Materials Science and Application

The basis for the creation of new materials is the understanding of the relationship between the composition, structure, procession and properties of a compound. A material of the same elemental composition but with different structure has different properties, such as graphite, diamond, fullerene or graphene. A significant number of samples studied in the Ginzburg Center (as a rule, quantum materials) were synthesized in our group. In order to create a new material, the stability of the desired multicomponent compound is first assessed using theoretical methods, a comprehensive analysis of the best synthesis route to obtain the compound, which is then investigated by various methods to identify the relationship between composition, structure and properties. Once the relationship is determined, improvements in the desired properties can be achieved and the potential for future applications can be outlined.

The vast majority of the currently known compounds were obtained back in the 20^th century, as these compounds are stable in air and do not degrade. Some of the compounds were obtained but not investigated, because there were no opportunities to study the materials in a protective atmosphere. Recently, many attractive compounds have been discovered, which, for example, have a nontrivial topology of the Fermi surface, but are sensitive to air and degrade even with a short exposure. Therefore, it is now urgent to use protective media and special equipment – hermetic glove boxes with high-purity inert atmosphere, to work with such samples, which allows to dramatically expand the range of synthesized materials with different properties. The Lab has developed a large expertise in working with sensitive samples in an inert atmosphere, including the synthesis and investigation of compounds without contact with air.

Area of expertise

1. Synthesis of new materials, including superconductors and materials with non-trivial topology

2. Crystal growth by modified Bridgman method and high-temperature flux technique

3. Design and development of mechanochemical synthesis techniques and mechanical alloying

4. X-ray diffraction studies of new compounds and determination of phase composition

5. Scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis and diffraction of backscattered electrons

6. Applied research in the field of technical superconductivity

Eqipment

1. Two pieces of twinned glove boxes with high-purity argon atmosphere with analytical balances, hydraulic press and digital microscope for sample disassembly and mounting.

2. Vacuumable glove box with nitrogen atmosphere

3. Edmund Buhler MAM-1 argon arc melting unit

4. Retsch Cryomill Vibrating mill

5. Fritsch Pulverisette 7 Premium Line and Powteq BM6 Pro planetary mills

6. Various furnaces for crystal synthesis and growth, including tube furnace up to 1700°C, tube furnace with a rotary furnace, muffle furnaces up to 1250°C with various gas and vacuum capabilities

7. Hydraulic press up to 40 tons

8. High temperature centrifuge for melt decanting

9. Optical zone melting furnace up to 2200°C for tagless growth of single crystals

10. Rigaku MiniFlex 600 powder diffractometer with inert atmosphere option

11. Tongda TD-5000 single crystal diffractometer with two-dimensional detector with sample temperature control unit of 100-300K

12. Single crystal diffractometer PAnalytical X’Pert Pro MRD

13. JEOL JSM-7001F scanning electron microscope with attachments for elemental analysis by energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS, EDX), electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) and cathodoluminescence (CL).

Main achievements

A lot of quantum materials have been synthesized and studied for the first time:

dozens of iron-based superconducting compounds, with a number of them for the first time – GdFeAsO, DyOFeAs, (Ca, Sm)FeAsF, Ba(Fe, Ni)₂As₂, Ba_1-xKFe₂As₂, etc.;
layered superconductors with antiferromagnetic ordering of atoms (EuRbFe₄As₄, EuCsFe₄As₄, EuFe₂As₂);
layered superconductors of new classes “1144” CaAFe₄As₄, SrAFe₄As₄, and “12442” ACa₂Fe₄As₄F₂, including iron-free BaAg_1.8Bi₂;
– quantum materials based on SnAs layers: superconductors SnAs, Sn₄As₃, NaSn₂As₂, topological insulator SrSn₂As₂, nontrivial antiferromagnetic material EuSn₂As₂;
alloys for superhydrides were synthesized.

Magnetic superconductor EuRbFe₄As₄ : (1-2) Observation of a superconducting energy gap at the Г point; (3) temperature dependence of the spectral density of Eu 4f electrons; (4) planar defects of RbFe₂As₂ in the structure.

A new technology for synthesizing superconducting compounds of complex composition by the so-called “mechanical alloying” method at low temperature has been developed. Superconducting compounds based on BaFe₂As₂ with electron and hole doping were synthesized using this technology. The optimal time of high-energy processing was established. The maximum amount of amorphous phase was obtained when the powder absorbed energy in the amount of 50-100 kJ/g. Bulk compounds BaFe₂As₂, SrFe₂As₂, (Ca, Sm)FeAsF, CaAFe₄As₄, SrAFe₄As₄, ACa₂Fe₄As₄F₂ and tin-based compounds NaSn₂As₂ SrSn₂As₂, EuSn₂As₂ were obtained by this technique. As a result of the process amorphous phases with homogeneous distribution of elements are formed.

