Friday, August 3, 2012

1208.0311 (Daigorou Hirai et al.)

The emergence of superconductivity in BaNi2(Ge1-xPx)2 at a structural
instability
   [PDF]

Daigorou Hirai, F. von Rohr, R. J. Cava
The physical properties and structural evolution of the 122-type solid solution BaNi2(Ge1-xPx)2 are reported. The in-plane X-X (X = Ge1-xPx) dimer formation present in the end member BaNi2Ge2, which results in a structural transition to orthorhombic symmetry, is completely suppressed to zero temperature on P substitution near x = 0.7, and a dome-shape superconducting phase with a maximum Tc = 2.9 K emerges. Clear indications of phonon softening and enhanced electron-phonon coupling are observed at the composition of the structural instability. Our findings show that dimer breaking offers new possibilities as a tuning parameter of superconductivity.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.0311

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