Electron Transport in Diborides: Observation of Superconductivity in ZrB2

We report on syntheses and electron transport properties of polycrystalline samples of diborides (AB2) with different transition metals atoms (A=Zr,Nb,Ta). The temperature dependence of resistivity, \rho(T), and ac susceptibility of these samples reveal superconducting transition of ZrB2 with Tc=5.5 K, while NbB2 and TaB2 have been observed nonsuperconducting up to 0.37 K. Hc2(T) is linear in temperature below Tc, leading to a rather low Hc2(0)= 0.1 T. At T close to Tc, Hc2(T) demonstrates a downward curvature. We conclude that these diborides as well as MgB2 samples behaves like a simple metals in the normal state with usual Bloch-Gr\"uneisen temperature dependence of resistivity and with Debye temperatures: 280 K, 460 K and 440 K, for ZrB2, NbB2 and MgB2, respectively, rather than T^2 and T^3 as previously reported for MgB2.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX, 4 figure

Observation of superluminal geometrical resonances in Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x intrinsic Josephson junctions

We study Fiske steps in small Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+x mesa structures, containing only few stacked intrinsic Josephson junctions. Careful alignment of magnetic field prevents penetration of Abrikosov vortices and facilitates observation of a large variety of high quality geometrical resonances, including superluminal with velocities larger than the slowest velocity of electromagnetic waves. A small number of junctions limits the number of resonant modes and allows accurate identification of modes and velocities. It is shown that superluminal geometrical resonances can be excited by subluminal fluxon motion and that flux-flow itself becomes superluminal at high magnetic fields. We argue that observation of high-quality superluminal geometrical resonances is crucial for realization of the coherent flux-flow oscillator in the THz frequency range

Effective attraction between oscillating electrons in a plasmoid via acoustic waves exchange

We consider the effective interaction between electrons due to the exchange of virtual acoustic waves in a low temperature plasma. Electrons are supposed to participate in rapid radial oscillations forming a spherically symmetric plasma structure. We show that under certain conditions this effective interaction can result in the attraction between oscillating electrons and can be important for the dynamics of a plasmoid. Some possible applications of the obtained results to the theory of natural long-lived plasma structures are also discussed.Comment: 14 pages in LaTeX2e, two columns, 3 eps figures; minimal changes, some typos are corrected; version published on-line in Proc. R. Soc.