Relativistic Quantization of Cooper Pairs and Distributed Electrons in Rotating Superconductors

Relativistic time synchronization along closed integral lines maintains magnetic flux quantization independently from gravitation. All Fermi-volume electrons form time-averaged electromagnetic fields within rotating conductors, while Fermi-surface superelectrons enable flux quantization in SQUID experiments. Inertia is not related to instantaneous self-coherent states of the distributed electric charge and, therefore, the Cooper pair mass cannot be measured in principle from magnetic flux quantization. I dedicate this letter to Irina Boulyjenkova.     

Effects of Li Substitution in Bi-2223 Superconductors

The effects of Li substitution on the properties of high temperature superconductor Bi₁₇Pb_0.3Sr₂C₂Cu_3−x Li _x O _y were investigated. The samples were prepared by substituting Li (x=0.00–0.20) with changing ratios by a solid state reaction method. The samples were characterized by X-ray diffraction, DC electrical resistivity, AC magnetic susceptibility, and scanning electronic microscopy (SEM). The X-ray diffraction studies were done at room temperature and the lattice constants of the material were determined by indexing all the peaks observed. This study shows that there are two coexisting phases; high-T _c (2223) phase and low-T _c (2212) phase. The lattice structure of the material belongs to the orthorhombic unit cell. The volume fraction was estimated from the intensities of Bi-(2223) and Bi-(2212) phases. The sample with 20 wt% of added Li showed the higher volume fraction of Bi-(2223) phase formed (81%) compared to the other samples. The DC electrical resistivity of all the samples decreased as the wt% of Li increased. Both the onset critical temperatures T _c (onset) and zero electrical resistivity critical temperatures T _c (R=0) of the samples were determined from the DC electrical resistivity measurements. The observed value of the onset critical T _c (onset) temperature was 110 K agreeing well with the magnetic susceptibility measurements. We obtained T _c onset at 112 K from AC magnetic susceptibility measurements.      

The Effect of Fluorine on the Phase Formation and Properties of Tl-Based Superconductors

Fluorine was found to affect the phase formation and superconducting properties of Tl-based superconductors. By varying x in (Tl_0.5Pb_0.5)Sr_1.6Ba_0.4Ca₂Cu₃O_yF_x synthesized superconductors, an increase was found in the transition temperature and critical current density. These improvements in the superconducting properties are discussed in terms of partial substitution of fluorine into the oxygen sites which in turn affects the hole doping in this material. Structure, microstructure and elemental analysis by XRD, SEM and EDX techniques are reported; the latter of which shows the fluorine distribution.     

From Local Moment EPR in Superconductors to Nanoscale Ferromagnets

Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) in metals has contributed a lot to the understanding of the electronic structure and magnetic properties in dilute alloys as well as in concentrated ferromagnets. We recall some pioneering work of the Kazan group and others, studying local moment EPR in superconductors. An SNS Josephson junction has been used as a microwave generator and as an EPR detector at once. EPR was also used to study the Kondo effect in the EPR g-shift and linewidth. Moreover, the high sensitivity of EPR (down to 10¹⁰ spins) allows to study single atomic layers of ferromagnets below and above the Curie temperature T _C as well as the spin fluctuations at T _C. The in situ ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV) offers a unique possibility to study the interlayer exchange coupling (IEC) and spin dynamics of coupled ferromagnetic films. Furthermore, the magnetic resonance enables us to measure basic parameters of nanoscale magnets in absolute energy units (i.e., μeV/spin). The current status of the UHV-FMR in nanoscale ferromagnets will be discussed.     

Tunnelling in Organic Superconductors

We present a simple scheme for computing the full current-voltage characteristics for tunnelling experiments within the framework of the non-equilibrium Keldysh Green function formalism. This formalism is flexible enough to address different pairing symmetries combined with magnetic fields at arbitrary bias voltages. We show how to apply these results to probe for the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter in the Bechgaard salts using tunnelling experiments.     

Layered Superconductors in an External Magnetic Field

Presence of localized magnetic moments and inhomogeneites leads to an unconventional behavior of the upper critical field for layered superconductors. In addition, one can observe a large diamagnetic moment at H H _c2 and in the normal resistive state.     

