Superconductivity at the Polar-Nonpolar Phase Boundary of SnP with an Unusual Valence State.

Structural, magnetic, and electrical characterizations reveal that SnP with an unusual valence state (nominally Sn^{3+}) undergoes a ferroelectriclike structural transition from a simple NaCl-type structure to a polar tetragonal structure at approximately 250 K at ambient pressure. First-principles calculations indicate that the experimentally observed tetragonal distortion enhances the charge transfer from Sn to P, thereby making the polar tetragonal phase energetically more stable than the nonpolar cubic phase. Hydrostatic pressure is found to promptly suppress the structural phase transition in SnP, leading to the emergence of bulk superconductivity in a phase-competitive manner. These findings suggest that control of ferroelectriclike instability in a metal can be a promising way for creating novel superconductors.

Emergence of a diffusive metal state with no magnetic order near the Mott transition in frustrated pyrochlore-type molybdates.

The electron-correlation driven metal-insulator (Mott) transition in pyrocholore-type R2Mo2O7(R being rare-earth-metal ions) is accompanied by the change of the magnetic state from ferromagnetic to spin glass due to the competing double-exchange and superexchange interactions on the frustrated lattice. By application of high pressures on the compounds with Mott criticality, however, a new unique paramagnetic metal phase is observed to show up with nearly temperature-independent high resistivity close to the Ioffe-Regel limit. A possible non-Fermi-liquid character of this anomalously diffuse metallic state is argued in terms of the extended double-exchange model with the magnetically frustrated local S=1/2 spins.

Manometer extension for high pressure measurement: nuclear quadrupole resonance study of Cu2O with a modified Bridgman anvil cell up to 10 GPa.

We report (63)Cu nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) measurement of Cu(2)O under pressure up to about 10 GPa at low temperatures. Because the lattice parameter of Cu(2)O changes with increasing pressure, the electric field gradient at the Cu site also changes correspondingly with pressure. This enables us to use the Cu(2)O as an in situ manometer for high pressure nuclear magnetic resonance/NQR up to about 9 GPa.

Enhancement of superconductivity and evidence of structural instability in intercalated graphite CaC6 under high pressure.

We measured the temperature dependent resistivity, varrho(T), of the intercalated graphite superconductor CaC6 as a function of pressure up to 16 GPa. We found a large linear increase of critical temperature, Tc, from the ambient pressure value 11.5 K up to 15.1 K, the largest value for intercalated graphite, at 7.5 GPa. At approximately 8 GPa, a jump of varrho and a sudden drop of Tc down to approximately 5 K indicates the occurrence of a phase transition. Our data analysis suggests that a pressure-induced phonon softening related to an in-plane Ca phonon mode is responsible for the Tc increase and that higher pressures greater, similar8 GPa lead to a structural transition into a new phase with a low Tc less, similar3 K.

Mott-Anderson transition controlled by a magnetic field in pyrochlore molybdate.

The pyrochlore molybdate Gd2MO2O7 locates near the phase boundary between the ferromagnetic-metallic and the spin-glass insulating state. This metal-insulator transition is governed on a large energy scale by the electron-correlation effect, while the geometrical frustration causes the random potential. The magnetic field can tune the randomness of the potential and control, under a suitable pressure, the continuous Mott-Anderson transition precisely. The critical exponent (mu = 1.04 +/- 0.1) of the Mott-Anderson transition has been determined for this ferromagnetic orbital-degenerate electron system.

Anomalous pressure dependence of the superconducting transition temperature of beta-pyrochlore AOs2O6 oxides.

High-pressure effects on the superconducting transitions of beta-pyrochlore oxide superconductors AOs(2)O(6) (A = Cs,Rb,K) are studied by measuring resistivity under high pressures up to 10 GPa. The superconducting transition temperature T(c) first increases with increasing pressure in every compound and then exhibits a broad maximum at 7.6 K (6 GPa), 8.2 K (2 GPa), and 10 K (0.6 GPa) for A = Cs, Rb, and K, respectively. Finally, the superconductivity is suppressed completely at a critical pressure near 7 GPa and 6 GPa for A = Rb and K and probably above 10 GPa for A = Cs. Characteristic changes in the coefficient A of the T(2) term in resistivity and residual resistivity are observed, both of which are synchronized with the corresponding change in T(c).

Evolution of quasiparticle properties in UGe(2) with hydrostatic pressure studied via the de Haas-van Alphen effect.

We report measurements of the de Haas-van Alphen effect in UGe (2) under hydrostatic pressures up to 17.6 kbar, exceeding the critical pressure P(c) for the suppression of ferromagnetism. A discontinuous change of the Fermi surface is found to occur across P(c). Substantially enhanced effective masses (approximately 40m(e)) are found near P(c) on both the ferromagnetic and the paramagnetic sides.