We report synthesis, structure/micro-structure, resistivity under magnetic field [R(T)H], Raman spectra, thermoelectric power S(T), thermal conductivity K(T), and magnetization of ambient pressure argon annealed polycrystalline bulk samples of MgB2, processed under identical conditions. The compound crystallizes in hexagonal structure with space group P6/mmm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) reveals electron micrographs showing various types of defect features along with the presence of 3-4nm thick amorphous layers forming the grain boundaries of otherwise crystalline MgB2. Raman spectra of the compound at room temperature exhibited characteristic phonon peak at 600 cm-1. Superconductivity is observed at 37.2K by magnetic susceptibility C(T), resistivity R(T), thermoelectric power S(T), and thermal conductivity K(T) measurements. The power law fitting of R(T) give rise to Debye temperature at 1400K which is found consistent with the theoretical fitting of S(T), exhibiting ThetaD of 1410K and carrier density of 3.81x 1028/m3. Thermal conductivity K(T) shows a jump at 38K, i.e., at Tc, which was missing in some earlier reports. Critical current density (Jc) of up to 105 A/cm2 in 1-2T (Tesla) fields at temperatures (T) of up to 10K is seen from magnetization measurements. The irreversibility field, defined as the field related to merging of M(H) loops is found to be 78, 68 and 42 kOe at 4, 10 and 20K respectively. The superconducting performance parameters viz. irreversibility field (Hirr) and critical current density Jc(H) of the studied MgB2 are improved profoundly with addition of nano-SiC and nano-Diamond. The physical property parameters measured for polycrystalline MgB2 are compared with earlier reports and a consolidated insight of various physical properties is presented.
We consider heterostructures obtained by stacking layers of two s-wave superconductors with significantly different coupling strengths, respectively in the weak- and strong-coupling regimes. The weak- and strong-coupling superconductors are chosen with similar critical temperatures for bulk systems. Using dynamical mean-field theory methods, we find an ubiquitous enhancement of the superconducting critical temperature for all the heterostructures where a single layer of one of the two superconductors is alternated with a thicker multilayer of the other. Two distinct physical regimes can be ide…
Vortices in chiral topological superconductors are known for trapping Majorana zero modes as a signature response to their bulk-state topologies. In this work, we establish a similar bulk-vortex correspondence for two-dimensional $C_n$-protected class D higher-order topological superconductors, in which a quantum vortex will universally trap a pair of $C_n$-protected Majorana bound states with $\hat{z}$-directional angular momenta $J_z=0$ and $J_z=n/2$, respectively. This intriguing one-to-one mapping between anomalous vortex modes and higher-order topology can be systematically derived throug…
Three-dimensional quantum Griffiths singularity in bulk iron-pnictide superconductors
Peking University（北京大学）；Beijing Academy of Quantum Information Sciences（北京量子信息科学研究院）；Dalian University of Technology（大连理工大学）；Southern University of Science and Technology（南方科技大学）；Hefei National Laboratory（合肥国家实验室）
We show that a Weyl superconductor can absorb light via a novel surface-to-bulk mechanism, which we dub the topological anomalous skin effect. This occurs even in the absence of disorder for a single-band superconductor, and is facilitated by the topological splitting of the Hilbert space into bulk and chiral surface Majorana states. In the clean limit, the effect manifests as a characteristic absorption peak due to surface-bulk transitions. We also consider the effects of bulk disorder, using the Keldysh response theory. For weak disorder, the bulk response is reminiscent of the Mattis-Bardee…
We implement the Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation in real-space using the screened Korringa-Kohn-Rostoker (KKR) method. This allows us to solve, self-consistently, the superconducting state for 3d crystals including substitutional impurities with a full normal-state DFT band structure. We apply the theoretical framework to bulk Nb with impurities. Without impurities, Nb has an anisotropic gap structure with two distinct peaks around the Fermi level. In the presence of non-magnetic impurities those peaks are broadened due to the scattering between the two bulk superconducting gaps, however t…
Magnetisation of superconductors are often measured under isothermal and uniform magnetic fields. Magnetisation measurements in an unrestricted thermodynamic state and in non uniform magnetic fields naturally emerge from permanent magnets in comparison with size of superconducting bulk are needed for practical applications. A stationary Type II superconductor bulk sample is magnetised (FC and ZFC) at liquid nitrogen temperatures in the presence of a stationary permanent magnet. Magnetic field produced by magnetised superconductor and permanent magnet as a function of distance are measured alon…
The iron-based superconductor FeSe offers a unique possibility to study the interplay of superconductivity with purely nematic as well magnetic-nematic order by pressure (p) tuning. By measuring specific heat under p up to 2.36GPa, we study the multiple phases in FeSe using a thermodynamic probe. We conclude that superconductivity is bulk across the entire p range and competes with magnetism. Our analysis suggests that superconducting and magnetic fluctuations exist over a wide temperature range above the respective bulk transition temperatures, whenever magnetism is present. These observation…
The recently discovered kagome superconductors $A$V$_3$Sb$_5$ ($A$ = K, Rb, Cs) possess a unique band structure with van Hove singularities and Dirac dispersions, in which unusual charge-density-wave (CDW) orders with time-reversal and rotational symmetry breaking have been reported. One of the most crucial unresolved issues is identifying the symmetry of the superconductivity that develops inside the CDW phase. Theory predicts a variety of unconventional superconducting symmetries, including exotic states with chiral and topological properties accompanied by a sign-changing superconducting ga…
Landau levels (LL) have been predicted to emerge in systems with Dirac nodal points under applied non-uniform strain. We consider 2D, $d_{xy}$ singlet (2D-S) and 3D $p \pm i p$ equal-spin triplet (3D-T) superconductors (SCs). We demonstrate the spinful Majorana nature of the bulk gapless zeroth-LLs. Strain along certain directions can induce two topologically distinct phases in the bulk, with zeroth LLs localized at the the interface. These modes are unstable toward ferromagnetism for 2D-S cases. Emergent real-space Majorana fermions in 3D-T allow for more exotic possibilities.
