Abstract
Single crystals of were successfully grown using a self-flux method and studied via structural, transport, and thermodynamic measurement techniques. The superconducting state properties between the two species are similar, with critical temperatures of 6.1 and 4.8 K in and , respectively. However, the emergence of a strong normal state electronic anisotropy in suggests a unique electronic tuning parameter is coupled to the interchain spacing in the structure, which increases with alkali-metal ionic size while the one-dimensional chain structure itself remains essentially unchanged. Together with dramatic enhancements in both conductivity and magnetoresistance (MR), the appearance of a strong anisotropy in the MR of is consistent with the proposed quasi-one-dimensional character of band structure and its evolution with alkali-metal species in this new family of superconductors.
1 More- Received 28 May 2015
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.020508
©2015 American Physical Society