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Influence of Fe Buffer Layer on Co-Doped BaFe2As2Superconducting Thin Films
2015, Bonavolontà , C., de Lisio, C., Valentino, M., Laviano, F., Pepe, G.P., Kurth, F., Iida, K., Ichinose, A., Tsukada, I.
A systematic characterization of Co-doped BaFe2As2 (Ba-122) thin films has been carried out. Two samples were available, one grown on CaF2 substrate and the other on MgO with an Fe buffer layer. The goal was to investigate films’ magnetic and superconducting properties, their reciprocal interplay, and the role played by the Fe buffer layer in modifying them. Morphological characterization and Energy Dispersive X-ray analyses on the Fe-buffered sample demonstrate the presence of diffused Fe close to the Co-doped Ba-122 outer surface as well as irregular holes in the overlying superconducting film. These results account for hysteresis loops obtained with magneto-optic Kerr effect measurements and observed at both room and low temperatures. The magnetic pattern was visualized by magneto-optical imaging with an indicator film. Moreover, we investigated the onset of superconductivity through a measure of the superconducting energy gap. The latter is strictly related to the decay time of the excitation produced by an ultrashort laser pulse and has been determined in a pump-probe transient reflectivity experiment. A comparison of results relative to Co-doped Ba-122 thin films with and without Fe buffer layer is finally reported.
Temperature-dependent electric noise level in different iron-based superconductors
2014, Barone, C., Pagano, S., Bellingeri, E., Ferdeghini, C., Adamo, M., Sarnelli, E., Yokoyama, K., Kurth, F., Holzapfel, B, Iida, K.
The magnetic flux penetration into the melt-textured Y-Ba-Cu-O high temperature superconducting bulk magnets were precisely evaluated during and after the pulsed field magnetization processes operated at 30 K. The bulk magnets were carefully fabricated by the cold seeding method with use of a single and a pair of seed crystals composed of the Nd-Ba-Cu-O thin films. These seed crystals were put on the top surfaces of the precursors to let the large grains grow during the heat treatments. We observed the flux penetrations which occurred in the lower applied-field regions at around 3.1 T for the samples bearing the twin seeds than those of the single-seeded crystals at around 3.8 T. This means that the magnetic fluxes are capable of invading into the twin-seeded samples more easily than the single-seeds. It suggests that the anisotropic grain growths of parallel and normal to the rows of seed crystals affects the variations of Jc values with different distributions of the pinning centers, results in the preferential paths for the invading magnetic fluxes.
Selective mass enhancement close to the quantum critical point in BaFe2(As1−x P x )2
2017, Grinenko, V., Iida, K., Kurth, F., Efremov, D.V., Drechsler, S.-L., Cherniavskii, I., Morozov, I., Hänisch, J., Förster, T., Tarantini, C., Jaroszynski, J., Maiorov, B., Jaime, M., Yamamoto, A., Nakamura, I., Fujimoto, R., Hatano, T., Ikuta, H., Hühne, R.
A quantum critical point (QCP) is currently being conjectured for the BaFe2(As1−x P x )2 system at the critical value x c  ≈ 0.3. In the proximity of a QCP, all thermodynamic and transport properties are expected to scale with a single characteristic energy, given by the quantum fluctuations. Such a universal behavior has not, however, been found in the superconducting upper critical field Hc2. Here we report Hc2 data for epitaxial thin films extracted from the electrical resistance measured in very high magnetic fields up to 67 Tesla. Using a multi-band analysis we find that Hc2 is sensitive to the QCP, implying a significant charge carrier effective mass enhancement at the doping-induced QCP that is essentially band-dependent. Our results point to two qualitatively different groups of electrons in BaFe2(As1−x P x )2. The first one (possibly associated to hot spots or whole Fermi sheets) has a strong mass enhancement at the QCP, and the second one is insensitive to the QCP. The observed duality could also be present in many other quantum critical systems.
Investigation of the strain-sensitive superconducting transition of BaFe1.8Co0.2As2 thin films utilizing piezoelectric substrates
2014, Trommler, S., Hänisch, J., Iida, K., Kurth, F., Schultz, L., Holzapfel, B., Hühne, R.
The preparation of biaxially textured BaFe1.8Co0.2As2 thin films has been optimized on MgO single crystals and transfered to piezoelectric (001) Pb(Mg1/3Nb2/3)0.72Ti0.28O3 substrates. By utilizing the inverse piezoelectric effect the lattice parameter of these substrates can be controlled applying an electric field, leading to a induction of biaxial strain into the superconducting layer. High electric fields were used to achieve a total strain of up to 0.05% at low temperatures. A sharpening of the resistive transition and a shift of about 0.6 K to higher temperatures was found at a compressive strain of 0.035%.
Femtosecond spectroscopy in a nearly optimally doped Fe-based superconductors FeSe0.5Te0.5 and Ba(Fe 1-xCox)2As2/Fe thin film
2014, Bonavolontà , C., Parlato, L., De, Lisio, C., Valentino, M., Pepe, G.P., Kazumasa, I., Kurth, F., Bellingeri, E., Pallecchi, I., Putti, M., Ferdeghini, C., Ummarino, G.A., Laviano, F.
