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

Abstract

Using muon spin rotation (μSR) 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 nonsuperconducting 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 μSR 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.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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