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 i
n 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 incr
ease 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 commens
urate 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 no
t 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.