We report the appearance of superconductivity under hydrostatic pressure (0.35 to 2.5GPa) in Sr0.5RE0.5FBiS2 with RE = Ce, Nd, Pr and Sm. The studied compounds, synthesized by solid state reaction route, are crystallized in tetragonal P4/nmm space gr
oup. At ambient pressure though the RE = Ce exhibit the onset of superconductivity below 2.5K, the Nd, Pr and Sm samples are not superconducting down to 2K. With application of hydrostatic pressure (up to 2.5GPa), superconducting transition temperature is increased to around 10K for all the studied samples. The magneto-transport measurements are carried out on all the samples with maximum Tc i.e., at under 2.5GPa pressure and their upper critical fields are determined. The new superconducting compounds appear to be quite robust against magnetic field but within Pauli paramagnetic limit. The new superconducting compounds with various RE (Ce, Nd, Pr and Sm) belonging to Sr0.5La0.5FBiS2 family are successfully synthesized for the first time and superconductivity is induced in them under hydrostatic pressure.
We report the effect of hydrostatic pressure (0-1.97GPa) on the superconductivity of BiS2 based CeO0.5F0.5BiS2 compound. The CeO0.5F0.5BiS2 superconductor was synthesized by the solid state reaction route and the compound is crystallized in tetragona
l P4/nmm space group. The studied compound shows superconductivity with transition temperature of 2.5K (Tconset) at ambient pressure, which has been enhanced to 8 K at applied pressure of 1.97 GPa. The observed normal resistivity exhibited semiconducting behavior. The data of normal state resistivity R(T) has been fitted by activation type equation and it is found that the energy gap is significantly reduced with pressure. Resistivity measurements under magnetic field for the highest applied pressure of 1.97GPa (Tconset = 8K) exhibits the upper critical field of above 5Tesla. The observation of fourfold increase in Tc accompanied with improved normal state conduction under hydrostatic pressure on CeO0.5F0.5BiS2 superconductor calls for the attention of solid state physics community.
In this letter, we present the superconducting property characterization of a phase pure reasonably good quality YBa2Cu3O7-{delta} sample. Studied compound is crystallized in orthorhombic Pmmm space group with lattice parameters a, b, and c are 3.829
(2) {AA}, 3.887(1) {AA} and 11.666(3) {AA} respectively. Bulk superconductivity is observed below 90K as evidenced by resistivity and dc/ac magnetization measurements. The resistivity under magnetic field ({rho}TH) measurements showed clearly both the intra-grain and inter-grain transitions, which are supplemented by detailed (varying frequency and amplitude) ac susceptibility studies as well. The upper critical field at 0K i.e., Hc2(0) being determined from {rho}TH measurements with 50% criteria of resistivity drope is ~ 70 Tesla. Studied polycrystalline YBa2Cu3O7-{delta} is subjected to detailed heat capacity (CP) studies. Cp exhibited well defined anomaly at below 90 K, which decreases with applied field. Though the Cp anomaly/peak at Tc reduces with applied field, the same is not completely suppressed in high applied fields of up to 12 Tesla. The Sommerfeld constant ({gamma}) and Debye temperature ({Theta}D) as determined from low temperature fitting of CP(T) data to Sommerfeld-Debye model, are 10.65 mJ/mole-K2 and 312.3 K respectively. The results are compared with existing literature on bulk polycrystalline superconducting YBa2Cu3O7-{delta} sample
We report high field (up to 13 Tesla) magneto transport R(T)H] of YBa2Cu3O7 (YBCO):Agx (x= 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2) composites. The transport properties are significantly improved by Ag doping on the insulating grain boundaries of YBCO. Pure and Ag diffused
YBCO superconducting samples are synthesized through solid state reaction route. Both pure and Ag doped YBCO are superconducting at below 90K. Though, the Tc (R=0) of YBCO:Ag samples under applied field of 13 Tesla is around 65K, the same is 45K for pure YBCO under same applied field. The upper critical field [Hc2(0)], being estimated from R(T)H is around 70Tesla for pristine sample, and is above 190Tesla for Ag doped samples. The boarding of the resistive transition under applied magnetic field is comparatively less and nearly single step for Ag doped samples, while the same is clearly two step and relatively much larger for the pristine YBCO. The resistive broadening is explained on the basis of changed inter-granular coupling and thermally activated flux flow (TAFF). The TAFF activation energy (U0) is found to be linear with applied magnetic field for all the samples, but with nearly an order of magnitude less value for the Ag doped samples. Summarily, it is shown that inclusion of Ag significantly improves the superconducting performance of YBCO:Ag composites, in particular under applied field.
