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 resistivity decreases significantly below Tx=40 K hinting at the emergence of superconductivity but no zero-resistance state is observed up to 3 GPa.
The transport and structural properties of Fe1+yTe1-xSx (x=0, 0.05, and 0.10) crystals were studied in pulsed magnetic fields up to 65 T. The application of high magnetic fields results in positive magnetoresistance effect with prominent hystereses in the antiferromagnetic state. Polarizing microscope images obtained at high magnetic fields showed simultaneous occurrence of structural transitions. These results indicate that magnetoelastic coupling is the origin of the bicollinear magnetic order in iron chalcogenides.
We investigated the transport properties of BaFe$_2$As$_2$ single crystals before and after annealing with BaAs powder. The annealing remarkably improves transport properties, in particular the magnitude of residual resistivity which decreases by a factor of more than 10. From the resistivity measurement on detwinned crystals we found that the anisotropy of the in-plane resistivity is remarkably diminished after annealing, indicative of dominant contributions to the charge transport from the carriers with isotropic and high mobility below magnetostructural transition temperature $T_{\rm s}$ an…
In order to unravel a role of doping in the iron-based superconductors, we investigated the in-plane resistivity for BaFe$_2$As$_2$ doped at either of the three different lattice sites, Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$, BaFe$_2$(As$_{1-x}$P$_x$)$_2$, and Ba$_{1-x}$K$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$, focusing on the doping effect in the low-temperature antiferromagnetic/orthorhombic (AFO) phase. A major role of doping in the high-temperature paramagnetic/tetragonal (PT) phase is known to change the Fermi surface by supplying charge carriers or by exerting chemical pressure. In the AFO phase, we found a clear corr…
Superconductivity has been explored in single crystals of the Ni-doped FeAs-compound SrFe2-xNixAs2 grown by self-flux solution method. The antiferromagnetic order associated with the magnetostructural transition of the parent compound SrFe2As2 is gradually suppressed with increasing Ni concentration x and bulk-phase superconductivity with full diamagnetic screening is induced near the optimal doping of x = 0.15 with a maximum transition temperature Tc ~9.8 K. An investigation of high-temperature annealing on as-grown samples indicate that the heat treatment can enhance Tc as much as ~50 %.
We have performed high resolution x-ray scattering measurements on single crystal samples of Ba(Fe(1-x)Cr(x))2As2 (x = 0 to 0.335). These measurements examine the effect of Cr-doping on the high temperature tetragonal (I4/mmm) to low temperature orthorhombic (Fmmm) structural phase transition of the parent compound BaFe2As2. Increasing Cr concentration is found to suppress the structural transition temperature (Ts), and reduce the magnitude of the orthorhombic strain (delta). The doping dependence of the orthorhombic strain, combined with complementary measurements of the high temperature magn…
Single crystals of the Ni-doped FeAs-based superconductor SrFe2-xNixAs2 were grown using a self-flux solution method and characterized via x-ray measurements and low temperature transport, magnetization, and specific heat studies. A doping phase diagram has been established where the antiferromagnetic order associated with the magnetostructural transition of the parent compound SrFe2As2 is gradually suppressed with increasing Ni concentration, giving way to bulk-phase superconductivity with a maximum transition temperature of 9.8 K. The superconducting phase exists through a finite range of Ni…
Using the experimentally measured temperature and doping dependent structural parameters on Ru doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$, orbital-dependent reconstruction of the electronic structure across the magnetostructural transition is found, through first principle simulations. Below structural transition there exists two distinct Fe - Fe bond distances which modifies the Fe-d$_{xy}$ orbital largely due to its planar spatial extension leading to Lifshitz transition, while the otherwise degenerate Fe-d$_{xz}$ and d$_{yz}$ orbitals become non-degenerate, giving rise to orbital order. The orbital order follows…
We performed magnetization and electrical resistivity measurements under high pressures of up to 19 GPa for FeTe0.92. The compound shows an anomaly in magnetization and resistivity at atmospheric pressure due to a structural distortion accompanied by a magnetic transition. We also observed magnetic and resistive anomalies under high pressure, suggesting that two pressure-induced phases exist at a low temperature. Unlike in FeAs-based compounds, no superconductivity was detected under high pressures of up to 19 GPa, although the anomaly at atmospheric pressure was suppressed by applying pressur…
We performed resistivity measurements in CuRh$_{2}$S$_{4}$ under quasi-hydrostatic pressure of up to 8.0 GPa, and found a pressure induced superconductor-insulator (SI) transition. Initially, with increasing pressure, the superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ increases from 4.7 K at ambient pressure to 6.4 K at 4.0 GPa, but decreases at higher pressures. With further compression, superconductivity in CuRh$_{2}$S$_{4}$ disappears abruptly at a critical pressure $P_{\rm SI}$ between 5.0 and 5.6 GPa, when it becomes an insulator.
