753 research outputs found
Role of heat and mechanical treatments in the fabrication of superconducting Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2 ex-situ Powder-In-Tube tapes
Among the recently discovered Fe-based superconducting compounds, the
(K,Ba)Fe2As2 phase is attracting large interest within the scientific community
interested in conductor developments. In fact, after some years of development,
critical current densities Jc of about 105 A/cm2 at fields up to more than 10 T
have been obtained in powder in tube (PIT) processed wires and tapes. Here we
explore the crucial points in the wire/tape fabrication by means of the ex-situ
PIT method. We focus on scaling up processes which are crucial for the
industrial fabrication. We analyzed the effects on the microstructure of the
different heat and mechanical treatments. By an extensive microstructural
analysis correlated with the transport properties we addressed the issues
concerning the phase purity, the internal porosity and crack formation in the
superconducting core region. Our best conductors with a filling factor of about
30 heat treated at 800 C exhibited Tc = 38 K the highest value measured in such
kind of superconducting tape. The microstructure analysis shows clean and well
connected grain boundaries but rather poor density: The measured Jc of about 3
x 10^4 A/cm2 in self-field is suppressed by less than a factor 7 at 7 T. Such
not yet optimized Jc values can be accounted for by the reduced density while
the moderate in-field suppression and a rather high n-factor confirm the high
homogeneity and uniformity of these tapes
Role of Dirac cones in magnetotransport properties of REFeAsO (RE=rare earth) oxypnictides
In this work we study the effect of the rare earth element in iron
oxypnictides of composition REFeAsO (RE=rare earth). On one hand we carry out
Density Functional Theory calculations of the band structure, which evidence
the multiband character of these compounds and the presence of Dirac cones
along the Y-{\Gamma} and Z-R directions of the reciprocal space. On the other
hand, we explore transport behavior by means of resistivity, Hall resistance
and magnetoresistance measurements, which confirm the dominant role of Dirac
cones. By combining our theoretical and experimental approaches, we extract
information on effective masses, scattering rates and Fermi velocities for
different rare earth elements.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures accepted for publication on European Journal of
Physics
Coupling between 4f and itinerant electrons in SmFeAsO1-xFx (0.15 < x < 0.2) superconductors: an NMR study
F NMR measurements in SmFeAsOF, for ,
are presented. The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate increases upon
cooling with a trend analogous to the one already observed in
CeCuAu, a quasi two-dimensional heavy-fermion intermetallic
compound with an antiferromagnetic ground-state. In particular, the behaviour
of the relaxation rate either in SmFeAsOF or in
CeCuAu can be described in the framework of the self-consistent
renormalization theory for weakly itinerant electron systems. Remarkably, no
effect of the superconducting transition on F is detected, a
phenomenon which can hardly be explained within a single band model.Comment: 4 figure
Influence of carbon substitution on the heat transport in single crystalline MgB2
We report data on the thermal conductivity \kappa(T,H) in the basal plane of
hexagonal single-crystalline and superconducting Mg(B_{1-x}C_x)_2 (x= 0.03,
0.06) at temperatures between 0.5 and 50 K, and in external magnetic fields H
between 0 and 50 kOe. The substitution of carbon for boron leads to a
considerable reduction of the electronic heat transport, while the phonon
thermal conductivity seems to be much less sensitive to impurities. The
introduction of carbon enhances mostly the intraband scattering in the
\sigma-band. In contrast to the previously observed anomalous behavior of pure
MgB, the Wiedemann-Franz law is valid for Mg(B_0.94 C_0.06)_2 at low
temperatures.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Final version to appear in Phys. Rev.
