We have successfully grown high quality single crystals of SrFe$_2$As$_2$ and A$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$(A=Sr, Ba) using flux method. The resistivity, specific heat and Hall coefficient have been measured. For parent compound SrFe$_2$As$_2$, an anisotropic resistivity with $ρ_c$ / $ρ_{ab}$ as large as 130 is obtained at low temperatures. A sharp drop in both in-plane and out-plane resistivity due to the SDW instability is observed below 200 K. The angular dependence of in-plane magnetoresistance shows 2-fold symmetry with field rotating within ab plane below SDW transition temperature. This is consistent with a stripe-type spin ordering in SDW state. In K doped A$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$(A=Sr. Ba), the SDW instability is suppressed and the superconductivity appears with T$_c$ above 35 K. The rather low anisotropy in upper critical field between H$\parallel$ab and H$\parallel$c indicates inter-plane coupling play an important role in hole doped Fe-based superconductors.
Intrinsic, in-plane anisotropy of electrical resistivity was studied on mechanically detwinned single crystals of SrFe$_2$As$_2$ above and below the temperature of the coupled structural/magnetic transition, $T_{\textrm{TO}}$. Resistivity is smaller for electrical current flow along the orthorhombic $a_o$ direction (direction of antiferromagnetically alternating magnetic moments) and is larger for transport along the $b_o$ direction (direction of ferromagnetic chains), which is similar to CaFe$_2$As$_2$ and BaFe$_2$As$_2$ compounds. A strongly first order structural transition in SrFe$_2$As$_2…
Plate-like single crystals of SrFe2As2 as large as 3x3x0.5 mm3 have been grown out of Sn flux. The SrFe2As2 single crystals show a structural phase transition from a high temperature tetragonal phase to a low temperature orthorhombic phase at To = 198 K, and do not show any sign of superconductivity down to 1.8 K. The structural transition is accompanied by an anomaly in the electrical resistivity, Hall resistivity, specific heat, and the anisotropic magnetic susceptibility. In an intermediate temperature range from 198 K to 160 K, single crystal X-ray diffraction suggests a coexistence of the…
We report 31P-NMR and specific heat measurements on an iron (Fe)-based superconductor SrFe2(As0.65P0.35)2 with Tc=26 K, which have revealed the development of antiferromagnetic correlations in the normal state and the unconventional superconductivity(SC) with nodal gap dominated by the gapless low-lying quasiparticle excitations. The results are consistently argued with an unconventional multiband SC state with the gap-size ratio of different bands being significantly large; the large full gaps in s\pm-wave state keep Tc high, whereas a small gap with a nodal-structure causes gapless feature u…
We present a systematic pressure study of poly- and single crystalline SrFe2As2 by electrical resistivity and X-ray diffraction measurements. SrFe2As2 exhibits a structural phase transition from a tetragonal to an orthorhombic phase at T0=205 K. The structural phase transition is intimately linked to a spin-density-wave transition taking place at the same temperature. Our pressure experiments show that T0 shifts to lower temperatures with increasing pressure. We can estimate a critical pressure of 4 to 5 GPa for the suppression of T0 to zero temperature. At pressures above 2.5 GPa the resistiv…
We report that the pressure-temperature phase diagram of single-crystalline SrFe$_2$As$_2$ is easily affected by the hydrostaticity of a pressure-transmitting medium. For all of the three mediums we used, superconductivity with zero resistance appears, accompanied by the suppression of an antiferromagnetic (orthorhombic) phase, but the critical pressure $P_c$ was found to depend on the type of medium. $P_c$ was estimated to be 4.4 GPa under almost hydrostatic condition, but it decreased to $3.4-3.7$ GPa with the use of the medium already solidified at room temperature. The uniaxial stress alon…
We study temperature dependent upper critical field $H_{\rm c2}$ of a SrFe$_{1.85}$Co$_{0.15}$As$_{2}$ single crystal (\textit{T$_c$}=20.2 K) along \textit{ab}-plane and \textit{c}-axis through resistivity measurements up to 50 T. For the both crystalline directions, $H_{\rm c2}$ becomes nearly isotropic at zero temperature limit, reaching $\sim$ 48 T. The temperature dependence of the $H_{\rm c2}$ curves is explained by interplay between orbital and Pauli limiting behaviors combined with the two band effects.
