We report conventional and time-resolved infrared spectroscopy on LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ superconducting thin films. The far-infrared transmission can be quantitatively explained by a two-component model including a conventional s-wave superconducting
term and a Drude term, suggesting at least one carrier system has a full superconducting gap. Photo-induced studies of excess quasiparticle dynamics reveal a nanosecond effective recombination time and temperature dependence that agree with a recombination bottleneck in the presence of a full gap. The two experiments provide consistent evidence of a full, nodeless though not necessarily isotropic, gap for at least one carrier system in LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$.
The optical properties the high-temperature superconductor La{2-x}Ba{x}CuO{4} have been measured over a wide frequency and temperature range for light polarized in the a-b planes and along the c axis. Three different Ba concentrations have been exami
ned, x=0.095 with a critical temperature T_c=32 K, x=0.125 with T_c ~ 2.4 K, and x=0.145 with T_c ~ 24 K. The in-plane behavior of the optical conductivity for these materials at high temperature is described by a Drude-like response with a scattering rate that decreases with temperature. Below T_c in the x=0.095 and 0.145 materials there is a clear signature of the formation of a SC state in the optical properties allowing the strength of the condensate (rho_{s0}) and the penetration depth to be determined. In the anomalous 1/8 phase, some spectral weight shifts from lower to higher frequency (above 300 cm^{-1}) on cooling below the spin-ordering temperature T_{so} ~ 42 K, associated with the onset of spin-stripe order; we discuss alternative interpretations in terms of a conventional density-wave gap versus the response to pair-density-wave SC. The disappearance of the low-frequency spectral weight at low temperature may indicate the formation of a 2D SC state below the Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition at about 16 K prior to the onset of bulk 3D SC. The two dopings for which a SC response is observed both fall on the universal scaling line rho_{s0}/8 ~ 4.4 sigma_{dc} T_c. The optical properties for light polarized along the c axis reveal an insulating character dominated by lattice vibrations, superimposed on a weak electronic background. In the x=0.095 and 0.145 materials a Josephson plasma edge is observed in the reflectance below T_c. No Josephson plasma edge is observed in the 1/8 phase, suggesting that the presence of charge and spin order frustrates the formation of a supercurrent and bulk 3D SC.
We present emph{c} axis infrared optical data on a number of Ba, Sr and Nd-doped cuprates of the La$_{2}$CuO$_{4}$ (La214) series in which we observe significant deviations from the universal Josephson relation linking the normal state transport (DC
conductivity $sigma_{DC}$ measured at $T_{c}$) with the superfluid density ($rho_{s}$): $rho_{s}proptosigma_{DC}(T_{c})$. We find the violation of Josephson scaling is associated with striking enhancement of the anisotropy in the superfluid density. The data allows us to link the breakdown of Josephson interlayer physics with the development of magnetic order in the CuO$_2$ planes.
