We report on de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) and band-structure studies of the iridium-pnictide superconductor BaIr2P2 (Tc=2.1 K). The observed dHvA frequencies can be well understood by our band-structure calculations with two bands crossing the Fermi energy leading to a strongly corrugated Fermi-surface cylinder around the X point and a highly evolved, multiconnected Fermi surface extending over the whole Brillouin zone. The experimental effective masses are found to be considerably larger than the calculated band masses suggesting strong many-body interactions. Nevertheless, Tc remains only moderate in BaIr2P2 contrary to isostructural iron pnictides which probably is related to the largely different Fermi-surface topologies in these materials.

We report results of systematic de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) studies on Ce 1-xYb xCoIn 5 single crystals with varying Yb concentration. For x=0.1, the well-known Fermi surfaces and the heavy effective masses of CeCoIn 5 (x=0) have changed only slightly. We start to observe changes of the Fermi-surface topology at x=0.2 leading to a drastic reconstruction above x=0.55. At these concentrations, the effective masses are reduced considerably to values between 0.7 and 2.6 free electron masses. For both YbCoIn 5 and CeCoIn 5, the angular-resolved dHvA frequencies can be very well described by conventional density-functional theory calculations. Projection of the Bloch states onto atomic Yb-4f orbitals yields a 4f occupation of 13.7 electrons, in agreement with previous experimental results indicating an intermediate Yb valence of +2.3. © 2012 American Physical Society.

We report on a comprehensive de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) study of the iron pnictide LaFe2P2. Our extensive density-functional band-structure calculations can well explain the measured angular-dependent dHvA frequencies. As salient feature, we observe only one quasi-two-dimensional Fermi-surface sheet; i.e., a hole-like Fermi-surface cylinder around Γ, essential for s± pairing, is missing. In spite of considerable mass enhancements due to many-body effects, LaFe2P2 shows no superconductivity. This is likely caused by the absence of any nesting between electron and hole bands. © 2014 American Physical Society.

The search for neutrinoless double beta decay probes the fundamental properties of neutrinos, including whether or not the neutrino and antineutrino are distinct. Double beta detectors are large and expensive, so background reduction is essential for extracting the highest sensitivity. The identification, or 'tagging', of the $^{136}$Ba daughter atom from double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe provides a technique for eliminating backgrounds in the nEXO neutrinoless double beta decay experiment. The tagging scheme studied in this work utilizes a cryogenic probe to trap the barium atom in solid xenon, where the barium atom is tagged via fluorescence imaging in the solid xenon matrix. Here we demonstrate imaging and counting of individual atoms of barium in solid xenon by scanning a focused laser across a solid xenon matrix deposited on a sapphire window. When the laser sits on an individual atom, the fluorescence persists for $\sim$30~s before dropping abruptly to the background level, a clear confirmation of one-atom imaging. No barium fluorescence persists following evaporation of a barium deposit to a limit of $\leq$0.16\%. This is the first time that single atoms have been imaged in solid noble element. It establishes the basic principle of a barium tagging technique for nEXO.