Noise measurement near the transition region in YBa2Cu3O7- delta thin-film superconductor

Low-Frequency Dynamics of Strongly Correlated Electrons in (BEDT-TTF)2X Studied by Fluctuation Spectroscopy

Fluctuation spectroscopy measurements of quasi-two-dimensional organic charge-transfer salts (BEDT-TTF) 2 X are reviewed. In the past decade, the method has served as a new approach for studying the low-frequency dynamics of strongly correlated charge carriers in these materials. We review some basic aspects of electronic fluctuations in solids, and give an overview of selected problems where the analysis of 1 / f -type fluctuations and the corresponding slow dynamics provide a better understanding of the underlying physics. These examples are related to (1) an inhomogeneous current distribution due to phase separation and/or a percolative transition; (2) slow dynamics due to a glassy freezing either of structural degrees of freedom coupling to the electronic properties or (3) of the electrons themselves, e.g., when residing on a highly-frustrated crystal lattice, where slow and heterogeneous dynamics are key experimental properties for the vitrification process of a supercooled charge-liquid. Another example is (4), the near divergence and critical slowing down of charge carrier fluctuations at the finite-temperature critical endpoint of the Mott metal-insulator transition. Here also indications for a glassy freezing and temporal and spatial correlated dynamics are found. Mapping out the region of ergodicity breaking and understanding the influence of disorder on the temporal and spatial correlated fluctuations will be an important realm of future studies, as well as the fluctuation properties deep in the Mott or charge-ordered insulating states providing a connection to relaxor or ordered ferroelectric states studied by dielectric spectroscopy.

Magnetic-field induced crossover of superconducting percolation regimes in the layered organic Mott system kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu[N(CN) 2]Cl

Fluctuation spectroscopy is used to investigate the organic bandwidth-controlled Mott system kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)Cu[N(CN)(2)]Cl. We find evidence for percolative-type superconductivity in the spatially inhomogeneous coexistence region of antiferromagnetic insulating and superconducting states. When the superconducting transition is driven by a magnetic field, percolation seems to be dominated by instable superconducting clusters upon approaching T(c)(B) from above, before a "classical" type of percolation is resumed at low fields, dominated by the fractional change of superconducting clusters. The 1/f noise is resolved into Lorentzian spectra in the crossover region, where the action of an individual fluctuator is enhanced, pointing to a mesoscopic phase separation.