Muon spin rotation study of magnetism and superconductivity in Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 single crystals

TL;DR

This study uses muon spin rotation to explore how magnetism and superconductivity coexist and compete in Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 single crystals across various doping levels, revealing a complex evolution of magnetic order with doping.

Contribution

It provides detailed insights into the evolution and interplay of magnetic and superconducting phases in Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2, highlighting the transition from competition to cooperation with doping.

Findings

Antiferromagnetic order is suppressed with Co doping.

Magnetic order coexists and competes with superconductivity.

Spin fluctuations are enhanced in overdoped samples.

Abstract

Using muon spin rotation (muSR) we investigated the magnetic and superconducting properties of a series of Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 single crystals with 0 =< x =< 0.15. Our study details how the antiferromagnetic order is suppressed upon Co substitution and how it coexists with superconductivity. In the non-superconducting samples at 0 < x < 0.04 the antiferromagnetic order parameter is only moderately suppressed. With the onset of superconductivity this suppression becomes faster and it is most rapid between x = 0.045 and 0.05. As was previously demonstrated by muSR at x = 0.055 [P. Marsik et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 57001 (2010)], the strongly weakened antiferromagnetic order is still a bulk phenomenon that competes with superconductivity. The comparison with neutron diffraction data suggests that the antiferromagnetic order remains commensurate whereas the amplitude exhibits a spatial variation that is likely caused by the randomly distributed Co atoms. A different kind of magnetic order that was also previously identified [C. Bernhard et al., New J. Phys. 11, 055050 (2009)] occurs at 0.055 < x < 0.075 where Tc approaches the maximum value. The magnetic order develops here only in parts of the sample volume and it seems to cooperate with superconductivity since its onset temperature coincides with Tc. Even in the strongly overdoped regime at x = 0.11, where the static magnetic order has disappeared, we find that the low energy spin fluctuations are anomalously enhanced below Tc. These findings point toward a drastic change in the relationship between the magnetic and superconducting orders from a competitive one in the strongly underdoped regime to a constructive one in near optimally and overdoped samples.