superconducting system LiFeAs was found that crystallizes into a tetragonal structure with space group P4/nmm. The superconductivity with Tc up to 18 K was observed in the compounds. This simple 111 type layered iron arsenide superconductor can be viewed as an analogue of the infinite layer structure of copper oxides.
We synthesized the samples Sr$_{1-x}$Sm$_x$FFeAs with ZrCuSiAs-type structure. These samples were characterized by resistivity and susceptibility. It is found that substitution of rare earth metal for alkaline earth metal in this system suppresses the anomaly in resistivity and induces superconductivity. Superconductivity at 56 K in nominal composition Sr$_{0.5}$Sm$_{0.5}$FFeAs is realized, indicating that the superconducting transition temperatures in the iron arsenide fluorides can reach as high as that in oxypnictides with the same structure.