As vacancies, local moments, and Pauli limiting in LaFeAs1-delta O0.9F0.1 superconductors

作者:Grinenko Vadim*; Kikoin Konstantin; Drechsler Stefan Ludwig; Fuchs Guenter; Nenkov Konstantin; Wurmehl Sabine; Hammerath Franziska; Lang Guillaume; Grafe Hans Joachim; Holzapfel Bernhard; van den Brink Jeroen; Buechner Bernd; Schultz Ludwig
来源:Physical Review B, 2011, 84(13): 134516.
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.84.134516

摘要

We report magnetization measurements of As-deficient LaO0.9F0.1FeAs1-delta (delta approximate to 0.06) samples with improved superconducting properties as compared with As-stoichiometric optimally doped La-1111 samples [i.e., a slightly higher T-c (enhanced by about 2 K) and nearly a twice as large slope of -dH(c2)/dT at T-c]. In this As-deficient system with almost homogeneously distributed As-vacancies (AV), as suggested by the As-75-nuclear quadrupole resonance measurements, we observe a strong enhancement of the spin susceptibility by a factor of 3-7. This observation is attributed to the presence of an electronically localized state around each AV, carrying a magnetic moment of about 3.2 mu(B) per AV or 0.8 mu(B)/Fe atom. From theoretical considerations, we find that the formation of a local moment on neighboring iron sites of an AV sets in when the local Coulomb interaction exceeds a critical value of similar to 1 eV in the dilute limit. Its estimated value amounts to similar to 2.5 eV and implies an upper bound of similar to 2 eV for the Coulomb repulsion at Fe sites beyond the first neighbor shell of an AV. Electronic correlations are thus moderate or weak in doped La-1111. The strongly enhanced spin susceptibility is responsible for the Pauli limiting behavior of the superconductivity that we observe in As-deficient LaO0.9F0.1FeAs1-delta. In contrast, no Pauli limiting behavior is found for the optimally doped, As-stoichiometric LaO0.9F0.1FeAs superconductor in accord with its low spin susceptibility.

  • 出版日期2011-10-14