5,317 research outputs found
A view from inside iron-based superconductors
Muon spin spectroscopy is one of the most powerful tools to investigate the
microscopic properties of superconductors. In this manuscript, an overview on
some of the main achievements obtained by this technique in the iron-based
superconductors (IBS) are presented. It is shown how the muons allow to probe
the whole phase diagram of IBS, from the magnetic to the superconducting phase,
and their sensitivity to unravel the modifications of the magnetic and the
superconducting order parameters, as the phase diagram is spanned either by
charge doping, by an external pressure or by introducing magnetic and
non-magnetic impurities. Moreover, it is highlighted that the muons are unique
probes for the study of the nanoscopic coexistence between magnetism and
superconductivity taking place at the crossover between the two ground-states.Comment: 28 pages, 18 figure
Critical chain length and superconductivity emergence in oxygen-equalized pairs of YBa2Cu3O6.30
The oxygen-order dependent emergence of superconductivity in YBa2Cu3O6+x is
studied, for the first time in a comparative way, on pair samples having the
same oxygen content and thermal history, but different Cu(1)Ox chain
arrangements deriving from their intercalated and deintercalated nature.
Structural and electronic non-equivalence of pairs samples is detected in the
critical region and found to be related, on microscopic scale, to a different
average chain length, which, on being experimentally determined by nuclear
quadrupole resonance (NQR), sheds new light on the concept of critical chain
length for hole doping efficiency.Comment: 7 RevTex pages, 2 Postscript figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
INTEGRATION OF GEOMATIC TECHNIQUES FOR THE URBAN CAVITY SURVEY
Cagliari, county seat of Sardinia Region (Italy), situated in the southern part of the island, is characterized by a subsoil full of cavities. The excavations in fact, which lasted more than 4000 years, had a great development due also to the special geological characteristics of the city subsoil. The underground voids, which the city is rich in, belong to different classes such as hydraulic structures (aqueducts, cisterns, wells, etc.), settlement works (tunnels, bomb shelters, tombs etc.) and various works (quarries, natural caves, etc.). This paper describes the phases of the survey of a large cavity below a high-traffic square near the Faculty of Engineering in the city of Cagliari, where the research team works.. The cave, which is part of a larger complex, is important because it was used in the thirteenth century (known as the Pisan age) as a stone quarry. There are traces of this activity that have to be protected. Moreover, during the last forty years the continuous crossover of vehicles cracked the roof of the cave compromising the stability of the entire area. Consequently a plan was developed to make the whole cavity safe and usable for visits. The study of the safety of the cave has involved different professionals among which geologists, engineers, constructors. The goal of the University of Cagliari geomatic team was to solve two problems: to obtain geometrical information about the void and correctly place the cave in the context of existing maps. The survey and the products, useful for the investigation of the technicians involved, had to comply with tolerances of 3 cm in the horizontal and 5 cm in the vertical component. The approach chosen for this purpose was to integrate different geomatic techniques. The cave was surveyed using a laser scanner (Faro Photon 80) in order to obtain a 3D model of the cave from which all the geometrical information was derived, while both classic topography and GPS techniques were used to include the cave in the city map
Direct evaluation of the isotope effect within the framework of density functional theory for superconductors
Within recent developments of density functional theory, its numerical implementation and of the superconducting density functional theory is nowadays possible to predict the superconducting critical temperature, Tc, with sufficient accuracy to anticipate the experimental verification. In this paper we present an analytical derivation of the isotope coefficient within the superconducting density functional theory. We calculate the partial derivative of Tc with respect to atomic masses. We verified the final expression by means of numerical calculations of isotope coefficient in monatomic superconductors (Pb) as well as polyatomic superconductors (CaC6). The results confirm the validity of the analytical derivation with respect to the finite difference methods, with considerable improvement in terms of computational time and calculation accuracy. Once the critical temperature is calculated (at the reference mass(es)), various isotope exponents can be simply obtained in the same run. In addition, we provide the expression of interesting quantities like partial derivatives of the deformation potential, phonon frequencies and eigenvectors with respect to atomic masses, which can be useful for other derivations and applications
Evidence for impurity-induced frustration in La2CuO4
Zero-field muon spin rotation and magnetization measurements were performed
in La2Cu{1-x}MxO4, for 0<x< 0.12, where Cu2+ is replaced either by M=Zn2+ or by
M=Mg2+ spinless impurity. It is shown that while the doping dependence of the
sublattice magnetization (M(x)) is nearly the same for both compounds, the
N\'eel temperature (T_N(x)) decreases unambiguously more rapidly in the
Zn-doped compound. This difference, not taken into account within a simple
dilution model, is associated with the frustration induced by the Zn2+ impurity
onto the Cu2+ antiferromagnetic lattice. In fact, from T_N(x) and M(x) the spin
stiffness is derived and found to be reduced by Zn doping more significantly
than expected within a dilution model. The effect of the structural
modifications induced by doping on the exchange coupling is also discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Phase lags of quasi-periodic oscillations across source states in the low-mass X-ray binary 4U 1636-53
While there are many dynamical mechanisms and models that try to explain the
origin and phenomenology of the quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs) seen in the
X-ray light curves of low-mass X-ray binaries, few of them address how the
radiative processes occurring in these extreme environments give rise to the
rich set of variability features actually observed in these light curves. A
step towards this end comes from the study of the energy and frequency
dependence of the phase lags of these QPOs. Here we used a methodology that
allowed us to study, for the first time, the dependence of the phase lags of
all QPOs in the range of 1 Hz to 1300 Hz detected in the low-mass X-ray binary
4U 1636-53 upon energy and frequency as the source changes its states as it
moves through the colour-colour diagram. Our results suggest that within the
context of models of up-scattering Comptonization, the phase lags dependencies
upon frequency and energy can be used to extract size scales and physical
conditions of the medium that produces the lags
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
Correlated trends of coexisting magnetism and superconductivity in optimally electron-doped oxy-pnictides
We report on the recovery of the short-range static magnetic order and on the
concomitant degradation of the superconducting state in optimally F-doped
SmFe_(1-x)Ru_(x)AsO_0.85F_0.15 for 0.1< x<0.6. The two reduced order parameters
coexist within nanometer-size domains in the FeAs layers and finally disappear
around a common critical threshold x_c=0.6. Superconductivity and magnetism are
shown to be closely related to two distinct well-defined local electronic
environments of the FeAs layers. The two transition temperatures, controlled by
the isoelectronic and diamagnetic Ru substitution, scale with the volume
fraction of the corresponding environments. This fact indicates that
superconductivity is assisted by magnetic fluctuations, which are frozen
whenever a short-range static order appears, and totally vanish above the
magnetic dilution threshold x_c.Comment: Approved for publication in Phys. Rev. Letter
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