We report measurements of resistance and ac magnetic susceptibility on FeSe single crystals under high pressure up to 27.2 kbar. The structural phase transition is quickly suppressed with pressure, and the associated anomaly is not seen above $\sim$18 kbar. The superconducting transition temperature evolves nonmonotonically with pressure, showing a minimum at $\sim12$ kbar. We find another anomaly at 21.2 K at 11.6 kbar. This anomaly most likely corresponds to the antiferromagnetic phase transition found in $μ$SR measurements [M. Bendele \textit{et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{104}, 087003 (…
Motivated by recent experimental measurements on pressure-driven phase transitions in Mott-insulators as well as the new iron pnictide superconductors, we show that first principles Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics calculations are a powerful method to describe the microscopic origin of such transitions. We present results for (i) the pressure-induced insulator to metal phase transition in the prototypical Mott insulator TiOCl as well as (ii) the pressure-induced structural and magnetic phase transitions in the family of correlated metals $A$Fe$_2$As$_2$ ($A$=Ca,Sr,Ba). Comparison of our pred…
The effects of pressure up to $\sim 20$ kbar, on the structural phase transition of lightly Sn-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$, as well as on the superconducting transition temperature and upper critical field of (Ba$_{0.55}$K$_{0.45}$)Fe$_2$As$_2$ single crystals have been studied. Both transitions decrease with pressure in an almost linear fashion. Under pressure, the upper critical field curve, $H_{c2}(T)$, shifts down in temperature to follow the zero field $T_c$ with very little change in slope.
We synthesized tetragonal alpha-FeSe by melting a powder mixture of iron and selenium at high pressure. Subsequent annealing at normal pressure results in removing traces of hexagonal beta- FeSe, formation of a rather sharp transition to superconducting state at Tc ~ 7 K, and the appearance of a magnetic transition near Tm = 120 K. Resistivity and ac-susceptibility were measured on the annealed sample at hydrostatic pressure up to 4.5 GPa. A magnetic transition visible in ac-susceptibility shifts down under pressure and the resistive anomaly typical for a spin density wave (SDW) antiferromagne…
A first-order-like resistivity hysteresis is induced by a subtle structural transition under hydrostatic pressure in the topological nodal-line superconductor PbTaSe$_2$. This structure transition is quickly suppressed to zero at pressure $\sim$0.25 GPa. As a result, superconductivity shows a marked suppression, accompanied with fundamental changes in the magnetoresistance and Hall resistivity, suggesting a Lifshitz transition around $\sim$0.25 GPa. The first principles calculations show that the spin-orbit interactions partially gap out the Dirac nodal line around $K$ point in the Brillouin z…
The pressure effect on the superconducting transition temperature of MgB2 has been determined using gas pressure up to 1 GPa. The transition temperature Tc was found to decrease linearly at a constant rate over the whole pressure range. The recently observed dramatic decrease of dTc/dp at the 40 K freezing pressure (0.5 GPa) cannot be confirmed. The pressure coefficient was also found to be independent of the hydrostatic or nonhydrostatic He environment. The differences in recently reported values of dTc/dp may be attributed to variations in the sample conditions, e.g. stoichiometry.
