46 research outputs found
Signatures of quantum criticality in the thermopower of Ba(Fe(1-x)Co(x))2As2
We demonstrate that the thermopower (S) can be used to probe the spin
fluctuations (SFs) in proximity to the quantum critical point (QCP) in Fe-based
superconductors. The sensitivity of S to the entropy of charge carriers allows
us to observe an increase of S/T in Ba(Fe(1-x)Co(x))2As2 close to the
spin-density-wave (SDW) QCP. This behavior is due to the coupling of low-energy
conduction electrons to two-dimensional SFs, similar to heavy-fermion systems.
The low-temperature enhancement of S/T in the Co substitution range 0.02 < x <
0.1 is bordered by two Lifshitz transitions, and it corresponds to the
superconducting region, where a similarity between the electron and
non-reconstructed hole pockets exists. The maximal S/T is observed in proximity
to the commensurate-to-incommensurate SDW transition, for critical x_c ~ 0.05,
close to the highest superconducting T_c. This analysis indicates that low-T
thermopower is influenced by critical spin fluctuations which are important for
the superconducting mechanism
Crystal growth and annealing study of fragile, non-bulk superconductivity in YFeGe
We investigated the occurrence and nature of superconductivity in single
crystals of YFeGe grown out of Sn flux by employing x-ray diffraction,
electrical resistivity, and specific heat measurements. We found that the
residual resistivity ratio (RRR) of single crystals can be greatly improved,
reaching as high as 60, by decanting the crystals from the molten Sn at
350C and/or by annealing at temperatures between 550C and
600C. We found that samples with RRR 34 showed resistive
signatures of superconductivity with the onset of the superconducting
transition K. RRR values vary between 35 and 65 with, on
average, no systematic change in value, indicating that systematic
changes in RRR do not lead to comparable changes in . Specific heat
measurements on samples that showed clear resistive signatures of a
superconducting transition did not show any signature of a superconducting
phase transition, which suggests that the superconductivity observed in this
compound is either some sort of filamentary, strain stabilized
superconductivity associated with small amounts of stressed YFeGe
(perhaps at twin boundaries or dislocations) or is a second crystallographic
phase present at levels below detection capability of conventional powder x-ray
techniques.Comment: 8 pages, 11 figure
Remarkably robust and correlated coherence and antiferromagnetism in (CeLa)CuGe
We present magnetic susceptibility, resistivity, specific heat, and
thermoelectric power measurements on (CeLa)CuGe single
crystals (0 1). With La substitution, the antiferromagnetic
temperature is suppressed in an almost linear fashion and moves below
0.36 K, the base temperature of our measurements for 0.8. Surprisingly, in
addition to robust antiferromagnetism, the system also shows low temperature
coherent scattering below up to 0.9 of La, indicating a small
percolation limit 9 of Ce that separates a coherent regime from a
single-ion Kondo impurity regime. as a function of magnetic field was
found to have different behavior for 0.9. Remarkably,
at = 0 was found to be linearly proportional to . The
jump in the magnetic specific heat at as a function of
for (CeLa)CuGe follows the theoretical prediction
based on the molecular field calculation for the = 1/2 resonant level
model
Thermoelectric power of Ba(Fe1-xRux)2As2 and Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2: possible changes of Fermi surface with and without changes in electron count
Temperature-dependent, in-plane, thermoelectric power (TEP) data are
presented for Ba(Fe1-xRux)2As2 (0 < x < 0.36) single crystals. The previously
outlined x - T phase diagram for this system is confirmed. The analysis of TEP
evolution with Ru-doping suggests significant changes in the electronic
structure, correlations and/or scattering occurring near ~7% and ~30% of
Ru-doping levels. These results are compared with an extended set of TEP data
for the electron-doped Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 series
Anisotropic transport and magnetic properties, and magnetic-field tuned states of CeZn11 single crystals
We present detailed temperature and field dependent data obtained from
magnetization, resistivity, heat capacity, Hall resistivity and thermoelectric
power measurements performed on single crystals of CeZn11. The compounds orders
antiferromagnetically at 2 K. The zero-field resistivity and TEP data
show features characteristic of a Ce-based intermetallic with crystal electric
field splitting and possible correlated, Kondo lattice effects. We constructed
the T-H phase diagram for the magnetic field applied along the easy, [110],
direction which shows that the magnetic field required to suppress T_N below
0.4 K is in the range of 45-47.5 kOe. A linear behavior of the rho(T) data,
H||[110], was observed only for H=45 kOe for 0.46 K<T<1.96 K followed by the
Landau-Fermi-liquid regime for a limited range of fields, 47.5 kOe< H<60 kOe.
From the analysis of our data, it appears that CeZn11 is a weakly to moderately
correlated local moment compound with rather small Kondo temperature. The
thermoelectric and transport properties of CeZn11 are mostly governed by the
CEF effects. Given the very high quality of our single crystals, quantum
oscillations are found for both CeZn11 and its non-magnetic analogue, LaZn11
Single crystal investigation of proposed type-II Weyl semimetal CeAlGe
We present details of materials synthesis, crystal structure, and anisotropic
magnetic properties of single crystals of CeAlGe, a proposed type-II Weyl
semimetal. Single-crystal x-ray diffraction confirms that CeAlGe forms in
noncentrosymmetric I4md space group, in line with predictions of
non-trivial topology. Magnetization, specific heat and electrical transport
measurements were used to confirm antiferromagnetic order below 5 K, with an
estimated magnon excitation gap of = 9.11 K from heat capacity and
hole-like carrier density of 1.44 10 cm from Hall effect
measurements. The easy magnetic axis is along the [100] crystallographic
direction, indicating that the moment lies in the tetragonal -plane
below 7 K. A spin-flop transition to less than 1 /Ce is observed to
occur below 30 kOe at 1.8 K in the () data. Small
magnetic fields of 3 kOe and 30 kOe are sufficient to suppress magnetic order
when applied along the - and -axes, respectively, resulting in
a complex phase diagram for and a simpler one for