We have developed a real space spin-parallel theory of superconductivity based on the minimum principle in energy. This theory has successfully provided coherent explanations to a number of complicated problems in conventional and non-conventional superconductors. In this paper, we report the study the optimal doping problem in the new oxypnictide high-temperature superconductors using aforementioned theory. In FeAs family, it is shown that there are three optimum (or quasi-optimum) doped phases at doping levels x1=1/3, 1/6 and 1/8, where the vortex lattice forms square or triangular stable configurations. While in Fe2As2 family, the optimal dopings occur at x2=2/5 and 1/2 with square and triangular superconducting vortex line lattices, respectively.
We analyze the hole doping mechanism in Bi_2Sr_{2-x}La_xCuO_{6+δ} (BSLCO). The singular optimum around x=0.35 is found to be connected with a feedback between the doped CuO_2 layers and its dopant reactant [La^{3+}/Bi^{3+}-O_δ] locking the number of doped holes preferentially on to the universal optimum n_opt=0.16.
We propose a theory for doped antiferromagnet based on a bosonic resonating-valence-bond (RVB) state with incorporating the phase string effect. Both antiferromagnetic (AF) and superconducting phase transitions occur naturally within such a bosonic RVB phase. Two distinct metallic regions -- underdoping and optimum-doping -- are also found to be a logic consequence, whose unique features explain the recent neutron-scattering measurements in cuprates.
We report the origin of a high-energy kink structure of heavily electron-doped nonsuperconducting Li$_{1+x}$FeAs observed by three-dimensional angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. The $d_{xy}$ orbital at the center of the Brillouin zone is strongly renormalized, indicating stronger electron correlation, exceeding that of stoichiometric LiFeAs despite the fact that the orbital characters of all bands remain unchanged. Two types of kink structure on the $d_{yz}$ band were identified: an isotropic kink at the binding energy of 20 meV, and another kink located at 100 meV observed only in the…
We measure the resistivity and Hall angle of the electron-doped superconductor Pr_{2-x}Ce_xCuO_4 as a function of doping and temperature. The resistivity Rho_xx at temperatures 100K < T < 300K is mostly sensitive to the electrons. Its temperature behavior is doping independent over a wide doping range and even for non superconducting samples. On the other hand,the transverse resistivity rho_xy, or the Hall angle theta_H where cot(theta_H) = rho_xx/rho_xy, is sensitive to both holes and electrons. Its temperature dependence is strongly influenced by doping, and cot(theta_H) can be used to ident…
We report a systematic investigation of Ba[Fe(1-x)Co(x)]2As2 based on transport and 75-As NMR measurements, and establish the electronic phase diagram. We demonstrate that doping progressively suppresses the uniform spin susceptibility and low frequency spin fluctuations. The optimum superconducting phase emerges at x_c~0.08 when the tendency toward spin ordering completely diminishes. Our findings point toward the presence of a quantum critical point near x_c between the SDW (spin density wave) and superconducting phases.
$^{19}$F NMR measurements in optimally electron-doped La$_{1-y}$Y$_{y}$Fe$_{1-x}$Mn$_{x}$AsO$_{0.89}$F$_{0.11}$ superconductors are presented. In these materials the effect of Mn doping on the superconducting phase is studied for two series of compounds ($y= 0$ and $y= 0.2$) where the chemical pressure is varied by substituting La with Y. In the $y=0.2$ series superconductivity is suppressed for Mn contents an order of magnitude larger than for the $y=0$ series. For both series a peak in the $^{19}$F NMR nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/T_1$ emerges upon Mn doping and gets significantly…
We present the first experimental results of the lower critical field $H_{c1}$ of the newly discovered F-doped superconductor LaO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$FeAs (F-LaOFeAs) by global and local magnetization measurements. It is found that $H_{c1}$ showed an clear linear-$T$ dependence down to a temperature of 2 K, indicative of an unconventional pairing symmetry with a nodal gap function. Based on the d-wave model, we estimated a maximum gap value $Δ_0=4.0 \pm 0.6$ meV, in consistent with the recent specific heat and point-contact tunneling measurements. Taking the demagnetization factor into account, th…
We investigate the thermoelectric propeties of the electron-doped FeAs$_2$ both experimentally and theoretically. Electrons are doped by partially substituting Se for As, which leads to a metallic behavior in the resistivity. A Seebeck coefficient of about $-$200 $μ$V/K is reached at 300 K for 1% doping, and about $-$120 $μ$V/K even at 5% doping. The origin of this large Seebeck coefficient despite the metallic conductivity is analyzed from a band structure point of view. The first-principles band calculation reveals the presence of a pudding-mold type band just above the band gap, somewhat si…
Here we report the synthesis and basic characterization of LaFe1-xCoxAsO for several values of x. The parent phase LaFeAsO orders antiferromagnetically (TN ~ 145 K). Replacing Fe with Co is expected to both electron dope the system and introduce disorder in the FeAs layer. For x = 0.05 antiferromagnetic order is destroyed and superconductivity is observed at Tconset = 11.2 K. For x = 0.11 superconductivity is observed at Tc(onset) = 14.3 K, and for x = 0.15 Tc = 6.0 K. Superconductivity is not observed for x = 0.2 and 0.5, but for x = 1, the material appears to be ferromagnetic (Tc ~ 56 K) as …
The bulge in the doping dependence of the basal plane area in hole doped cuprate superconductors is connected with a non-double-occupancy constraint for the oxygen cages in the CuO_2 lattice. This constraint favors the formation of 3a hole pairs growing to filaments with gapless excitations along the (pi, pi) direction. Thus in the pseudogap regime a nodal metal of hole pairs is created. Densest packed 3a hole pairs stabilize the optimum doped state at n =1/6 ~ 0.16.
