Comparative High Field Magneto-Transport of Rare Earth Oxypnictides with Maximum Transition Temperatures

TL;DR

This study investigates the magneto-transport properties of high-temperature rare earth oxypnictide superconductors under very high magnetic fields, revealing their electromagnetic characteristics and bridging understanding between different superconductor classes.

Contribution

It provides the first high-field magneto-transport measurements of rare earth oxypnictides with near-maximum transition temperatures, highlighting their unique electromagnetic and vortex properties.

Findings

Superconductors bridge gap between MgB₂ and YBaCu₃O₇-x in properties.

Resistivity, Hall coefficient, and critical fields characterized at high magnetic fields.

Data suggest similarities and differences with known high-temperature superconductors.

Abstract

The recent discovery of a new class of superconducting oxypnictides with high transition temperatures may have profound implications for understanding unconventional high-temperature superconductivity. Like the cuprates, the oxypnictides seem to manifest an interleaving of charge donor and superconducting layers emerging upon doping of an antiferromagnetic parent semi-metal. Here we report magneto-transport measurements of three rare earth (Re = La, Nd, Sm) oxypnicide compounds with the transition temperatures near the maximum reported to date, in very high DC and pulsed magnetic fields up to 45 and 54 T, respectively. Our resistivity, Hall coefficient and critical magnetic fields data suggest that these oxypnictide superconductors bridge the gap between MgB$_2$ and YBaCu$_3$O$_{7-x}$ as far as electromagnetic and vortex properties are concerned.