Observation of unconventional band topology in a superconducting doped topological insulator, Cux-Bi2Se3: Topological Superconductor or non-Abelian superconductor?
最近发现掺铜的拓扑绝缘体Bi $_2$ Se $_3$在冷却时经历超导转变，这提高了它是第一个已知的“拓扑超导体”或实现新的非阿贝尔超导状态的可能性。它的真正性质取决于关键的体和表面状态带拓扑结构。我们提出了第一个光电子能谱的结果，通过检查在许多不同的铜掺杂值的能带拓扑，我们发现，拓扑保护的自旋螺旋表面状态保持良好的保护和分离的费米能级，其中铜配对发生在最佳掺杂的拓扑绝缘体的体狄拉克带。铜的加入导致非线性电子掺杂和强重整化的拓扑表面态。这些极不寻常的观测结果强烈地表明，在Cu $_x$ Bi $_2$ Se $_3$的拓扑表面上的超导性不能是任何常规类型的一般拓扑理论。首次报道了三维体狄拉克能带结构的超导掺杂态和拓扑不变性质，这将有助于为这种新型超导体制定一个具体的理论。
本文给出了各向异性有机超导体α $-(ET)$ _2 PDMATHABMN_4 PDMATHABMO_4 $ when the applied magnetic field is oriented parallel to the conducting layers. The critical fields ($ { H_{c_2} $) were found by use of penetration depth measurements. Because $ { H_{c_2} $的近似Pauli极限临界场相图，可以计算超导能隙的大小.自旋轨道散射和多体效应的作用在解释我们的测量中发挥了作用。
Two-dimensional second-order topological superconductors host zero-dimensional Majorana bound states at their boundaries. In this work, focusing on rotation-invariant crystalline topological superconductors, we establish a bulk-boundary correspondence linking the presence of such Majorana bound states to bulk topological invariants introduced by Benalcazar et al. We thus establish when a topological crystalline superconductor protected by rotational symmetry displays second-order topological superconductivity. Our approach is based on stacked Dirac Hamiltonians, using which we relate transitio…
We report on the design and operation of a transport critical-current measurement option for superconductors based on the widely used Physical Property Measurement System from Quantum Design. The system is capable of supplying transport currents up to 30 A while maintaining a sample temperature of 2.0 +/- 0.1 K, and currents up to 200 A at higher sample temperatures.
Protection of Ising spin-orbit coupling in bulk misfit superconductors
Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice（科希策帕沃尔·约瑟夫·沙法里克大学）；U.S. Naval Research Laboratory（美国海军研究实验室）；Institute of Experimental Physics, Slovak Academy of Sciences（斯洛伐克科学院实验物理研究所）；Univ Rennes（雷恩大学）；CNRS（法国国家科学研究中心）；Institut de Physique de Rennes（雷恩物理研究所）；Université de Fribourg（弗里堡大学）；Fribourg Center for Nanomaterials（弗里堡纳米材料中心）；Institut Jean Lamour（让·拉缪尔研究所）；Université de Lorraine（洛林大学）；SOLEIL synchrotron（索莱尔同步辐射中心）；Sorbonne Université（索邦大学）；Institut des NanoSciences de Paris（巴黎纳米科学研究所）；Institut des Matériaux Jean Rouxel（让·鲁克斯尔材料研究所）；Université de Nantes（南特大学）；Università di Trento（特伦托大学）；George Mason University（乔治梅森大学）