(1) X-ray diffraction patterns of powders as a function of grinding time; (2) electron images of the material after grinding (a, b) and after annealing (c, d); (3) phase volumer as a function of absorbed energy; (4) superconducting transitions for various compounds obtained by mechanochemistry technique.

For the first time, superconducting wires and tapes based on model superconductor FeSe were fabricated using the powder-in-tube (PIT) method. It is shown that low-temperature heat treatment leads to improved contact between grains and a significant increase in the critical current density. The industrial technology of production of LTSC wires and tapes by drawing method is adapted for iron-based HTSC – sections (~100m) of single and multi-core wires based on superconductors BaFe_1.9Ni_0.1As₂, Ba_0.6Na_0.4Fe₂As₂, CaKFe₄As₄ were obtained.

Cross-sections of the obtained superconducting wires; three-dimensional diagrams of the superconducting state as a function of heat treatment time.

In the last 5 years

Participation in 23 International conferences

Guiding of 3 scientific grants and 5 research contracts

Maria D. Alien

MIPT student

Aleksey D. Kulik

MSU student | Laboratory assistant

Arina A. Zverintseva

MUCTR student

Ekaterina D. Zolkina

MUCTR student

Maria I. Sporkova

MUCTR student

Konstantin N. Okulov

MUCTR student

Alumni

D. S. Andreev

V. A. Vlasenko

D. R. Gizatulin

A. A. Lychagina

E. I. Maltsev

M. S. Meged

A. S. Medvedev

D. V. Semenok

Main publications

А. В. Садаков, А. С. Усольцев, В. А. Власенко, С. Ю. Гаврилкин, А. И. Шилов, К. С. Перваков, Е. О. Рахманов, И. В. Морозов, Рекордно высокая критическая температура среди висмутидов класса 122: случай BaAg_1.8Bi₂ со структурой моноклинно искаженного CaBe₂Ge₂, Письма в ЖЭТФ, том 121, вып. 1 (12), стр. 78-83 (2025). DOI: 10.31857/S0370274X25010128
I. V. Zhuvagin, V. A. Vlasenko, A. S. Usoltsev, A. A. Gippius, K. S. Pervakov, A. R. Prishchepa, V. A. Prudkoglyad, S. Yu. Gavrilkin, A. D. Denishchenko, A. V. Sadakov, Synthesis and properties of 12442-family superconductor, Pis’ma v ZhETF, vol. 120, iss. 4, pp. 286 – 287 (2024) DOI: 10.31857/S0370274X24080214
M. S. Sidelnikov, A. V. Palnichenko, K. S. Pervakov, V. A. Vlasenko, I. I. Zverkova,L. S. Uspenskaya, V. M. Pudalov, and L. Ya. Vinnikov, Direct Observation of Pinning of Abrikosov Vortices in a Specially Inhomogenious Crystal EuRbFe₄As₄, JETP Letters, Vol. 119, No. 7, pp. 523–528, 2024. DOI: 10.1134/S0021364024600514
A. V. Sadakov, A. A. Gippius, A. T. Daniyarkhodzhaev, A. V. Muratov, A. V. Kliushnik, O. A. Sobolevskiy, V. A. Vlasenko, A. I. Shilov, K. S. Pervakov, Multiband Superconductivity in KCa₂Fe₄As₄F₂, Pis’ma v ZhETF, vol. 119, iss. 2, pp. 118 – 119 (2024). DOI: 10.1134/S0021364023603676
Alena Degtyarenko, Vladimir Vlasenko, Tatiana Kuzmicheva, Kirill Pervakov, Sergei Gavrilkin, Aleksei Tsvetkov, Svetoslav Kuz’michev, Anisotropy of the critical current and Abrikosov vortices pinning in magnetic superconductor EuCsFe₄As₄, JETP Letters , Vol. 118, No. 11, pp. 855–860 (2023) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S002136402360338X
Andrey I. Shilov, Kirill S. Pervakov, Konstantin A. Lyssenko, Vladimir A. Vlasenko, Dmitri V. Efremov, Saicharan Aswartham, Sergey V. Simonov, Igor V. Morozov, and Andrei V. Shevelkov, Synthesis and crystal growth of novel layered bismuthides ATM₂Bi₂ (A=K, Rb, Cs; TM=Zn, Cd), electron-deficient compounds with the ThCr₂Si₂ structure, Z. Anorg. Allg. Chem. 2023, e202200298 (1 of 8) DOI: 10.1002/zaac.202200298
