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Title
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Local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic impurities in mesoscopic iron-based superconductors
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Author
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Abstract
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| The determination of the pairing symmetry is one of the most crucial issues for the iron-based superconductors, for which various scenarios are discussed controversially. Non-magnetic impurity substitution is one of the most promising approaches to address the issue, because the pair-breaking mechanism from the non-magnetic impurities should be different for various models. Previous substitution experiments demonstrated that the non-magnetic zinc can suppress the superconductivity of various iron-based superconductors. Here we demonstrate the local destruction of superconductivity by non-magnetic zinc impurities in Ba0.5K0.5Fe2As2 by exploring phase-slip phenomena in a mesoscopic structure with 119 × 102 nm2 cross-section. The impurities suppress superconductivity in a three-dimensional Swiss cheese-like pattern with in-plane and out-of-plane characteristic lengths slightly below ~1.34 nm. This causes the superconducting order parameter to vary along abundant narrow channels with effective cross-section of a few square nanometres. The local destruction of superconductivity can be related to Cooper pair breaking by non-magnetic impurities. |
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Language
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English
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Source (journal)
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Nature communications
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Publication
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2015
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ISSN
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2041-1723
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DOI
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10.1038/NCOMMS8614
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Volume/pages
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6
(2015)
, 6 p.
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Article Reference
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7614
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ISI
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000358857000007
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Pubmed ID
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26139568
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Medium
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E-only publicatie
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Full text (Publisher's DOI)
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Full text (open access)
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