18,308 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
Boundary between the thermal and statistical polarization regimes in a nuclear spin ensemble
As the number of spins in an ensemble is reduced, the statistical uctuations
in its polarization eventually exceed the mean thermal polarization. This
transition has now been surpassed in a number of recent nuclear magnetic
resonance experiments, which achieve nanometer-scale detection volumes. Here,
we measure nanometer- scale ensembles of nuclear spins in a KPF6 sample using
magnetic resonance force microscopy. In particular, we investigate the
transition between regimes dominated by thermal and statistical nuclear
polarization. The ratio between the two types of polarization provides a
measure of the number of spins in the detected ensemble
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
The Superconductivity, Intragrain Penetration Depth and Meissner Effect of RuSr2(Gd,Ce)2Cu2O10+delta
The hole concentration (p)(delta), the transition temperature Tc, the
intragrain penetration depth lambda, and the Meissner effect were measured for
annealed RuSr2(Gd,Ce)2Cu2O10+delta samples. The intragrain superconducting
transition temperature Tc} varied from 17 to 40 K while the p changed by only
0.03 holes/CuO2. The intragrain superfluid-density 1/lambda^2 and the
diamagnetic drop of the field-cooled magnetization across Tc (the Meissner
effect), however, increased more than 10 times. All of these findings are in
disagreement with both the Tc vs. p and the Tc vs. 1/lambda^2 correlations
proposed for homogeneous cuprates, but are in line with a possible
phase-separation and the granularity associated with it.Comment: 7 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. B (May 2,
2002
Instanton solutions mediating tunneling between the degenerate vacua in curved space
We investigate the instanton solution between the degenerate vacua in curved
space. We show that there exist -symmetric solutions not only in de
Sitter but also in both flat and anti-de Sitter space. The geometry of the new
type of solutions is finite and preserves the symmetry. The nontrivial
solution corresponding to the tunneling is possible only if gravity is taken
into account. The numerical solutions as well as the analytic computations
using the thin-wall approximation are presented. We expect that these solutions
do not have any negative mode as in the instanton solution.Comment: Some typos are corrected and references are added with respect to the
published version. 17pages, 11fi
- …