Effect of Co doping and hydrostatic pressure on SrFe2As2

We report a pressure study on electron doped SrFe$_{2-x}$Co$_x$As$_2$ by electrical-resistivity ($\rho$) and magnetic-susceptibility ($\chi$) experiments. Application of either external pressure or Co substitution rapidly suppresses the spin-density wave ordering of the Fe moments and induces superconductivity in SrFe$_2$As$_2$. At $x=0.2$ the broad superconducting (SC) dome in the $T-p$ phase diagram exhibits its maximum $T_{c,{\rm max}}=20$ K at a pressure of only $p_{\rm max}\approx 0.75$ GPa. In SrFe$_{1.5}$Co$_{0.5}$As$_2$ no superconductivity is observed anymore up to 2.8 GPa. Upon increasing the Co concentration the maximum of the SC dome shifts toward lower pressure accompanied by a decrease in the value of $T_{c,{\rm max}}$. Even though, superconductivity is induced by both tuning methods, Co substitution leads to a much more robust SC state. Our study evidences that in SrFe$_{2-x}$Co$_x$As$_2$ both, the effect of pressure and Co-substitution, have to be considered in order to understand the SC phase-diagram and further attests the close relationship of SrFe$_2$As$_2$ and its sister compound BaFe$_2$As$_2$.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figure

Temperature - pressure phase diagram of CeCoSi: Pressure induced high-temperature phase

We have studied the temperature-pressure phase diagram of CeCoSi by electrical-resistivity experiments under pressure. Our measurements revealed a very unusual phase diagram. While at low pressures no dramatic changes and only a slight shift of the Ne\'{e}l temperature $T_N$ ($\approx 10$ K) are observed, at about 1.45 GPa a sharp and large anomaly, indicative of the opening of a spin-density-wave (SDW) gap, appears at a comparatively high temperature $T_S \approx 38$ K. With further increasing pressure $T_S$ shifts rapidly to low temperatures and disappears at about 2.15 GPa, likely continuously in a quantum critical point, but without evidence for superconductivity. Even more surprisingly, we observed a clear shift of $T_S$ to higher temperatures upon applying a magnetic field. We discuss two possible origins for $T_S$, either magnetic ordering of Co or a meta-orbital type of transition of Ce.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

The antiferromagnetic phase of the Floquet-driven Hubbard model

A saddle point plus fluctuations analysis of the periodically driven half-filled two-dimensional Hubbard model is performed. For drive frequencies below the equilibrium gap, we find discontinuous transitions to time-dependent solutions. A highly excited, generically non-thermal distribution of magnons occurs even for drive frequencies far above the gap. Above a critical drive amplitude, the low-energy magnon distribution diverges as the frequency tends to zero and antiferromagnetism is destroyed, revealing the generic importance of collective mode excitations arising from a non-equilibrium drive

Avoided ferromagnetic quantum critical point in CeRuPO

CeRuPO is a rare example of a ferromagnetic (FM) Kondo-lattice system. External pressure suppresses the ordering temperature to zero at about $p_c\approx3$ GPa. Our ac-susceptibility and electrical-resistivity investigations evidence that the type of magnetic ordering changes from FM to antiferromagnetic (AFM) at about $p^*\approx0.87$ GPa. Studies in applied magnetic fields suggest that ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic correlations compete for the ground state at $p>p^*$, but finally the AFM correlations win. The change in the magnetic ground-state properties is closely related to the pressure evolution of the crystalline-electric-field level (CEF) scheme and the magnetic Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) exchange interaction. The N\'{e}el temperature disappears abruptly in a first-order-like fashion at $p_c$, hinting at the absence of a quantum critical point. This is consistent with the low-temperature transport properties exhibiting Landau-Fermi-liquid (LFL) behavior in the whole investigated pressure range up to 7.5 GPa.Comment: 12 figure

Pair breaking by nonmagnetic impurities in the noncentrosymmetric superconductor CePt3Si

We have studied the effect of Ge substitution and pressure on the heavy-fermion superconductor CePt3Si. Ge substitution on the Si site acts as negative chemical pressure leading to an increase in the unit-cell volume but also introduces chemical disorder. We carried out electrical resistivity and ac heat-capacity experiments under hydrostatic pressure on CePt3Si1-xGex (x=0, 0.06). Our experiments show that the suppression of superconductivity in CePt3Si1-xGex is mainly caused by the scattering potential, rather than volume expansion, introduced by the Ge dopants. The antiferromagnetic order is essentially not affected by the chemical disorder.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Competition of local-moment ferromagnetism and superconductivity in Co-substituted EuFe2As2

In contrast to SrFe2As2, where only the iron possesses a magnetic moment, in EuFe2As2 an additional large, local magnetic moment is carried by Eu2+. Like SrFe2As2, EuFe2As2 exhibits a spin-density wave transition at high temperatures, but in addition the magnetic moments of the Eu2+ order at around 20 K. The interplay of pressure-induced superconductivity and the Eu2+ order leads to a behavior which is reminiscent of re-entrant superconductivity as it was observed, for example, in the ternary Chevrel phases or in the rare-earth nickel borocarbides. Here, we study the delicate interplay of the ordering of the Eu2+ moments and superconductivity in EuFe1.9Co0.1As2, where application of external pressure makes it possible to sensitively tune the ratio of the magnetic (T_C) and the superconducting (T_{c,onset}) critical temperatures. We find that superconductivity disappears once T_C > T_{c,onset}.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the proceedings of SCES201

Classical bifurcation at the transition from Rabi to Josephson dynamics

We report on the experimental realization of an internal bosonic Josephson junction in a Rubidium spinor Bose-Einstein condensate. The measurement of the full time dynamics in phase space allows the characterization of the theoretically predicted $\pi$-phase modes and quantitatively confirms analytical predictions, revealing a classical bifurcation. Our results suggest that this system is a model system which can be tuned from classical to the quantum regime and thus is an important step towards the experimental investigation of entanglement generation close to critical points

Pauli-Limited Superconductivity with Classical Magnetic Fluctuations

We examine the effect of classical magnetic fluctuations on the phase diagram of paramagneticallylimited two-dimensional superconductors under a Zeeman magnetic field. We derive the free energy expansion in powers of the superconducting order parameter and analyze the character of the normalsuperconducting transition. While the transition is of the second order for all temperatures in the absence of magnetic fluctuations, we find that proximity to magnetism drives both the transition into the uniform state and that into the modulated (Fulde-Ferrell-Larkin-Ovchinnikov, FFLO) state to first order at intermediate temperatures. We compute the thermodynamic signatures of the normal-superconducting transition along the upper critical field.Comment: 16 pages, 9 figure

Enhancement of the upper critical field in codoped iron-arsenic high-temperature superconductors

We present the first study of codoped iron-arsenide superconductors of the 122 family (Sr/Ba)_(1-x)K_xFe_(2-y)Co_yAs_2 with the purpose to increase the upper critical field H_c2 compared to single doped (Sr/Ba)Fe_2As_2 materials. H_c2 was investigated by measuring the magnetoresistance in high pulsed magnetic fields up to 64 T. We find, that H_c2 extrapolated to T = 0 is indeed enhanced significantly to ~ 90 T for polycrystalline samples of Ba_0.55K_0.45Fe_1.95Co_0.05As_2 compared to ~75 T for Ba_0.55K_0.45Fe_2As_2 and BaFe_1.8Co_0.2As_2 single crystals. Codoping thus is a promising way for the systematic optimization of iron-arsenic based superconductors for magnetic-field and high-current applications.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to Journal of Applied Physic