We discover a robust coexistence of superconductivity and ferromagnetism in an iron arsenide RbEuFe$_4$As$_4$. The new material crystallizes in an intergrowth structure of RbFe$_2$As$_2$ and EuFe$_2$As$_2$, such that the Eu sublattice turns out to be primitive instead of being body-centered in EuFe$_2$As$_2$. The FeAs layers, featured by asymmetric As coordinations, are hole doped due to charge homogenization. Our combined measurements of electrical transport, magnetization and heat capacity unambiguously and consistently indicate bulk superconductivity at 36.5 K in the FeAs layers and ferroma…
We report experimental results of ^{75}As and ^{139}La nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the iron-based layered La(O_{1-x}F_{x})FeAs (x= 0.0, 0.04 and 0.11) system. In the undoped LaOFeAs, 1/T_1 of ^{139}La exhibits a distinct peak at T_N ~ 142 K below which the spectra become broadened due to the internal magnetic field attributed to an antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering. In the 4% F-doped sample, 1/T_1T exhibits a Curie-Weiss temperature dependence down to 30 K, suggesting the development of AFM spin fluctuations with decreasing temperature. In the 11% F-doped sample, in contrast, pseudogap …
By partially substituting the tri-valence element La with di-valence element Sr in $LaOFeAs$, we introduced holes into the system. For the first time, we successfully synthesized the hole doped new superconductors $(La_{1-x}Sr_x)OFeAs$. The maximum superconducting transition temperature at about 25 K was observed at a doping level of x = 0.13. It is evidenced by Hall effect measurements that the conduction in this type of material is dominated by hole-like charge carriers, rather than electron-like ones. Together with the data of the electron doped system $La(O_{1-x}F_x)FeAs$, a generic phase …
Neutron-diffraction experiments have been carried out on U(Pt1-xPdx)3 single crystals (x<= 0.05). The small-moment antiferromagnetic order (SMAF) reported for pure UPt3 is robust upon doping and persists till at least x= 0.005. The ordered moment grows from 0.018(2) mB/U-atom for pure UPt3 to 0.048(8) mB/U-atom for x= 0.005. The Neel temperature, TN, is approximately 6 K and does not vary with Pd contents. The order parameter for the SMAF has an unusual quasi-linear temperature variation. For x>= 0.01 a large moment antiferromagnetic phase (LMAF) is found. For this phase at optimum doping (x= …
We report the first ^{75}As-NMR study on a single crystal of the hole-doped iron-pnictide superconductor Ba_{0.7}K_{0.3}Fe_2As_{2} (T_c = 31.5 K). We find that the Fe antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations are anisotropic and are weaker compared to underdoped copper-oxides or cobalt-oxide superconductors. The spin lattice relaxation rate 1/T_1 decreases below T_c with no coherence peak and shows a step-wise variation at low temperatures, which is indicative of multiple superconducting gaps, as in the electron-doped Pr(La)FeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$. Furthermore, no evidence was obtained for a microscopi…
We measured the transport properties and susceptibility of single crystals Ca$_{1-x}$La$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$(x=0, 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.19 and 0.25). Large in-plane resistivity anisotropy similar to that in Co-doped 122 iron-pnictides is observed although no transition metals were introduced in the FeAs-plane. The in-plane resistivity anisotropy gradually increases with La doping below T$_{SDW}$, being different from the hole-doped 122 superconductors. The susceptibilities of the samples show that La doping leads to suppression of SDW and induces a Curie-Weiss-like behavior at low temperature, which i…
Orbital polarization and electronic correlation are two essential aspects in understanding the normal state and superconducting properties of multiorbital FeAs-based superconductors. In this Letter, we present a systematical study on the orbital polarization of iron pnictides from weak to strong Coulomb correlations within the KRSB approach. The magnetic phase diagram of the two-orbital model for LaFeAsO clearly shows that the striped antiferromagnetic metallic phase with considerable orbital polarization exists over a wide doping range. The reversal of the orbital polarization occurs in the i…
The ab-plane optical conductivity of eleven single crystals, belonging to the families Sr2-xCuO2Cl2, Y1-xCaxBa2Cu3O6, Bi2Sr2-xLaxCuO6, and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8 has been measured with hole concentrations p between 0 and 0.18, and for 6 K < T < 500 K to obtain an infrared picture of the p,T phase diagram of the Cu-O plane. At extreme dilution (p = 0.005), a narrow peak is observed at 1570 cm-1 (195 meV), that we assign to a single-hole bound state. For increasing doping, that peak broadens into a far-infrared (FIR) band whose low-energy edge sets the insulating gap. The insulator-to-metal transition (I…
Superconducting transition temperature is calculated for differently doped bilayer cuprates. Superexchange is assumed to be the dominating mechanism of high-temperature superconductivity, but the contribution from the phonon potential is not negligible, which qualitatively explains the observed weak isotopic effect. The calculated value 2$Δ_{max}/k_B T_C \simeq 4.5$ is close to the experiment in the case of optimum doping.
