A Cross-Whiskers Junction as a Novel Fabrication Process for Intrinsic Josephson Junction

A Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d cross-whiskers junction has been successfully discovered as a novel intrinsic Josephson junction without using any technique for micro-fabrication. Two Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+d whisker crystals were placed crosswise on a MgO substrate and heated at 850C for 30 min. They were electrically connected at their c-planes. The measurement terminals were made at the four ends of the whiskers. The I-V characteristics of the cross-whiskers junction at 5K were found to show a clear multiple-branch structure with a spacing of approximately 15 mV that is a feature of the intrinsic Josephson junction. The critical current density Jc was estimated to be 1170 A/cm2. The branch-structure was strongly suppressed by the magnetic field above 1kOe.Comment: 4 pages, PDF fil

The read-out system of spatial distribution of thermoluminescence in meteorites

The thermoluminescence (TL) technique used for dating the terrestrial age of meteorites is based on the TL fading of interior samples. The depth dependence of the TL for Antarctic meteorites with fusion crust is measured. Usually, meteorites are powdered and their TL measured under a photomultiplier. In this case, a TL spatial distribution of a cross section of antarctic meteorites is measured using a read out system of spatial distribution of TL, since a meteorite is made up of inhomogeneous material. Antarctic meteorites MET-78028(L6) and ALH-77278(L13) are used

Two-Staged Magnetoresistance Driven by Ising-like Spin Sublattice in SrCo6O11

A two-staged, uniaxial magnetoresistive effect has been discovered in SrCo6O11 having a layered hexagonal structure. Conduction electrons and localized Ising spins are in different sublattices but their interpenetration makes the conduction electrons sensitively pick up the stepwise field-dependence of magnetization. The stepwise field-dependence suggests two competitive interlayer interactions between ferromagnetic Ising-spin layers, i.e., a ferromagnetic nearest-layer interaction and an antiferromagnetic next-nearest-layer interaction. This oxide offers a unique opportunity to study nontrivial interplay between conduction electrons and Ising spins, the coupling of which can be finely controlled by a magnetic field of a few Tesla.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Superconductivity in CVD Diamond Thin Film Well-Above Liquid Helium Temperature

Diamond has always been adored as a jewel. Even more fascinating is its outstanding physical properties; it is the hardest material known in the world with the highest thermal conductivity. Meanwhile, when we turn to its electrical properties, diamond is a rather featureless electrical insulator. However, with boron doping, it becomes a p-type semiconductor, with boron acting as a charge acceptor. Therefore the recent news of superconductivity in heavily boron-doped diamond synthesized by high pressure sintering was received with considerable surprise. Opening up new possibilities for diamond-based electrical devices, a systematic investigation of these phenomena clearly needs to be achieved. Here we show unambiguous evidence of superconductivity in a diamond thin film deposited by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method. Furthermore the onset of the superconducting transition is found to be 7.4K, which is higher than the reported value in ref(7) and well above helium liquid temperature. This finding establishes the superconductivity to be a universal property of boron-doped diamond, demonstrating that device application is indeed a feasible challenge.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Room-temperature ferromagnetism in Sr_(1-x)Y_xCoO_(3-delta) (0.2 < x < 0.25)

We have measured magnetic susceptibility and resistivity of Sr$_{1-x}$Y$_x$CoO$_{3-\delta}$ ($x=$ 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, 0.215, 0.225, 0.25, 0.3, and 0.4), and have found that Sr$_{1-x}$Y$_x$CoO$_{3-\delta}$ is a room temperature ferromagnet with a Curie temperature of 335 K in a narrow compositional range of 0.2 $\leq x\leq$ 0.25. This is the highest transition temperature among perovskite Co oxides. The saturation magnetization for $x=$ 0.225 is 0.25 $\mu_B$/Co at 10 K, which implies that the observed ferromagnetism is a bulk effect. We attribute this ferromagnetism to a peculiar Sr/Y ordering.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

d-like Symmetry of the Order Parameter and Intrinsic Josephson Effects in Bi2212 Cross-Whisker Junctions

An intrinsic tunnel junction was made using two Bi-2212 single crystal whiskers. The two whiskers with a cross-angle were overlaid at their c-planes and connected by annealing. The angular dependence of the critical current density along the c-axis is of the d-wave symmetry. However, the angular dependence is much stronger than that of the conventional d-wave. Furthermore, the current vs. voltage characteristics of the cross-whiskers junctions show a multiple-branch structure at any cross-angle, indicating the formation of the intrinsic Josephson junction array.Comment: 4 pages PDF fil

Macroscopic quantum tunneling and phase diffusion in a La2−x_{2-x}Srx_xCuO4_4 intrinsic Josephson junction stack

We performed measurements of switching current distribution in a submicron La$_{2-x}$Sr$_x$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) intrinsic Josephson junction (IJJ) stack in a wide temperature range. The escape rate saturates below approximately 2\,K, indicating that the escape event is dominated by a macroscopic quantum tunneling (MQT) process with a crossover temperature $T^{*}\approx2\,$K. We applied the theory of MQT for IJJ stacks, taking into account dissipation and the phase re-trapping effect in the LSCO IJJ stack. The theory is in good agreement with the experiment both in the MQT and in the thermal activation regimes.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figure

Microscopic Evidence for Evolution of Superconductivity by Effective Carrier Doping in Boron-doped Diamond:11B-NMR study

We have investigated the superconductivity discovered in boron (B)-doped diamonds by means of 11B-NMR on heteroepitaxially grown (111) and (100) films. 11B-NMR spectra for all of the films are identified to arise from the substitutional B(1) site as single occupation and lower symmetric B(2) site substituted as boron+hydrogen(B+H) complex, respectively. A clear evidence is presented that the effective carriers introduced by B(1) substitution are responsible for the superconductivity, whereas the charge neutral B(2) sites does not offer the carriers effectively. The result is also corroborated by the density of states deduced by 1/T1T measurement, indicating that the evolution of superconductivity is driven by the effective carrier introduced by substitution at B(1) site.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, to be published in Phys. Rev. B (Brief report