Femtosecond spectroscopy has been used to investigate the quasi-particle relaxation times in nearly optimally doped Fe-based superconductors FeSe 0.5Te0.5 and optimally doped Ba-122 thin films growth on a Fe buffer layer. Experimental results concerning the temperature dependence of the relaxation time of such pnictides both in the superconducting state are now presented and discussed. Modelling the T-dependence of relaxation times an estimation of both electron-phonon constant and superconducting energy gap in the excitation spectrum of both Fe(Se,Te) and Ba-122 compounds is obtained.
Intrinsic and extrinsic pinning in NdFeAs(O,F): Vortex trapping and lock-in by the layered structure
2016, Tarantini, C., Iida, K., Hänisch, J., Kurth, F., Jaroszynski, J., Sumiya, N., Chihara, M., Hatano, T., Ikuta, H., Schmidt, S., Seidel, P., Holzapfel, B., Larbalestier, D.C.
Fe-based superconductors (FBS) present a large variety of compounds whose properties are affected to different extents by their crystal structures. Amongst them, the REFeAs(O,F) (RE1111, RE being a rare-earth element) is the family with the highest critical temperature Tc but also with a large anisotropy and Josephson vortices as demonstrated in the flux-flow regime in Sm1111 (Tc ∼ 55 K). Here we focus on the pinning properties of the lower-Tc Nd1111 in the flux-creep regime. We demonstrate that for H//c critical current density Jc at high temperatures is dominated by point-defect pinning centres, whereas at low temperatures surface pinning by planar defects parallel to the c-axis and vortex shearing prevail. When the field approaches the ab-planes, two different regimes are observed at low temperatures as a consequence of the transition between 3D Abrikosov and 2D Josephson vortices: one is determined by the formation of a vortex-staircase structure and one by lock-in of vortices parallel to the layers. This is the first study on FBS showing this behaviour in the full temperature, field, and angular range and demonstrating that, despite the lower Tc and anisotropy of Nd1111 with respect to Sm1111, this compound is substantially affected by intrinsic pinning generating a strong ab-peak in Jc.
Bicrystalline grain boundary junctions of Co-doped and P-doped Ba-122 thin films
2014, Schmidt, S., Döring, S., Schmidl, F., Kurth, F., Iida, K., Holzapfel, B., Kawaguchi, T., Mori, Y., Ikuta, H., Seidel, P.
We prepared GB junctions of Ba(Fe0.9Co0.1)2As2 thin films on bicrystalline [00 l]-tilt SrTiO3 substrates. The junctions show clear Josephson effects. Electrical characterization shows asymmetric I-V characteristics which can be described within the resistively shunted junction (RSJ) model. A large excess current is observed. Their formal ICRN product is 20.2 μV at 4.2 K, which is decreased to 6.5 μV when taking Iex into account. Fabrication methods to increase this value are discussed. Additionally, measurements on GB junctions of BaFe2(As0.66P0.34)2 thin films on LSAT bicrystalline substrates are shown. Their symmetric RSJ/flux flow-behavior exhibits a formal ICRN product of 45 μV, whereas the excess corrected value is ll μV.
BaFe2As2/Fe bilayers with [001]-tilt grain boundary on MgO and SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates
2013, Iida, K., Haindl, S., Kurth, F., Hänisch, J., Schulz, L., Holzapfel, B.
Co-doped BaFe2As2 (Ba-122) can be realized on both MgO and SrTiO3 bicrystal substrates with [001]-tilt grain boundary by employing Fe buffer layers. However, an additional spinel (i.e. MgAl 2O4) buffer between Fe and SrTiO3 is necessary since an epitaxial, smooth surface of Fe layer can not be grown on bare SrTiO3. Both types of bicrystal films show good crystalline quality.
Probing transport mechanisms of BaFe2As2 superconducting films and grain boundary junctions by noise spectroscopy
2014, Barone, C., Romeo, F., Pagano, S., Adamo, M., Nappi, C., Sarnelli, E., Kurth, F., Iida, K.
An important step forward for the understanding of high-temperature superconductivity has been the discovery of iron-based superconductors. Among these compounds, iron pnictides could be used for high-field magnet applications, resulting more advantageous over conventional superconductors, due to a high upper critical field as well as its low anisotropy at low temperatures. However, the principal obstacle in fabricating high quality superconducting wires and tapes is given by grain boundaries. In order to study these effects, the dc transport and voltage-noise properties of Co-doped BaFe2As2 superconducting films with artificial grain boundary junctions have been investigated. A specific procedure allows the separation of the film noise from that of the junction. While the former shows a standard 1/f behaviour, the latter is characterized by an unconventional temperature-dependent multi-Lorentzian voltage-spectral density. Moreover, below the film superconducting critical temperature, a peculiar noise spectrum is found for the grain boundary junction. Possible theoretical interpretation of these phenomena is proposed.