Reversal of the Upper Critical Field Anisotropy and Spin-Locked Superconductivity in K₂Cr₃As₃

Technical Report · Mon Feb 08 00:00:00 EST 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1237414· OSTI ID:1237414

Balakirev, Fedor Fedorovich ^[1]; Kong, T. ^[2]; Jaime, Marcelo ^[1]; McDonald, Ross David ^[1]; Mielke, Charles H. ^[1]; Gurevich, A. ^[3]; Canfield, P. C. ^[2]; Bud'ko, S. L. ^[2]

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1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
2. Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States); Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
3. Old Dominion Univ., Norfolk, VA (United States)

Recently, superconductivity in K₂Cr₃As₃ (T_c =6.1 K) was discovered. The crystalline lattice contains an array of weakly coupled, double well [(Cr₃As₃)^2-]_∞ linkages stretched along the c axis, suggesting the possibility of quasi-one-dimensional superconductivity. Moderately anisotropic upper critical field was revealed in single crystals, with very large initial slopes, dH^∥_c2 /dT=12 T/K along the Cr chains and dH^{perpendicular}_c2 /dT =7 T/K perpendicular to the chains. Given the ambiguity of conclusions based on the extrapolations of H_c2(T) measured near T_c to low temperatures, we performed high-field measurements of H_c2(T) on K₂Cr₃As₃ single crystals in pulsed magnetic fields which enabled us to reveal the full anisotropic H_c2(T) curves from T_c down to 600 mK.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE
• DOE Contract Number: AC52-06NA25396
• OSTI ID: 1237414
• Report Number(s): LA-UR-16-20714; TRN: US1600522
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
CRITICAL FIELD
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
MONOCRYSTALS
ANISOTROPY
TEMPERATURE RANGE 00-0013 K
EXTRAPOLATION
DIAGRAMS
PULSES
POTASSIUM COMPOUNDS
CHROMIUM ARSENIDES
High Magnetic Field Science