No Arabic abstract
The superconducting film of (Li1-xFex)OHFeSe is reported for the first time. The thin film exhibits a small in-plane crystal mosaic of 0.22 deg, in terms of the FWHM (full-width-at-half-maximum) of x-ray rocking curve, and an excellent out-of-plane orientation by x-ray phi-scan. Its bulk superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of 42.4 K is characterized by both zero electrical resistance and diamagnetization measurements. The upper critical field (Hc2) is estimated to be 79.5 T and 443 T, respectively, for the magnetic field perpendicular and parallel to the ab plane. Moreover, a large critical current density (Jc) of a value over 0.5 MA/cm2 is achieved at ~20 K. Such a (Li1-xFex)OHFeSe film is therefore not only important to the fundamental research for understanding the high-Tc mechanism, but also promising in the field of high-Tc superconductivity application, especially in high-performance electronic devices and large scientific facilities such as superconducting accelerator.
Critical current density (Jc) is one of the major limiting factors for high field applications of iron-based superconductors. Here, we report that Mn-ions are successfully incorporated into nontoxic superconducting (Li,Fe)OHFeSe films. Remarkably, the Jc is significantly enhanced from 0.03 to 0.32 MA/cm^2 under 33 T, and the vortex pinning force density monotonically increases up to 106 GN/m^3, which is the highest record so far among all iron-based superconductors. Our results demonstrate that Mn incorporation is an effective method to optimize the performance of (Li,Fe)OHFeSe films, offering a promising candidate for high-field applications.
We report measurements of the London penetration depth [$Deltalambda(T)$] of the recently discovered iron-based superconductor (Li$_{1-x}$Fe$_x$)OHFeSe, in order to characterize the nature of the superconducting gap structure. At low temperatures, $Deltalambda(T)$ displays nearly temperature independent behavior, indicating a fully open superconducting gap. We also analyze the superfluid density $rho_s(T)$ which cannot be well accounted for by a single-gap isotropic $s$-wave model but are consistent with either two-gaps, a model for the orbital selective $stimestau_3$ state or anisotropic $s$-wave superconductivity.
The antiferromagnetic(AFM) insulator-superconductor transition has been always a center of interest in the underlying physics of unconventional superconductors. The quantum phase transition between Mott insulator with AFM and superconductor can be induced by doping charge carriers in high-Tc cuprate superconductors. For the best characterized organic superconductors of k-(BEDT-TTF)2X (X=anion), a first order transition between AFM insulator and superconductor can be tuned by applied external pressure or chemical pressure. Also, the superconducting state can be directly developed from AFM insulator by application of pressure in Cs3C60. The resemblance of these phase diagrams hints a universal mechanism governing the unconventional superconductivity in close proximity to AFM insulators. However, the superconductivity in iron-based high-Tc superconductors evolves from an AFM bad metal by doping charge carriers, and no superconductor-insulator transition has been observed so far. Here, we report a first-order transition from superconductor to insulator with a strong charge doping induced by ionic gating in the thin flakes of single crystal (Li,Fe)OHFeSe. The Tc is continuously enhanced with electron doping by ionic gating up to a maximum Tc of 43 K, and a striking superconductor-insulator transition occurs just at the verge of optimal doping with highest Tc. A novel phase diagram of temperature-gating voltage with the superconductor-insulator transition is mapped out, indicating that the superconductor -insulator transition is a common feature for unconventional superconductivity. These results help to uncover the underlying physics of iron-based superconductivity as well as the universal mechanism of high-Tc superconductivity. Our finding also suggests that the gate-controlled strong charge doping makes it possible to explore novel states of matter in a way beyond traditional methods.
Superconducting (Li1-xFex)OHFe1-ySe films are attractive for both the basic research and practical application. However, the conventional vapor deposition techniques are not applicable in synthesizing the films of such a complex system. So no intrinsic charge transport measurements on the films are available so far to reveal the nature of charge carriers, which is fundamental to understanding the iron-based superconductivity mechanism. Herein we report a soft chemical film technique (matrix-assisted hydrothermal epitaxial growth), by which we have succeeded in growing a series of (Li1-xFex)OHFe1-ySe films covering the whole superconducting regime, with the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) from 4 K up to 42 K. This film technique opens up a new way for fabricating other complex functional materials as well. Furthermore, our systematic transport investigation on the film samples indicates that both the electron and hole carriers contribute to the charge transport, with the scattering rates deviating from the Fermi liquid. We find that the superconductivity occurs upon the electron and hole mobility becoming divergent. And in the high Tc samples, the electron carriers are found much more mobile than the holes, a feature distinct from the low Tc samples. Hence, our transport results provide key insights into the underlying physics for iron-based high-Tc superconductivity.
The phenomenon of phase separation into antiferromagnetic (AFM) and superconducting (SC) or normal-state regions has great implication for the origin of high-temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity. However, the occurrence of an intrinsic antiferromagnetism above the Tc of (Li, Fe)OHFeSe superconductor is questioned. Here we report a systematic study on a series of (Li, Fe)OHFeSe single crystal samples with Tc up to ~41 K. We observe an evident drop in the static magnetization at Tafm ~125 K, in some of the SC (Tc < ~38 K, cell parameter c < ~9.27 {AA}) and non-SC samples. We verify that this AFM signal is intrinsic to (Li, Fe)OHFeSe. Thus, our observations indicate mesoscopic-to-macroscopic coexistence of an AFM state with the normal (below Tafm) or SC (below Tc) state in (Li, Fe)OHFeSe. We explain such coexistence by electronic phase separation, similar to that in high-Tc cuprates and iron arsenides. However, such an AFM signal can be absent in some other samples of (Li, Fe)OHFeSe, particularly it is never observed in the SC samples of Tc > ~38 K, owing to a spatial scale of the phase separation too small for the macroscopic magnetic probe. For this case, we propose a microscopic electronic phase separation. It is suggested that the microscopic static phase separation reaches vanishing point in high-Tc (Li, Fe)OHFeSe, by the occurrence of two-dimensional AFM spin fluctuations below nearly the same temperature as Tafm reported previously for a (Li, Fe)OHFeSe (Tc ~42 K) single crystal. A complete phase diagram is thus established. Our study provides key information of the underlying physics for high-Tc superconductivity.