We show that polycrystalline GeSb2Te4 in the fcc phase (f-GST), which is an insulator at low temperature at ambient pressure, becomes a superconductor at elevated pressures. Our study of the superconductor to insulator transition versus pressure at low temperatures reveals a second order quantum phase transition with linear scaling (critical exponent close to unity) of the transition temperature with the pressure above the critical zero-temperature pressure. In addition, we demonstrate that at higher pressures the f-GST goes through a structural phase transition via amorphization to bcc GST (b…
We propose a thermodynamic model of free energy expansion up to eighth order of magnetisation to describe the complex magnetic phase transitions in ferromagnetic superconductor UGe$_2$. The model successfully describes transitions between ordered phases which take place without changing of magnetic structure but only of magnetisation which is the case of UGe$_2$ where two magnetic phases with same structure but with different magnitude occur with decreasing of temperature. We consider the infuence of pressure on magnetic transitions in the simplest form of including it only in pressure depende…
In this paper, we present pressure dependent structural parameters and electronic structure of ThFeAsN superconductor. There are no anomalies in the structural parameters as well as elastic constants with hydrostatic pressure which is consistent with the experiments. We study the electronic structure of this compound at different external pressures in terms of density of states, band structure and Fermi surface. Density of states at the Fermi level, coming from Fe-d orbitals follows the same trend as that of the superconducting transition temperature (T$_c$) as a function of hydrostatic pressu…
Measurements of the superconducting transition temperatures for Al-doped, C-doped and neutron-damaged-annealed MgB2 samples under pressure up to ~8 kbar are presented. The dT_c/dP values change systematically with the decrease of the ambient pressure T_c in a regular fashion. The evolution of the pressure derivatives can be understood assuming that the change in phonon spectrum is a dominant contribution to dT_c/dP.
We demonstrate, using $T=0$ first principles total energy calculations, that observed pressure-driven anomalies in the entire 122-pnictides family ($A$Fe$_2$As$_2$; $A$ = alkali earth element Ca, Sr, Ba) can be understood as consequences of Lifshitz transitions (LTs) \cite{Lifshitz60}. Our results for energy band dispersions and spectra, lattice parameters, enthalpies, magnetism, and elastic constants over a wide range of hydrostatic pressure provide a coherent understanding of multiple transitions in these compounds, namely, enthalpic, magnetic and tetragonal (T) - collapsed tetragonal (cT) t…
We have determined the crystal structures and superconducting transition temperatures of La1.48Nd0.4Sr0.12CuO4 under nearly hydrostatic pressures in diamond anvil cells to 5.0 GPa and 19.0 GPa, respectively. Synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction measurements were used to establish the pressure-temperature structural phase diagram. Under pressure the superconducting transition temperature increases rapidly from Tc = 3 K to a maximum value of 22 K at 5 GPa, a pressure slightly greater than that required to stabilize the undistorted I4/mmm structure in the superconducting state. Increasing the pre…
The temperature dependence of the ac susceptibility for single-crystalline Fe1.02Se has been measured at high pressures to 6.7 GPa. The superconducting transition temperature Tc displays a large increase from 7 K to 30 K in the two-phase region at 0.5 - 1 GPa. Further increase in pressure results in the decrease of Tc. The destruction of superconductivity near 7 GPa is presumably related to a structural transition from orthorhombic to hexagonal. .