Quasi-One-Dimensional Superconductors: From Weak to Strong Magnetic Field

We discuss the possible existence of a superconducting phase at high magnetic field in organic quasi-one-dimensional conductors. We consider in particular (i) the formation of a Larkin–Ovchinnikov–Fulde–Ferrell state, (ii) the role of a temperature-induced dimensional crossover occurring when the transverse coherence length _z (T) becomes of the order of the lattice spacing, and (iii) the effect of a magnetic-field-induced dimensional crossover resulting from the localization of the wave functions at high magnetic field. In the case of singlet spin pairing, only the combination of (i) and (iii) yields a picture consistent with recent experiments in the Bechgaard salts showing the existence of a high-field superconducting phase. We point out that the vortex lattice is expected to exhibit unusual characteristics at high magnetic field.     

Real and Marginal Isotope Effects in Cuprate Superconductors

We critically review recent and earlier results on isotope effects in cuprate superconductors and emphasize that the sample preparation and the isotope exchange and back exchange are crucial in understanding and interpreting the data. Only extremely careful preparation techniques yield reliable results and permit differentiation between real isotope effects and marginal ones. The former are substantial and highlight the lattice vibrational importance in cuprate superconductors.     

Level Statistics of Quasiparticles in Disordered Two-Dimensional Superconductors

We study level statistics in physical systems consisting of noninteracting quasiparticles in disordered superconductors that have neither time-reversal nor spin-rotation invariance. These systems are representatives of class D within the recent classification scheme of random matrix ensembles (RME). Different phase diagrams are exposed, which strongly depend on specific models of disorder. In the metallic regime the nearest neighbor spacing distribution P(s) in different models reproduces (with high accuracy) the Wigner surmise for the Gaussian unitary ensemble (GUE) expected in the presence of magnetic field whereas in the localized regime level repulsion is suppressed, reflecting only basic symmetries of the system and ignoring particle-hole symmetries.     

rf-SQUID Effect in Bulk Quaternary Borocarbide Superconductors

This paper reports observation of rf-SQUID effect due to natural grain boundary junctions in YNi₂B₂C (T _c 15.5 K), ErNi₂B₂C (T _c 11.5 K, T _N 6.5 K), and DyNi₂B₂C (T _c 6.5 K, T _N 11K), LuNi₂B₂C (T _c 16.5 K) and YPd₅B₃C_0.35 (T _c 23 K) bulk borocarbide superconductors. The observation of rf-SQUID effect due to natural grain boundary junctions in all the five borocarbide superconductors clearly indicates that natural grain boundary junctions in these superconductors behave as Josephson junctions, and this behavior of natural grain boundary junctions in the quaternary borocarbides appear to be universal in this class of superconductors. Observation of rf-SQUID effect in magnetic borocarbide superconductors (ErNi₂B₂C and DyNi₂B₂C) at 4.2 K also indicates that antiferromagnetic ordering does not destroy SQUID effect, as T _N > 4.2 K in both cases. Rapid increase in flux noise due to thermally activated flux hopping has been observed in all the SQUIDs as temperature approaches T _c.     

Characteristics of the Oxygen Function in High Tc Copper Oxide Superconductors

Comments on the studies of the oxygen functions in high Tc copper oxide superconductors and the effects of isotope were made. And the characteristics of the oxygen functions in high Tc copper oxide superconductors were discussed on the basis of the dual-body structure model of superconductors. It is pointed out that the characteristics of the oxygen functions in high Tc copper oxide superconductors are that they influence the crystal structure and the carriers density and participate in the electron phonons coupling.     

Thermodynamic Properties of High-Temperature Superconductors in the Pseudogap Regime

Experimental data extracted from thermodynamic measurements in underdoped high-temperature superconductors show significant deviations from the results predicted by the BCS theory. In these particular compounds, the anomalies observed in the superconducting phase are associated also to the presence of a pseudogap in their normal state. On the basis of a simple model, which treats the pseudogap phenomenologically, we performed a Ginzburg–Landau expansion to extract the main properties of the superconducting phase. Our results for the specific-heat-coefficient jump at the transition point, (T _c), coherence length, T(T), and penetration depth, (T), qualitatively recover the experimental data.     

