Anisotropic critical currents in FeSe0.5Te0.5 films and the influence of neutron irradiation

TL;DR

This study investigates the anisotropic superconducting properties and critical currents of FeSe0.5Te0.5 thin films, examining the effects of neutron irradiation and revealing high critical current densities and correlated pinning centers.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the anisotropic critical currents and pinning mechanisms in FeSe0.5Te0.5 films, including the impact of neutron irradiation on their superconducting properties.

Findings

Critical current densities exceed 10^9 A/m^2 at low temperatures.

Critical current shows maximum when magnetic field is parallel to the film surface.

Neutron irradiation enhances critical current by up to a factor of two.

Abstract

We report on measurements of the superconducting properties of FeSe05Te05 thin films grown on lanthanum aluminate. The films have high transition temperatures (above 19 K) and sharp resistive transitions in fields up to 15 T. The temperature dependence of the upper critical field and the irreversibility lines are steep and anisotropic, as recently reported for single crystals. The critical current densities, assessed by magnetization measurements in a vector VSM, were found to be well above 10^9 Am-2 at low temperatures. In all samples, the critical current as a function of field orientation has a maximum, when the field is oriented parallel to the film surface. The maximum indicates the presence of correlated pinning centers. A minimum occurs in three films, when the field is applied perpendicular to the film plane. In the forth film, instead, a local maximum caused by c-axis correlated pinning centers was found at this orientation. The irradiation of two films with fast neutrons did not change the properties drastically, where a maximum enhancement of the critical current by a factor of two was found.