Enhancement of superconducting properties and flux pinning mechanism on Cr0.0005NbSe2 single crystal under Hydrostatic pressure.

Superconducting properties of Cr0.0005NbSe2 (Tc~6.64 K) single crystals have been investigated through the temperature dependent resistivity (~8 GPa) and DC magnetization (~1 GPa) measurements. Further, the critical current density (Jc) as a function of applied magnetic field has been studied from magnetic isotherms. The vortex pinning mechanisms have also been systematically analyzed using weak collective pinning theory as a function of pressure. The Jc corresponds to the flux flow enhanced by the application of pressure due to increase of Tc and vortex changes. We found that the pressure is responsible for the spatial variations in the charge carrier mean free path (δl pinning). We find that core point pinning is more dominant than surface pinning which is caused by the application of pressure. In addition, Jc(H = 0) increases from 3.9 × 105 (0 GPa) to 1.3 × 106 (1.02 GPa) A/cm2 at 2 K as the pressure is increased from normal pressure to 1.02 GPa. The pressure dependence of Tc (dTc/dP) becomes 0.91 K/GPa and 0.75 K/GPa from magnetization and resistivity measurements respectively. We found that the pressure promotes the anisotropy nature, and decrease of coherence length and resulting in pathetic interface of the vortex core with pinning centers.

Effect of pressure on normal and superconducting state properties of iron based superconductor PrFeAsO0.6F y (y = 0.12, 0.14).

The effect of high pressure (up to 8 GPa) on normal and superconducting state properties of PrFeAsO0.6F0.12, an 1111-type iron based superconductor close to optimal doped region, has been investigated by measuring the temperature dependence of resistivity. Initially, the superconducting transition temperature (T c ) is observed to increase slowly by about 1 K as pressure (P) increases from 0 to 1.3 GPa. With further increase in pressure above 1.3 GPa, T c decreases at the rate of ~1.5 K/GPa. The normal-state resistivity decreases monotonically up to 8 GPa. We have also measured the pressure dependence of magnetization (M) on the same piece of PrFeAsO0.6F0.12 sample up to 1.1 GPa and observed T c as well as the size of the Meissner signal to increase with pressure in this low-pressure region. In contrast, for an over-doped PrFeAsO0.6F0.14 sample, magnetization measurements up to 1.06 GPa show that both T c and the Meissner signal decrease with pressure. The present study clearly reveals two distinct regions in the dome-shaped (T c -P) phase diagram of PrFeAsO0.6F0.12.