The newly discovered BiS$_2$-based LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_2$ ($x$=0.5) becomes superconductive at $T_c$=2.5 K. Electrical resistivity and magnetization measurements are performed under pressure to determine the pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$. We observe that $T_c$ abruptly increases from 2.5 K to 10.7 K at a pressure of 0.7 GPa. According to high-pressure X-ray diffraction measurements, a structural phase transition from a tetragonal phase ($P$4/$nmm$) to a monoclinic phase ($P$2$_1/m$) also occurs at around $sim$ 1 GPa. We consider that a pressure-induced enhancement of superconductivity is caused by the structural phase transition.
We use core level and valence band soft x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (SXPES) to investigate electronic structure of new BiS$_{2}$ layered superconductor LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$. Core level spectra of doped samples show a new spectral feature at the lower binding energy side of the Bi 4${f}$ main peak, which may be explained by core-hole screening with metallic states near the Fermi level ($E_{rm F}$). Experimental electronic structure and its ${x}$ dependence (higher binding energy shift of the valence band as well as appearance of new states near $E_{rm F}$ having dominant Bi 6${p}$ character) were found to be consistent with the predictions of band structure calculations in general. Noticeable deviation of the spectral shape of the states near $E_{rm F}$ from that of calculations might give insight into the interesting physical properties. These results provide first experimental electronic structure of the new BiS$_{2}$ layered superconductors.
Polycrystalline samples of layered pnictogen diselenide NdO0.8F0.2Sb1-xBixSe2 (x = 0 to 0.8) were successfully synthesized by solid-state reactions. Electrical resistivity in the synthesized samples was systematically decreased with an increase in Bi content x. Crystal structure analysis using synchrotron X-ray diffraction suggests that insulator to metal transition upon Bi doping correlates with anomalous change in c-axis length and/or corrugation in conducting layer. The emergence of superconductivity under high pressure is demonstrated using diamond anvil cell (DAC) with boron-doped diamond electrodes, for x = 0.3 and 0.7 as the representative samples. For Sb-rich one (x = 0.3), we observed a superconducting transition with Tconset = 5.3 K at 50 GPa, which is the first-ever report of the superconductivity in layered SbCh2-based (Ch: chalcogen) compounds. The Tconset of x = 0.3 increased with increasing pressure and reached 7.9 K at 70.8 GPa, followed by the gradual decrease in Tc up to 90 GPa. For Bi-rich one (x = 0.7), a superconducting transition with Tconset = 5.9 K was observed at 43.5 GPa, which is the almost comparable to that of x = 0.3; besides, upper critical field (Hc2) is evaluated to be ~10 T for x = 0.7, which is higher than that of x = 0.3 (Hc2 = 6.7 T at 50 GPa).
A good description of the electronic structure of BiS$_{2}$-based superconductors is essential to understand their phase diagram, normal state and superconducting properties. To describe the first reports of normal state electronic structure features from angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) in LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$, we used a minimal microscopic model to study their low energy properties. It includes the two effective tight-binding bands proposed by Usui et al [Phys.Rev.B 86, 220501(R)(2012)], and we added moderate intra- and inter-orbital electron correlations related to Bi-($p_{Y}$, $p_{X}$) and S-($p_{Y}$, $p_{X}$) orbitals. We calculated the electron Greens functions using their equations of motion, which we decoupled in second-order of perturbations on the correlations. We determined the normal state spectral density function and total density of states for LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$, focusing on the description of the k-dependence, effect of doping, and the prediction of the temperature dependence of spectral properties. Including moderate electron correlations, improves the description of the few experimental ARPES and soft X-ray photoemission data available for LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$. Our analytical approximation enabled us to calculate the spectral density around the conduction band minimum at $vec{k}_{0}=(0.45pi,0.45pi)$, and to predict the temperature dependence of the spectral properties at different BZ points, which might be verified by temperature dependent ARPES.
We measure the magnetic penetration depth $Deltalambda(T)$ for NdO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$ ($x$ = 0.3 and 0.5) using the tunnel diode oscillator technique. The $Deltalambda(T)$ shows an upturn in the low-temperature limit which is attributed to the paramagnetism of Nd ions. After subtracting the paramagnetic contributions, the penetration depth $Deltalambda(T)$ follows exponential-type temperature dependence at $Tll T_c$. Both $Deltalambda(T)$ and the corresponding superfluid density $rho_s(T)$ can be described by the BCS model with an energy gap of $Delta(0)$ $approx$ 2.0 $k_BT_c$ for both $x$ = 0.3 and 0.5, suggesting strong-coupling BCS superconductivity in the presence of localized moments for NdO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$BiS$_{2}$.
Using state-of-the-art first-principles calculations we study the magnetic behaviour of CeOFeAs. We find the Ce layer moments oriented perpendicular to those of the Fe layers. An analysis of incommensurate magnetic structures reveals that the Ce-Ce magnetic coupling is rather weak with, however, a strong Fe-Ce coupling. Comparison of the origin of the tetragonal to orthorhombic structural distortion in CeOFeAs and LaOFeAs show marked differences; in CeOFeAs the distortion is stabilized by a lowering of spectral weight at the Fermi level, while in LaOFeAs by a reduction in magnetic frustration. Finally, we investigate the impact of electron doping upon CeOFeAs and show that while the ground state Fe moment remains largely unchanged by doping, the stability of magnetic order goes to zero at a doping that corresponds well to the vanishing of the Neel temperature.