Magnetic-field-induced superconductivity in a two-dimensional organic conductor

The application of a sufficiently strong magnetic field to a superconductor will, in general, destroy the superconducting state. Two mechanisms are responsible for this. The first is the Zeeman effect, which breaks apart the paired electrons if they are in a spin-singlet (but not a spin-triplet) sta...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Nature (London) 2001-04, Vol.410 (6831), p.908-910
Main Authors: Uji, S, Shinagawa, H, Terashima, T, Yakabe, T, Terai, Y, Tokumoto, M, Kobayashi, A, Tanaka, H, Kobayashi, H
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Condensed matter: electronic structure, electrical, magnetic, and optical properties
Conduction
Conductors (devices)
COPPER OXIDE
Copper oxides
Crystals
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTIVITY
ELECTRICAL CONDUCTORS
Exact sciences and technology
Humanities and Social Sciences
letter
MAGNETIC FIELD
Magnetic fields
Magnetism
Metals
multidisciplinary
Orbitals
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
Organic superconductors
OXIDES
Physics
Properties of type I and type II superconductors
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
SINGLE CRYSTALS
Superconducting materials (excluding high-tc compounds)
SUPERCONDUCTIVITY
SUPERCONDUCTORS
Temperature
Transition temperatures
Two dimensional
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Summary:The application of a sufficiently strong magnetic field to a superconductor will, in general, destroy the superconducting state. Two mechanisms are responsible for this. The first is the Zeeman effect, which breaks apart the paired electrons if they are in a spin-singlet (but not a spin-triplet) state. The second is the so-called 'orbital' effect, whereby the vortices penetrate into the superconductors and the energy gain due to the formation of the paired electrons is lost. For the case of layered, two-dimensional superconductors, such as the high-Tc copper oxides, the orbital effect is reduced when the applied magnetic field is parallel to the conducting layers. Here we report resistance and magnetic-torque experiments on single crystals of the quasi-two-dimensional organic conductor λ-(BETS)2FeCl4, where BETS is bis(ethylenedithio)tetraselenafulvalene. We find that for magnetic fields applied exactly parallel to the conducting layers of the crystals, superconductivity is induced for fields above 17 T at a temperature of 0.1 K. The resulting phase diagram indicates that the transition temperature increases with magnetic field, that is, the superconducting state is further stabilized with magnetic field.
ISSN:0028-0836
1476-4687
DOI:10.1038/35073531