Superconductivity in noncentrosymmetric compounds has attracted sustained interest in the last decades. Here we present a detailed study on the transport, thermodynamic properties and the band structure of the noncentrosymmetric superconductor La 7 Ir 3 (T c ~ 2.3 K) that was recently proposed to break the time-reversal symmetry. It is found that La7Ir3 displays a moderately large electronic heat capacity (Sommerfeld coefficient γ n ~ 53.1 mJ/mol K2) and a significantly enhanced Kadowaki-Woods ratio (KWR ~32 µΩ cm mol2 K2 J-2) that is greater than the typical value (~10 µΩ cm mol2 K2 J-2) for strongly correlated electron systems. The upper critical field Hc2 was seen to be nicely described by the single-band Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg model down to very low temperatures. The hydrostatic pressure effects on the superconductivity were also investigated. The heat capacity below T c reveals a dominant s-wave gap with the magnitude close to the BCS value. The first-principles calculations yield the electron-phonon coupling constant λ = 0.81 and the logarithmically averaged frequency ω ln = 78.5 K, resulting in a theoretical T c = 2.5 K, close to the experimental value. Our calculations suggest that the enhanced electronic heat capacity is more likely due to electron-phonon coupling, rather than the electron-electron correlation effects. Collectively, these results place severe constraints on any theory of exotic superconductivity in this system.
We have studied the magnetic excitations of electron-doped Sr_{2-x}La_{x}IrO_{4} (0≤x≤0.10) using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering at the Ir L_{3} edge. The long-range magnetic order is rapidly lost with increasing x, but two-dimensional short-range order (SRO) and dispersive magnon excitations with nearly undiminished spectral weight persist well into the metallic part of the phase diagram. The magnons in the SRO phase are heavily damped and exhibit anisotropic softening. Their dispersions are well described by a pseudospin-1/2 Heisenberg model with exchange interactions whose spatial range increases with doping. We also find a doping-independent high-energy magnetic continuum, which is not described by this model. The spin-orbit excitons arising from the pseudospin-3/2 manifold of the Ir ions broaden substantially in the SRO phase, but remain largely separated from the low-energy magnons. Pseudospin-1/2 models are therefore a good starting point for the theoretical description of the low-energy magnetic dynamics of doped iridates.
The nature of the electronic state of a metal depends strongly on its dimensionality. In a system of isolated conducting chains, the Fermi-liquid (quasiparticle) description appropriate for higher dimensions is replaced by the so-called Tomonaga-Luttinger liquid picture characterized by collective excitations of spin and charge. Temperature is often regarded as a viable tuning parameter between states of different dimensionality, but what happens once thermal broadening becomes comparable to the interchain hopping energy remains an unresolved issue, one that is central to many organic and inorganic conductors. Here we use the ratio of the thermal to electrical conductivities to probe the nature of the electronic state in PrBa2Cu4O8 as a function of temperature. We find that despite the interchain transport becoming non-metallic, the charge carriers within the CuO chains appear to retain their quasiparticle nature. This implies that temperature alone cannot induce a crossover from Fermi-liquid to Tomonaga-Luttinger-liquid behaviour in quasi-one-dimensional metals.
The upper critical field H(c2) of purple bronze Li0:9Mo6O17 is found to exhibit a large anisotropy, in quantitative agreement with that expected from the observed electrical resistivity anisotropy. With the field aligned along the most conducting axis, H(c2) increases monotonically with decreasing temperature to a value 5 times larger than the estimated paramagnetic pair-breaking field. Theories for the enhancement of H(c2) invoking spin-orbit scattering or strong-coupling superconductivity are shown to be inadequate in explaining the observed behavior, suggesting that the pairing state in Li0:9Mo6O17 is unconventional and possibly spin triplet.
Using the de Haas-van Alphen effect we have measured the evolution of the Fermi surface of BaFe2(As1-xPx){2} as a function of isoelectric substitution (As/P) for 0.41
We report a de Haas-van Alphen effect study of the Fermi surface of CaFe2P2 using low-temperature torque magnetometry up to 45 T. This system is a close structural analog of the collapsed tetragonal nonmagnetic phase of CaFe2As2. We find the Fermi surface of CaFe2P2 to differ from other related ternary phosphides in that its topology is highly dispersive in the c axis, being three dimensional in character and with identical mass enhancement on both electron and hole pockets ( approximately 1.5). This suggests that when the bonding between pnictogen layers becomes important nesting conditions are not fulfilled.
We report a detailed magnetotransport study of the highly anisotropic quasi-one-dimensional oxide Li(0.9)Mo(6)O(17) whose in-chain electrical resistivity diverges below a temperature T_{min} approximately 25 K. For T < T_{min}, a magnetic field applied parallel to the conducting chain induces a large negative magnetoresistance and, ultimately, the recovery of a metallic state. We show evidence that this insulator-metal crossover is a consequence of field-induced suppression of a density-wave gap in a highly one-dimensional conductor. At the highest fields studied, there is evidence for the possible emergence of a novel superconducting state with an onset temperature T_{c} > 10 K.
We report extensive measurements of quantum oscillations in the normal state of the Fe-based superconductor LaFePO, (T(c) approximately 6 K) using low temperature torque magnetometry and transport in high static magnetic fields (45 T). We find that the Fermi surface is in broad agreement with the band-structure calculations with the quasiparticle mass enhanced by a factor approximately 2. The quasi-two-dimensional Fermi surface consists of nearly nested electron and hole pockets, suggesting proximity to a spin or charge density wave instability.
We report the observation of Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in the underdoped cuprate superconductor YBa2Cu4O8 (Y124). For fields aligned along the c axis, the frequency of the oscillations is 660+/-30 T, which corresponds to approximately 2.4% of the total area of the first Brillouin zone. The effective mass of the quasiparticles on this orbit is measured to be 2.7+/-0.3 times the free electron mass. Both the frequency and mass are comparable to those recently observed for ortho-II YBa2Cu3O6.5 (Y123-II). We show that although small Fermi surface pockets may be expected from band-structure calculations in Y123-II, no such pockets are predicted for Y124. Our results therefore imply that these small pockets are a generic feature of the copper oxide plane in underdoped cuprates.
