Pressure dependence of superconductivity in low- and high-T-c phases of (NH3)(y)NaxFeSe

We prepared two superconducting phases, which are called “low-Tc phase” and “high-Tc phase” of (NH3)yNaxFeSe showing Tc’s of 35 and 44 K, respectively, at ambient pressure, and studied the superconducting behavior and structure of each phase under pressure. The Tc of the 35 K at ambient pressure rapidly decreases with increasing pressure up to 10 GPa, and it remains unchanged up to 22 GPa. Finally, superconductivity was not observed down to 1.4 K at 29 GPa, i.e., Tc < 1.4K. The Tc of the 44 K phase also shows a monotonic decrease up to 15 GPa and it weakly decreases up to 25 GPa. These behaviors suggest no pressure-driven high-Tc phase (called “SC-II”) between 0 and 25 GPa for the low-Tc and high-Tc phases of (NH3)yNaxFeSe, differing from the behavior of (NH3)yCsxFeSe,which has a pressure-driven high-Tc phase (SC-II) in addition to the superconducting phase (SC-I) observed at ambient and low pressures. The Tc-c phase diagram for both low-Tc and high-Tc phases shows that the Tc can be linearly scaled with c (or FeSe plane spacing), where c is a lattice constant. The reason why a pressure-driven high-Tc phase (SC-II) was found for neither low-Tc nor high-Tc phases of (NH3)yNaxFeSe is fully discussed, suggesting a critical c value as the key to forming the pressure-driven high-Tc phase (SC-II). Finally, the precise Tc-c phase diagram is depicted using the data obtained thus far from FeSe codoped with a metal and NH3 or amine, indicating two distinct Tc-c lines below c = 17.5A° .

This is an article published by American Physical Society

This study was partly supported by Grants-in-Aid (26105004 and 26400361) from MEXT, by JST ACT-C Grant No. JPMJCR12YW, Japan, and by the Program for Promoting the Enhancement of Research Universities.