The iron arsenide RbFe_2As_2 with the ThCr_2Si_2-type structure is found to be a bulk superconductor with T_c=2.6 K. The onset of diamagnetism was used to estimate the upper critical field H_c2(T), resulting in dH_c2/dT=-1.4 T/K and an extrapolated H
_c2(0)=2.5 T. As a new representative of iron pnictide superconductors, superconducting RbFe_2As_2 contrasts with BaFe_2As_2, where the Fermi level is higher and a magnetic instability is observed. Thus, the solid solution series (Rb,Ba)Fe_2As_2 is a promising system to study the crossover from superconductivity to magnetism.
Single crystals of Ba_{1-x}Rb_{x}Fe_2As_2 with x=0.05-0.1 have been grown from Sn flux and are bulk superconductors with T_c up to 23 K. The crystal structure was determined by X-ray diffraction analysis, and Sn is found to be incorporated for 9% Ba,
shifted by 1.1 Angstroem away from the Ba site towards the (Fe_2As_2)-layers. The upper critical field deduced from resistance measurements is anisotropic with slopes of 7.1(3) T/K (H || ab-plane) and 4.2(2) T/K (H || c-axis), sufficiently far below T_c. The extracted upper critical field anisotropy of 3 close to T_c, is in good agreement with the estimate from magnetic torque measurements. This indicates that the electronic properties in the doped BaFe_2As_2 compound are significantly more isotropic than those in the LnFeAsO family. The in-plane critical current density at 5 K exceeds 10^6 A/cm^2, making Ba_{1-x}Rb_xFe_2As_2 a promising candidate for technical applications.
Single crystals of RbOs2O6 have been grown from Rb2O and Os in sealed quartz ampoules. The crystal structure has been identified at room temperature as cubic with the lattice constant a = 10.1242(12) A. The anisotropy of the tetrahedral and octahedra
l networks is lower and the displacement parameters of alkali metal atoms are smaller than for KOs2O6, so the rattling of the alkali atoms in RbOs2O6 is less pronounced. Superconducting properties of RbOs2O6 in the mixed state have been well described within the London approach and the Ginzburg-Landau parameter kappa(0) = 31 has been derived from the reversible magnetization. This parameter is field dependent and changes at low temperatures from kappa = 22 (low fields) to kappa = 31 at H_{c2}. The thermodynamic critical field H_{c}(0) = 1.3 kOe and the superconducting gap 2delta/k_{B}T_{c} = 3.2 have been estimated. These results together with slightly different H_{c2}(T) dependence obtained for crystals and polycrystalline RbOs2O6 proof evidently that this compound is a weak-coupling BCS-type superconductor close to the dirty limit.
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 t
o 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.
