We report a systematic investigation of Ba[Fe(1-x)Co(x)]2As2 based on transport and 75-As NMR measurements, and establish the electronic phase diagram. We demonstrate that doping progressively suppresses the uniform spin susceptibility and low frequency spin fluctuations. The optimum superconducting phase emerges at x_c~0.08 when the tendency toward spin ordering completely diminishes. Our findings point toward the presence of a quantum critical point near x_c between the SDW (spin density wave) and superconducting phases.
Systematic measurements of the resistivity, heat capacity, susceptibility and Hall coefficient are presented for single crystal samples of the electron-doped superconductor Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$. These data delineate an $x-T$ phase diagram in which the single magnetic/structural phase transition that is observed for undoped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ at 134 K apparently splits into two distinct phase transitions, both of which are rapidly suppressed with increasing Co concentration. Superconductivity emerges for Co concentrations above $x sim 0.025$, and appears to coexist with the broken symmetry state for an appreciable range of doping, up to $x sim 0.06$. The optimal superconducting transition temperature appears to coincide with the Co concentration at which the magnetic/structural phase transitions are totally suppressed, at least within the resolution provided by the finite step size between crystals prepared with different doping levels. Superconductivity is observed for a further range of Co concentrations, before being completely suppressed for $x sim 0.018$ and above. The form of this $x-T$ phase diagram is suggestive of an association between superconductivity and a quantum critical point arising from suppression of the magnetic and/or structural phase transitions.
We demonstrate that the thermopower (S) can be used to probe the spin fluctuations (SFs) in proximity to the quantum critical point (QCP) in Fe-based superconductors. The sensitivity of S to the entropy of charge carriers allows us to observe an increase of S/T in Ba(Fe(1-x)Co(x))2As2 close to the spin-density-wave (SDW) QCP. This behavior is due to the coupling of low-energy conduction electrons to two-dimensional SFs, similar to heavy-fermion systems. The low-temperature enhancement of S/T in the Co substitution range 0.02 < x < 0.1 is bordered by two Lifshitz transitions, and it corresponds to the superconducting region, where a similarity between the electron and non-reconstructed hole pockets exists. The maximal S/T is observed in proximity to the commensurate-to-incommensurate SDW transition, for critical x_c ~ 0.05, close to the highest superconducting T_c. This analysis indicates that low-T thermopower is influenced by critical spin fluctuations which are important for the superconducting mechanism.
Application of pressures or electron-doping through Co substitution into Fe sites transforms the itinerant antiferromagnet BaFe(2)As(2) into a superconductor with the Tc exceeding 20K. We carried out systematic transport measurements of BaFe(2-x)Co(x)As(2) superconductors in pressures up to 2.5GPa, and elucidate the interplay between the effects of electron-doping and pressures. For the underdoped sample with nominal composition x = 0.08, application of pressure strongly suppresses a magnetic instability while enhancing Tc by nearly a factor of two from 11K to 21K. In contrast, the optimally doped x=0.20 sample shows very little enhancement of Tc=22K under applied pressure. Our results strongly suggest that the proximity to a magnetic instability is the key to the mechanism of superconductivity in iron-pnictides.
We describe x-ray resonant magnetic diffraction measurements at the Fe K-edge of both the parent BaFe2As2 and superconducting Ba(Fe0.953Co0.047)2As2 compounds. From these high-resolution measurements we conclude that the magnetic structure is commensurate for both compositions. The energy spectrum of the resonant scattering is in reasonable agreement with theoretical calculations using the full-potential linear augmented plane wave method with a local density functional.
We used angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory calculations to study the electronic structure of Ba(Fe1-x-yCoxMny)2As2 for x=0.06 and 0<=y <=0.07. From ARPES we derive that the substitution of Fe by Mn does not lead to hole doping, indicating a localization of the induced holes. An evaluation of the measured spectral function does not indicate a diverging effective mass or scattering rate near optimal doping. Thus the present ARPES results indicate a continuous evolution of the quasiparticle interaction and therefore question previous quantum critical scenarios.