Enhancement of electronic anomalies in iron-substituted La_2-x_Sr_x_Cu_1-y_Fe_y_O_4_ around x=0.22

We have measured the temperature dependences of Rho and Chi for Fe-substituted La_2-x_Sr_x_Cu_1-y_Fe_y_O_4_ in the overdoped regime, in order to investigate Fe-substitution effects on electronic properties around x=0.22. From the Rho measurements, it has been found around x=0.22 that the values of Rho are large at room temperature and that Rho exhibits a pronounced upturn at low temperatures. Moreover, from the Rho and Chi measurements, it has been found that T_c_ is anomalously depressed around x=0.22. These results indicate that the electronic anomalies around x=0.22 are enhanced by Fe substitution, which might be related to the development of stripe correlations by Fe substitution.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figure

Magnetic ordering in Sr2RuO4 induced by nonmagnetic impurities

We report unusual effects of nonmagnetic impurities on the spin-triplet superconductor Sr2RuO4. The substitution of nonmagnetic Ti4+ for Ru4+ induces localized-moment magnetism characterized by unexpected Ising anisotropy with the easy axis along the interlayer c direction. Furthermore, for x(Ti) > 0.03 magnetic ordering occurs in the metallic state with the remnant magnetization along the c-axis. We argue that the localized moments are induced in the Ru4+ and/or oxygen ions surrounding Ti4+ and that the ordering is due to their interaction mediated by itinerant Ru-4d electrons with strong spin fluctuations.Comment: 5 pages, 4figure

Charge Localization from Local Destruction of Antiferromagnetic Correlation in Zn-doped YBa2Cu3O7-d

The in-plane normal-state resistivity of Zn-doped YBa2Cu3O7-d single crystals is measured down to low temperatures by suppressing superconductivity with magnetic fields up to 18 T. Substitution of Cu with Zn in the CuO2 planes is found to induce carrier localization at low temperatures in "clean" samples with kF l > 5, where the mean free path l is larger than the electron wave length and thus localization is not normally expected. The destruction of the local antiferromagnetic correlation among Cu spins by Zn is discussed to be the possible origin of this unusual charge localization.Comment: 4 pages of LaTeX (revtex and epsf) including 4 postscript figure

Unusual T_c variation with hole concentration in Bi_2Sr_{2-x}La_xCuO_{6+\delta}

We have investigated the $T_c$ variation with the hole concentration $p$ in the La-doped Bi 2201 system, Bi$_2$Sr$_{2-x}$La$_x$CuO$_{6+\delta}$. It is found that the Bi 2201 system does not follow the systematics in $T_c$ and $p$ observed in other high-$T_c$ cuprate superconductors (HTSC's). The $T_c$ vs $p$ characteristics are quite similar to what observed in Zn-doped HTSC's. An exceptionally large residual resistivity component in the inplane resistivity indicates that strong potential scatterers of charge carriers reside in CuO$_2$ planes and are responsible for the unusual $T_c$ variation with $p$, as in the Zn-doped systems. However, contrary to the Zn-doped HTSC's, the strong scatter in the Bi 2201 system is possibly a vacancy in the Cu site.Comment: RevTeX, 3 figures, to be published in the Physical Review

59-Co and 75-As NMR Investigation of Electron-Doped High Tc Superconductor BaFe(1.8)Co(0.2)As(2) (Tc = 22K)

We report an NMR investigation of the superconductivity in BaFe(2)As(2) induced by Co doping (Tc=22K). We demonstrate that Co atoms form an alloy with Fe atoms and donate carriers without creating localized moments. Our finding strongly suggests that the underlying physics of iron-pnictide superconductors is quite different from the widely accepted physical picture of high Tc cuprates as doped Mott insulators. We also show a crossover of electronic properties into a low temperature pseudo-gap phase with a pseudo-gap Delta 560K, where chi(spin) constant and resisitivty T. The NMR Knight shift below Tc decreases for both along the c-axis and ab-plane, and is consistent with the singlet pairing scenario.Comment: Accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. (4 pages

