Giant thermoelectric power factor in ultrathin FeSe superconductor.

The thermoelectric effect is attracting a renewed interest as a concept for energy harvesting technologies. Nanomaterials have been considered a key to realize efficient thermoelectric conversions owing to the low dimensional charge and phonon transports. In this regard, recently emerging two-dimensional materials could be promising candidates with novel thermoelectric functionalities. Here we report that FeSe ultrathin films, a high-Tc superconductor (Tc; superconducting transition temperature), exhibit superior thermoelectric responses. With decreasing thickness d, the electrical conductivity increases accompanying the emergence of high-Tc superconductivity; unexpectedly, the Seebeck coefficient α shows a concomitant increase as a result of the appearance of two-dimensional natures. When d is reduced down to ~1 nm, the thermoelectric power factor at 50 K and room temperature reach unprecedented values as high as 13,000 and 260 µW cm-1 K-2, respectively. The large thermoelectric effect in high Tc superconductors indicates the high potential of two-dimensional layered materials towards multi-functionalization.

Novel Fe-Based Superconductor LaFe_{2}As_{2} in Comparison with Traditional Pnictides.

The recently discovered Fe-based superconductor (FeBS) LaFe_{2}As_{2} seems to break away from an established pattern that doping an FeBS beyond 0.2e/Fe destroys superconductivity. LaFe_{2}As_{2} has an apparent doping of 0.5e, yet superconducts at 12.1 K. Its Fermi surface bears no visual resemblance with the canonical FeBS fermiology. It also exhibits two phases, none magnetic and only one superconducting. We show that the difference between them nonetheless has a magnetic origin, the one featuring disordered moments, and the other locally nonmagnetic. We find that La there assumes an unusual valence of +2.6 to +2.7, so that the effective doping is reduced to 0.30-0.35e. A closer look reveals the same key elements: hole Fermi surfaces near Γ-Z and electron ones near the X-P lines, with the corresponding peak in susceptibility, and a strong tendency to stripe magnetism. The physics of LaFe_{2}As_{2} is thus more similar to the FeBS paradigm than hitherto appreciated.

Two-Dome Superconductivity in FeS Induced by a Lifshitz Transition.

Among iron chalcogenide superconductors, FeS can be viewed as a simple, highly compressed relative of FeSe without a nematic phase and with weaker electronic correlations. Under pressure, however, the superconductivity of stoichiometric FeS disappears and reappears, forming two domes. We perform electronic structure and spin fluctuation theory calculations for tetragonal FeS in order to analyze the nature of the superconducting order parameter. In the random phase approximation, we find a gap function with d-wave symmetry at ambient pressure, in agreement with several reports of a nodal superconducting order parameter in FeS. Our calculations show that, as a function of pressure, the superconducting pairing strength decreases until a Lifshitz transition takes place at 4.6 GPa. As a hole pocket with a large density of states appears at the Lifshitz transition, the gap symmetry is altered to sign-changing s wave. At the same time, the pairing strength is severely enhanced and increases up to a new maximum at 5.5 GPa. Therefore, our calculations naturally explain the occurrence of two superconducting domes in FeS.

π-electron S = ½ quantum spin-liquid state in an ionic polyaromatic hydrocarbon.

Molecular solids with cooperative electronic properties based purely on π electrons from carbon atoms offer a fertile ground in the search for exotic states of matter, including unconventional superconductivity and quantum magnetism. The field was ignited by reports of high-temperature superconductivity in materials obtained by the reaction of alkali metals with polyaromatic hydrocarbons, such as phenanthrene and picene, but the composition and structure of any compound in this family remained unknown. Here we isolate the binary caesium salts of phenanthrene, Cs(C14H10) and Cs2(C14H10), to show that they are multiorbital strongly correlated Mott insulators. Whereas Cs2(C14H10) is diamagnetic because of orbital polarization, Cs(C14H10) is a Heisenberg antiferromagnet with a gapped spin-liquid state that emerges from the coupled highly frustrated Δ-chain magnetic topology of the alternating-exchange spiral tubes of S = ½ (C14H10)•- radical anions. The absence of long-range magnetic order down to 1.8 K (T/J ≈ 0.02; J is the dominant exchange constant) renders the compound an excellent candidate for a spin-½ quantum-spin liquid (QSL) that arises purely from carbon π electrons.