MnBi2Te4/(Bi2Te3)n materials system has recently generated strong interest as a natural platform for realization of the quantum anomalous Hall (QAH) state. The system is magnetically much better ordered than substitutionally doped materials, however, the detrimental effects of certain disorders are becoming increasingly acknowledged. Here, from compiling structural, compositional, and magnetic metrics of disorder in ferromagnetic MnBi2Te4/(Bi2Te3)n it is found that migration of Mn between MnBi2Te4 septuple layers (SLs) and otherwise non-magnetic Bi2Te3 quintuple layers (QLs) has systemic consequences - it induces ferromagnetic coupling of Mn-depleted SLs with Mn-doped QLs, seen in ferromagnetic resonance as an acoustic and optical resonance mode of the two coupled spin subsystems. Even for a large SL separation (n ≳ 4 QLs) the structure cannot be considered as a stack of uncoupled two-dimensional layers. Angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and density functional theory studies show that Mn disorder within an SL causes delocalization of electron wave functions and a change of the surface band structure as compared to the ideal MnBi2Te4/(Bi2Te3)n. These findings highlight the critical importance of inter- and intra-SL disorder towards achieving new QAH platforms as well as exploring novel axion physics in intrinsic topological magnets.

The results of experimental studies of magnetic flux dynamics in finite-size superconductors, obtained using integral and local measurements methods, are presented. Local methods were aimed at clarifying the role of the demagnetizing factor in the dynamic formation of a complex magnetic structure of the critical state of hard superconductors. To understand the reasons for drastic transformation of the magnetic induction, we further analyzed the literature data on the visualization of flux dynamics in the presence of avalanches, obtained by magneto-optical methods. New features in the behavior of the magnetic flux during and after an avalanche were revealed and characterized: two stages in the formation of the magnetic induction distribution inside the avalanche region were established—homogeneous and heterogeneous filling with magnetic flux; the mechanism of inversion of the induction profile; velocity oscillations in the propagating magnetic flux front; transformation of the critical state band near the edge of the sample; and the role of the thermal effects and demagnetizing factor in the dissipative flux dynamics. The generalized information allowed us to present, within the framework of the Bean concept, a model of the transformation of the patterns of magnetic induction in the critical state and superconducting currents in a finite superconductor occurring as a result of flux avalanches in two different regimes—shielding and trapping of magnetic flux.

In this work we numerically modelled a periodic magnetic flux pattern which qualitatively reproduces the so-called sand avalanches scenario in type-II superconductors. To model these sand-pile patterns we consider a perturbation on the critical current which, as a first approximation, follows a periodic function which depends on the position.

We present first results of our microwave measurements of Ba1−xKxFe2As2 (with x = 0.34) single-crystal pnictide, using a cylindrical superconducting niobium microwave cavity, working at approximately 26.2 GHz in the TE011-mode. The measured samples, after initial magneto-optic tests of their uniformity, are cut and glued on a sapphire rod, whose temperature can be independently controlled between 5 K and 40 K. Microwave measurements are performed by a vector network analyzer in the reflection mode, i.e. the S11 component of the complex scattering matrix S is measured. The loaded quality factor QLs and the shift of the resonance position are measured during a temperature sweep, followed by calculating of the unloaded quality factor Q0s and the resonance frequencies fLs and f0s by means of the Kajfez procedure where the subscript "s" denotes the sample. The values of the superconducting penetration depth change δλL and of the surface resistance Rs are calculated approximating the single crystal sample by a flat cylindrical disk of appropriate size, based on a procedure described by Maier and Slater.

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