The structure, electronic, and magnetic properties of the Mo-doped perovskite La0.7Ca0.3Mn1-xMoxO3 (x < 0.1) have been studied. A significant increase in resistivity and lattice parameters were observed with Mo doping. A marginal decrease in the Curie temperature Tc and the associated metal-insulator transition Tp were observed. Magnetization data reveal that long-range ferromagnetic ordering persists in all samples studied and the saturation moment decreases linearly as x increases. Enhancement in magnetoresistance at near Tc in the Mo-doped compounds with an optimum doping value x = 0.05 was…
In this paper we calculate the electron-phonon coupling of the newly-discovered superconductor LaO$_{1-x}$F$_x$FeAs from first-principles, using Density Functional Perturbation Theory. For pure LaOFeAs, the calculated electron-phonon coupling constant $λ=0.21$ and logarithmic-averaged frequency $ω_{ln}=206 K$, give a maximum $T_c$ of 0.8 K, using the standard Migdal-Eliashberg theory. For the $F-$doped compounds, we predict even smaller coupling constants, due to the strong suppression of the electronic Density of States at the Fermi level. To reproduce the experimental $T_c=26 K$, a 5-6 times…
We report a computational survey of chemical doping of silver(II) fluoride, an oxocuprate analog. We find that the ground-state solutions exhibit strong tendency for localization of defects and for phase separation. The additional electronic states are strongly localized and the resulting doped phases exhibit insulating properties. Our results, together with previous insight from experimental attempts, indicate that chemical doping may not be a feasible way towards high-temperature superconductivity in bulk silver(II) fluoride.
The effect of non-magnetic Zn impurity on superconductivity in LaFe$_{1-y}$Zn$_y$AsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ system is studied systematically. In the presence of Zn impurity, the superconducting transition temperature increases in the under-doped regime, remains unchanged in the optimally doped regime, and is severely suppressed in the over-doped regime. Our results suggest a switch of the symmetry of the superconducting order parameters from a $s$-wave to $s_{\pm}$ or $d$-wave states as the charge carrier doping increases in FeAs-based superconductors.
We propose a simple effective model to describe FeAs superconductors. This model is based on the assumption of a local spin-density-wave (SDW) order, with its magnetization direction allowed to fluctuate. It is shown that the long-range order with momentum Q=(π,π) is generally unstable in competing with the kinetic energy of the charge carriers. A true weak SDW order is formed in the undoped case with an additional momentum shift Q_s=(π, 0) due to the peculiar Fermi surface nesting. In the doped case, the unstable long-range order driven by kinetic energy can naturally result in a d-wave super…
High resolution photoemission measurements have been carried out on non-superconducting SmOFeAs parent compound and superconducting Sm(O$_{1-x}$F$_x$)FeAs (x=0.12, and 0.15) compounds. The momentum-integrated spectra exhibit a clear Fermi cutoff that shows little leading-edge shift in the superconducting state which suggests the Fermi surface sheet(s) around the $Γ$ point may not be gapped in this multiband superconductors. A robust feature at 13 meV is identified in all these samples. Spectral weight suppression near E$_F$ with decreasing temperature is observed in both undoped and doped samp…
We have carried out first-principles calculations of the Compton scattering spectra to demonstrate that the filling of the hole Fermi surface in LaO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$FeAs produces a distinct signature in the Fourier transformed Compton spectrum when the momentum transfer vector lies along the [100] direction. We thus show how the critical concentration $x_c$, where hole Fermi surface pieces are filled up and the superconductivity mediated by antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations is expected to be suppressed, can be obtained in a bulk-sensitive manner.
The two-dimensional two-orbital Hubbard model is studied with the use of finite-size cluster worldline quantum Monte Carlo algorithm. This model is widely used for simulation of the band structure of FeAs clusters, which are structure elements of Fe-based high-temperature superconductors. The choice of a special basis set of hyper-sites allowed to take into account four-fermion operator terms and to overcome partly the sign problem. Spectral functions and the density of states for various parameters of the model are obtained in the undoped and low-doped regimes. The correlated distortion of th…