Isotope effects in underdoped cuprate superconductors: a quantum phenomenon

We show that the unusual doping dependence of the isotope effects on transition temperature and zero temperature in - plane penetration depth naturally follows from the doping driven 3D-2D crossover, the 2D quantum superconductor to insulator transition (QSI) in the underdoped limit and the change of the relative doping concentration upon isotope substitution. Close to the QSI transition both, the isotope coefficient of transition temperature and penetration depth approach the coefficient of the relative dopant concentration, and its divergence sets the scale. These predictions are fully consistent with the experimental data and imply that close to the underdoped limit the unusual isotope effect on transition temperature and penetration depth uncovers critical phenomena associated with the quantum superconductor to insulator transition in two dimensions.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Zn-doping effect on the magnetotransport properties of Bi_{2}Sr_{2-x}La_{x}CuO_{6+\delta} single crystals

We report the magnetotransport properties of Bi_{2}Sr_{2-x}La_{x}Cu_{1-z}Zn_{z}O_{6+\delta} (Zn-doped BSLCO) single crystals with z of up to 2.2%. Besides the typical Zn-doping effects on the in-plane resistivity and the Hall angle, we demonstrate that the nature of the low-temperature normal state in the Zn-doped samples is significantly altered from that in the pristine samples under high magnetic fields. In particular, we observe nearly-isotropic negative magnetoresistance as well as an increase in the Hall coefficient at very low temperatures in non-superconducting Zn-doped samples, which we propose to be caused by the Kondo scattering from the local moments induced by Zn impurities.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, final version (one reference added), published in Phys. Rev.

Effects of In-Plane Impurity Substitution in Sr2RuO4

We report comparative substitution effects of nonmagnetic Ti^(4+) and magnetic Ir^(4+) impurities for Ru^(4+) in the spin-triplet superconductor Sr2RuO4. We found that both impurities suppress the superconductivity completely at a concentration of approximately 0.15%, reflecting the high sensitivity to translational symmetry breaking in Sr2RuO4. In addition, a rapid enhancement of residual resistivity is in quantitative agreement with unitarity-limit scattering. Our result suggests that both nonmagnetic and magnetic impurities in Sr2RuO4 act as strong potential scatterers, similar to the nonmagnetic Zn^(2+) impurity in the high-Tc cuprates.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures. submitted to Journal of the Physical Society of Japa

Evolution of the resistivity anisotropy in Bi_{2}Sr_{2-x}La_{x}CuO_{6+\delta} single crystals for a wide range of hole doping

To elucidate how the temperature dependence of the resistivity anisotropy of the cuprate superconductors changes with hole doping, both the in-plane and the out-of-plane resistivities (\rho_{ab} and \rho_{c}) are measured in a series of high-quality Bi_{2}Sr_{2-x}La_{x}CuO_{6+\delta} (BSLCO) single crystals for a wide range of x (x = 0.23 - 1.02), which corresponds to the hole doping per Cu, p, of 0.03 - 0.18. The anisotropy ratio, \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab}, shows a systematic increase with decreasing p at moderate temperatures, except for the most underdoped composition where the localization effect enhances \rho_{ab} and thus lowers \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab}. The exact p dependence of \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab} at a fixed temperature is found to be quite peculiar, which is discussed to be due to the effect of the pseudogap that causes \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab} to be increasingly more enhanced as p is reduced. The pseudogap also causes a rapid growth of \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab} with decreasing temperature, and, as a result, the \rho_{c}/\rho_{ab} value almost reaches 10^6 in underdoped samples just above T_c. Furthermore, it is found that the temperature dependence of \rho_{c} of underdoped samples show two distinct temperature regions in the pseudogap phase, which suggests that the divergence of \rho_{c} below the pseudogap temperature is governed by two different mechanisms.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, revised version. Discussions are expanded with a new analysis of the T-dependence of \rho_{c} and the resulting new phase diagra

Spin Dynamics near the Superconductor-to-Insulator Transition in Impurity-Doped YBa2Cu4O8

We studied low-frequency spin dynamics near the impurity-induced superconductor-to-insulator transition for underdoped high-Tc superconductor YBa2(Cu1-xMx)4O8 (M=Ni, Zn) using the Cu nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) spin-echo technique. We observed remarkable suppression of the normal-state pseudo spin-gap and a loss of Cu NQR spectrum intensity at low temperatures around the critical impurity concentration.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. To be published in J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. Vol.70, No.7 (2001