Phase diagram of the iron arsenide superconductors Ca(Fe1−xCox)2As2(0⩽x⩽0.2)

Abstract

Plateletlike single crystals of the Ca(Fe1−xCox)2As2 series having lateral dimensions up to 15 mm and thicknesses up to 0.5 mm were obtained from the high-temperature solution-growth technique using Sn flux. Upon Co doping, the c axis of the tetragonal unit cell decreases, while the a axis shows a less significant variation. Pristine CaFe2As2 shows a combined spin-density wave and structural transition near T= 166 K, which gradually shifts to lower temperatures and splits with increasing Co doping. Both transitions terminate abruptly at a critical Co concentration of xc= 0.075. For x ⩾ 0.05, superconductivity (SC) appears at low temperatures with a maximum transition temperature TC of around 20 K. The SC volume fraction increases with Co concentration up to x= 0.09 followed by a gradual decrease with a further increase of the doping level. The electronic phase diagram of the Ca(Fe1−xCox)2As2 (0 ⩽ x ⩽ 0.2) series is constructed from the magnetization and electric resistivity data. We show that the low-temperature SC properties of Co-doped CaFe2As2 differ considerably from those of BaFe2As2 reported previously. These differences seem to be related to the extreme pressure sensitivity of CaFe2As2 relative to its Ba counterpart.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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