Antiferromagnetic Domain Wall Engineering in Chromium Films

We have engineered an antiferromagnetic domain wall by utilizing a magnetic frustration effect of a thin iron cap layer deposited on a chromium film. Through lithography and wet etching we selectively remove areas of the Fe cap layer to form a patterned ferromagnetic mask over the Cr film. Removing the Fe locally removes magnetic frustration in user-defined regions of the Cr film. We present x-ray microdiffraction microscopy results confirming the formation of a 90{\deg} spin-density wave propagation domain wall in Cr. This domain wall nucleates at the boundary defined by our Fe mask.Comment: submitted to AP

Studies of superconductivity and structure for CaC6 to pressures above 15 GPa

The dependence of the superconducting transition temperature Tc of CaC6 has been determined as a function of hydrostatic pressure in both helium-loaded gas and diamond-anvil cells to 0.6 and 32 GPa, respectively. Following an initial increase at the rate +0.39(1) K/GPa, Tc drops abruptly from 15 K to 4 K at 10 GPa. Synchrotron x-ray measurements to 15 GPa point to a structural transition near 10 GPa from a rhombohedral to a higher symmetry phase

On the correct formula for the lifetime broadened superconducting density of states

We argue that the well known Dynes formula [Dynes R C {\it et al.} 1978 {\it Phys. Rev. Lett.} {\bf 41} 1509] for the superconducting quasiparticle density of states, which tries to incorporate the lifetime broadening in an approximate way, cannot be justified microscopically for conventional superconductors. Instead, we propose a new simple formula in which the energy gap has a finite imaginary part $-\Delta_2$ and the quasiparticle energy is real. We prove that in the quasiparticle approximation 2$\Delta_2$ gives the quasiparticle decay rate at the gap edge for conventional superconductors. This conclusion does not depend on the nature of interactions that cause the quasiparticle decay. The new formula is tested on the case of a strong coupling superconductor Pb$_{0.9}$Bi$_{0.1}$ and an excellent agreement with theoretical predictions is obtained. While both the Dynes formula and the one proposed in this work give good fits and fit parameters for Pb$_{0.9}$Bi$_{0.1}$, only the latter formula can be justified microscopically.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure

Triode for Magnetic Flux Quanta

In an electronic triode, the electron current emanating from the cathode is regulated by the electric potential on a grid between the cathode and the anode. Here we demonstrate a triode for single quantum magnetic field carriers, where the flow of individual magnetic vortices in a superconducting film is regulated by the magnetic potential of striae of soft magnetic strips deposited on the film surface. By rotating an applied in-plane field, the magnetic strip potential can be varied due to changes in the magnetic charges at the strip edges, allowing accelerated or retarded motion of magnetic vortices inside the superconductor. Scaling down our design and reducing the gap width between the magnetic stripes will enable controlled manipulation of individual vortices and creation of single flux quantum circuitry for novel high-speed low-power superconducting electronics

Muon spin rotation study of the magnetic penetration depth in the intercalated graphite superconductor CaC6

We report temperature- and magnetic field-dependent bulk muon spin rotation measurements in a c-axis oriented superconductor CaC6 in the mixed state. Using both a simple second moment analysis and the more precise analytical Ginzburg-Landau model, we obtained a field independent in-plane magnetic penetration depth {\lambda}ab (0) = 72(3) nm. The temperature dependencies of the normalized muon spin relaxation rate and of the normalized superfluid density result to be identical, and both are well represented by the clean limit BCS model with 2\Delta/kB Tc = 3.6(1), suggesting that CaC6 is a fully gapped BCS superconductor in the clean limit regime.Comment: Accepted for publication in PR

Large Ca Isotope Effect in CaC6

We have measured the Ca isotope effect in the newly discovered superconductor CaC6. The isotope effect coefficient is 0.50(7). If one assumes that this material is a conventional electron-phonon coupled superconductor, this result shows that the superconductivity is dominated by coupling of the electrons by Ca phonon modes and that C phonons contribute very little. Thus, in contrast to MgB2, where phonons in the B layers are responsible for the superconductivity, in CaC6 the phonons are primarily modes of the intercalated Ca.Comment: 11 pages including 2 Figure