Superconductivity up to 29 K in SrFe2As2 and BaFe2As2 at high pressures

We report the discovery of superconductivity at high pressure in SrFe2As2 and BaFe2As2. The superconducting transition temperatures are up to 27 K in SrFe2As2 and 29 K in BaFe2As2, making these the highest pressure-induced superconducting materials discovered thus far.Comment: Accepted in Journal of Physics: Condensed Matte

The effects of a magnetic barrier and a nonmagnetic spacer in tunnel structures

The spin-polarized transport is investigated in a new type of magnetic tunnel junction which consists of two ferromagnetic electrodes separated by a magnetic barrier and a nonmagnetic metallic spacer. Based on the transfer matrix method and the nearly-free-electron-approximation the dependence of the tunnel magnetoresistance (TMR) and electron-spin polarization on the nonmagnetic layer thickness and the applied bias voltage are studied theoretically. The TMR and spin polarization show an oscillatory behavior as a function of the spacer thickness and the bias voltage. The oscillations originate from the quantum well states in the spacer, while the existence of the magnetic barrier gives rise to a strong spin polarization and high values of the TMR. Our results may be useful for the development of spin electronic devices based on coherent transport.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figure

Chemical Pressure and Physical Pressure in BaFe_2(As_{1-x}P_{x})_2

Measurements of the superconducting transition temperature, T_c, under hydrostatic pressure via bulk AC susceptibility were carried out on several concentrations of phosphorous substitution in BaFe_2(As_{1-x}P_x)_2. The pressure dependence of unsubstituted BaFe_2As_2, phosphorous concentration dependence of BaFe_2(As_{1-x}P_x)_2, as well as the pressure dependence of BaFe_2(As_{1-x}P_x)_2 all point towards an identical maximum T_c of 31 K. This demonstrates that phosphorous substitution and physical pressure result in similar superconducting phase diagrams, and that phosphorous substitution does not induce substantial impurity scattering.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, to be published in Journal of the Physical Society of Japa

Unusual microwave response and bulk conductivity of very thin fese0.3te0.7 films as a function of temperature

Results of X-band microwave surface impedance measurements of FeSe1-xTex very thin film are reported. The effective surface resistance shows appearance of peak at T less and near Tc when plotted as function of temperature. The authors suggests that the most well-reasoned explanation can be based on the idea of the changing orientation of the microwave magnetic field at a SN phase transition near the surface of a very thin film. The magnetic penetration depth exhibits a power-law behavior of delta lambda proportional to T with an exponent n = 2.4 at low temperatures, which is noticeably higher than in the published results on FeSe1-xTexsingle crystal. However the temperature dependence of the superfluid conductivity remains very different from the behavior described by the BCS theory. Experimental results are fitted very well by a two-gap model with delta1/kTc=0.43 and delta2/kTc=1.22,thus supporting s(+-)- wave symmetry. The rapid increase of the quasiparticle scattering time is obtained from the microwave impedance measurements.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figure

Anomalous He-Gas High-Pressure Studies on Superconducting LaO1-xFxFeAs

AC susceptibility measurements have been carried out on superconducting LaO1-xFxFeAs for x=0.07 and 0.14 under He-gas pressures to about 0.8 GPa. Not only do the measured values of dTc/dP differ substantially from those obtained in previous studies using other pressure media, but the Tc(P) dependences observed depend on the detailed pressure/temperature history of the sample. A sizeable sensitivity of Tc(P) to shear stresses provides a possible explanation

Development of an extrudable paste to build mycelium-bound composites

Mycelium-bound composites are promising materials for sustainable packaging, insulation, fashion, and architecture. However, moulding is the main fabrication process explored to date, strongly limiting the ability to design the complex shapes that could widen the range of applications. Extrusion is a facile and low energy-cost process that has not yet been explored for mycelium-bound composites with design freedom and structural properties. In this study, we combine cheap, easily and commonly available agricultural waste materials, bamboo microfibres, chitosan, and mycelium from Ganodermalucidum, to establish a composite mixture that is workable, extrudable and buildable. We study the impact of bamboo fibre size, chitosan concentration, pH and weight ratio of bamboo to chitosan to determine the optimum growth condition for the mycelium as well as high mechanical stiffness. The resulting materials have thus low energy costs, are sustainable and can be shaped easily. The developed composition is promising to further explore the use of mycelium-bound materials for structural applications using agricultural waste

Exact Histogram Specification Optimized for Structural Similarity

An exact histogram specification (EHS) method modifies its input image to have a specified histogram. Applications of EHS include image (contrast) enhancement (e.g., by histogram equalization) and histogram watermarking. Performing EHS on an image, however, reduces its visual quality. Starting from the output of a generic EHS method, we maximize the structural similarity index (SSIM) between the original image (before EHS) and the result of EHS iteratively. Essential in this process is the computationally simple and accurate formula we derive for SSIM gradient. As it is based on gradient ascent, the proposed EHS always converges. Experimental results confirm that while obtaining the histogram exactly as specified, the proposed method invariably outperforms the existing methods in terms of visual quality of the result. The computational complexity of the proposed method is shown to be of the same order as that of the existing methods. Index terms: histogram modification, histogram equalization, optimization for perceptual visual quality, structural similarity gradient ascent, histogram watermarking, contrast enhancement

Antiferromagnetism of SrFe2As2 studied by Single-Crystal 75As-NMR

We report results of 75As nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) experiments on a self-flux grown high-quality single crystal of SrFe2As2. The NMR spectra clearly show sharp first-order antiferromagnetic (AF) and structural transitions occurring simultaneously. The behavior in the vicinity of the transition is compared with our previous study on BaFe2As2. No significant difference was observed in the temperature dependence of the static quantities such as the AF splitting and electric quadrupole splitting. However, the results of the NMR relaxation rate revealed difference in the dynamical spin fluctuations. The stripe-type AF fluctuations in the paramagnetic state appear to be more anisotropic in BaFe2As2 than in SrFe2As2.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures; discussion revised; accepted for publication in J. Phys. Soc. Jp