RESISTIVE UPPER CRITICAL FIELD OF SUPERCONDUCTING SPIN-LADDER Sr14-xCaxCu24O41
We report the resistive upper critical field Hc2(T) of the hole-doped two-leg ladder Sr 14-x Ca x Cu 24 O 41(x=12) single crystal, which becomes superconducting with Tc~5 K in a pressure range above ~3.0 GPa . Using a newly developed compact high-pressure cell, the magneto-transport measurements have been performed at temperatures down to ~140 mK under high pressure above 3.5 GPa. It is found that Hc2 (perpendicular to the ladder Cu 2 O 3 plane) increases anomalously as the temperature is decreased having an upward curvature and shows no saturation down to T/T c ~ 0.03. Also, its temperature dependence is found to resemble that of the high-Tc superconducting oxide Tl 2 Ba 2 CuO 6. This fact suggests that the anomalous behavior of Hc2 has a common origin between the ladders and the two-dimensional high-Tc superconducting oxides.