We report the effects of hydrostatic pressure on the temperature-induced phase transitions in Fe1.08Te in the pressure range 0-3 GPa using synchrotron powder x-ray diffraction (XRD). The results reveal a plethora of phase transitions. At ambient pressure, Fe1.08Te undergoes simultaneous first-order structural symmetry-breaking and magnetic phase transitions, namely from the paramagnetic tetragonal (P4/nmm) to the antiferromagnetic monoclinic (P2_1/m) phase. We show that, at a pressure of 1.33 GPa, the low temperature structure adopts an orthorhombic symmetry. More importantly, for pressures of…
First-principles calculations are performed for electronic structures of two high pressure phases of solid selenium, $β$-Po and bcc. Our calculation reproduces well the pressure-induced phase transition from $β$-Po to bcc observed in selenium. The calculated transition pressure is 30 GPa lower than the observed one, but the calculated pressure dependence of the lattice parameters agrees fairly well with the observations in a wide range of pressure. We estimate the superconducting transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ of both the $β$-Po and the bcc phases by calculating the phonon dispersion and t…
We present anisotropic thermal expansion measurements on single crystalline ErNi2B2C. All three, superconducting, antiferromagnetic and weak ferromagnetic phase transitions are unambiguously distinguished in the data. Anisotropic uniaxial pressure dependencies of the transitions are estimated based on the Ehrenfest relation, leading to a conclusion, in particular, that weak ferromagnetic state will be suppressed by small, order of several kbar, hydrostatic pressure.
The superconducting ferromagnet RuSr2GdCu2O8 was investigated at high pressure. The intra-grain superconducting transition temperature, Tc, is resolved in ac-susceptibility as well as resistivity measurements. It is shown that the pressure shift of Tc is much smaller than that of other high-Tc compounds in a similar doping state. In contrast, the ferromagnetic transition temperature, Tm, increases with pressure at a relative rate that is about twice as large as that of Tc. The high-pressure data indicate a possible competition of the ferromagnetic and superconducting states in RuSr2GdCu2O8.
We report the first experiments on the high pressure phonon spectra of transition-metal nitrides HfN, ZrN, and NbN, obtained by Raman scattering measurements. Two pronounced bands, which are related to the acoustic part at low frequency around 200 cm$^{-1}$ and the optical part at high frequency around 550 cm$^{-1}$ of the phonon spectrum, respectively, shift to high frequency values with increasing pressure. An analysis of the results allows us to reproduce the experimental pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature $T_{c}$ of ZrN and NbN.
Investigating the pressure dependence of the superconducting (SC) transition temperature $T_{\rm c}$ is crucial for understanding the SC mechanism. Herein, we report on the pressure dependence of $T_{\rm c}$ in the nonmagnetic topological line-nodal material CaSb$_2$, based on measurements of electric resistance and alternating current magnetic susceptibility. $T_{\rm c}$ initially increases with increasing pressure and peaks at $\sim$ 3.1~GPa. With a further increase in pressure, $T_{\rm c}$ decreases and finally becomes undetectable at 5.9~GPa. Because no signs of phase transition or Lifshit…
Raman spectra of the MgB2 ceramic samples were measured as a function of pressure up to 32 GPa at room temperature. The spectrum at normal conditions contains a very broad peak at ~590 cm-1 related to the E2g phonon mode. The frequency of this mode exhibits a strong linear dependence in the pressure region from 5 to 18 GPa, whereas beyond this region the slope of the pressure-induced frequency shift is reduced by about a factor of two. The pressure dependence of the phonon mode up to ~ 5GPa exhibits a change in the slope as well as a "hysteresis" effect in the frequency vs. pressure behavior. …
We have investigated structural and magnetic phase transitions under high pressures in a quaternary rare earth transition metal arsenide oxide NdCoAsO compound that is isostructural to high temperature superconductor NdFeAsO. Four-probe electrical resistance measurements carried out in a designer diamond anvil cell show that the ferromagnetic Curie temperature and anti-ferromagnetic Neel temperature increase with an increase in pressure. High pressure x-ray diffraction studies using a synchrotron source show a structural phase transition from a tetragonal phase to a new crystallographic phase …