Numerical tests of the lookup table method in solving richards' equation for infiltration and drainage in heterogeneous soils
The lookup table option, as an alternative to analytical calculation for evaluating the nonlinear heterogeneous soil characteristics, is introduced and compared for both the Picard and Newton iterative schemes in the numerical solution of Richards\u2019 equation. The lookup table method can be a cost-effective alternative to analytical evaluation in the case of heterogeneous soils, but it has not been examined in detail in the hydrological modeling literature. Three layered soil test problems are considered, and the robustness and accuracy of the lookup table approach are assessed for uniform and non-uniform distributions of lookup points in the soil moisture retention curves. Results from the three one-dimensional test simulations show that the uniform distributed option gives improved convergence and robustness for the drainage problem compared to the non-uniform strategy. On the other hand, the non-uniform technique can be chosen for test problems involving flow into initially dry layered soils
Critical Field of MGB2 : Crossover from Clean to Dirty Regimes
We have studied the upper critical field, Bc2, in poly-crystalline MgB2
samples in which disorder was varied in a controlled way to carry selectively p
and s bands from clean to dirty limit. We have found that the clean regime
survives when p bands are dirty and s bands are midway between clean and dirty.
In this framework we can explain the anomalous behaviour of Al doped samples,
in which Bc2 decreases as doping increases.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figure
Crossover between magnetism and superconductivity in low H-doped LaFeAsO
By a systematic study of the hydrogen-doped LaFeAsO system by means of dc
resistivity, dc magnetometry, and muon-spin spectroscopy we addressed the
question of universality of the phase diagram of rare-earth-1111 pnictides. In
many respects, the behaviour of LaFeAsO_(1-x)H_(x) resembles that of its widely
studied F-doped counterpart, with H^- realizing a similar (or better)
electron-doping in the LaO planes. In a x = 0.01 sample we found a long-range
SDW order with T_n = 119 K, while at x = 0.05 the SDW establishes only at 38 K
and, below T_c = 10 K, it coexists at a nanoscopic scale with bulk
superconductivity. Unlike the abrupt M-SC transition found in the parent
La-1111 compound, the presence a crossover region makes the H-doped system
qualitatively similar to other Sm-, Ce-, or Nd-1111 families.Comment: to appear in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte
Superconducting phase fluctuations in SmFeAsOF from diamagnetism at low magnetic field above
Superconducting fluctuations (SF) in SmFeAsOF (characterized
by superconducting transition temperature K) are
investigated by means of isothermal high-resolution dc magnetization
measurements. The diamagnetic response to magnetic fields up to 1 T above
is similar to what previously reported for underdoped cuprate
superconductors and it can be justified in terms of metastable superconducting
islands at non-zero order parameter lacking of long-range coherence because of
strong phase fluctuations. In the high-field regime ( T) scaling
arguments predicted on the basis of the Ginzburg-Landau theory of conventional
SF are found to be applicable, at variance with what observed in the low-field
regime. This fact enlightens that two different phenomena are simultaneously
present in the fluctuating diamagnetism, namely the phase SF of novel character
and the conventional SF. High magnetic fields (1.5 T )
are found to suppress the former while leaving unaltered the latter one.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure
Slow magnetic fluctuations and superconductivity in fluorine-doped NdFeAsO
Among the widely studied superconducting iron-pnictide compounds belonging to
the Ln1111 family (with Ln a lanthanide), a systematic investigation of the
crossover region between the superconducting and the antiferromagnetic phase
for the Ln = Nd case has been missing. We fill this gap by focusing on the
intermediate doping regime of NdFeAsO(1-x)F(x) by means of dc-magnetometry and
muon-spin spectroscopy measurements. The long-range order we detect at low
fluorine doping is replaced by short-range magnetic interactions at x = 0.08,
where also superconductivity appears. In this case, longitudinal-field
muon-spin spectroscopy experiments show clear evidence of slow magnetic
fluctuations that disappear at low temperatures. This fluctuating component is
ascribed to the glassy-like character of the magnetically ordered phase of
NdFeAsO at intermediate fluorine doping
Modification of intergrain connectivity, upper critical field anisotropy, and critical current density in ion irradiated MgB2 films
We study the effect of 100 MeV Silicon and 200 MeV Gold ion irradiation on
the inter and intra grain properties of superconducting thin films of Magnesium
Diboride. Substantial decrease in inter-grain connectivity is observed,
depending on irradiation dose and type of ions used. We establish that
modification of sigma band scattering mechanism, and consequently the upper
critical field and anisotropy, depends on the size and directional properties
of the extrinsic defects. Post heavy ion irradiation, the upper critical field
shows enhancement at a defect density that is five orders of magnitude less
compared to neutron irradiation. The critical current density however is best
improved through light ion irradiation.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures, submitte
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