Universal pair-breaking in transition metal-substituted iron-pnictide superconductors

The experimental transport scattering rate was determined for a wide range of optimally doped transition metal-substituted FeAs-based compounds with the ThCr2Si2 (122) crystal structure. The maximum transition temperature Tc for several Ba-, Sr-, and Ca-based 122 systems follows a universal rate of...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:arXiv.org 2012-10
Main Authors: Kirshenbaum, Kevin, Saha, Shanta R, Ziemak, Steven, Drye, Tyler, Paglione, Johnpierre
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Barium
Calcium
Crystal structure
Group 5A compounds
Iron
Order parameters
Scattering
Strontium
Substitutes
Superconductivity
Transition metals
Transition temperature
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Summary:The experimental transport scattering rate was determined for a wide range of optimally doped transition metal-substituted FeAs-based compounds with the ThCr2Si2 (122) crystal structure. The maximum transition temperature Tc for several Ba-, Sr-, and Ca-based 122 systems follows a universal rate of suppression with increasing scattering rate indicative of a common pair-breaking mechanism. Extraction of standard pair-breaking parameters puts a limit of \sim26 K on the maximum Tc for all transition metal-substituted 122 systems, in agreement with experimental observations, and sets a critical scattering rate of 1.5x10^14 s^-1 for the suppression of the superconducting phase. The observed critical scattering rate is much weaker than that expected for a sign-changing order parameter, providing important constraints on the nature of the superconducting gap in the 122 family of iron-based superconductors.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1203.5114