Phonon spectra of detwinned {SrFe$_2$As$_2$} crystals, as measured by inelastic x-ray scattering, show clear anisotropy accompanying the magneto-structural transition at 200 K. We model the mode splitting using magnetic DFT calculations, including a phenomenological reduction in force-constant anisotropy that can be attributed to magnetic fluctuations. This serves as a starting point for a general model of phonons in this material applicable to both magnetic and non-magnetic phase. Using this model, the measured splitting in the magnetic phase below $\it T_{N}$, and the measured phonon linewid…
The temperature dependent electrical resistivity of single crystalline SrFe2As2 and BaFe2As2 has been measured in a liquid medium, modified Bridgman anvil cell for pressures in excess of 75 kbar. These data allow for the determination of the pressure dependence of the higher temperature, structural / antiferromagnetic phase transitions as well as the lower temperature superconducting phase transition. For both compounds the ambient pressure, higher temperature structural / antiferromagnetic phase transition can be fully suppressed with a dome-like region of zero resistivity found to be centere…
Using muon-spin rotation, we studied the in-plane (λ_ab) and the out of plane (λ_c) magnetic field penetration depth in SrFe_1.75Co_0.25As_2 (T_c=13.3 K). Both λ_ab(T) and λ_c(T) are consistent with the presence of two superconducting gaps with the gap to T_c ratios 2Δ/k_BT_c=7.2 and 2.7. The penetration depth anisotropy γ_λ=λ_c/λ_ab increases from γ_λ=2.1 at T_c to 2.7 at 1.6 K. The mean internal field in the superconducting state increases with decreasing temperature, just opposite to the diamagnetic response seen in magnetization experiments. This unusual behavior suggests that the external…
The upper critical field $H_{c2}$ of optimally doped iron-based superconductor SrFe$_{2}$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_{2}$ ($x$ = 0.35, $T_c$ = 25 K) was measured as a function of temperature down to 1.6 K for two principal directions of magnetic field $H \parallel c$ and $H \parallel a$. Measurements were performed in pulsed magnetic fields up to 65 T using a tunnel-diode resonator technique on as-grown and heavy-ion irradiated single crystals, with columnar defect density corresponding to a matching field $Bϕ$ = 25 T. The $H_{c2,c}(T)$ is close to $T$-linear, while clear saturation is observed for $…
We examine the superconducting anisotropy $γ_c = (m_c / m_{ab})^{1/2}$ of a metallic high-$T_c$ superconductor MgB$_2$ by measuring the magnetic torque of a single crystal. The anisotropy $γ_c$ does not depend sensitively on the applied magnetic field at 10 K. We obtain the anisotropy parameter $γ_c = 4.31 \pm 0.14$. The torque curve shows the sharp hysteresis peak when the field is applied parallel to the boron layers. This comes from the intrinsic pinning and is experimental evidence for the occurrence of superconductivity in the boron layers.