We report the effect of silver addition on superconducting performance of bulk YBCO (YBa2Cu3O7) superconductor. All the studied samples are prepared by conventional solid-state reaction method. Rietveld fitted X-ray diffraction data confirmed the sin
gle phase formation for all the studied samples. Detailed AC susceptibility measurements as a function of driven AC amplitude (1Oe-17Oe) of these samples revealed the enhancement of grains coupling with increasing Ag content in YBCO+Agx composite system. 10wt% Ag added YBCO superconductors exhibited the optimum inter granular coupling. The Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) observations indicate an increase in the grains connectivity in terms of narrow grain boundaries for doped samples. The average grain size is found to increase with Ag doping. It is concluded that limited addition of Ag in bulk YBCO superconductor significantly improves the grains coupling and as result optimum superconducting performance. YBCO+Ag composites could prove to be potential candidates for bulk superconducting applications of the studied high Tc system.
We report synthesis, structure/micro-structure, resistivity under magnetic field [R(T)H], Raman spectra, thermoelectric power S(T), thermal conductivity K(T), and magnetization of ambient pressure argon annealed polycrystalline bulk samples of MgB2,
processed under identical conditions. The compound crystallizes in hexagonal structure with space group P6/mmm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals electron micrographs showing various types of defect features along with the presence of 3-4nm thick amorphous layers forming the grain boundaries of otherwise crystalline MgB2. Raman spectra of the compound at room temperature exhibited characteristic phonon peak at 600 cm-1. Superconductivity is observed at 37.2K by magnetic susceptibility C(T), resistivity R(T), thermoelectric power S(T), and thermal conductivity K(T) measurements. The power law fitting of R(T) give rise to Debye temperature at 1400K which is found consistent with the theoretical fitting of S(T), exhibiting ThetaD of 1410K and carrier density of 3.81x 1028/m3. Thermal conductivity K(T) shows a jump at 38K, i.e., at Tc, which was missing in some earlier reports. Critical current density (Jc) of up to 105 A/cm2 in 1-2T (Tesla) fields at temperatures (T) of up to 10K is seen from magnetization measurements. The irreversibility field, defined as the field related to merging of M(H) loops is found to be 78, 68 and 42 kOe at 4, 10 and 20K respectively. The superconducting performance parameters viz. irreversibility field (Hirr) and critical current density Jc(H) of the studied MgB2 are improved profoundly with addition of nano-SiC and nano-Diamond. The physical property parameters measured for polycrystalline MgB2 are compared with earlier reports and a consolidated insight of various physical properties is presented.
We report on the magnetic behavior of oxygen deficient LaFeAsO1-x (x-0.10) compound, prepared by one-step synthesis, which crystallizes in the tetragonal (S.G. P4/nmm) structure at room temperature. Resistivity measurements show a strong anomaly near
150 K, which is ascribed to the spin density wave (SDW) instability. On the other hand, dc magnetization data shows paramagnetic-like features down to 5 K, with an effective moment of 0.83 mB/Fe. 57Fe Mossbauer studies (MS) have been performed at 95 and 200 K. The spectra at both temperatures are composed of two sub-spectra. At 200 K the major one (88%), is almost a singlet, and corresponds to those Fe nuclei, which have two oxygen ions in their close vicinity. The minor one, with a large quadrupole splitting, corresponds to Fe nuclei, which have vacancies in their immediate neighborhood. The spectrum at 95 K, exhibits a broadened magnetic split major (84%) sub-spectrum and a very small magnetic splitting in the minor subspectrum. The relative intensities of the subspectra facilitate in estimating the actual amount of oxygen vacancies in the compound to be 7.0(5)%, instead of the nominal LaFeAsO0.90. These results, when compared with reported 57Fe MS of non-superconducting LaFeAsO and superconducting LaFeAsO0.9F0.1, confirm that the studied LaFeAsO0.93 is a superconductivity-magnetism crossover compound of the newly discovered Fe based superconducting family.
