We present a systematic study of the electronic specific heat jump ($Delta C_{rm el}$) at the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ of K$_{1-x}$Na$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$. Both $T_c$ and $Delta C_{rm el}$ monotonously decrease with increasing $x$. The
specific heat jump scales approximately with a power-law, $Delta C_{rm el} propto T_c^{beta}$, with $beta approx 2$ determined by the impurity scattering rate, in contrast to most iron-pnictide superconductors, where the remarkable Budko-Ni-Canfield (BNC) scaling $Delta C_{rm el} propto T^3$ has been found. Both the $T$ dependence of $C_{rm el}(T)$ in the superconducting state and the nearly quadratic scaling of $Delta C_{rm el}$ at $T_c$ are well described by the Eliashberg-theory for a two-band $d$-wave superconductor with weak pair-breaking due to nonmagnetic impurities. The disorder induced by the Na substitution significantly suppresses the small gaps leading to gapless states in the slightly disordered superconductor, which results in a large observed residual Sommerfeld coefficient in the superconducting state for $x > 0$.
We present a comprehensive macroscopic thermodynamic study of the quasi-one-dimensional (1D) $s = tfrac{1}{2}$ frustrated spin-chain system linarite. Susceptibility, magnetization, specific heat, magnetocaloric effect, magnetostriction, and thermal-e
xpansion measurements were performed to characterize the magnetic phase diagram. In particular, for magnetic fields along the b axis five different magnetic regions have been detected, some of them exhibiting short-range-order effects. The experimental magnetic entropy and magnetization are compared to a theoretical modelling of these quantities using DMRG and TMRG approaches. Within the framework of a purely 1D isotropic model Hamiltonian, only a qualitative agreement between theory and the experimental data can be achieved. Instead, it is demonstrated that a significant symmetric anisotropic exchange of about 10% is necessary to account for the basic experimental observations, including the 3D saturation field, and which in turn might stabilize a triatic (three-magnon) multipolar phase.
High-quality KFe2As2 (K122) single crystals synthesized by different techniques have been studied by magnetization and specific heat (SH) measurements. There are 2 types of samples both affected by disordered magnetic phases: (i) cluster-glass (CG) l
ike or (ii) Griffiths phase (G) like. For (i) at low applied magnetic fields the T-dependence of the zero field cooled (ZFC) linear susceptibility (chi_l) exhibits an anomaly with an irreversible behavior in ZFC and field cooled (FC) data. This anomaly is related to the freezing temperature T_f. The extrapolated T_f to B=0 varies between 50 K and 90 K. Below T_f we observed a magnetic hysteresis in the field dependence of the isothermal magnetization (M(B)). The frequency shift of the freezing temperature delta T_f=Delta T_f/[T_fDelta(ln u)]sim 0.05$ has an intermediate value, which provides evidence for the formation of a CG-like state in the K122 samples of type (i). The frequency dependence of their T_f follows a conventional power-law divergence of critical slowing down: tau=tau_0 [T_f(nu)/T_f(0)-1]^{-z u^{}} with the critical exponent z u^{}=10(2) and a relatively long characteristic time constant tau_0 =6.9 x10^{-11}$s also supporting a CG behavior. The large value of the Sommerfeld coefficient was related to magnetic contribution from a CG. Samples from (ii) did not show a hysteresis behavior for chi_l(T) and M(B). Below a crossover temperature T^* sim 40 K a power-law dependence in the chi_l propto T^[lambda_G-1}], with a non-universal lambda_G was observed, suggesting a quantum G-like behavior. In this case chi_l and M(B) can be scaled using the scaling function M_s(T,B)= B^{1-lambda_{tiny G}}Y(mu B/k_BT) with the scaling moment mu of the order of 3.5mu_b. The same non-universal exponent was found also in SH measurements, where the magnetic contribution C/T propto T^(lambda_G-1).
Ca2Y2Cu5O10 is build up from edge-shared CuO4 plaquettes forming spin chains. From inelastic neutron scattering data we extract an in-chain nearest neighbor exchange J1 approximately -170 K and the frustrating next neighbor J2 approximately 32 K inte
ractions, both significantly larger than previous estimates. The ratio alpha= J2/J1 approximately 0.19 places the system very close to the critical point alpha_c=0.25 of the J1-J2 chain, but in the ferromagnetic regime. We establish that the vicinity to criticality only marginally affects the dispersion and coherence of the elementary spin-wave-like magnetic excitations, but instead results in a dramatic T-dependence of high-energy Zhang-Rice singlet excitation intensities.
