Boosting the superconducting properties of Fe(Se, Te) through hexagonal phase manipulation

Authors

Jixing Liu, University of Wollongong
Shengnan Zhang
Meng Li, University of WollongongFollow
Lina Sang, University of WollongongFollow
Weiyao Zhao, University of WollongongFollow
Zhi Li, University of WollongongFollow
Zhenxiang Cheng, University of WollongongFollow
Liqiang Liu
Botao Shao
Jianqing Feng
Chengshan Li
Pingxiang Zhang
Shi Xue Dou, University of WollongongFollow
Xiaolin Wang, University of WollongongFollow
Lian Zhou

RIS ID

140327

Publication Details

Liu, J., Zhang, S., Li, M., Sang, L., Zhao, W., Li, Z., Cheng, Z., Liu, L., Shao, B., Feng, J., Li, C., Zhang, P., Dou, S., Wang, X. & Zhou, L. (2019). Boosting the superconducting properties of Fe(Se, Te) through hexagonal phase manipulation. Journal of Alloys and Compounds,

Abstract

© 2019 Elsevier B.V. Halogen doped Fe(Se, Te) superconducting materials were successfully synthesized through the eutectic transformation method. Both the distribution and morphology of the secondary hexagonal phase were tuned accordingly by substituting halogen elements. The morphology of the hexagonal phase was transformed from plate-like lamellar to agglomerated dots or bulk precipitates as the doping elements changed from F to Cl and Br. Moreover, the flux pinning mechanism, which represents the ability of materials to trap the penetrating magnetic field, was observed to change from Δκ to point pinning when doped by elements with heavier atomic mass. As a result, tremendous optimization of the critical current, upper critical field, and thermally activated flux flow activation energy were achieved in the as-prepared samples, with a specific value of 7 times, 2 times, and 3 times, respectively, in FeSe0.45Te0.5F0.05 compared with the values for the undoped sample. Our results reveal that the light-halogen element doping is a promising way to optimize the superconductivities in the Fe(Se, Te) systems and inspire us to manipulate the morphology of secondary phase to boost the superconductivities in iron-based superconductors.