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Title: Direct visualization of phase separation between superconducting and nematic domains in Co-doped CaFe 2 As 2 close to a first-order phase transition

Abstract

We show that biaxial strain induces alternating tetragonal superconducting and orthorhombic nematic domains in Co substituted CaFe2As2. We use Atomic Force, Magnetic Force and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (AFM, MFM and STM) to identify the domains and characterize their properties, nding in particular that tetragonal superconducting domains are very elongated, more than several tens of μm long and about 30 nm wide, have the same Tc than unstrained samples and hold vortices in a magnetic eld. Thus, biaxial strain produces a phase separated state, where each phase is equivalent to what is found at either side of the rst order phase transition between antiferromagnetic orthorhombic and superconducting tetragonal phases found in unstrained samples when changing Co concentration. Having such alternating superconducting domains separated by normal conducting domains with sizes of order of the coherence length opens opportunities to build Josephson junction networks or vortex pinning arrays and suggests that first order quantum phase transitions lead to nanometric size phase separation under the influence of strain.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [3];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [4]
+ Show Author Affiliations
  1. Autonomous Univ. of Madrid (Spain)
  2. Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Madrid (Spain). Inst. de Ciencia de Materiales de Madrid, Cantoblanco
  3. Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
  4. Autonomous Univ. of Madrid (Spain); Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (CSIC), Madrid (Spain)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE
OSTI Identifier:
1417992
Alternate Identifier(s):
OSTI ID: 1416218
Report Number(s):
IS-J-9559
Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950; PRBMDO; TRN: US1801226
Grant/Contract Number:  
FIS2014-54498-R; MDM-2014-0377; MAT2014-52405-C2-2-R; RYC-2014-16626; RYC-2014-15093; 679080; AC02-07CH11358
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Physical Review B
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 97; Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 2469-9950
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY

Citation Formats

Fente, Antón, Correa-Orellana, Alexandre, Böhmer, Anna E., Kreyssig, Andreas, Ran, S., Bud'ko, Sergey L., Canfield, Paul C., Mompean, Federico J., García-Hernández, Mar, Munuera, Carmen, Guillamón, Isabel, and Suderow, Hermann. Direct visualization of phase separation between superconducting and nematic domains in Co-doped CaFe2As2 close to a first-order phase transition. United States: N. p., 2018. Web. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014505.
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Fente, Antón, Correa-Orellana, Alexandre, Böhmer, Anna E., Kreyssig, Andreas, Ran, S., Bud'ko, Sergey L., Canfield, Paul C., Mompean, Federico J., García-Hernández, Mar, Munuera, Carmen, Guillamón, Isabel, & Suderow, Hermann. Direct visualization of phase separation between superconducting and nematic domains in Co-doped CaFe2As2 close to a first-order phase transition. United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014505
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Fente, Antón, Correa-Orellana, Alexandre, Böhmer, Anna E., Kreyssig, Andreas, Ran, S., Bud'ko, Sergey L., Canfield, Paul C., Mompean, Federico J., García-Hernández, Mar, Munuera, Carmen, Guillamón, Isabel, and Suderow, Hermann. Tue . "Direct visualization of phase separation between superconducting and nematic domains in Co-doped CaFe2As2 close to a first-order phase transition". United States. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014505. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1417992.
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@article{osti_1417992,
title = {Direct visualization of phase separation between superconducting and nematic domains in Co-doped CaFe2As2 close to a first-order phase transition},
author = {Fente, Antón and Correa-Orellana, Alexandre and Böhmer, Anna E. and Kreyssig, Andreas and Ran, S. and Bud'ko, Sergey L. and Canfield, Paul C. and Mompean, Federico J. and García-Hernández, Mar and Munuera, Carmen and Guillamón, Isabel and Suderow, Hermann},
abstractNote = {We show that biaxial strain induces alternating tetragonal superconducting and orthorhombic nematic domains in Co substituted CaFe2As2. We use Atomic Force, Magnetic Force and Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (AFM, MFM and STM) to identify the domains and characterize their properties, nding in particular that tetragonal superconducting domains are very elongated, more than several tens of μm long and about 30 nm wide, have the same Tc than unstrained samples and hold vortices in a magnetic eld. Thus, biaxial strain produces a phase separated state, where each phase is equivalent to what is found at either side of the rst order phase transition between antiferromagnetic orthorhombic and superconducting tetragonal phases found in unstrained samples when changing Co concentration. Having such alternating superconducting domains separated by normal conducting domains with sizes of order of the coherence length opens opportunities to build Josephson junction networks or vortex pinning arrays and suggests that first order quantum phase transitions lead to nanometric size phase separation under the influence of strain.},
doi = {10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014505},
journal = {Physical Review B},
number = 1,
volume = 97,
place = {United States},
year = {2018},
month = {1}
}
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Journal Article:
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https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.014505
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Cited by: 4 works
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Figures / Tables:

FIG. 1 FIG. 1: Generic phase diagram, with a first order tetragonal/orthorhombic phase transition and superconductivity (blue lines) appearing when the AF/ORTH (yellow lines) order disappears. Lines are for free standing samples and dashed lines for strained samples. In the upper right panel we schematically show the configuration we find. Biaxial strainmore » (dark arrows) is applied by using the different thermal expansion of the copper support (orange rectangle in the figure) and the sample (yellow/blue rectangle in the figure). Biaxial strain results, for $x$ = 3.2% studied here, in alternating tetragonal superconducting (blue) and antiferromagnetic orthorhombic (yellow) domains. The superconducting domains are long stripes a few tens of $nm$ wide and hold vortex lattices.« less
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    Discovery of a strain-stabilised smectic electronic order in LiFeAs
    journal, July 2018

    Local orthorhombic lattice distortions in the paramagnetic tetragonal phase of superconducting NaFe1−xNixAs
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    Ultrahigh elastically compressible and strain-engineerable intermetallic compounds under uniaxial mechanical loading
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    • Song, Gyuho; Borisov, Vladislav; Meier, William R.
    • APL Materials, Vol. 7, Issue 6
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    Influence of multiband sign-changing superconductivity on vortex cores and vortex pinning in stoichiometric high- T c   CaKFe 4 As 4
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      Figures / Tables found in this record:

      FIG. 1 (p. 2)figure
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      FIG. 3 (p. 3)figure
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      FIG. 5 (p. 6)figure
      FIG. 6. (p. 7)figure
      FIG. 7 (p. 7)figure
      FIG. 8 (p. 7)figure
      FIG. 10 (p. 8)figure
      FIG. 9 (p. 8)figure
      FIG. 11 (p. 9)figure
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