No Arabic abstract
Magneto-optical imaging was used to study the local magnetization in polycrystalline NdFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ (NFAOF). Individual crystallites up to $sim200times100times30$ $mu m^{3}$ in size could be mapped at various temperatures. The in-grain, persistent current density is about $jsim10^{5}$ A/cm$^{2}$ and the magnetic relaxation rate in a remanent state peaks at about $T_{m}sim38$ K. By comparison with with the total magnetization measured in a bar-shaped, dense, polycrystalline sample, we suggest that NdFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ is similar to a layered high-$T_{c}$, compound such as Bi$_{2}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+x}$ and exhibits a $3Dto2D$ crossover in the vortex structure. The 2D Ginzburg parameter is about $Gi^{2D}% simeq10^{-2}$ implying electromagnetic anisotropy as large as $epsilon sim1/30$. Below $T_{m}$, the static and dynamic behaviors are consistent with collective pinning and creep.
We will probe the intrinsic behavior of spin susceptibility chi_(spin) in the LaFeAsO(1-x)F(x) superconductor (x ~ 0.1, Tc ~ 27K) using 19-F and 75-As NMR techniques. Our new results firmly establish the pseudo-gap behavior with Delta_(PG)/kB ~ 140K. The estimated magnitude of chi_(spin) at 290K, ~1.8x10^(-4) [emu/mol-Fe], is approximately twice larger than that in high Tc cuprates. We also show that chi_(spin) levels off below ~50K down to Tc.
This paper is no longer active and will NOT appear in print. For new data and analysis, please see: arXiv:0903.2220
We have employed a new route to synthesize single phase F-doped LaOFeAs compound and confirmed the superconductivity above 20 K in this Fe-based system. We show that the new superconductor has a rather high upper critical field of about 54 T. A clear signature of superconducting gap opening below T$_c$ was observed in the far-infrared reflectance spectra, with 2$Delta/textit{k}T_capprox$3.5-4.2. Furthermore, we show that the new superconductor has electron-type conducting carrier with a rather low carrier density.
We have performed 75As Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) measurements on aligned powders of the new LaO0.9F0.1FeAs superconductor. In the normal state, we find a strong temperature dependence of the spin shift and Korringa behavior of the spin lattice relaxation rate. In the superconducting state, we find evidence for line nodes in the superconducting gap and spin-singlet pairing. Our measurements reveal a strong anisotropy of the spin lattice relaxation rate, which suggest that superconducting vortices contribute to the relaxation rate when the field is parallel to the c-axis but not for the perpendicular direction.
Temperature and magnetic field dependent measurements of the microwave surface impedance of superconducting LaFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ (Tc $approx$ 26K) reveal a very large upper critical field ($B_{rm c2} approx 56$T) and a large value of the depinning frequency ($f_{0}approx 6$GHz); together with an upper limit for the effective London penetration depth, $lambda_{rm eff} le 200 rm nm$, our results indicate a strong similarity between this system and the high-$T_{rm c}$ superconducting cuprates.