Electronic and magnetic properties of the heavily H-doped LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$H$_x$ $(x\sim0.5 )$ were studied in the framework of the density functional theory combined with the dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT). We found a stripe-like-ordered structure of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, as a ground state, with the same configuration as the antiferromagnetic (AF) order. The new configuration could explain the existing experimental results related to the heavily H-doped LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$H$_x$, such as an in-plane electronic anisotropy and a non-uniform magnetic behavior. A significant anisotropy was …
We report the complex dielectric function of high-quality $A\textrm{Fe}_2\textrm{As}_2$, ($A$=Ca, Sr, Ba) single crystals with $T_{\mathrm{N}}\approx150\ \textrm{K}$, $200\ \textrm{K}$, and $138\ \textrm{K}$, respectively, determined by broadband spectroscopic ellipsometry at temperatures $10\leq T\leq300\ \textrm{K}$ and wavenumbers from $100\ \textrm{cm}^{-1}$ to $52000\ \textrm{cm}^{-1}$. In $\textrm{CaFe}_2\textrm{As}_2$ we identify the optical spin-density--wave gap $2Δ_{\mathrm{SDW}}\approx1250\ \textrm{cm}^{-1}$. The $2Δ_{\mathrm{SDW}}/(k_{\mathrm{B}}T_{\mathrm{N}})$ ratio, characterizi…
The effect of uniaxial tensile stress and the resultant strain on the structural/magnetic transition in the parent compound of the iron arsenide superconductor, BaFe$_2$As$_2$, is characterized by temperature-dependent electrical resistivity, x-ray diffraction and quantitative polarized light imaging. We show that strain induces a measurable uniaxial structural distortion above the first-order magnetic transition and significantly smears the structural transition. This response is different from that found in another parent compound, SrFe$_2$As$_2$, where the coupled structural and magnetic tr…
We succeeded in growing single crystalline SmFeAsO1-xFx with exceptionally high fluorine concentration by using a CsCl flux method. Comparing to conventional flux methods, this method can introduce about double the amount of fluorine into the oxygen site. The obtained single crystal shows the highest superconducting transition temperature (Tc = 57.5 K) in single crystalline iron pnictides. In addition, the residual resistivity ratio (RRR) is almost three times as large as that of previously reported single crystals. This suggests that our single crystals are suitable for investigation of the i…
In a recent paper [Phys. Rev. B 66, 012501 (2002)], torque data measured on a MgB2 single crystal in fields from 10 to 60 kOe at 10 K were presented. The authors obtained the anisotropy gamma by fitting a theoretical expression to the data and concluded that the anisotropy is field independent gamma \approx 4.3. They also reported the observation of "intrinsic pinning", which they take as experimental evidence for the occurence of superconductivity in the boron layers. In this comment, we discuss the range of validity of the theoretical expression used by the authors and show that the conclusi…
We report normal and superconducting properties of the Rashba-type noncentrosymmetric com- pound CaIrSi3, using single crystalline samples with nearly 100% superconducting volume fraction. The electronic density of states revealed by the hard x-ray photoemission spectroscopy can be well explained by the relativistic first-principle band calculation. This indicates that strong spin-orbit interaction indeed affects the electronic states of this compound. The obtained H - T phase diagram exhibits only approximately 10% anisotropy, indicating that the superconducting properties are almost three di…
We report $^{75}$As nuclear magnetic resonance studies on a very clean hole-doped single-crystal Ba$_{0.68}$K$_{0.32}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ ($T_{\rm {c}}=38.5$ K). The spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_{1}$ shows an exponential decrease below $T \simeq 0.45 T_{\rm c}$ down to $T \simeq 0.11 T_{\rm c}$, which indicates a fully opened energy gap. From the ratio $(T_{1})_{c} / (T_{1})_{a}$, where $a$ and $c$ denote the crystal directions, we find that the antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation is anisotropic in the spin space above $T_{\rm c}$. The anisotropy decreases below $T_{\rm c}$ and disappears at …
Majorana Kramers pairs emerged on surfaces of time-reversal-invariant topological crystalline superconductors show the Ising anisotropy to an applied magnetic field. We clarify that crystalline symmetry uniquely determines the direction of the Majorana Ising spin for given irreducible representations of pair potential, deriving constraints to topological invariants. Besides, necessary conditions for nontrivial topological invariants protected by the n-fold rotational symmetry are shown.
The magnetic properties of LiFeAs, as single crystalline and polycrystalline samples, were investigated. The lower critical field deduced from the vortex penetration of two single crystals appears to be almost isotropic with a temperature dependence closer to that of two-gap superconductors. The parameters extracted from the reversible magnetizations of sintered polycrystalline samples are in good agreement with those from the single crystal data.
