Superconducting and magneto-transport properties of BiS2 based superconductor PrO1-xFxBiS2 (x=0 to 0.9)

We report superconducting properties of PrO1-xFxBiS2 compounds, synthesized by the vacuum encapsulation technique. The synthesized PrO1-xFxBiS2 (x = 0.1, 0.3, 0.5, 0.7, and 0.9) samples are crystallized in a tetragonal P4/nmm space group. Both transport and DC magnetic susceptibility measurements showed bulk superconductivity below 4 K. The maximum T-c is obtained for x = 0.7 sample. Under applied magnetic field, both T-c(onset) and T-c (rho = 0) decrease to lower temperatures. We estimated highest upper critical field [H-c2(0)] for PrO0.3F0.7BiS2 sample to be above 4 T (Tesla). The thermally activated flux flow activation energy (U-0) is estimated 54.63 meV in 0.05 T field for PrO0.3F0.7BiS2 sample. Hall measurement results showed that electron charge carriers are the dominating ones in these compounds. Thermoelectric effects (Thermal conductivity and Seebeck coefficient) data suggest strong electron-electron correlations in this material. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.