55 research outputs found
Signatures of filamentary superconductivity in antiferromagnetic BaFe2As2 single crystals
In this paper, we present ac susceptibility and magnetotransport measurements on aged single crystals of the ferropnictide parent compound, BaFe2As2 with a paramagnetic-to-antiferromagnetic transition temperature of 134 K. The ac susceptibility shows the clear onset of a partial diamagnetic response with an onset temperature, commensurate with a subtle downturn in resistivity at approximately 20 K. Below 20 K the magnetotransport shows in-plane anisotropy, magnetic-field history dependence and a hysteretic signature. Above 20 K the crystals show the widely reported high-field linear magnetoresistance. An enhanced noise signature in ac susceptibility is observed above 20 K, which varies in character with amplitude and frequency of the ac signal. The hysteresis in magnetoresistance and the observed sensitivity of the superconducting phase to the amplitude of the ac signal are indicative characteristics of granular or weakly linked filamentary superconductivity. These features taken together with the observed noise signature above suggests a link between the formation of the superconducting filamentary phase and the freezing of antiphase domain walls, known to exist in these materials
Superconducting properties in heavily overdoped Ba(Fe0.86Co0.14)2As2 single crystals
We report the intrinsic superconducting parameters in a heavily overdoped Ba(Fe1-xCox)(2)As-2 (x=0.14) single crystal and their influence in the resulting vortex dynamics. We find a bulk superconducting critical temperature of 9.8 K, magnetic penetration depth lambda(ab) (0)=660 +/- 50 nm, coherence length xi(ab) (0)=6.4 +/- 0.2 nm, and the upper critical field anisotropy gamma(T -> Tc) approximate to 3.7. The vortex phase diagram, in comparison with the optimally doped compound, presents a narrow collective creep regime. The intrinsic pinning energy plays an important role in the resulting vortex dynamics as compared with similar pinning landscape and comparable intrinsic thermal fluctuations. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.X1111Ysciescopu
Probing Local Variations of Superconductivity on the Surface of Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 Single Crystals
The spatially resolved electrical transport properties have been studied on
the surface of optimally-doped superconducting Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 single crystal
by using a four-probe scanning tunneling microscopy. While some non-uniform
contrast appears near the edge of the cleaved crystal, the scanning electron
microscopy (SEM) reveals mostly uniform contrast. For the regions that showed
uniform SEM contrast, a sharp superconducting transition at TC = 22.1 K has
been observed with a transition width (delta)Tc = 0.2 K. In the non-uniform
contrast region, TC is found to vary between 19.6 and 22.2 K with (delta)Tc
from 0.3 to 3.2 K. The wavelength dispersive x-ray spectroscopy reveals that Co
concentration remains 7.72% in the uniform region, but changes between 7.38%
and 7.62% in the non-uniform region. Thus the variations of superconductivity
are associated with local compositional change.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figure
New Fe-based superconductors: properties relevant for applications
Less than two years after the discovery of high temperature superconductivity
in oxypnictide LaFeAs(O,F) several families of superconductors based on Fe
layers (1111, 122, 11, 111) are available. They share several characteristics
with cuprate superconductors that compromise easy applications, such as the
layered structure, the small coherence length, and unconventional pairing, On
the other hand the Fe-based superconductors have metallic parent compounds, and
their electronic anisotropy is generally smaller and does not strongly depend
on the level of doping, the supposed order parameter symmetry is s wave, thus
in principle not so detrimental to current transmission across grain
boundaries. From the application point of view, the main efforts are still
devoted to investigate the superconducting properties, to distinguish intrinsic
from extrinsic behaviours and to compare the different families in order to
identify which one is the fittest for the quest for better and more practical
superconductors. The 1111 family shows the highest Tc, huge but also the most
anisotropic upper critical field and in-field, fan-shaped resistive transitions
reminiscent of those of cuprates, while the 122 family is much less anisotropic
with sharper resistive transitions as in low temperature superconductors, but
with about half the Tc of the 1111 compounds. An overview of the main
superconducting properties relevant to applications will be presented. Upper
critical field, electronic anisotropy parameter, intragranular and
intergranular critical current density will be discussed and compared, where
possible, across the Fe-based superconductor families
Advantageous grain boundaries in iron pnictide superconductors
High critical temperature superconductors have zero power consumption and
could be used to produce ideal electric power lines. The principal obstacle in
fabricating superconducting wires and tapes is grain boundaries-the
misalignment of crystalline orientations at grain boundaries, which is
unavoidable for polycrystals, largely deteriorates critical current density.
Here, we report that High critical temperature iron pnictide superconductors
have advantages over cuprates with respect to these grain boundary issues. The
transport properties through well-defined bicrystal grain boundary junctions
with various misorientation angles (thetaGB) were systematically investigated
for cobalt-doped BaFe2As2 (BaFe2As2:Co) epitaxial films fabricated on bicrystal
substrates. The critical current density through bicrystal grain boundary
(JcBGB) remained high (> 1 MA/cm2) and nearly constant up to a critical angle
thetac of ~9o, which is substantially larger than the thetac of ~5o for YBCO.
Even at thetaGB > thetac, the decay of JcBGB was much smaller than that of
YBCO.Comment: to appear in Nature Communication
Satellites and large doping- and temperature-dependence of electronic properties in hole-doped BaFe2As2
Over the last years, superconductivity has been discovered in several
families of iron-based compounds. Despite intense research, even basic
electronic properties of these materials, such as Fermi surfaces, effective
electron masses, or orbital characters are still subject to debate. Here, we
address an issue that has not been considered before, namely the consequences
of dynamical screening of the Coulomb interactions among Fe-d electrons. We
demonstrate its importance not only for correlation satellites seen in
photoemission spectroscopy, but also for the low-energy electronic structure.
From our analysis of the normal phase of BaFe2As2 emerges the picture of a
strongly correlated compound with strongly doping- and temperature-dependent
properties. In the hole overdoped regime, an incoherent metal is found, while
Fermi-liquid behavior is recovered in the undoped compound. At optimal doping,
the self-energy exhibits an unusual square-root energy dependence which leads
to strong band renormalizations near the Fermi level
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