No Arabic abstract
Up to now, there have been two material families, the cuprates and the iron-based compounds with high-temperature superconductivity (HTSC). An essential open question is whether the two classes of materials share the same essential physics. In both, superconductivity (SC) emerges when an antiferromagnetical (AFM) ordered phase is suppressed. However, in cuprates, the repulsive interaction among the electrons is so strong that the parent compounds are Mott insulators. By contrast, all iron-based parents are metallic. One perspective is that the iron-based parents are weakly correlated and that the AFM arises from a strong nesting of the Fermi surfaces. An alternative view is that the electronic correlations in the parents are still sufficiently strong to place the system close to the boundary between itinerancy and electronic localization. A key strategy to differentiate theses views is to explore whether the iron-based system can be tuned into a Mott insulator. Here we identify an insulating AFM in (Tl,K)FexSe2 by introducing Fe-vacancies and creating superconductivity in the Fe-planar. With the increasing Fe-content, the AFM order is reduced. When the magnetism is eliminated, a superconducting phase with Tc as high as 31K (and a Tc onset as high as 40K) is induced. Our findings indicate that the correlation effect plays a crucial role in the iron-based superconductors. (Tl,K)FexSe2, therefore, represents the first Fe-based high temperature superconductor near an insulating AFM.
We report the occurrence of superconductivity, with maximum Tc = 40 K, in superlattices (SLs) based on two insulating oxides, namely CaCuO2 and SrTiO3. In these (CaCuO2)n/(SrTiO3)m SLs, the CuO2 planes belong only to CaCuO2 block, which is an antiferromagnetic insulator. Superconductivity, confined within few unit cells at the CaCuO2/SrTiO3 interface, shows up only when the SLs are grown in a highly oxidizing atmosphere, because of extra oxygen ions entering at the interfaces. Evidence is reported that the hole doping of the CuO2 planes is obtained by charge transfer from the interface layers, which act as charge reservoir.
We report $^{63}$Cu- and $^{205}$Tl-NMR studies on six-layered ($n$=6) high-$T_c$ superconducting (SC) cuprate TlBa$_2$Ca$_5$Cu$_6$O$_{14+delta}$ (Tl1256) with $T_csim$100 K, which reveal that antiferromagnetic (AFM) order takes place below $T_{rm N}sim$170 K. In this compound, four underdoped inner CuO$_2$ planes ($n$(IP)=4) sandwiched by two outer planes (OPs) are responsible for the onset of AFM order, whereas the nearly optimally-doped OPs responsible for the onset of bulk SC. It is pointed out that an increase in the out-of-plane magnetic interaction within an intra-unit-cell causes $T_{rm N}sim$ 45 K for Tl1245 with $n$(IP)=3 to increase to $sim$170 K for Tl1256 with $n$(IP)=4. It is remarkable that the marked increase in $T_{rm N}$ and the AFM moments for the IPs does not bring about any reduction in $T_c$, since $T_csim 100$ K is maintained for both compounds with nearly optimally doped OP. We highlight the fact that the SC order for $nge5$ is mostly dominated by the long-range in-plane SC correlation even in the multilayered structure, which is insensitive to the magnitude of $T_{rm N}$ and the AFM moments at the IPs or the AFM interaction among the IPs. These results demonstrate a novel interplay between the SC and AFM orders when the charge imbalance between the IPs and OP is significantly large.
At interfaces between complex oxides it is possible to generate electronic systems with unusual electronic properties, which are not present in the isolated oxides. One important example is the appearance of superconductivity at the interface between insulating oxides, although, until now, with very low Tc. We report the occurrence of high Tc superconductivity in the bilayer CaCuO2/SrTiO3, where both the constituent oxides are insulating. In order to obtain a superconducting state, the CaCuO2/SrTiO3 interface must be realized between the Ca plane of CaCuO2 and the TiO2 plane of SrTiO3. Only in this case extra oxygen ions can be incorporated in the interface Ca plane, acting as apical oxygen for Cu and providing holes to the CuO2 planes. A detailed hole doping spatial profile has been obtained by STEM/EELS at the O K-edge, clearly showing that the (super)conductivity is confined to about 1-2 CaCuO2 unit cells close to the interface with SrTiO3. The results obtained for the CaCuO2/SrTiO3 interface can be extended to multilayered high Tc cuprates, contributing to explain the dependence of Tc on the number of CuO2 planes in these systems.
We report 75As-NMR study on the Fe-pnictide high-Tc superconductor Y0.95La0.05FeAsO_{1-y} (Y0.95La0.051111) with Tc=50 K that includes no magnetic rare-earth elements. The measurement of the nuclear-spin lattice-relaxation rate 75(1/T1) has revealed that the nodeless bulk superconductivity takes place at Tc=50 K while antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations (AFSFs) develop moderately in the normal state. These features are consistently described by the multiple fully-gapped s_pm-wave model based on the Fermi-surface (FS) nesting. Incorporating the theory based on band calculations, we propose that the reason that Tc=50 K in Y0.95La0.051111 is larger than Tc=28 K in La1111 is that the FS multiplicity is maximized, and hence the FS nesting condition is better than that in La1111.
The use of high pressure to realize superconductivity in the vicinity of room temperature has a long history, much of it focused on achieving this in hydrogen rich materials. This paper provides a brief overview of the work presented at this May 2018 conference, together with background on motivation and techniques, the theoretical predictions of superconductivity in lanthanum hydride, and the subsequent experimental confirmation. Theoretical calculations using density functional based structure search methods combined with BCS type models predicted a new class of dense, hydrogen rich materials superhydrides with superconducting critical temperatures in the vicinity of room temperature at and above 200 GPa pressures. The existence of a series of these phases in the La H system was subsequently confirmed experimentally, and techniques were developed for their syntheses and characterization, including measurements of structural and transport properties, at megabar pressures. Four probe electrical transport measurements of a cubic phase identified as LaH10 display signatures of superconductivity at temperatures above 260 K near 200 GPa. The results are supported by pseudo four probe conductivity measurements, critical current determinations, low-temperature xray diffraction, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. The measured high Tc is in excellent agreement with the original calculations. The experiments also reveal additional superconducting phases with Tc between 150 K and above 260 K. This effort highlights the novel physics in hydrogen-rich materials at high densities, the success of materials by design in the discovery and creation of new materials, and the possibility of new classes of superconductors Tc at and above room temperature.