Various kinds of energetic particles are irradiated into iron-based superconductors, and their effects on the critical current density (J c ) and vortex dynamics have been systematically studied. It is found that J c is enhanced and vortex dynamics is strongly suppressed by energetic particles having a sufficient energy deposition rate, similar to the case of high temperature cuprate superconductors. The enhancement of J c , in general, persists up to much higher irradiation doses than in cuprates. However, details of the effect of irradiation depend on the kind of ion species and their energies. Even with the same ions and energies, the effect is not universal for different kinds of iron-based superconductors. The correlated nature of defects created by heavy-ion irradiation is confirmed by the angular dependence of irreversible magnetization.

We show that by introducing isoelectronic iron (Fe) magnetic impurities and Beryllium (Be) double-donor atoms into InAs, it is possible to grow an n-type ferromagnetic semiconductor (FMS) with the ability to control ferromagnetism by both Fe and independent carrier doping by low-temperature molecular-beam epitaxy. We demonstrate that (In,Fe)As doped with electrons behaves as an n-type electron-induced FMS. This achievement opens the way to realize spin-devices such as spin light-emitting diodes or spin field-effect transistors, as well as helps to understand the mechanism of carrier-mediated ferromagnetism in FMSs.

In single crystals of 2H-NbSe2, we identify for the first time a crossover from a weak collective to a strong pinning regime in the vortex state which is not associated with the peak effect phenomenon. Instead, we find the crossover is associated with an anomalous history dependent magnetization response. In the dc magnetic field (Bdc)-temperature (T) vortex matter phase diagram we demarcate this pinning crossover boundary. We also delineate another boundary which separates the strong pinning region from a thermal fluctuation dominated regime, and find that a peak effect appears on this boundary.

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Abstract.We have prepared high-quality polycrystalline FeTe 0.5 Se 0.5 at temperature as low as 550°C . The transport critical current density evaluated by the current-voltage characteristics is over 700 A/cm 2 at 4.2 K under zero field, which is several times larger than FeTe 0.5 Se 0.5 superconducting wires. The critical current density estimated from magneto-optical images of flux penetration is also similar to this value. The upper critical field of the polycrystalline FeTe 0.5 Se 0.5 at T = 0 K estimated by Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg theory is 585 kOe, which is comparable to that of single crystals. This study gives some insight into how to improve the performance of FeTe 0.5 Se 0.5 superconducting wires.