Anisotropy of upper critical fields and interface superconductivity in FeSe/SrTiO3grown by PLD.

In this study, we grow FeSe/SrTiO3with thicknesses of 4-19 nm using pulsed laser deposition and investigate their magneto-transport properties. The thinnest film (4 nm) exhibit negative Hall effect, indicating electron transfer into FeSe from the SrTiO3substrate. This is in agreement with reports on ultrathin FeSe/SrTiO3grown by molecular beam epitaxy. The upper critical field is found to exhibit large anisotropy (γ>11.9), estimated from the data near the transition temperature (Tc). In particular, the estimated coherence lengths in the perpendicular direction are 0.15-0.27 nm, which are smaller than thec-axis length of FeSe, and are found to be almost independent of the total thicknesses of the films. These results indicate that superconductivity is confined at the interface of FeSe/SrTiO3.

Direct measurement of resistivity in destructive pulsed magnetic fields.

A simple method for measuring electrical resistivity under destructive pulsed magnetic fields is presented. This method uses pick-up voltage as the power source to allow the measurement of the absolute value of resistivity in ultra-high magnetic fields above 100 T. The experimental setup and its operation are described in detail, and its performance is demonstrated using critical field measurements of thin-film FeSe0.5Te0.5 samples. Possible scientific applications of this setup in high magnetic fields as well as in any other environment with a high field sweep rate are also discussed.

Superconductivity at 38 K at an electrochemical interface between an ionic liquid and FeSe0.8Te0.2 on various substrates.

Superconducting FeSe0.8Te0.2 thin films on SrTiO3, LaAlO3 and CaF2 substrates were electrochemically etched in an ionic liquid, DEME-TFSI, electrolyte with a gate bias of 5 V. Superconductivity at 38 K was observed on all substrates after the etching of films with a thickness greater than 30 nm, despite the different Tc values of 8 K, 12 K and 19 K observed before etching on SrTiO3, LaAlO3 and CaF2 substrates, respectively. Tc returned to its original value with the removal of the gate bias. The observation of Tc enhancement for these thick films indicates that the Tc enhancement is unrelated to any interfacial effects between the film and the substrate. The sheet resistance and Hall coefficient of the surface conducting layer were estimated from the gate bias dependence of the transport properties. The sheet resistances of the surface conducting layers of the films on LaAlO3 and CaF2 showed identical temperature dependence, and the Hall coefficient was found to be almost independent of temperature and to take values of -0.05 to -0.2 m2/C, corresponding to 4-17 electrons per FeSe0.8Te0.2 unit cell area in two dimensions. These common transport properties on various substrates suggest that the superconductivity at 38 K appears in the surface conducting layer as a result of an electrochemical reaction between the surface of the FeSe0.8Te0.2 thin film and the ionic liquid electrolyte.

Control of structural transition in FeSe1-xTex thin films by changing substrate materials.

Iron chalcogenide superconductors FeSe1-xTex are important materials for investigating the relation be-tween the superconductivity and the orbital and/or electronic nematic order, because the end member material FeSe exhibits a structural transition without a magnetic phase transition. However, the phase separation occurs in the region of 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.4 for bulk samples, and it prevents the complete understanding of this system. Here, we report the successful fabrication of epitaxial thin films of FeSe1-xTex with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.7, which includes the phase-separation region, on LaAlO3 substrates via pulsed laser deposition. In the temperature dependences of differential resistivity for these films with 0 ≤ x ≤ 0.3, the dip- or peak- anomalies, which are well-known to be originated from the structural transition in FeSebulk samples, are observed at the characteristic temperatures, T*. The doping-temperature (x-T) phase diagram of FeSe1-xTex films clearly shows that T* decreases with increasing x, and that Tc suddenly changes at a certain Te content where T* disappears, which turns out to be commonly observed for both films on LaAlO3 and CaF2. These indicate the importance of controlling the structural transition to achieve high Tc in iron chalcogenides.

Suppression of phase separation and giant enhancement of superconducting transition temperature in FeSe(1-x)Te(x) thin films.

We demonstrate the successful fabrication on CaF2 substrates of FeSe(1-x)Tex films with 0 ≤ x ≤ 1, including the region of 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.4, which is well known to be the "phase-separation region," via pulsed laser deposition that is a thermodynamically nonequilibrium method. In the resulting films, we observe a giant enhancement of the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, in the region of 0.1 ≤ x ≤ 0.4: The maximum value reaches 23 K, which is ∼ 1.5 times as large as the values reported for bulk samples ofFeSe(1-x)Te(x). We present a complete phase diagram of FeSe(1-x)Te(x) films. Surprisingly, a sudden suppression of Tc is observed at 0:1 < x < 0.2, whereas Tc increases with decreasing x for 0.2 ≤ x < 1. Namely, there is a clear difference between superconductivity realized in x = 0-0.1 and in x ≥ 0.2. To obtain a film of FeSe(1-x)Te(x) with high Tc, the controls of the Te content x and the in-plane lattice strain are found to be key factors.