We present detailed magnetization and magneto-transport studies on the title compound SmCoAsO. In a recent paper we reported [1] the complex magnetism of this compound. SmCoAsO undergoes successive paramagnetic (PM) - ferro-magnetic (FM) - anti-ferro
-magnetic (AFM) transitions with decrease in temperature. This is mainly driven via the c-direction interaction of Sm4f (SmO layer) spins with adjacent (CoAs layer) ordered Co3d spins. In this article we present an evidence of kinetic arrest for FM-AFM transition. The isothermal magnetization (MH) loops for SmCoAsO exhibited the meta-magnetic transitions at 6, 8 and 10K at around 80, 60 and 50kOe fields respectively with characteristic hysteresis shoulders along with the non-zero moment at origin, thus suggesting the possibility of kinetic arrest. Suggested kinetic arrest is further evident in zero field-cooled (ZFC) and field-cooled (FC) hysteresis under high fields of up to 140kOe magnetization (MT) and the magneto-transport measurements R(T)H during FM-AFM transition. The time dependent moment experiments exhibited very small (~2-3%) increase of the same below 20kO and decrease for 30kOe at 15K.
Here we report the structural, electrical and magnetic properties of Fe doped La0.7Ca0.3Mn1-xFexO3 with x = 0.0 to 1.0 prepared by conventional solid state reaction method. Simulated data on XRD shows an increase in volume with an increase in Fe ion
concentration. XPS supports that Fe3+ ions directly substitute Mn3+ ions. Shifting towards lower wave-number and symmetric IR band structure confirms increase in volume and homogeneous distribution of Fe ions. Fe ion doesnt contribute in double-exchange (DE) conduction mechanism due to its stable half filled 3d orbital. The presence of Fe3+ ions encourages anti-ferromagnetism (AFM) generated by super-exchange interaction and suppress insulator-metal transition temperature (TIM). Magnetic measurements show the existence of magnetic polarons supported by increase in volume of unit cell and deviation from Curie-Weiss law.
We report an easy single step synthesis route of title compound NdFeAsO0.80F0.20 superconductor having bulk superconductivity below 50 K. The title compound is synthesized via solid-state reaction route by encapsulation in an evacuated (10-3 Torr) qu
artz tube. Rietveld analysis of powder X-ray diffraction data shows that compound crystallized in tetragonal structure with space group P4/nmm. R(T)H measurements showed superconductivity with Tc (R=0) at 48 K and a very high upper critical field (Hc2) of up to 345 Tesla. Magnetic measurements exhibited bulk superconductivity in terms of diamagnetic onset below 50 K. The lower critical field (Hc1) is around 1000 Oe at 5 K. In normal state i.e., above 60 K, the compound exhibited purely paramagnetic behavior and thus ruling out the presence of any ordered FeOx impurity in the matrix. In specific heat measurements a jump is observed in the vicinity of superconducting transition (Tc) along with an upturn at below T=4 K due to the AFM ordering of Nd+3 ions in the system. The Thermo-electric power (TEP) is negative down to Tc, thus indicating dominant carriers to be of n-type in NdFeAsO0.80F0.20 superconductor. The granularity of the bulk superconducting NdFeAsO0.8F0.2 sample is investigated and the intra and inter grain contributions have been individuated by looking at various amplitude and frequencies of the applied AC drive magnetic field.