Sizable single-crystalline samples of Ca$_{10}$(Pt$_3$As$_8$)((Fe$_{1-x}$Pt$_x$)$_2$As$_2$)$_5$ (the 10-3-8 phase) with 0$\leq x<$0.1 have been grown and systematically characterized via X-Ray diffraction, magnetic, and transport measurements. The undoped sample is a heavily doped semiconductor with no sign of magnetic order down to 2 K. With increasing Pt content, the metallic behavior appears and superconductivity is realized for $x\geq$0.023. $T_{\rm c}$ rises to its maximum of approximately 13.6 K at the doping level of $x\sim$0.06, and then decreases for higher $x$ values. The electronic …
The bulk upper critical field H_{c2}(T) of superconducting MgB_2 and its anisotropy are established by analyzing experimental data on the temperature and magnetic field dependences of the ab-plane thermal conductivity of a single-crystalline sample in external magnetic fields oriented both parallel (H_{c2}^c) and perpendicular (H_{c2}^{ab}) to the c axis of the hexagonal lattice. From numerical fits we deduce the anisotropy ratio γ_0 = H_{c2}^{ab}(0) / H_{c2}^c(0)=4.2 at T=0 K. Both the values and the temperature dependences of H_{c2}^c and H_{c2}^{ab} are distinctly different from previous cl…
The temperature dependent (30 K to 300 K) Doppler broadening of the positron annihilated g-radiation (DBPAR) measurement has been carried out on single crystalline Bi-2212 high Tc superconducting sample along two different crystallographic orientations. It has been observed that throughout the temperature range the electron momentum distribution has a relatively large value along the crystallographic c-axis than a-b plane. The temperature dependent DBPARL analysis shows a step like increase of S-parameter at the temperature region 92 K to 116 K.
We have demonstrated a pressure-induced phase transition from a low-Tc phase to a high-Tc phase in a single crystal of the superconductor LaO0.5F0.5BiSe2. The high-Tc phase appears at 2.16 GPa and the maximum superconducting transition temperature (Tc) is observed at 6.7 K under 2.44 GPa. Although the anisotropy (γ) for the low-Tc phase is estimated to be 20, it is reduced by around half (9.3) in the high-Tc phase. This tendency is the same for the BiS2 system. The Tc of LaO0.5F0.5BiSe2 has continued to increase up to the maximum pressure of this study (2.44 GPa). Therefore applied further pre…
The pressure dependence, up to 11.3 kbar, of basic parameters of the superconducting state, such as the critical temperature (Tc), the lower and the upper critical fields, the coherence length, the penetration depth, and their anisotropy, was determined from magnetic measurements performed for two singlecrystalline samples of FeTe0.5Se0.5. We have found pressure-induced enhancement of all of the superconducting state properties, which entails a growth of the density of superconducting carriers. However, we noticed more pronounced increase in superconducting carrier density under pressure than …
We present an inelastic neutron scattering study on single-crystalline LiFeAs devoted to the characterization of the incommensurate antiferromagnetic fluctuations at $\mathbf{Q}=(0.5\pmδ, 0.5\mpδ, q_l)$. Time-of-flight measurements show the presence of these magnetic fluctuations up to an energy transfer of 60 meV, while polarized neutrons in combination with longitudinal polarization analysis on a triple-axis spectrometer prove the pure magnetic origin of this signal. The normalization of the magnetic scattering to an absolute scale yields that magnetic fluctuations in LiFeAs are by a factor …
Doped BaCoSO was recently predicted to be a high-temperature superconductor in a new class based on Co and Ni. Using a Co-S self flux method, we synthesized single crystals of the antiferromagnetic insulator BaCoSO. Our magnetic and specific heat measurements and neutron diffraction provide details of its magnetic anisotropy and order. Its band gap was determined to be about 1.3 eV by our measurements of its photoemission spectrum and infrared optical conductivity. Our results can pave the way to exploring the predicted superconductivity in this Co-based material.
