Physical Properties of New Alkaline Earth Tantalum Sulfides

Transition-metal sulfides serve as an interesting class of compounds for comparison to transition-metal oxides. They also often demonstrate properties such as metal-insulator transitions, superconductivity, and magnetism. In this work, single crystals of CaTa₅S₁₀, Sr₃Ta₅S₁₀ and BaTa₁₀S₁₀ samples were synthesized via chemical vapor deposition. CaTa₅S₁₀, Sr₃Ta₅S₁₀ and BaTa₁₀S₁₀ superconduct at T_{c_onset} = 3.25 K, 3.8 K and 2.8 K, respectively. The magnetic properties, specific heat, electrical resistivity, structural analysis, and compositional analysis will be discussed.