No Arabic abstract
Superconductivity has been discovered recently in nickel based 112 infinite thin films $R_{1-x}$A$_x$NiO$_2$ ($R$ = La, Nd, Pr and A = Sr, Ca). They are isostructural to the infinite-layer cuprate (Ca,Sr)CuO$_2$ and are supposed to have a formal Ni 3$d^9$ valence, thus providing a new platform to study the unconventional pairing mechanism of high-temperature superconductors. This important discovery immediately triggers a huge amount of innovative scientific curiosity in the field. In this paper, we try to give an overview of the recent research progress on the newly found superconducting nickelate systems, both from experimental and theoretical aspects. We will focus mainly on the electronic structures, magnetic excitations, phase diagrams, superconducting gaps and finally make some open discussions for possible pairing symmetries in Ni based 112 systems.
We successfully synthesized the nickel-based compound GdONiBi with superconducting transition temperature about 4.5 K. By partially substituting the element Gd with Sr to introduce holes into the material, we got new superconductor Gd0.9Sr0.1ONiBi with critical temperature about 4.7 K. The normal state resistivity in nickel-based samples shows a metallic behavior. The magnetoresistance measurements show a different behavior compared to those in iron-based compounds which indicates that the mechanism in the two kinds of superconductors maybe different.
The physical properties of CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ were characterized by electrical resistivity, magnetization and specific heat measurements. We found that the stoichiometric CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ compound is a superconductor with a transition temperature textit{T$_{c}$}=2.7K. A large Sommerfeld coefficient $gamma$$_{n}$ ($sim$77.90 mJ/mol$cdot$K$^{-2}$), was obtained from the normal state electronic specific heat. However, the Kadowaki-Woods ratio of CsNi$_{2}$Se$_{2}$ was estimated to be about 0.041$times$10$^{-5}$ $muOmega$$cdot$cm(mol$cdot$K/mJ)$^{2}$, indicating the absence of strong electron-electron correlations in this compound. In the superconducting state, we found that the zero-field electronic specific heat data, $C_{es}(T)$ (0.5K $leq$ T $<$ 2.6K), can be well fitted with a two-gap BCS model. The comparison with the results of the density functional theory (DFT) calculations suggested that the large $gamma$$_{n}$ in the nickel-selenide superconductors may be related to the large Density of States (DOS) at the fermi surface.
Study of Fe based compounds have drawn much attention due to the discovery of superconductivity as well as many other exotic electronic properties. Here, we review some of our works in these materials carried out employing density functional theory and angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The results presented here indicate that the dimensionality of the underlying electronic structure plays important role in deriving their interesting electronic properties. The nematicity found in most of these materials appears to be related to the magnetic long range order. We argue that the exoticity in the electronic properties are related to the subtlety in competing structural and magnetic instabilities present in these materials.
Superconductivity that spontaneously breaks time-reversal symmetry (TRS) has been found, so far, only in a handful of 3D crystals with bulk inversion symmetry. Here we report an observation of spontaneous TRS breaking in a 2D superconducting system without inversion symmetry: the epitaxial bilayer films of bismuth and nickel. The evidence comes from the onset of the polar Kerr effect at the superconducting transition in the absence of an external magnetic field, detected by the ultrasensitive loop-less fiber-optic Sagnac interferometer. Because of strong spin-orbit interaction and lack of inversion symmetry in a Bi/Ni bilayer, superconducting pairing cannot be classified as singlet or triplet. We propose a theoretical model where magnetic fluctuations in Ni induce superconducting pairing of the dxy = +- idx^2y^2 orbital symmetry between the electrons in Bi. In this model the order parameter spontaneously breaks the TRS and has a non-zero phase winding number around the Fermi surface, thus making it a rare example of a 2D topological superconductor.
The discovery of EuFeAs2, currently the only charge-neutral parent phase of the 112-type iron-pnictide system, provides a new platform for the study of elemental doping effects on magnetism and superconductivity (SC). In this study, a series of polycrystalline EuFe1-yCoyAs2 and Eu0.9Pr0.1Fe1-yCoyAs2 samples are synthesized through solid-state reaction, and the evolutions of SC and magnetism with Co doping in EuFeAs2 and Eu0.9Pr0.1FeAs2 are investigated by electrical transport and magnetic susceptibility measurements. For EuFe1-yCoyAs2, the Eu-related antiferromagnetic (AFM) transition around 40 K is barely affected by Co doping, while the Fe-related spin density wave (SDW) transition temperature drops rapidly. Meanwhile, SC is induced by a trace amount of Co doping, with a highest transition temperature Tc ~ 28 K found in EuFe0.9Co0.1As2. For the Eu0.9Pr0.1Fe1-yCoyAs2 series, the magnetism and superconductivity show similar evolutions upon Co doping, and the highest Tc is enhanced to 30.6 K with an optimum doping level y ~ 0.07. Our results shed light on the competition between SC and SDW with Co doping in the 112-type EuFeAs2 system.