No Arabic abstract
We investigate the chemical substitution of group 5 into BaFe2As2 (122) iron arsenide, in the effort to understand why Fe-site hole doping of this compound (e.g., using group 5 or 6) does not yield bulk superconductivity. We find an increase in c-lattice parameter of the BaFe2As2 with the substitution of V, Nb, or Ta; the reduction in c predicts the lack of bulk superconductivity [1] that is confirmed here through transport and magnetization results. However, our spectroscopy measurements find a coexistence of antiferromagnetic and local superconducting nanoscale regions in V-122, observed for the first time in a transition-metal hole-doped iron arsenide. In BaFe2As2, there is a complex connection between local parameters such as composition and lattice strain, average lattice details, and the emergence of bulk quantum states such as superconductivity and magnetism. [1] L. M. N. Konzen, and A. S. Sefat, J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 29 (2017), 083001.
The effect of pressure on superconductivity of 111 type NaxFeAs is investigated through temperature dependent electrical resistance measurement in a diamond anvil cell. The superconducting transition temperature (Tc) increases from 26 K to a maximum 31 K as the pressure increases from ambient to 3 GPa. Further increasing pressure suppresses Tc drastically. The behavior of pressure tuned Tc in NaxFeAs is much different from that in LixFeAs, although they have the same Cu2Sb type structure
Non-trivial topology and unconventional pairing are two central guiding principles in the contemporary search for and analysis of superconducting materials and heterostructure compounds. Previously, a topological superconductor has been predominantly conceived to result from a topologically non-trivial band subject to intrinsic or external superconducting proximity effect. Here, we propose a new class of topological superconductors which are uniquely induced by unconventional pairing. They exhibit a boundary-obstructed higher-order topological character and, depending on their dimensionality, feature unprecedently robust Majorana bound states or hinge modes protected by chiral symmetry. We predict the 112-family of iron pnictides, such as Ca$_{1-x}$La$_x$FeAs$_2$, to be a highly suited material candidate for our proposal, which can be tested by edge spectroscopy. Because of the boundary-obstruction, the topologically non-trivial feature of the 112 pnictides does not reveal itself for a bulk-only torus band analysis without boundaries, and as such had evaded previous investigations. Our proposal not only opens a new arena for highly stable Majorana modes in high-temperature superconductors, but also provides the smoking gun evidence for extended s-wave order in the iron pnictides.
EuFe2As2 is a member of the ternary iron arsenide family. Similar to BaFe2As2 and SrFe2As2, EuFe2As2 exhibits a clear anomaly in resistivity near 200 K. It suggests that EuFe2As2 is another promising parent compound in which superconductivity may be realized by appropriate doping. Here we report the discovery of superconductivity in Eu0.7Na0.3Fe2As2 by partial substitution of the europium site with sodium. ThCr2Si2 tetragonal structure, as expected for EuFe2As2, is formed as the main phase for the composition Eu0.7Na0.3Fe2As2. Resistivity measurement reveals a transition temperature as high as 34.7 K in this compound, which is higher than the Tc of Eu0.5K0.5Fe2As2.
Platelet-like single crystals of the Ca(Fe1-xCox)2As2 series having lateral dimensions up to 15 mm and thickness up to 0.5 mm were obtained from the high temperature solution growth technique using Sn flux. Upon Co doping, the c-axis of the tetragonal unit cell decreases, while the a-axis shows a less significant variation. Pristine CaFe2As2 shows a combined spin-density-wave and structural transition near T = 166 K which gradually shifts to lower temperatures and splits with increasing Co-doping. Both transitions terminate abruptly at a critical Co-concentration of xc = 0.075. For x geq 0.05, superconductivity appears at low temperatures with a maximum transition temperature TC of around 20 K. The superconducting volume fraction increases with Co concentration up to x = 0.09 followed by a gradual decrease with further increase of the doping level. The electronic phase diagram of Ca(Fe1-xCox)2As2 (0 leq x leq 0.2) series is constructed from the magnetization and electric resistivity data. We show that the low-temperature superconducting properties of Co-doped CaFe2As2 differ considerably from those of BaFe2As2 reported previously. These differences seem to be related to the extreme pressure sensitivity of CaFe2As2 relative to its Ba counterpart.
Magic-angle twisted trilayer graphene (MATTG) recently emerged as a highly tunable platform for studying correlated phases of matter, such as correlated insulators and superconductivity. Superconductivity occurs in a range of doping levels that is bounded by van Hove singularities which stimulates the debate of the origin and nature of superconductivity in this material. In this work, we discuss the role of spin-fluctuations arising from atomic-scale correlations in MATTG for the superconducting state. We show that in a phase diagram as function of doping ($ u$) and temperature, nematic superconducting regions are surrounded by ferromagnetic states and that a superconducting dome with $T_c approx 2,mathrm{K}$ appears between the integer fillings $ u =-2$ and $ u = -3$. Applying a perpendicular electric field enhances superconductivity on the electron-doped side which we relate to changes in the spin-fluctuation spectrum. We show that the nematic unconventional superconductivity leads to pronounced signatures in the local density of states detectable by scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements.