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Suppression of the Critical Temperature of Superconducting NdFeAs(OF) Single Crystals by Kondo-Like Defect Sites Induced by alpha-Particle Irradiation

Source: Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 087002 (2010); doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.104.087002

Published 24 February 2010

PACS
  • 74.25.F-
    Transport properties
  • 61.80.Jh
    Ion radiation effects
  • 74.62.Dh
    Effects of crystal defects, doping and substitution on superconducting transition temperature
  • YEAR: 2010
PUBLICATION DATA
Publisher:
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C. Tarantini,1 M. Putti,3 A. Gurevich,1 Y. Shen,2 R. K. Singh,2 J. M. Rowell,2 N. Newman,2 D. C. Larbalestier,1 Peng Cheng,4 Ying Jia,4 and Hai-Hu Wen4
1National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 32310 Florida, USA
2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, 85287 Arizona, USA
3CNR-SPIN and Department of Physics, University of Genova, 16146 Genova, Italy
4Institute of Physics and National Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 100190 Beijing, China
We report the effect of alpha-particle irradiation on the reduction of the critical temperature Tc of a NdFeAs(OF) single crystal. Our data indicate that irradiation defects cause both nonmagnetic and magnetic scattering, resulting in the Kondo-like excess resistance Deltarho(T)[proportional]lnT over 2 decades in temperatures above Tc. The critical density of magnetic irradiation defects which suppresses Tc is found to be much higher than those for cuprates and multiband BCS superconductors. We suggest that such anomalously weak pair breaking by irradiation defects indicates that magnetic scattering in pnictides is coupled with pairing interactions mediated by spin fluctuations. ©2010 The American Physical Society
History: Received 6 October 2009; published 24 February 2010
Permalink: http://link.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v104/e087002
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