By using a two-step method, we successfully synthesized the iron based new superconductor LaFeAsO_{0.9}F_{0.1-δ}$. The resistive transition curves under different magnetic fields were measured, leading to the determination of the upper critical field Hc2(T) of this new superconductor. The value of Hc2 at zero temperature is estimated to be about 50 Tesla roughly. In addition, the Hall effect and magnetoresistance were measured in wide temperature region. A negative Hall coefficient R_H has been found, implying a dominant conduction mainly by electron-like charge carriers in this material. The charge carrier density determined at 100 K is about 9.8E20cm^{-3}, which is close to the cuprate superconductors. It is further found that the magnetoresistance does not follow Kohler's law. Meanwhile, the different temperature dependence behaviors of resistivity, Hall coefficient, and magnetoresistance have anomalous properties at about 230 K, which may be induced by some exotic scattering mechanism.
Epitaxial thin films of LaFeAsO were fabricated on MgO (001) and mixed-perovskite (La, Sr)(Al, Ta)O3 (001) single-crystal substrates by pulsed laser deposition using a Nd:YAG second harmonic source and a 10 at.% F-doped LaFeAsO disk target. Temperature dependences of the electrical resistivities showed no superconducting transition in the temperature range of 2-300 K, and were similar to those of undoped polycrystalline bulk samples. The transmittance spectrum exhibited a clear peak at ~0.2 eV, which is explained by ab-initio calculations.
In layered single band systems, the interlayer conductivity depends on the orientation of the in-plane magnetic field and takes maximum values when the magnetic field is perpendicular to flat regions of the Fermi surface. Extending this known results to multi-band systems, we propose an experiment to extract information about their Fermi surface topology. We discuss application of the formula to a FeAs-based superconductor, LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$. We show that the magnetically ordered state in the parent compound is clearly distinguished from the paramagnetic state by the oscillation period in t…
Measurements of magnetization, specific heat, electrical resistivity, Hall effect, and magnetoresistance on single crystalline samples of LaFeAsO grown in a NaAs flux are reported. While this material is known to be a semimetal, the temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity data presented herein is reminiscent of semiconducting behavior and exhibits distinct features associated with a structural transition and spin density wave (SDW) order. Magnetoresistance and Hall coefficient measurements were performed in magnetic fields up to 9 T applied perpendicular to the basal plane using a…
We report the first-principle FLAPW-GGA calculations of the elastic properties of two related layered phases, namely, the ternary arsenide SrFe2As2 and the quaternary oxyarsenide LaFeAsO - basic phases for the newly discovered "122" and "1111" 38-55K superconductors. The independent elastic constants (Cij), bulk moduli, compressibility, and shear moduli are evaluated and discussed. The numerical estimates of the elastic parameters of the polycrystalline SrFe2As2 and LaFeAsO ceramics are performed for the first time. Additionally, the peculiarities of chemical bonding in these phases are discus…
We argue that the newly discovered superconductivity in a nearly magnetic, Fe-based layered compound is unconventional and mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, though different from the usual superexchange and specific to this compound. This resulting state is an example of extended s-wave pairing with a sign reversal of the order parameter between different Fermi surface sheets. The main role of doping in this scenario is to lower the density of states and suppress the pair-breaking ferromagnetic fluctuations.
The crystal structure and numerous normal and superconducting state properties of layered tetragonal (P4/nmm) LaFeAsO, with F-doping of 11 %, are reported. Resistivity measurements give an onset transition temperature Tc = 28.2 K, and low field magnetic susceptibility data indicate bulk superconductivity. In applied magnetic field, analysis of the resistive transition results in a critical field Hc2 = 30 T and a coherence length 35 A. An upper limit for the electron carrier concentration of 1 x 10^21 cm-3 is inferred from Hall data just above Tc. Strong electron-electron correlations are sugge…
The effect of incoherent interlayer transport on the interlayer resistance of a layered metal is considered. We find that for both quasi-one-dimensional and quasi-two-dimensional Fermi liquids the angular dependence of the magnetoresistance is essentially the same for coherent and incoherent transport. Consequently, the existence of a three-dimensional Fermi surface is not necessary to explain the oscillations in the magnetoresistance that are seen in many organic conductors as the field direction is varied.
