Helimagnetic Structure and Heavy-Fermion-Like Behavior in the Vicinity of the Quantum Critical Point in Mn_{3}P.

Antiferromagnet Mn_{3}P with Neel temperature T_{N}=30 K is composed of Mn tetrahedrons and zigzag chains formed by three inequivalent Mn sites. Due to the nearly frustrated lattice with many short Mn-Mn bonds, competition of the exchange interactions is expected. We here investigate the magnetic structure and physical properties including pressure effect in single crystals of this material, and reveal a complex yet well-ordered helimagnetic structure. The itinerant character of this materials is strong, and the ordered state with small magnetic moments is easily suppressed under pressure, exhibiting a quantum critical point at ∼1.6 GPa. The remarkable mass renormalization, even in the ordered state, and an incoherent-coherent crossover in the low-temperature region, characterize an unusual electronic state in Mn_{3}P, which is most likely effected by the underlying frustration effect.

Detection of an unconventional superconducting phase in the vicinity of the strong first-order magnetic transition in CrAs using (75)As-nuclear quadrupole resonance.

Pressure-induced superconductivity was recently discovered in the binary helimagnet CrAs. We report the results of measurements of nuclear quadrupole resonance for CrAs under pressure. In the vicinity of the critical pressure P(c) between the helimagnetic (HM) and paramagnetic (PM) phases, a phase separation is observed. The large internal field remaining in the phase-separated HM state indicates that the HM phase disappears through a strong first-order transition. This indicates the absence of a quantum critical point in CrAs; however, the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate 1/T(1) reveals that substantial magnetic fluctuations are present in the PM state. The absence of a coherence effect in 1/T(1) in the superconducting state provides evidence that CrAs is the first Cr-based unconventional superconductor.

Magnetic excitations in iron chalcogenide superconductors.

Nuclear magnetic resonance and neutron scattering experiments in iron chalcogenide superconductors are reviewed to make a survey of the magnetic excitations in FeSe, FeSe1-x Te x and alkali-metal-doped Ax Fe2-y Se2 (A = K, Rb, Cs, etc). In FeSe, the intimate relationship between the spin fluctuations and superconductivity can be seen universally for the variations in the off-stoichiometry, the Co-substitution and applied pressure. The isovalent compound FeTe has a magnetic ordering with different wave vector from that of other Fe-based magnetic materials. The transition temperature Tc of FeSe increases with Te substitution in FeSe1-x Te x with small x, and decreases in the vicinity of the end member FeTe. The spin fluctuations are drastically modified by the Te substitution. In the vicinity of the end member FeTe, the low-energy part of the spin fluctuation is dominated by the wave vector of the ordered phase of FeTe; however, the reduction of Tc shows that it does not support superconductivity. The presence of same wave vector as that of other Fe-based superconductors in FeSe1-x Te x and the observation of the resonance mode demonstrate that FeSe1-x Te x belongs to the same group as most of other Fe-based superconductors in the entire range of x, where superconductivity is mediated by the spin fluctuations whose wave vector is the same as the nesting vector between the hole pockets and the electron pockets. On the other hand, the spin fluctuations differ for alkali-metal-doped Ax Fe2-y Se2 and FeSe or other Fe-based superconductors in their wave vector and strength in the low-energy part, most likely because of the different Fermi surfaces. The resonance mode with different wave vector suggests that Ax Fe2-y Se2 has an exceptional superconducting symmetry among Fe-based superconductors.