Publication Date
2-1-2018
Department
Ames Laboratory; Physics and Astronomy; Materials Science and Engineering
Campus Units
Materials Science and Engineering, Physics and Astronomy, Ames Laboratory
OSTI ID+
1421577
Report Number
IS-J 9358
DOI
10.1103/PhysRevB.97.054511
Journal Title
Physical Review B
Volume Number
97
Issue Number
5
First Page
054511
Abstract
We present a thorough study of doping dependent magnetic hysteresis and relaxation characteristics in single crystals of ( B a 1 − x K x ) F e 2 A s 2 ( 0.18 ≤ x ≤ 1 ). The critical current density J c reaches maximum in the underdoped sample x = 0.26 and then decreases in the optimally doped and overdoped samples. Meanwhile, the magnetic relaxation rate S rapidly increases and the flux creep activation barrier U 0 sharply decreases in the overdoped sample x = 0.70 . These results suggest that vortex pinning is very strong in the underdoped regime, but it is greatly reduced in the optimally doped and overdoped regime. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) measurements reveal the existence of dislocations and inclusions in all three studied samples x = 0.38 , 0.46, and 0.65. An investigation of the paramagnetic Meissner effect (PME) suggests that spatial variations in T c become small in the samples x = 0.43 and 0.46, slightly above the optimal doping levels. Our results support that two types of pinning sources dominate the ( B a 1 − x K x ) F e 2 A s 2 crystals: (i) strong δl pinning, which results from the fluctuations in the mean free path l and δ T c pinning from the spatial variations in T c in the underdoped regime, and (ii) weak δ T c pinning in the optimally doped and overdoped regime.
DOE Contract Number(s)
AC02-07CH11358
Language
en
Department of Energy Subject Categories
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Publisher
Iowa State University Digital Repository, Ames IA (United States)
