High-Tc Phase of PrO0.5F0.5BiS2 single crystal induced by uniaxial pressure

TL;DR

This study shows that applying uniaxial pressure to PrO0.5F0.5BiS2 single crystals induces a transition from a low-temperature superconducting phase to a higher-temperature phase, with increased three-dimensionality and altered anisotropy.

Contribution

It reveals that uniaxial pressure can significantly enhance Tc and modify superconducting properties in PrO0.5F0.5BiS2, demonstrating a new method to control superconductivity in this material.

Findings

Pressure induces a phase transition from 3.5 K to 8.7 K.

Superconducting anisotropy decreases from 20 to 9.3.

c-axis coherence length increases from 0.56 nm to 0.71 nm.

Abstract

We demonstrated a pressure-induced phase transition from a low-Tc phase (3.5 K) to a high-Tc phase (8.7 K) in single crystalline PrO0.5F0.5BiS2. The high-Tc phase is easily observed even at 0.7 GPa by uniaxial pressure obtained from a geometric effect of a single crystal with an extremely-thin thickness. For this phase transition, superconducting anisotropy and the coherence length along the c axis change from {\gamma} = 20 to 9.3 and from {\xi}c = 0.56 to 0.71 nm respectively. It is suggested that a shrinkage in the c lattice constant by applied uniaxial pressure enhances the three dimensionality in the superconducting state.