We have investigated the magnetization properties and flux dynamics of superconducting Cu$_x$TiSe$_2$ single crystals within wide range of copper concentrations. We find that the superconducting anisotropy is low and independent on copper concentration ($gammasim1.7$), except in the case of strongly underdoped samples ($xleq0.06$) that show a gradual increase in anisotropy to $gammasim1.9$. The vortex phase diagram in this material is characterized by broad region of vortex liquid phase that is unusual for such low-$T_c$ superconductor with low anisotropy. Below the irreversibility line the vortex solid state supports relatively low critical current densities as compared to the depairing current limit ($J_c/J_0sim10^{-7}$). All this points out that local fluctuations in copper concentration have little effect on bulk pinning properties in this system.
A series of high quality NaFe$_{1-x}$Cu$_x$As single crystals has been grown by a self-flux technique, which were systematically characterized via structural, transport, thermodynamic, and high pressure measurements. Both the structural and magnetic transitions are suppressed by Cu doping, and bulk superconductivity is induced by Cu doping. Superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) is initially enhanced from 9.6 to 11.5 K by Cu doping, and then suppressed with further doping. A phase diagram similar to NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As is obtained except that insulating instead of metallic behavior is observed in extremely overdoped samples. $T_c$s of underdoped, optimally doped, and overdoped samples are all notably enhanced by applying pressure. Although a universal maximum transition temperature ($T_c^{max}$) of about 31 K under external pressure is observed in underdoped and optimally doped NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As, $T_c^{max}$ of NaFe$_{1-x}$Cu$_x$As is monotonously suppressed by Cu doping, suggesting that impurity potential of Cu is stronger than Co in NaFeAs. The comparison between Cu and Co doping effect in NaFeAs indicates that Cu serves as an effective electron dopant with strong impurity potential, but part of the doped electrons are localized and do not fill the energy bands as predicted by the rigid-band model.
We investigated LaFeAsO single crystals by means of synchrotron Mossbauer spectroscopy under pressures up to 7.5 GPa and down to 13 K and provide a microscopic phase diagram. We found a continuous suppression of the magnetic hyperfine field with increasing pressure and it completely vanishes at $sim$ 7.5 GPa which is in contrast to the behavior in polycrystalline samples where the magnetic order vanishes at $sim$ 20 GPa. The different behavior of the polycrystalline samples might be due to As-vacancies. Our results are in qualitative agreement with density functional theory calculations where a reduction of the magnetic moment with increasing pressure was found. We found that among different samples at ambient pressure the magnetic phase transition temperature as well as the low-temperature magnetic hyperfine field decrease with increasing unit cell volume.
The flux pinning force density (Fp) of the single crystalline FeTe0.60Se0.40 superconductor has been calculated from the magnetization measurements. The normalized Fp versus h (=H/Hirr) curves are scaled using the Dew-Hughes formula to underline the pinning mechanism in the compound. The obtained values of pinning parameters p and q indicate the vortex pinning by the mixing of the surface and the point core pinning of the normal centers. The vortex phase diagram has also been drawn for the first time for the FeTe0.60Se0.40, which has very high values of critical current density Jc ~ 1.10(5) Amp/cm2 and the upper critical field Hc2(0) = 65T, with a reasonably high transition temperature Tc =14.5K.
We report on marked memory effects in the vortex system of twinned YBa2Cu3O7 single crystals observed in ac susceptibility measurements. We show that the vortex system can be trapped in different metastable states with variable degree of order arising in response to different system histories. The pressure exerted by the oscillating ac field assists the vortex system in ordering, locally reducing the critical current density in the penetrated outer zone of the sample. The robustness of the ordered and disordered states together with the spatial profile of the critical current density lead to the observed memory effects.
We present heat capacity measurements on a series of superconducting Cu$_x$TiSe$_2$ single crystals with different Cu content down to 600 mK and up to 1 T performed by ac microcalorimetry. The samples cover a large portion of the phase diagram from an underdoped to a slightly overdoped region with an increasing superconducting critical temperature and the charge density wave (CDW) order gradually suppressed. The electronic heat capacity as a function of normalized temperature $T/T_c$ shows no difference regardless of the concentration of copper, i.e., regardless of how much the CDW order is developed in the samples. The data analysis reveals consistently a single s-wave gap with an intermediate coupling strength $2Delta/k_BT_c$ = 3.7 for all samples.