No Arabic abstract
We report flux free growth of superconducting FeSe single crystals by an easy and versatile high temperature melt and slow cooling method for first time. The room temperature XRD on the surface of the piece of such obtained crystals showed single 101 plane of Beta-FeSe tetragonal phase. The bulk powder XRD, being obtained by crushing the part of crystal chunk showed majority tetragonal and minority FeSe hexagonal crystalline phases. Detailed HRTEM images along with SAED (selected area electron diffraction) showed the abundance of both majority and minority FeSe phases. Both transport (RT) and magnetization (MT) exhibited superconductivity at below around 10K. Interestingly, the magnetization signal of these crystals is dominated by the magnetism of minority magnetic phase, and hence the isothermal magnetization (MH) at 4K was seen to be ferromagnetic (FM) like. Transport (R-T) measurements under magnetic field showed superconductivity onset at below 12K, and R = 0 (Tc) at 9K. Superconducting transition temperature (Tc) decreases with applied field to around 6K at 7Tesla, with dTc/dH of 0.4K/Tesla, giving rise to an Hc2 value of around 50 Tesla, 30 Tesla and 20 Tesla for Rn = 90, 50 and 10 percent respectively. FeSe single crystal activation energy is calculated from Thermally Activated Flux Flow (TAFF) model which is found to decreases with field.
We report successful growth of flux free large single crystals of superconducting FeSe1/2Te1/2 with typical dimensions of up to few cm. The AC and DC magnetic measurements revealed the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) value of around 11.5K and the iso-thermal MH showed typical type-II superconducting behavior. The lower critical field being estimated by measuring the low field iso-thermal magnetization in superconducting regime is found to be above 200 Oe at 0K.
Single crystals of the LnFeAsO (Ln1111, Ln = Pr, Nd, and Sm) family with lateral dimensions up to 1 mm were grown from NaAs and KAs flux at high pressure. The crystals are of good structural quality and become superconducting when O is partially substituted by F (PrFeAsO1-xFx and NdFeAsO1-xFx) or when Fe is substituted by Co (SmFe1-xCoxAsO). From magnetization measurements, we estimate the temperature dependence and anisotropy of the upper critical field and the critical current density of underdoped PrFeAsO0.7F0.3 crystal with Tc = 25 K. Single crystals of SmFe1-xCoxAsO with maximal Tc up to 16.3 K for x = 0.08 were grown for the first time. From transport and magnetic measurements we estimate the critical fields and their anisotropy, and find these superconducting properties to be quite comparable to the ones in SmFeAsO1-xFx with a much higher Tc of = 50 K. The magnetically measured critical current densities are as high as 109 A/m2 at 2 K up to 7 T, with indication of the usual fishtail effect. The upper critical field estimated from resistivity measurements is anisotropic with slopes of -8.7 T/K (H // ab-plane) and -1.7 T/K (H // c-axis). This anisotropy (= 5) is similar to that in other Ln1111 crystals with various higher Tc s.
Here we report the growth of sub-millimeter MgB2 single crystals of various shapes under high pressure in Mg-B-N system. Structure refinement using a single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis gives lattice parameters a=3.0851(5) A and c=3.5201(5) A with small reliability factors (Rw =0.025, R=0.018), which enables us to analyze the Fourier and Fourier difference maps. The maps clearly show the B sp2 orbitals and covalency of the B-B bonds. The sharp superconducting transitions at Tc =38.1-38.3K were obtained in both magnetization (DTc =0.6K) and resistivity (DTc <0.3K) measurements. Resistivity measurements with magnetic fields applied parallel and perpendicular to the Mg and B sheets reveal the anisotropic nature of this compound, with upper critical field anisotropy ratio of about 2.7.
When exposed to high magnetic fields, certain materials manifest an exotic superconducting (SC) phase that attracts considerable attention. A proposed explanation of the origin of the high-field phase is the Fulde-Ferrel-Larkin-Ovchinnikov (FFLO) state. This state is characterized by inhomogeneous superconductivity, where the Cooper pairs have finite center-of-mass momenta. Recently, the high-field phase has been observed in FeSe, and it was deemed to originate from the FFLO state. Here, we synthesized FeSe single crystals with different levels of disorders. The level of disorder is expressed by the ratio of the mean free path to the coherence length and ranges between 35 and 1.2. The upper critical field $B_{rm{c}2}$ was systematically studied over a wide range of temperatures, which went as low as $sim$ 0.5 K, and magnetic fields, which went up to $sim$ 38 T along the $c$ axis and in the $ab$ plane. In the high-field region parallel to the $ab$ plane, an unusual SC phase was confirmed in all the crystals, and the phase was found to be robust to disorders. This result suggests that the high-filed SC state in FeSe may not be a FFLO state, which should be sensitive to disorders.
FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_{x}$ superconductors manifest some intriguing electronic properties depending on the value of $x$. In FeSe single crystal, the nematic phase and Dirac band structure have been observed, while topological surface superconductivity with the Majorana bound state was found in the crystal of $x sim 0.55$. Therefore, the electronic properties of single crystals with $0 < x leq 0.5$ are crucial for probing the evolution of those intriguing properties as well as their relations. However, this study is still left blank due to the lack of single crystals because of phase separation. Here, we report the synthesis, magnetization, electronic transport properties, and hydrostatic pressure effect of FeSe$_{0.67}$Te$_{0.33}$ single crystals free of phase separation. A structural (nematic) transition is visible at $T_{s} = 39$ K, below which the resistivity exhibits a Fermi-liquid behavior. Analysis of upper critical fields suggests that spin-paramagnetic effect should be taken into account for both $H parallel c$ axis and $H parallel ab$ plane. A crossover from the low-$H$ quadratic to the high-$H$ quasi-linear behavior is observed in the magnetoresistance, signifying the possible existence of Dirac-cone state. Besides, the strong temperature dependence of Hall coefficient, violation of (modified) Kohlers rule, and two-band model analysis indicate the multiband effects in FeSe$_{0.67}$Te$_{0.33}$ single crystals. Hydrostatic pressure measurements reveal that $T_{s}$ is quickly suppressed with pressure while $T_{c}$ is monotonically increased up to 2.31 GPa, indicating the competition between nematicity and superconductivity. No signature of magnetic order that has been detected in FeSe$_{1-x}$S$_{x}$ is observed. Our findings fill up the blank of the knowledge on the basic properties of FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_{x}$ system with low-Te concentrations.