No Arabic abstract
We report the novel preparation of single crystals of tetragonal iron sulfide, FeS, which exhibits a nearly ideal tetrahedral geometry with S--Fe--S bond angles of 110.2(2) $^circ$ and 108.1(2) $^circ$. Grown via hydrothermal de-intercalation of K${_x}$Fe${_{2-y}}$S${_2}$ crystals under basic and reducing conditions, the silver, plate-like crystals of FeS remain stable up to 200 $^circ$C under air and 250 $^circ$C under inert conditions, even though the mineral mackinawite (FeS) is known to be metastable. FeS single crystals exhibit a superconducting state below $T_c=4$ K as determined by electrical resistivity, magnetic susceptibility, and heat capacity measurements, confirming the presence of a bulk superconducting state. Normal state measurements yield an electronic specific heat of 5~mJ/mol-K$^2$, and paramagnetic, metallic behavior with a low residual resistivity of 250~$muOmegacdot$cm. Magnetoresistance measurements performed as a function of magnetic field angle tilted toward both transverse and longitudinal orientations with respect to the applied current reveal remarkable two-dimensional behavior. This is paralleled in the superconducting state, which exhibits the largest known upper critical field $H_{c2}$ anisotropy of all iron-based superconductors, with $H_{c2}^{||ab}(0) / H_{c2}^{||c}(0)=$(2.75~T)/(0.275~T)=10. Comparisons to theoretical models for 2D and anisotropic-3D superconductors, however, suggest that FeS is the latter case with a large effective mass anisotropy. We place FeS in context to other closely related iron-based superconductors and discuss the role of structural parameters such as anion height on superconductivity.
We investigate the effect of Ni doping on the Fe-site in single crystals of the magnetic superconductor RbEuFe$_4$As$_4$ for doping concentrations of up to 4%. A clear suppression in the superconducting transition temperature is observed in specific heat, resistivity and magnetization measurements. Upon Ni-doping, the resistivity curves shift up in a parallel fashion indicating a strong increase of the residual resistivity due to scattering by charged dopand atoms while the shape of the curve and thus the electronic structure appears largely unchanged. The observed step $Delta C/T_c$ at the superconducting transition decreases strongly for increasing Ni doping in agreement with expectations based on a model of multi-band superconductivity and strong inter-band pairing. The upper critical field slopes are reduced upon Ni doping for in- as well as out-of-plane fields leading to a small reduction in the superconducting anisotropy. The specific heat measurements of the magnetic transition reveal the same BKT behavior close to the transition temperature $T_m$ for all doping levels. The transition temperature is essentially unchanged upon doping. The in to out-of-plane anisotropy of Eu-magnetism observed at small magnetic fields is unaltered as compared to the undoped compound. All of these observations indicate a decoupling of the Eu magnetism from superconductivity and essentially no influence of Ni doping on the Eu magnetism in this compound.
Low temperature specific heat has been measured in superconductor $beta$-FeS with T$_c$ = 4.55 K. It is found that the low temperature electronic specific heat C$_e$/T can be fitted to a linear relation in the low temperature region, but fails to be described by an exponential relation as expected by an s-wave gap. We try fittings to the data with different gap structures and find that a model with one or two nodal gaps can fit the data. Under a magnetic field, the field induced specific heat $Deltagamma$=[C$_e$(H)-C$_e$(0)]/T shows the Volovik relation $Deltagamma_e(H)propto sqrt{H}$, suggesting the presence of nodal gap(s) in this material.
Sizable single crystals of $BaFe_2As_2$ have been grown with self-flux method. The crystals are plate-like with c-axis perpendicular to the plane. The size can be as large as 3 x 5 x 0.2 $mm^3$. The resistivity anisotropy ($rho_c/rho_{ab}$) is as large as about 150, and independent of temperature. The transport in ab plane and along c-axis direction shares the same scattering mechanism. In contrast to the magnetic behavior of polycrystalline samples, no Curie-Weiss behavior are observed, a temperature linear dependent susceptibility occurs above spin-density-wave (SDW) transition. The susceptibility behavior is very similar to that of antiferromagnetic SDW chromium. Magnetic behavior of single crystal definitely gives evidence for existence of local moment except for the contribution to susceptibility from itinerant electrons. A resistivity minimum strongly dependent on magnetic field is observed. A log(1/T) divergency, similar to that of the underdoped cuprates, happens at low temperature. Here we first present intrinsic transport and magnetic properties, and their anisotropy from high quality single crystal.
CsCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ is a newly discovered iron-based superconductor with $T_mathrm{c}sim$ 30 K containing double Fe$_2$As$_2$ layers that are separated by insulating Ca$_2$F$_2$ spacer layers. Here we report the transport and magnetization measurements on CsCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ single crystals grown for the first time using the self flux of CsAs. We observed a huge resistivity anisotropy $rho_c(T)/rho_{ab}(T)$, which increases with decreasing temperature, from 750 at 300 K to 3150 at 32 K. The $rho_c(T)$ data exhibit a non-metallic behavior above $sim$140 K, suggesting an incoherent electronic state at high temperatures due to the dimension crossover. The superconducting onset transition temperature in $rho_{ab}$ is 0.7 K higher than that in $rho_c$, suggesting two-dimensional (2D) superconducting fluctuations. The lower and upper critical fields also show an exceptional anisotropy among iron-based superconductors. The $H_{c1}^bot(T)$ data are well fitted using the model with two $s$-wave-like superconducting gaps, $Delta_1(0)=6.75$ meV and $Delta_2(0)=2.32$ meV. The inter-plane coherence length $xi_c(0)$ is $3.6$ AA, remarkably smaller than the distance between conducting layers (8.6 AA), consolidating the 2D nature in the title material.
NbBiCh$_3$ (Ch = S, Se) misfit-layered superconducting single crystals were successfully grown using a CsCl/KCl flux for the first time. The obtained crystals had a well-developed habit parallel to the c-plane with a typical width of 1-2 mm and thickness of 10-40 um. The superconducting transition temperatures with zero resistivity of NbBiS$_3$ single crystals obtained from the nominal composition of Nb0.9Bi1.2S3 was 0.31 K, and that value of the NbBiSe$_3$ single crystals grown from the stoichiometry composition (NbBiSe$_3$) was 2.3 K. Sharp decreases in electric resistivity and magnetic susceptibility at approximately 3 K suggested a possible superconducting transition temperature of NbBiSe$_3$. The normal-state anisotropy values of grown NbBiS$_3$ and NbBiSe$_3$ single crystals were 2.2-2.4 and 1.5-1.6, respectively.