We show that LiVCuO4 should be described by strongly ferromagnetically coupled Heisenberg antiferromagnetic chains (HAC) in sharp contrast with the effective exchange integrals Ji given in Enderle et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. vol. 104, 237207 (2010), and
the main issues of that work, namely, (i) LiVCuO4 is well described by two weakly ferromagnetically coupled interpenetrating Heisenberg antiferromagnetic spin-1/2 chains, (ii) the extracted exchange integrals J1, J2 agree with a previous spin-wave description (Enderle et al., Euphys. Lett. vol. 70, 237 (2005)), (iii) the spectral density of inelastic neutron scattering (INS) above 10 meV is ascribed to a 4-spinon continuum. Applying exact diagonalization and DMRG methods to fit their INS and magnetization M(H) data, supported by two independent microscopic methods (5-band Hubbard model and LSDA+U calculations), we demonstrate that LiCuVO4 exhibits strong inchain frustration with alpha =-J2/J1 < 1, i.e. strong coupling of the HAC at odds with (i). An alternative phenomenological set in accord with various experimental results is proposed. In view of the recent possible discovery of quantum-spin nematics and Bose condensation of two-magnon bound states (M. Zhitomirsky et al. arXiv:1003.4096v2 (2010), L. Svistov et al. ibid. 1005.5668v2 (2010)) in LiCuVO4 precise knowledge of the main J-values is of key importance.
An efficient and precise thermodynamic method to extract the interchain coupling (IC) of spatially anisotropic 2D or 3D spin-1/2 systems from their empirical saturation field H_s (T=0) is proposed. Using density-matrix renormalization group, hard-cor
e boson, and spin-wave theory we study how H_s is affected by an antiferromagnetic (AFM) IC between frustrated chains described in the J_1-J_2-spin model with ferromagnetic 1st and AFM 2nd neighbor in-chain exchange. A complex 3D-phase diagram has been found. For Li2CuO2 and Y2Ca2Cu5O10, we show that H_s is solely determined by the IC and predict H_s approx 61 T for the latter.Using H_s approx 55 T from our high-field pulsed measurements one reads out a weak IC for Li2CuO2 close to that from neutron scattering.
Based on density functional calculations, we present a detailed theoretical study of the electronic structure and the magnetic properties of the quasi-one dimensional chain cuprate Li_2ZrCuO_4 (Li_2CuZrO_4). For the relevant ratio of the next-nearest
neighbor exchange J_2 to the nearest neighbor exchange J_1 we find alpha = -J_2/J_1 = 0.22pm0.02 which is very close to the critical point at 1/4. Owing this vicinity to a ferromagnetic-helical critical point, we study in detail the influence of structural peculiarities such as the reported Li disorder and the non-planar chain geometry on the magnetic interactions combining the results of LDA based tight-binding models with LDA+U derived exchange parameters. Our investigation is complemented by an exact diagonalization study of a multi-band Hubbard model for finite clusters predicting a strong temperature dependence of the optical conductivity for Li_2ZrCuO_4.
We present an inelastic neutron scattering investigation of Li2CuO2 detecting the long sought quasi-1D magnetic excitations with a large dispersion along the CuO2-chains studied up to 25 meV. The total dispersion is governed by a surprisingly large f
erromagnetic (FM) nearest-neighbor exchange integral J1=-228 K. An anomalous quartic dispersion near the zone center and a pronounced minimum near (0,0.11,0.5) r.l.u. (corresponding to a spiral excitation with a pitch angle about 41 degree point to the vicinity of a 3D FM-spiral critical point. The leading exchange couplings are obtained applying standard linear spin-wave theory. The 2nd neighbor inter-chain interaction suppresses a spiral state and drives the FM in-chain ordering below the Neel temperature. The obtained exchange parameters are in agreement with the results for a realistic five-band extended Hubbard Cu 3d O 2p model and L(S)DA+U predictions.
We report resistivity and upper critical field B_c2(T) data for disordered (As deficient) LaO_0.9F_0.1FeAs_1-delta in a wide temperature and high field range up to 60 T. These samples exhibit a slightly enhanced superconducting transition at T_c = 28
.5 K and a significantly enlarged slope dB_c2/dT = -5.4 T/K near T_c which contrasts with a flattening of B_c2(T) starting near 23 K above 30 T. The latter evidences Pauli limiting behaviour (PLB) with B_c2(0) approximately 63 T. We compare our results with B_c2(T)-data from the literature for clean and disordered samples. Whereas clean samples show almost no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 T, the hitherto unexplained pronounced flattening of B_c2(T) for applied fields H II ab observed for several disordered closely related systems is interpreted also as a manifestation of PLB. Consequences are discussed in terms of disorder effects within the frames of (un)conventional superconductivity, respectively.
We report resistivity and upper critical field B_c2(T) data for As deficient LaO_(0.9)F_(0.1)FeAs_(1-delta) in a wide temperature and high field range up to 60 T. These disordered samples exhibit a slightly enhanced superconducting transition at T_c
= 29 K and a significantly enlarged slope dB_(c2))/dT = -5.4 T/K near T_c which contrasts with a flattening of B_(c2)(T) starting near 23 K above 30 T. This flattening is interpreted as Pauli limiting behaviour (PLB) with B_(c2)(0) approx 63 T. We compare our results with B_(c2)(T)-data reported in the literature for clean and disordered samples. Whereas clean samples show no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 T, the hitherto unexplained flattening of B_(c2)(T) for applied fields H || ab observed for several disordered closely related systems is interpreted also as a manifestation of PLB. Consequences of our results are discussed in terms of disorder effects within the frame of conventional and unconventional superconductivity.