Many of the most interesting and technologically important electronic materials discovered in the past two decades have two common features: a layered crystal structure and strong interactions between electrons. Two of the most fundamental questions about such layered metals concern the origin of intralayer anisotropies and the coherence of interlayer charge transport. We show that angle dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) are sensitive to anisotropies around an intralayer Fermi surface. Hence, AMRO can be a probe of intralayer anisotropies that is complementary to angle-resolved p…
The angle-dependences of the magnetoresistance of two different isotopic substitutions (deuterated and undeuterated) of the layered organic superconductor κ-(ET)2Cu(NCS)2 are presented. The angle dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) arising from the quasi-one-dimensional (Q1D) and quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) Fermi surfaces in this material are often confused. By using the Boltzman transport equation extensive simulations of the AMRO are made that reveal the subtle differences between the different species of oscillation. No significant differences are observed in the electronic para…
The interlayer magnetoresistance of layered metals in a tilted magnetic field is calculated for two distinct models for the interlayer transport. The first model involves coherent interlayer transport and makes use of results of semi-classical or Bloch-Boltzmann transport theory. The second model involves weakly incoherent interlayer transport where the electron is scattered many times within a layer before tunneling into the next layer. The results are relevant to the interpretation of experiments on angular-dependent magnetoresistance oscillations (AMRO) in quasi-one- and quasi-two-dimension…
We have investigated the in-plane anisotropy of the c-axis magnetoresistance (MR) in both superconducting and normal states of single crystals of NdO0.7F0.3BiS2 under in-plane magnetic fields. In the superconducting states of NdO0.7F0.3BiS2, four-fold-symmetric in-plane anisotropy of the c-axis MR was observed below the superconducting transition temperature. Since the crystal structure of NdO0.7F0.3BiS2 is tetragonal, the rotational symmetry in the superconducting state is preserved in the present compound. This result is clearly different from the previous report observed in LaO0.5F0.5BiSSe …
The magnetic-field, temperature, and angular dependence of the interlayer magnetoresistance of two different quasi-two-dimensional (2D) organic superconductors is reported. For $κ$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$I$_3$ we find a well-resolved peak in the angle-dependent magnetoresistance at $Θ= 90^\circ$ (field parallel to the layers). This clear-cut proof for the coherent nature of the interlayer transport is absent for $β$''-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$SF$_5$CH$_2$CF$_2$SO$_3$. This and the non-metallic behavior of the magnetoresistance suggest an incoherent quasiparticle motion for the latter 2D metal.
The evolution of the low temperature electronic structure of the cuprate metals from the overdoped to the underdoped side has recently been addressed through Angle-Dependant Magneto-Resistance (ADMR) experiments in La$_{1.6-x}$Nd$_{0.4}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$. The results show a striking difference between hole dopings $p = 0.24$ and $p = 0.21$ which lie on either side of a putative quantum critical point at intermediate $p$. Motivated by this, we here study the theory of ADMR in correlated layered materials, paying special attention to the role of angle dependent quasiparticle weights $Z_{\mathbf{k}}$…
We analyzed the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetoresistance (MR) for overdoped Bi$_{1.6}$Pb$_{0.4}$Sr$_{2}$CaCu$_{2}$O$_{8+δ}$ (Bi-2212) single crystals using superconductive fluctuation theory, which considers the density-of-states (DOS) contribution in layered superconductors with the conventional s-wave pairing state. The out-of-plane results are well reproduced by the theory, implying that the large, negative out-of-plane MR as well as the sharp increase in the zero-field out-of-plane resistivity $ρ_{c}$ near the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ originate from the superconducti…
In this work we investigate the Ru substituted LaFeAsO compound, by studying the magnetotransport behaviour and its relationship with the band structure, in different regimes of temperature, magnetic field and Ru content. In particular we analyse the magnetoresistance of LaFe1-xRuxAsO (0 <= x <= 0.6) samples with the support of ab initio calculations and we find out that in the whole series: (i) the transport is dominated by electron bands only; (ii) the magnetoresistance exhibits distinctive features related to the presence of Dirac cones; indeed, ab initio calculations confirm the presence o…
