Weak-link behavior of grain boundaries in superconducting Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 bicrystals

By Seokbae Lee, Jianyi Jiang, J. Weiss, C. M. Folkman, C. Bark, C. Tarantini, A. Xu, D. Abraimov, A. Polyanskii, C. Nelson and 10 more. 2009

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We show that despite the low anisotropy, strong vortex pinning, and high irreversibility field Hirr close to the upper critical field Hc2 of Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2, the critical current density Jgb across [001] tilt grain boundaries (GBs) of thin film Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 bicrystals is strongly depressed, similar to high-Tc cuprates. Our results suggest that weak-linked GBs are characteristic of both cuprates and pnictides because of competing orders, low carrier density, and unconventional pairing symmetry.

Subfields: Condensed Matter Physics, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/561f0b93354376604474bc0cb225ecba1111d90d