It is important for modern scanning microwave microscopes to overcome the effect of the surface roughness. Here, we report microwave conductivity imaging of the phase-separated iron chalcogenide K$_x$Fe$_y$Se$_2$ ($x=0.8$, $y=1.6$-$2$), in which elec
tric conductivity-induced contrast is distinguished from topography-induced contrast using a combination of a scanning tunneling microscope and a scanning microwave microscope (STM-SMM). We observed the characteristic modulation of the local electric property that originates from the mesoscopic phase separation of the metallic and semiconducting phases in two different scanning modes: constant current (CC) mode and constant $Q$ (CQ) mode. In particular, CQ scanning is useful because we obtain a qualitative image in which the topographic contrast is largely eliminated without degradation of the spatial resolution.
We measured the microwave surface impedances and obtained the superfluid density and flux flow resistivity in single crystals of a phosphor-doped iron-based superconductor SrFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_2$ single crystals ($x=0.30$, $T_c=25 mathrm{K}$)
. At low temperatures, the superfluid density, $n_s (T)/n_s(0)$, obeys a power law, $n_s (T)/n_s (0)=1-C(T/T_c)^n$, with a fractional exponent of $n=1.5$-1.6. The flux flow resistivity was significantly enhanced at low magnetic fields. These features are consistent with the presences of both a gap with line nodes and nodeless gaps with a deep minimum. The remarkable difference observed in the superconducting gap structure between SrFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_2$ and BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_2$ in our experiments is important for clarifying the mechanism of iron-based superconductivity.
We report microwave surface impedances of FeSe$_{0.4}$Te$_{0.6}$ single crystals measured at 12, 19, and 44 GHz. The penetration depth exhibits a power law behavior, $delta lambda_L=lambda_L (T)-lambda_L (0) propto CT^n$ with an exponent $nsimeq 2$,
which is considered to result from impurity scattering. This behavior is consistent with $spm$-wave pairing symmetry. The temperature dependence of the superfluid density largely deviates from the behavior expected in the BCS theory. We believe that this deviation is caused by the crossover from the dirty regime near $T_c$ to the clean regime at low temperatures, which is supported by the rapid increase of the quasiparticle scattering time obtained from the microwave conductivity. We also believe that the previously published data of the superfluid density can be interpreted in this scenario.
We have investigated the crystal structures and superconducting properties of thin films of FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ grown on eight different substrates. Superconductivity is not correlated with the lattice mismatch; rather it is correlated with the de
gree of in-plane orientation and with the lattice parameter ratio $c/a$. The best superconducting properties were observed in films on MgO and LaAlO$_3$ ($T_mathrm{c}^mathrm{zero}$ of 9.5 K). TEM observation showed that the presence or absence of an amorphous-like layer at the substrate surface plays a key role in determining the structural and superconducting properties of the grown films.
