• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.33-36
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• 2016

Suppression of the superconducting transition temperature ($T_c$) of NbN thin films in superconductor/ferromagnet multilayers has been investigated. Both superconducting NbN and ferromagnetic FeN layers were deposited on thermally oxidized Si substrate at room temperature by using reactive magnetron sputtering in an $Ar-N_2$ gas mixture. The thickness of FeN films was fixed at 20 nm, while the thickness of NbN films was varied from 3 nm to 90 nm. $T_c$ suppression was clearly observed in NbN layers up to 70 nm thickness when NbN layer was in proximity with FeN layer. For a given thickness of NbN layer, the magnitude of $T_c$ suppression was increased in the order of Si/FeN/NbN, Si/NbN/FeN, and Si/FeN/NbN/FeN structure. This result can be used to design a spin switch whose operation is based on the proximity effect between superconducting and ferromagnetic layers.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.28-31
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• 2018

Phase diagrams of electron- and hole-doped $Sr_2VO_3FeAs$ are investigated using Co and Mn substitution at Fe site. Metallic nature survives only for Co (electron) doping, not for Mn (hole) doping. The conductivity of $Sr_2VO_3(Fe,M)As$ (M=Mn,Co) is sensitive to the structural modification of FeAs microstructure rather than carrier doping. This finding implies that the FeAs layer plays a dominant role on the charge conduction, thus the $SrVO_3$ layers should be considered as an insulating block. Also, we found that the superconductivity is rapidly suppressed by both dopants. This result is different from the conventional behavior that superconductivity is induced by doping in the most of Fe pnictides. Our finding strongly supports the uniqueness of $Sr_2VO_3FeAs$ among the Fe pnictide superconductors.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.5-7
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• 2016

We present an experimental investigation of the superconducting transition temperatures, $T_c$, of superconductor/ferromagnet bilayers with varying the thickness of ferromagnetic layer. FeN was used for the ferromagnetic (F) layer, and NbN and Nb were used for the superconducting (S) layer. The results were obtained using three different-thickness series of the S layer of the S/F bilayers: NbN/FeN with NbN thickness, $d_{NbN}{\approx}9.3nm$ and $d_{NbN}{\approx}10nm$, and Nb/FeN with Nb thickness $d_{Nb}{\approx}15nm$. $T_c$ drops sharply with increasing thickness of the ferromagnetic layer, $d_{FeN}$, before maximal suppression of superconductivity at $d_{FeN}{\approx}6.3nm$ for $d_{NbN}{\approx}10nm$ and at $d_{FeN}{\approx}2.5nm$ for $d_{Nb}{\approx}15nm$, respectively. After shallow minimum of $T_c$, a weak $T_c$ oscillation was observed in NbN/FeN bilayers, but it was hardly observable in Nb/FeN bilayers.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.118-122
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• 2010

Electrical transport properties were measured on $SmFeAsO_{0.85}$ single crystals along the c-axis for various temperatures and magnetic fields. For the measurements a mesa structure was fabricated on the surface of the single crystals. Samples showed a metallic temperature dependence of resistance and current-voltage curves without hysteretic multiple branch splitting that is usually observed in tunneling Josephson junctions. In addition, in ab-planar magnetic fields, samples did not show the Fraunhofer-type field modulation of the critical current. All these features indicate that the c-axis transport characteristics of $SmFeAsO_{0.85}$ single crystals are explained by the anisotropic bulk superconductivity rather than Josephson tunneling.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.19 no.1
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• pp.1-4
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• 2017

Forefront ultrafast experimental techniques have recently proven their potential as new approaches to understand materials based on non-equilibrium dynamics in the time domain. The time domain approach is useful especially in disentangling complicated coupling among charge, spin and lattice degrees of freedom. Various ultrafast experiments on Fe-based superconductors have observed strong coherent oscillations of an $A_{1g}$ phonon mode of arsenic ions, which shows strong coupling to the electronic and magnetic states. This paper reviews the recent reports of ultrafast studies on Fe-based superconductor with a focus on the coherent oscillations. Experimental results with ultrashort light sources from the terahertz-infrared pulses to the hard X-rays from a free electron laser will be presented.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.1-4
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• 2023

Over the past decade, the exploration of high-temperature superconductivity and the discovery of a wide range of exotic superconducting states in Fe-based materials have propelled condensed matter physics research to new frontiers. These materials exhibit intriguing phenomena arising from their multiband electronic structure, strongly orbital-dependent effects, extremely small Fermi energy, electronic nematicity, and topological aspects. Among the various factors influencing their superconducting properties, high magnetic fields play a crucial role as a control knob capable of disrupting the subtle balance between the spin, charge, lattice, and orbital degrees of freedom, leading to the emergence of various exotic superconducting states. In this review, we provide an overview of the current understanding of the exotic superconducting states observed in Fe-based superconductors, with a particular focus on FeSe and Sr₂VO₃FeAs, under the influence of high magnetic fields.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.65-84
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• 2011

Study of superconductivity in layered iron-based materials was initiated in 2006 by Hosono's group, and boosted in 2008 by the superconducting transition temperature, $T_c$, of 26 K in $LaFeAsO_{1-X}F_X$. Since then, enormous researches have been done on the materials, with $T_c$ reaching as high as 55 K. Here, we review briefly experimental and theoretical results on atomic and electronic structures and magnetic and superconducting properties of FeAs-based superconductors and related compounds. We seek for clues for unconventional superconductivity in the materials.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.34 no.3
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• pp.912-916
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• 2013

The electronic structure of LaFeAsO was analyzed by tight-binding band calculation based upon the normal and shrunk lattices. A strong Fermi surface nesting was found in the normal LaFeAsO, while most of the nesting area was disappeared in the shrunk LaFeAsO. It was found, therefore, high pressure atmosphere is required to become a superconductor for LaFeAsO by suppressing the SDW (spin density wave) state through the disappearance of the Fermi surface nesting.

• Progress in Superconductivity and Cryogenics
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.26-30
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• 2014

We investigate the upper critical field anisotropy ${\Gamma}_H$ and the magnetic penetration depth anisotropy ${\Gamma}_{\lambda}$ of a high-quality $FeSe_{1-x}$ single crystal using angular dependent resistivity and torque magnetometry up to 14 T. High quality single crystals of $FeSe_{1-x}$ were successfully grown using $KCl-AlCl_3$ flux method, which shows a sharp superconducting transition at $T_C{\sim}9K$ and a high residual resistivity ratio of ~ 25. We found that the anisotropy ${\Gamma}_H$ near $T_C$ is a factor of two larger than found in the poor-quality crystals, indicating anisotropic 3D superconductivity of $FeSe_{1-x}$. Similar to the 1111-type Fe pnictides, the anisotropies ${\Gamma}_{\lambda}$ and ${\Gamma}_H$ show distinct temperature dependence; ${\Gamma}_H$ decreases but ${\Gamma}_{\lambda}$ increases with lowering temperature. These behaviors can be attributed to multi-band superconductivity, but different from the case of $MgB_2$. Our findings suggest that the opposite temperature dependence of ${\Gamma}_{\lambda}$ and ${\Gamma}_H$ is the common properties of Fe-based superconductors.

• Progress in Superconductivity
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.85-89
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• 2011

Using the density functional theory and its combination to the dynamical mean field theory (DMFT), we have studied the electronic and magnetic structures of Fe-based superconductors, $AFe_2As_2$ (A=Ca, Sr, Ba). Our results for the electronic structure agree well with existing angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) data. The temperature dependent magnetization has been calculated using DMFT, and the magnetic transition temperatures are reasonably consistent with the experimentally observed trend for three compounds.