No Arabic abstract
Low-temperature specific heat (SH) is measured for the 12442-type KCa$_2$Fe$_4$As$_4$F$_2$ single crystal under different magnetic fields. A clear SH jump with the height of $Delta C/T|_{T_c}$ = 130 mJ/mol K$^2$ is observed at the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$. It is found that the electronic SH coefficient $Deltagamma (H)$ quickly increases when the field is in the low-field region below 3 T and then considerably slows down the increase with a further increase in the field, which indicates a rather strong anisotropy or multi-gap feature with a small minimum in the superconducting gap(s). The temperature-dependent SH data indicates the presence of the $T^2$ term, which supplies further information and supports the picture with a line-nodal gap structure. Moreover, the onset point of the SH transition remains almost unchanged under the field as high as 9 T, which is similar to that observed in cuprates, and placed this system in the middle between the BCS limit and the Bose-Einstein condensation.
Millimeter sized single crystals of KCa_2Fe_4As_4F_2 were grown using a self-flux method. The chemical compositions and crystal structure were characterized carefully. Superconductivity with the critical transition T_c = 33.5 K was confirmed by both the resistivity and magnetic susceptibility measurements. Moreover, the upper critical field H_c2 was studied by the resistivity measurements under different magnetic fields. A rather steep increase for the in-plane H_c2^ab with cooling, dmu_0H_c2^a/dT|T_c = -50.9 T/K, was observed, indicating an extremely high upper critical field. Possible origins for this behavior were discussed. The findings in our work is a great promotion both for understanding the physical properties and applications of 12442-type Fe-based superconductors.
Low-temperature specific heat (SH) is measured on the 1111-type CaFe_{0.88}Co_{0.12}AsF single crystals under different magnetic fields. A clear SH jump with the height Delta C/T|_Tc = 10.4 mJ/mol K^2 was observed at the superconducting transition temperature T_c. The electronic SH coefficient Deltagamma (B) increases linearly with the field below 5 T and a kink is observed around 5 T, indicating a multi-gap feature in the present system. Such a sign is also reflected in the Tc-B data. A detailed analysis shows that this behavior can be interpreted in terms of a two-gap scenario with the ratio Delta_L=Delta_S = 2:8-4:5.
The low-temperature specific heat of a superconductor Mo3Sb7 with T_c = 2.25 (0.05) K has been measured in magnetic fields up to 5 T. In the normal state, the electronic specific heat coefficient gamma_n, and the Debye temperature Theta_D are found to be 34.5(2) mJ/molK^2 and 283(5) K, respectively. The enhanced gamma_n value is interpreted due to a narrow Mo-4d band pinned at the Fermi level. The electronic specific heat in the superconducting state can be analyzed in terms a phenomenological two BCS-like gap model with the gap widths 2Delta_1/k_BT_c = 4.0 and 2Delta_2/k_BT_c = 2.5, and relative weights of the mole electronic heat coefficients gamma_1/gamma_n = 0.7 and gamma_2/gamma_n = 0.3. Some characteristic thermodynamic parameters for the studied superconductor, like the specific heat jump at T_c, DeltaC_p(T_c)/gamma_nT_c, the electron-phonon coupling constant,lambda_eph, the upper H_c2 and thermodynamic critical H_c0 fields, the penetration depth, lambda, coherence length xi, and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter kappa are evaluated. The estimated values of parameters like 2Delta/k_BT_c, DeltaC_p(T_c)/gamma_nT_c, N(E_F), and lambda_eph suggest that Mo3Sb7 belongs to intermediate-coupling regime. The electronic band structure calculations indicate that the density of states near the Fermi level is formed mainly by the Mo-4d orbitals and there is no overlapping between the Mo- 4d and Sb-sp orbitals.
We present a detailed study of the quasiparticle contribution to the low-temperature specific heat of an extreme type-II superconductor at high magnetic fields. Within a T-matrix approximation for the self-energies in the mixed state of a homogeneous superconductor, the electronic specific heat is a linear function of temperature with a linear-$T$ coefficient $gamma_s(H)$ being a nonlinear function of magnetic field $H$. In the range of magnetic fields $Hagt (0.15-0.2)H_{c2}$ where our theory is applicable, the calculated $gamma_s(H)$ closely resembles the experimental data for the borocarbide superconductor YNi$_2$B$_2$C.
From the measurement and analysis of the specific heat of high-quality K_(1-x)Na_xFe_2As_2 single crystals we establish the presence of large T^2 contributions with coefficients alpha_sc ~ 30 mJ/mol K^3 at low-T for both x=0 and 0.1. Together with the observed square root field behavior of the specific heat in the superconducting state both findings evidence d-wave superconductivity on almost all Fermi surface sheets with an average gap amplitude of Delta_0 in the range of 0.4 - 0.8 meV. The derived Delta_0 and the observed T_c agree well with the values calculated within the Eliashberg theory, adopting a spin-fluctuation mediated pairing in the intermediate coupling regime.