No Arabic abstract
As-vacancies (V_As) in La-1111-systems, which are nominally non-magnetic defects, are shown to create in their vicinity by symmetry ferromagnetically oriented local magnetic moments due to the strong, covalent bonds with neighboring Fe atoms that they break. From microscopic theory in terms of an appropriately modified Anderson-Wolff model, we find that the moment formation results in a substantially enhanced paramagnetic susceptibility in both the normal and superconducting (SC) state. Despite the V_As act as magnetic scatterers, they do not deteriorate SC properties which can even be improved by V_As by suppressing a competing or coexisting commensurate spin density wave or its remnant fluctuations. Due to the induced local magnetic moments an s_++-scenario in related systems is unlikely.
High-quality KFe2As2 single crystals have been studied by transport, magnetization and low-T specific heat measurements. Their analysis shows that superconductivity occurs (in some cases coexists) in the vicinity of disordered magnetic phases (Griffiths and spin-glass type) depending of the amount of local magnetic moments (probably excess Fe derived)and sample inhomogeneity. The achieved phenomenological description of our data including also data from the literature provides a consistent explanation of the observed non-Fermi-liquid behavior and of the nominally large experimental Sommerfeld coefficient gamma_n about 94 mJ/mol K^2. We suggest that the intrinsic value (directly related to the itinerant quasi-particles) gamma_el about 60(10)mJ/mol K^2 is significantly reduced compared with gamma_n. Then an enhanced relative jump of the electronic specific heat Delta C_el/gamma_el T_c about 0.8 and a weak total electron-boson coupling constant lambda less or about 1 follow.
We report Zn-doping effect in the parent and F-doped LaFeAsO oxy-arsenides. Slight Zn doping in LaFe$_{1-x}$Zn$_{x}$AsO drastically suppresses the resistivity anomaly around 150 K associated with the antiferromagnetic (AFM) spin density wave (SDW) in the parent compound. The measurements of magnetic susceptibility and thermopower confirm further the effect of Zn doping on AFM order. Meanwhile Zn doping does not affect or even enhances the $T_c$ of LaFe$_{1-x}$Zn$_{x}$AsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$, in contrast to the effect of Zn doping in high-$T_c$ cuprates. We found that the solubility of Zn content ($x$) is limited to less than 0.1 in both systems and further Zn doping (i.e., $x$ $geq$ 0.1) causes phase separation. Our study clearly indicates that the non-magnetic impurity of Zn$^{2+}$ ions doped in the Fe$_2$As$_2$ layers affects selectively the AFM order, and superconductivity remains robust against the Zn doping in the F-doped superconductors.
Here we report the synthesis and basic characterization of LaFe1-xCoxAsO for several values of x. The parent phase LaFeAsO orders antiferromagnetically (TN ~ 145 K). Replacing Fe with Co is expected to both electron dope the system and introduce disorder in the FeAs layer. For x = 0.05 antiferromagnetic order is destroyed and superconductivity is observed at Tconset = 11.2 K. For x = 0.11 superconductivity is observed at Tc(onset) = 14.3 K, and for x = 0.15 Tc = 6.0 K. Superconductivity is not observed for x = 0.2 and 0.5, but for x = 1, the material appears to be ferromagnetic (Tc ~ 56 K) as judged by magnetization measurements. We conclude that Co is an effective dopant to induce superconductivity. Somewhat surprisingly, the system appears to tolerate considerable disorder in the FeAs planes.
Electrical resistivity measurements under high pressures up to 29 GPa were performed for oxypnictide compound LaFeAsO. We found a pressure-induced superconductivity in LaFeAsO. The maximum value of Tc is 21 K at ~12 GPa. The pressure dependence of the Tc is similar to those of LaFeAsO1-xFx series reported previously.
We report magnetization measurements of As-deficient LaO_0.9F_0.1FeAs_1-delta (delta about 0.06) samples with improved superconducting properties as compared with As-stoichiometric optimally doped La-1111 samples. In this As-deficient system with almost homogeneously distributed As-vacancies (AV), as suggested by the (75)As-nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurements,we observe a strong enhancement of the spin-susceptibility by a factor of 3-7. This observation is attributed to the presence of an electronically localized state around each AV, carrying a magnetic moment of about 3.2 mu_Bohr per AV or 0.8 mu_Bohr/Fe atom. From theoretical considerations we find that the formation of a local moment on neighboring iron sites of an AV sets in when the local Coulomb interaction exceeds a critical value of about 1.0 eV in the dilute limit. Its estimated value amounts to ~ 2.5 eV and implies an upper bound of ~ 2 eV for the Coulomb repulsion at Fe sites beyond the first neighbor-shell of an AV. Electronic correlations are thus moderate/weak in doped La-1111. The strongly enhanced spin susceptibility is responsible for the Pauli limiting behavior of the superconductivity that we observe in As-deficient LaO_0.9F_0.1FeAs_1-delta. In contrast, no Pauli limiting behavior is found for the optimally doped, As-stoichiometric LaO_0.9F_0.1FeAs superconductor in accord with its low spin susceptibility.