Optical properties of organic superconductor k-(BETS)2-iron tetrabromide

kappa-(BETS)2FeBr4 is a quasi-2D charge transfer organic metal with interesting electronic and magnetic properties. It undergoes a transition to an antiferromagnetic (AF) state at ambient pressure at the Neel temperature (TN) = 2.5 K, as well as to a superconducting (SC) state at 1.1 K [1].;This work presents an investigation of how the low frequency electromagnetic response is affected by the antiferromagnetic and superconducting states, as well as the onset of strong correlation. The location of the easy axis of three samples was determined and polarized thermal reflectance measurements of these kappa-(BETS)2FeBr4 samples oriented with their vertical axis along the a- and c axes were then carried out using a 3He refrigerator cryostat and a Martin-Puplett type polarizing interferometer at various temperatures (T = 0.5 K, 1.4 K, 1.9 K, 2.8 K) above and below the superconducting state and/or antiferromagnetic state.;Comparison of the SC state to the normal state along the a- and c-axes indicates a rising thermal reflectance at low frequencies (below 10 cm-1) which may be a manifestation of the superconducting energy gap. A dip-like feature is detected at low frequencies (below 15 cm-1) in the thermal reflectance plots which probe the antiferromagnetic state along the two axes, and may be due to the opening of a gap in the excitation spectrum as a result of the antiferromagnetism.;In another set of experiments, thermal reflectance measurements carried out along the a- and c-axes at high temperatures (10 K-80 K) show that the reflectivity decreases with increasing temperature to 60 K (the coherence temperature) above which it increases again. Comparison of the thermal reflectance plots along the a- and c-axes at higher temperatures reveals an anisotropy between these two axes.;The temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity shows a small decrease at TN indicating the resistivity drops as a result of the onset of the ordering of Fe3+ spins. A sharp drop in the resistivity at 1.1 K is due to its superconducting transition. The temperature dependence of the susceptibility indicates an antiferromagnetic spin structure with the easy axis parallel to the a-axis. The specific heat at zero-field shows a large peak at about 2-4 K, which corresponds to the antiferromagnetic transition temperature (TN) and no anomaly is observed around the superconducting transition temperature (1.1 K) demonstrating that the magnetically ordered state is not destroyed by the appearance of another phase transition (the superconducting transition) in the pi-electron layers [1], [2].;The Hagen-Rubens thermal reflectance plots corresponding to an average over the ac-plane were calculated using experimental literature resistivity values. Comparison of the Hagen-Rubens plots with the experimental thermal reflectance along the a- and c-axes indicates that both exhibit the general trend of a decrease in thermal reductance with increasing frequency, however the calculated Hagen-Rubens thermal reflectance at different temperatures is much lower than the experimental curves.