We report detailed measurements of the interlayer magnetoresistance of the layered organic superconductor $κ-(BEDT-TTF)_2Cu(SCN)_2$ for temperatures down to 0.5 K and fields up to 30 tesla. The upper critical field is determined from the resistive transition for a wide range of temperatures and field directions. For magnetic fields parallel to the layers, the upper critical field increases approximately linearly with decreasing temperature. The upper critical field at low temperatures is compared to the Pauli paramagnetic limit, at which singlet superconductivity should be destroyed by the Zee…
We study angular-dependent magnetoresistance in a low $T_c$ layered cuprate Bi$_{2.15}$Sr$_{1.9}$CuO$_{6+δ}$. The low $T_c$ ~ 4 K allows complete suppression of superconductivity by modest magnetic fields and facilitate accurate analysis of the upper critical field $H_{c2}$. We observe an universal exponential decay of fluctuation conductivity in a broad range of temperatures above $T_c$ and propose a new method for extraction of $H_{c2}(T)$ from the scaling analysis of the fluctuation conductivity at $T>T_c$. Our main result is observation of a surprisingly low $H_{c2}$ anisotropy ~ 2, which …
The response of the worldwide scientific community to the discovery in 2008 of superconductivity at Tc = 26 K in the Fe-based compound LaFeAsO_{1-x}F_x has been very enthusiastic. In short order, other Fe-based superconductors with the same or related crystal structures were discovered with Tc up to 56 K. Many experiments were carried out and theories formulated to try to understand the basic properties of these new materials and the mechanism for Tc. In this selective critical review of the experimental literature, we distill some of this extensive body of work, and discuss relationships betw…
For many layered metals the temperature dependence of the interlayer resistance has a different behavior than the intralayer resistance. In order to better understand interlayer transport we consider a concrete model which exhibits this behavior. A small polaron model is used to illustrate how the interlayer transport is related to the coherence of quasi-particles within the layers. Explicit results are given for the electron spectral function, interlayer optical conductivity and the interlayer magnetoresistance. All these quantities have two contributions: one coherent (dominant at low temper…
The interlayer magnetoresistance of a quasi-two-dimensional layered metal with a d-wave pseudogap is calculated semiclassically. An expression for the interlayer resistivity as a function of the strength and direction of the magnetic field, the magnitude of the pseudogap, temperature, and scattering rate is obtained. We find that the pseudogap, by introducing low-energy nodal quasiparticle contours, smooths the dependence on field direction in a manner characteristic of its anisotropy. We thus propose that interlayer resistance measurements under a strong field of variable orientation can be u…
Layered systems shows anisotropic transport properties. The interlayer conductivity show a general temperature dependence for a wide class of materials. This can be understood if conduction occurs in two different channels activated at different temperatures. We show that the characteristic temperature dependence can be explained using a polaron model for the transport. The results show an intuitive interpretation in terms of coherent and incoherent quasi-particles within the layers. Further, we extract results for the magnetoresistance, thermopower, spectral function and optical conductivity …
Study of superconductivity in layered iron-based materials was initiated in 2006 by Hosono's group, and boosted in 2008 by the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, of 26 K in LaFeAsO1-xFx. Since then, enormous researches have been done on the materials, with Tc reaching as high as 55 K. Here, we review briefly experimental and theoretical results on atomic and electronic structures and magnetic and superconducting properties of FeAs-based superconductors and related compounds. We seek for clues for unconventional superconductivity in the materials.
The angle-dependent interlayer magnetoresistance of the layered organic metal $α$-(BEDT-TTF)$_2$KHg(SCN)$_4$ is found to undergo a dramatic change from the classical conventional behavior at low magnetic fields to an anomalous one at high fields. This field-induced crossover and its dependence on the sample purity and temperature imply the existence of two parallel channels in the interlayer transport: a classical Boltzmann conductivity $σ_{c}$ and an incoherent channel $σ_{i}$. We propose a simple model for $σ_{i}$ explaining its metallic temperature dependence and low sensitivity to the inpl…
Linear nonsaturating magnetoresistance (LMR) represents a class of anomalous resistivity response to external magnetic field that has been observed in a variety of materials including but not limited to topological semi-metals, high-Tc superconductors and materials with charge/spin density wave (CDW/SDW) orders. Here we report the observation of LMR in layered kagome superconductor and CDW material CsV3Sb5 thin flakes, as well as the dimensional crossover and temperature (T) crossover of such LMR. Specifically, in ultrathin CsV3Sb5 crystals, the magnetoresistance (MR) exhibits a crossover from…
