Doping-dependent critical current properties in K, Co, and P-doped BaFe2As2 single crystals

TL;DR

This study investigates how doping levels affect the critical current density in BaFe2As2-based superconductors, revealing doping-dependent magnetic behaviors and identifying optimal doping for maximum Jc across different dopants.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive analysis of doping effects on critical current properties in BaFe2As2 superconductors, highlighting intrinsic behaviors and optimal doping conditions for high Jc.

Findings

Underdoped K-Ba122 exhibits second magnetization peak (SMP) with high Jc.

SMP is present across the entire Co-Ba122 superconducting dome.

Maximum Jc occurs near the phase boundary between superconducting and magnetic phases.

Abstract

In order to establish the doping dependence of the critical current properties in the iron-based superconductors, the in-plane critical current density (Jc) of BaFe2As2-based superconductors, Ba1-xKxFe2As2 (K-Ba122), Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 (Co-Ba122), and BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 (P-Ba122) in a wide range of doping concentration (x) was investigated by means of magnetization hysteresis loop (MHL) measurements on single-crystal samples. Depending on the dopant elements and their concentration, Jc exhibits a variety of magnetic-field (H) and temperature (T) dependences. (1) In the case of K-Ba122, MHL of the underdoped samples (x < 0.33) exhibits the second magnetization peak (SMP), which sustains high Jc at high H and high T, exceeding 10^5 A/cm2 at T = 25 K and H = 6 T for x = 0.30. On the other hand, SMP is missing in the optimally (x ~ 0.36-0.40) and overdoped (x ~ 0.50) samples, and consequently Jc rapidly decreases by more than one order of magnitude, although the change in Tc is within a few K. (2) For Co-Ba122, SMP is always present over the entire superconducting (SC) dome from the under (x ~ 0.05) to the overdoped (x ~ 0.12) region. However, the magnitude of Jc significantly changes with x, exhibiting a sharp maximum at x ~ 0.057, which is a slightly underdoped composition for Co-Ba122. (3) For P-Ba122, the highest Jc is attained at x = 0.30 corresponding to the highest Tc composition. For the overdoped samples, MHL is characterized by SMP located close to the irreversibility field. Common to the three doping variations, Jc becomes highest at the under-doping side of SC dome near the phase boundary between SC phase and the antiferromagnetic/orthorhombic phase. Also, the peak appears in a narrow range of doping, distinct from the Tc dome with broad maximum. These similarities in the three cases indicate that the observed doping dependence of Jc is intrinsic to the BaFe2As2-based superconductors.