16,556 research outputs found
Superconductivity in pure and electron doped MgB2: Transport properties and pressure effects
The normal state and superconducting properties of MgB2 and Mg1-xAlxB2 are
discussed based on structural, transport, and high pressure experiments. The
positive Seebeck coefficient and its linear temperature dependence for Tc<T<160
K provide evidence that the low-temperature transport in MgB2 is due to
hole-like metallic carriers. Structural and transport data show the important
role of defects as indicated by the correlation of Tc, the residual resistance
ratio, and the microstrain extracted from x-ray spectra. The decrease of Tc
with hydrostatic pressure is well explained by the strong-coupling BCS theory.
The large scatter of the pressure coefficients of Tc for different MgB2
samples, however, cannot be explained within this theory. We speculate that
pressure may increase the defect density, particularly in samples with large
initial defect concentration.Comment: Presented at NATO Advanced Research Workshop "New Trends in
Superconductivity", Yalta (Ukraine) 16-20 September, 200
Water Content and Superconductivity in Na0.3CoO2*yH2O
We report here the correlation between the water content and
superconductivity in Na0.3CoO2*yH2O under the influences of elevated
temperature and cold compression. The x-ray diffraction of the sample annealed
at elevated temperatures indicates that intergrowths exist in the compound at
equilibrium when 0.6 < y < 1.4. Its low-temperature diamagnetization varies
linearly with y, but is insensitive to the intergrowth, indicative of quasi-2D
superconductivity. The Tc-onset, especially, shifts only slightly with y. Our
data from cold compressed samples, on the other hand, show that the water-loss
non-proportionally suppresses the diamagnetization, which is suggestive of weak
links.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures; submitted to Physica C (August 13, 2003
Unusual Field-Dependence of the Intragrain Superconductive Transition in RuSr2EuCu2O8
A narrow intragrain phase-lock transition was observed in RuSr2EuCu2O8 under
a magnetic field H up to a few Tesla. The corresponding transition temperature,
T2, decreases rapidly (about 100 K/T at low fields) with H indicating that the
grains of RuSr2EuCu2O8 behave like a Josephson-junction-array instead of a
homogeneous bulk superconductor. Our data suggest that the bulk superconducting
transition may occur on a length scale well below the grain size of 2 to 6
micrometer
On-Chip Matching Networks for Radio-Frequency Single-Electron-Transistors
In this letter, we describe operation of a radio-frequency superconducting
single electron transistor (RF-SSET) with an on-chip superconducting LC
matching network consisting of a spiral inductor L and its capacitance to
ground. The superconducting network has a lower parasitic capacitance and gives
a better matching for the RF-SSET than does a commercial chip inductor.
Moreover, the superconducting network has negligibly low dissipation, leading
to sensitive response to changes in the RF-SSET impedance. The charge
sensitivity 2.4*10^-6 e/(Hz)^1/2 in the sub-gap region and energy sensitivity
of 1.9 hbar indicate that the RF-SSET is operating in the vicinity of the shot
noise limit.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures, REVTeX 4. To appear in Appl. Phys. Let
Conserving GW scheme for nonequilibrium quantum transport in molecular contacts
We give a detailed presentation of our recent scheme to include correlation
effects in molecular transport calculations using the GW approximation within
the non-equilibrium Keldysh formalism. We restrict the GW self-energy to the
central region, and describe the leads by density functional theory (DFT). A
minimal basis of maximally localized Wannier functions is applied both in the
central GW region and the leads. The importance of using a conserving, i.e.
fully self-consistent, GW self-energy is demonstrated both analytically and by
numerical examples. We introduce an effective spin-dependent interaction which
automatically reduces self-interaction errors to all orders in the interaction.
The scheme is applied to the Anderson model in- and out of equilibrium. In
equilibrium at zero temperature we find that GW describes the Kondo resonance
fairly well for intermediate interaction strengths. Out of equilibrium we
demonstrate that the one-shot G0W0 approximation can produce severe errors, in
particular at high bias. Finally, we consider a benzene molecule between
featureless leads. It is found that the molecule's HOMO-LUMO gap as calculated
in GW is significantly reduced as the coupling to the leads is increased,
reflecting the more efficient screening in the strongly coupled junction. For
the IV characteristics of the junction we find that HF and G0W0[G_HF] yield
results closer to GW than does DFT and G0W0[G_DFT]. This is explained in terms
of self-interaction effects and life-time reduction due to electron-electron
interactions.Comment: 23 pages, 16 figure
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