The longitudinal interlayer magnetoresistance $R_{zz}(B_{z})$ is calculated in strongly anisotropic layered metals, when the interlayer band width $4t_{z}$ is less than the Landau level separation $\hbar ω_{c}$. The impurity scattering has much stronger effect in this regime than in 3D metals and leads to a linear longitudinal interlayer magnetoresistance $R_{zz}\propto B_{z}$ in the interval $\hbar ω_{c}>4t_{z}>>\sqrt{Γ_{0}\hbar ω_{c}}$ changing to a square-root dependence $R_{zz}\propto B_{z}^{1/2}$ at higher field or smaller $t_{z}$. The crossover field allows to estimate the interlayer tra…
We consider the quasiparticle c-axis conductivity in highly anisotropic layered compounds in the presence of the magnetic field parallel to the layers. We show that at low temperatures the quasiparticle interlayer conductivity depends strongly on the orientation of the in-plane magnetic field if the excitation gap has nodes on the Fermi surface. Thus measurements of the angle-dependent c-axis (out-of-plane) magnetoresistance, as a function of the orientation of the magnetic field in the layers, provide information on the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap (or pseudogap) on the Ferm…
We report transport properties for layered BiCh2-based (Ch = S, Se) superconductors LaO1-xFxBiS2-ySey (x = 0.2, 0.5, y = 0-1.05) and the observation of weak antilocalization (WAL). Electrical resistivity and Hall coefficients for the Se-poor samples increase with decreasing temperature. The increase becomes less pronounced with increasing Se concentration indicating a loss of insulating behavior. Interestingly, the moderately Se-substituted samples exhibit metallic behavior in the high-temperature region and a weak increase in the resistivity in the low-temperature regions, which indicates the…
Superconductivity and magnetism are generally incompatible because of the opposing requirement on electron spin alignment. When combined, they produce a multitude of fascinating phenomena, including unconventional superconductivity and topological superconductivity. The emergence of two-dimensional (2D)layered superconducting and magnetic materials that can form nanoscale junctions with atomically sharp interfaces presents an ideal laboratory to explore new phenomena from coexisting superconductivity and magnetic ordering. Here we report tunneling spectroscopy under an in-plane magnetic field …
We present results of transport and magnetic properties and heat capacity measurements on polycrystalline CeFeAsO, PrFeAsO, and NdFeAsO. These materials undergo structural phase transitions, spin density wave-like magnetic ordering of small moments on iron, and antiferromagnetic ordering of rare earth moments. The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity, Seebeck coefficient, thermal conductivity, Hall coefficient, and magnetoresistance are reported. The magnetic behavior of the materials have been investigated using Mossbauer spectroscopy and magnetization measurements. Transport …
The conducting properties of the pressure-induced, layered organic superconductor (BEDT-TTF)_3Cl_2.2H_20 have been studied at 13.5 and 14.0 kbar using low temperatures, high magnetic fields and two-axis rotation. An upper critical field that is significantly larger than that expected from the Pauli paramagnetic limit is observed when the field is applied parallel to the conducting layers. The angle dependent magnetoresistance suggests incoherent transport between the conducting layers at both pressures and the observed negative magnetoresistance at 13.5 kbar can be explained by considering And…
Layered transition metal dichalcogenide WTe$_2$ has recently attracted significant attention due to the discovery of an extremely large magnetoresistance, a predicted type-II Weyl semimetallic state, and the pressure-induced superconducting state. By a careful measurement of the superconducting upper critical fields as a function of the magnetic field angle at a pressure as high as 98.5 kbar, we provide the first detailed examination of the dimensionality of the superconducting condensate in WTe$_2$. Despite the layered crystal structure, the upper critical field exhibits a negligible field an…
We demonstrate superconducting vertical interconnect access (VIA) contacts to a monolayer of molybdenum disulfide (MoS$_2$), a layered semiconductor with highly relevant electronic and optical properties. As a contact material we use MoRe, a superconductor with a high critical magnetic field and high critical temperature. The electron transport is mostly dominated by a single superconductor/normal conductor junction with a clear superconductor gap. In addition, we find MoS$_2$ regions that are strongly coupled to the superconductor, resulting in resonant Andreev tunneling and junction dependen…
The interplay between dimensionality and various phases of matter is a central inquiry in condensed matter physics. New phases are often discovered through spontaneously broken symmetry. Understanding the dimensionality of superconductivity in the high-temperature cuprate analogue $-$ layered nickelates and revealing a new symmetry-breaking state are the keys to deciphering the underlying pairing mechanism. Here, we demonstrate the highly-tunable dimensionality and a broken rotational symmetry state in the superconductivity of square-planar layered nickelates. The superconducting state, probed…