Vladimir A. Vlasenko, Alena Yu. Degtyarenko, Andrei I. Shilov, Alexey Yu. Tsvetkov, Lyudmila F. Kulikova, Alexey S. Medvedev and Kirill S. Pervakov, Phase Formation of Iron-Based Superconductors during Mechanical Alloying, Materials 2022, 15(23), 8438. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma15238438
K. S. Pervakov, L. F. Kulikova, A. Yu. Tsvetkov, and V. A. Vlasenko, Novel Iron-Based Superconductor Ca_0.5Sm_0.5FeAsF, Bulletin of the Lebedev Physics Institute, 2022, Vol. 49, No. 8, pp. 242–246. DOI: 10.3103/S106833562208005X
I. A. Golovchanskiy, N. N. Abramov,V. A. Vlasenko, K. Pervakov, I. V. Shchetinin , P. S. Dzhumaev, O. V. Emelyanova, D. S. Baranov , D. S. Kalashnikov, K. B. Polevoy, V. M. Pudalov , and V. S. Stolyarov, Antiferromagnetic resonances in twinned EuFe₂As₂ single crystals, Phys. Rev. B 106, 024412 (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.106.024412 Q2
T. K. Kim , K. S. Pervakov , D. V. Evtushinsky , S. W. Jung , G. Poelchen , K. Kummer , V. A. Vlasenko , A. V. Sadakov , A. S. Usoltsev, V. M. Pudalov , D. Roditchev, V. S. Stolyarov , D. V. Vyalikh, V. Borisov, R. Valentí, A. Ernst, S. V. Eremeev , and E. V. Chulkov, Electronic structure and coexistence of superconductivity with magnetism in RbEuFe₄As₄, PHYSICAL REVIEW B 103, 174517 (2021). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.103.174517
Alena Yu. Degtyarenko, Igor A. Karateev, Alexey V. Ovcharov , Vladimir A. Vlasenko and Kirill S. Pervakov, Synthesis and HRTEM Investigation of EuRbFe₄As₄ Superconductor, Nanomaterials 2022, 12, 3801. https://doi.org/10.3390/nano12213801
Vladimir Vlasenko, Andrey Sadakov, Taisiya Romanova, Sergey Gavrilkin, Alexey Dik, Oleg Sobolevskiy, Burhan Massalimov, Dmitrii Chareev, Alexander Vasiliev, Evgenii Maltsev and Tatiana Kuzmicheva, «Evolution of vortex matter, phase diagram and upper critical field in the FeSe_1-xS_x system», Supercond. Sci. Technol. 34 (2021) 035019 (9pp) https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6668/abd574
Vasily S. Stolyarov, Kirill S. Pervakov, Anna S. Astrakhantseva, Igor A. Golovchanskiy, Denis V. Vyalikh, Timur K. Kim, Sergey V. Eremeev, Vladimir A. Vlasenko, Vladimir M. Pudalov, Alexander A. Golubov, Eugene V. Chulkov, and Dimitri Roditchev, «Electronic Structures and Surface Reconstructions in Magnetic Superconductor RbEuFe₄As₄». J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 2020, 11, 21, 9393–9399 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.0c02711
Vladimir Vlasenko, Kirill Pervakov and Sergey Gavrilkin, «Vortex pinning and magnetic phase diagram of EuRbFe₄As₄ iron-based superconductor». 2020 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 33 084009 https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6668/ab9aa5
C. A. Marques, M. J. Neat, C. M. Yim, M. D. Watson, L. C. Rhodes, C. Heil, K. S. Pervakov, V. A. Vlasenko, V. M. Pudalov, A.V. Muratov, T. K. Kim, and P. Wahl , «Electronic structure and superconductivity of the non-centrosymmetric Sn₄As₃» 2020 New J. Phys. 22 063049 https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/ab890a
K.S.Pervakov, V.A.Vlasenko, «Synthesis of electron- and hole-doped bulk superconductors by mechanical alloying», Ceramics International, Volume 46, Issue 7, May 2020, Pages 8625-8630 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2019.12.095
Vladimir A. Vlasenko , Kirill S. Pervakov , Yuri F. Eltsev, Vladimir D. Berbentsev, Anastasiia S. Tsapleva, Pavel A. Lukyanov, Ildar M. Abdyukhanov, and Vladimir M. Pudalov, Critical Current and Microstructure of FeSe Wires and Tapes Prepared by PIT Method, IEEE Transactions on Applied Superconductivity PP(99):1-1 (2019) DOI: 10.1109/TASC.2019.2902362