Organic Superconductors as Stages for Exploration of Superconductivity in High Magnetic Fields

The low dimensionality of organic superconductors leads to pronounced anisotropy in the upper critical field. In the vicinity of the field direction parallel to the superconducting plane, the critical field shoots out due to the suppression of the orbital pair-breaking effect. Organic superconductors are suitable for the study of the high-field state related to the spin effect under an aligned field, since they are of a high crystalline quality. The reported experimental results covering the behavior at low temperatures are reviewed first, and the breakthrough of the BCS Pauli paramagnetic limit is discussed. The potential of the low-dimensional organic superconductor for study of the effect of electronic spectrum quantization is argued.     

The Effect of the Phase Separation in the Phase Diagram of Cuprate Superconductors

We show that the main features of the cuprates superconductors phase diagram can be derived considering the disorder as a key property of these materials. Our basic point is that the high pseudogap line is an onset of phase separation which generates compounds made up of regions with distinct doping levels. We calculate how this continuous temperature dependent phase separation process occurs in high critical temperature superconductors (HTSC) using the Cahn–Hilliard approach. Calculations with the BdG approach and an analysis of the local density of states (LDOS), yield good agreement with the measured values of T ^* and T _c . This work has been partially supported by CAPES, CNPq and CNPq-Faperj Pronex E-26/171.168/2003.     

Calculation of the Critical Field and the Nernst Effect in Cuprate Superconductors

A recent experiment which measured the Nernst effect, the diamagnetic signal and the H _c2 field was interpreted as a support to the scenario which the pseudogap has the pair condensate without long-range phase coherence. We present here calculations which qualitatively reproduces the onset of the Nernst signal temperature T _ν (ρ) and T _c (ρ) as function of the doping level ρ. Together with our previous calculations to the magnetization and H _c2, we conclude that the phase separation scenario supports also the new Nernst effect experiments. This work has been partially supported by CAPES and CNPq.     

On The Theory of Isotope-effect in the d-wave Superconductors

The isotope-effect in a two-dimensional model of the d-wave phonon-exchange superconductor is studied. It is shown that the mean-field critical temperature, the Berezinskii–Kosterlitz–Thouless critical temperature and the superconducting gap strongly depend on the phonon frequency only in some range of the model parameters. These dependencies have different from the BCS theory forms. A qualitative comparison of the results with experimental data on some high-temperature superconductors is made. In particular, it is shown that the isotope-effect is significant in the case of strong electron–phonon coupling, when the phonon frequency is small compared to the free electron bandwidth.     

Admixture of an s-Wave Component to the d-Wave Gap Symmetry in High-Temperature Superconductors

Neutron crystal-field spectroscopy experiments in the Y- and La-type high-temperature superconductors HoBa₂Cu₃O_6.56, HoBa₂Cu₄O₈, and La_1.81Sr_0.15Ho_0.04- CuO₄ are reviewed. By this bulk-sensitive technique, information on the gap function is obtained from the relaxation behavior of crystal-field transitions associated with the Ho³⁺ ions which sit as local probes close to the superconducting copper-oxide planes. The relaxation data exhibit a peculiar change from a convex to a concave shape between the superconducting transition temperature T _c and the pseudogap temperature T ^* which can only be modeled satisfactorily if the gap function of predominantly d-wave symmetry includes an s-wave component of the order of 20–25%, independent of the doping level. Moreover, our results are compatible with an unusual temperature dependence of the gap function in the pseudogap region (T _c≤T≤T ^*), i.e., a break up of the Fermi surface into disconnected arcs.     

Pressure Effect in High-Temperature Superconductors and Fullerides

The explanation for the pressure effect in high-temperature superconductors and fullerides is offered. Besides the dependence of the pressure derivative of the critical temperature T _c on doping, the direct dependence of T _c on pressure and the universal dependence of the relative change of T _c ^max–T _c with pressure are obtained for high-temperature superconductors. The unity of the model of the pressure effect in high-temperature superconductors and fullerides is justified. The dependence of T _c on the lattice constant and the connection between the pressure effect and the chemical pressure effect in fullerides are discussed.     

Microwave Nonlinearities in High-Tc Superconductors: The Truth Is out There

This paper discusses some of the major experimental features of microwave nonlinearity in high temperature superconductors, both intrinsic and extrinsic. The case is made for solving the problem of extrinsic nonlinearity through the use of localized measurements of microwave surface impedance and electromagnetic fields. Along these lines, a brief introduction is given to our work on scanning near-field microwave microscopy.