No Arabic abstract
We report the reflectivity and the resistivity measurement of Ca_{2-x}Na_{x}CuO_{2}Cl_{2} (CNCOC), which has a single-CuO2-plane lattice with no orthorhombic distortion. The doping dependence of the in-plane optical conductivity spectra for CNCOC is qualitatively the same to those of other cuprates, but a slight difference between CNCOC and LSCO, i.e., the absence of the 1.5 eV peak in CNCOC, can be attributed to the smaller charge-stripe instability in CNCOC. The temperature dependence of the optical onductivity spectra of CNCOC has been analyzed both by the two-component model (Drude+Lorentzian) and by the one-component model (extended-Drude analysis). The latter analysis gives a universal trend of the scattering rate Gamma(omega) with doping. It was also found that Gamma(omega) shows a saturation behavior at high frequencies, whose origin is the same as that of resistivity saturation at high temperatures.
The pairing state symmetry of the electron-doped cuprate superconductors is thought to be s-wave in nature, in contrast with their hole-doped counterparts which exhibit a d-wave symmetry. We re-examine this issue based on recent improvements in our electron-doped materials and our measurement techniques. We report microwave cavity perturbation measurements of the temperature dependence of the penetration depth of Pr_(2-x)Ce_(x)CuO_(4-y) and Nd_(2-x)Ce_(x)CuO_(4-y) crystals. Our data strongly suggest that the pairing symmetry in these materials is not s-wave.
Application of pressures or electron-doping through Co substitution into Fe sites transforms the itinerant antiferromagnet BaFe(2)As(2) into a superconductor with the Tc exceeding 20K. We carried out systematic transport measurements of BaFe(2-x)Co(x)As(2) superconductors in pressures up to 2.5GPa, and elucidate the interplay between the effects of electron-doping and pressures. For the underdoped sample with nominal composition x = 0.08, application of pressure strongly suppresses a magnetic instability while enhancing Tc by nearly a factor of two from 11K to 21K. In contrast, the optimally doped x=0.20 sample shows very little enhancement of Tc=22K under applied pressure. Our results strongly suggest that the proximity to a magnetic instability is the key to the mechanism of superconductivity in iron-pnictides.
BaNi$_{2}$As$_{2}$ is a non-magnetic analogue of BaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$, the parent compound of a prototype ferro-pnictide high-temperature superconductor. Recent diffraction studies on BaNi$_{2}$As$_{2}$ demonstrate the existence of two types of periodic lattice distortions above and below the tetragonal to triclinic phase transition, suggesting charge-density-wave (CDW) order to compete with superconductivity. We apply time-resolved optical spectroscopy and demonstrate the existence of collective CDW amplitude modes. The smooth evolution of these modes through the structural phase transition implies the CDW order in the triclinic phase smoothly evolves from the unidirectional CDW in the tetragonal phase and suggests that the CDW order drives the structural phase transition.
Superconductivity and ferromagnetism are two antagonistic cooperative phenomena, which makes it difficult for them to coexist. Here we demonstrate experimentally that they do coexist in EuFe$_{2}$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_{2}$ with $0.2leq xleq0.4$, in which superconductivity is associated with Fe-3$d$ electrons and ferromagnetism comes from the long-range ordering of Eu-4$f$ moments via Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interactions. The coexistence is featured by large saturated ferromagnetic moments, high and comparable superconducting and magnetic transition temperatures, and broad coexistence ranges in temperature and field. We ascribe this unusual phenomenon to the robustness of superconductivity as well as the multi-orbital characters of iron pnictides.
We use a mapping of the multiband Hubbard model for $CuO_{3}$ chains in $RBa_{2}Cu_{3}0_{6+x}$ (R=Y or a rare earth) onto a $t-J$ model and the description of the charge dynamics of the latter in terms pf s spinless model, to study the electronic structure of the chains. We briefly review results for the optical conductivity and we calculate the quantum phase diagram of quarter filled chains including Coulomb repulsion up to that between next-nearest-neighbor $Cu$ atoms $V_{2}$, using the resulting effective Hamiltonian, mapped onto an XXZ chain, and the method of crossing of excitation spectra. The method gives accurate results for the boundaries of the metallic phase in this case. The inclusion of $V_{2}$ greatly enhances the region of metallic behavior of the chains.