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Vortex-glass phase transition and enhanced flux pinning in C4+-irradiated BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2

superconducting single crystals

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2013 Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 095014

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Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014 (8pp) doi:10.1088/0953-2048/26/9/095014

Vortex-glass phase transition and

enhanced flux pinning in C4+-irradiated
BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2 superconducting single
crystals
M Shahbazi1 , X L Wang1 , S R Ghorbani1,3 , M Ionescu2 ,
O V Shcherbakova1 , F S Wells1 , A V Pan1 , S X Dou1 and K Y Choi4
1
Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, Faculty of Engineering, Australian Institute for
Innovative Materials, University of Wollongong, North Wollongong, NSW 2519, Australia
2
Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, New Illawarra Road, Lucas Heights,
NSW 2234, Australia
3
Department of Physics, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
4
Frontier Physics Research Division and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Seoul National
University, Seoul 151-747, Republic of Korea

E-mail: xiaolin@uow.edu.au (X L Wang)

Received 2 May 2013, in final form 10 July 2013

Published 13 August 2013
Online at stacks.iop.org/SUST/26/095014
Abstract
We report the effects of C4+ -irradiation on the superconducting properties of BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single
crystal. The BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal before and after C4+ -irradiation was characterized by
magnetic, magneto-transport and magneto-optical techniques over a wide range of magnetic fields
(0–13 T) and temperatures (2–200 K). We demonstrate that the C4+ -irradiation significantly enhances
the in-field critical current density (by a factor of up to 1.5 at 5 K) and induces enhanced flux jumping at
2 K, with only a small degradation (by 0.5 K) of the critical temperature, Tc . The vortex phase diagram
describing the evolution of the vortex-glass transition temperature with magnetic field and the upper
critical field has been resolved for the C4+ -irradiated sample. For temperatures below Tc , the resistivity
curves and the pinning potential were found to show good scaling, using a modified model for
vortex-liquid resistivity. The vortex state is three dimensional at temperatures lower than a characteristic
temperature. Good agreement between the thermally activated flux flow model, which is usually
employed to account for the resistivity in the vortex-liquid region, and the modified vortex-liquid model,
has been observed.
(Some figures may appear in colour only in the online journal)

1. Introduction is controlled by dynamic and static disorder [3]. Dynamic

The commercial applicability of Fe-based superconductors [1]
relies on their ability to carry high current, which is
determined by the effectiveness of pinning sites in these
materials. Heavy ion irradiation and neutron irradiation
are the most effective approaches to introduce effective
artificial pinning centres for supercurrent enhancement in
both conventional and high temperature superconductors
[1, 2]. Vortex pinning in high temperature superconductors
disorder is caused by large thermal fluctuations, while
static disorder is caused by structural imperfections such as
twin boundaries, columnar defects, etc. The latter can be
effectively engineered with heavy ion or neutron irradiation
of the material.
Electron scattering on static disorder (or structural
defects) is particularly interesting for the family of Fe-
based materials exhibiting multi-band superconductivity.

0953-2048/13/095014+08$33.00 1 c 2013 IOP Publishing Ltd Printed in the UK & the USA


Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014
In fact, structural disorder is always present in the Fe-
based superconductors, where chemical doping is needed
to induce superconductivity. Another way to introduce
defects into superconductors is by ion irradiation, which
results in the formation of additional pinning centres and
significantly increases the electron scattering. As a result,
defects induced by irradiation are effective for enhancing
the critical current density, Jc , in superconductors. For
instance, columnar defects created by heavy ion irradiation
were found to be the most effective pinning sites for
two-dimensional (2D) pancake vortices and thus responsible
for a significant enhancement of Jc in (highly anisotropic)
high temperature cuprate superconductors [4, 5] (HTSs).
Fe-based superconductors have revealed much smaller
anisotropy (γ = 1–8 at T ≈ Tc ) [6–10], where Tc is the
superconducting transition temperature, especially in doped
BaFe2 As2 (Ba-122) superconductors with γ ≈ 1–3. Very
strong intrinsic pinning strength has been observed in K doped
122 single crystals with rigid vortices, mainly due to the
small anisotropy [11]. As a result, the point defects induced
by neutron irradiation are effective for pinning vortices and
enhancing the critical current density, Jc , by a factor of
1.5–3 [12], while heavy ion irradiation using Au [13], Pb [2,
14] or Ta [15] ions increases Jc by a factor of 3–10 as a result
of columnar defects [13, 15].
In this paper we report the influence of defects induced
by light-ion (C4+ )-irradiation on Tc , the irreversibility field,
Hirr , the upper critical field, Hc2 , and the pinning potential,
Uo , in BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 superconducting single crystal, and
resolve the vortex phase diagram for the sample before
and after irradiation. Our results show that carbon ion
irradiation is an effective approach to significantly enhance
in-field Jc with little change in Tc . Furthermore, the vortex
phase diagram was determined based on the evolution of
the vortex-glass transition temperature, Tg , with applied
field in the c-direction. Also, the glass transition from the
vortex-liquid side in C4+ -irradiated BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single
crystal was studied by magnetoresistance measurements. For
temperatures below Tc , the resistivity curves, ρ(B, T), and
the pinning potential, U0 (B, T), were found to show good
scaling using a modified model for vortex-liquid resistivity.
The vortex state is three dimensional (3D) at temperatures
lower than the characteristic temperature, T ∗ . Good agreement
between the thermally activated flux flow model, which
is usually employed to account for the resistivity in the
vortex-liquid region, and the modified vortex-liquid model has
been observed.
2. Experimental details
Single crystals with the nominal composition
BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 were prepared by a self-flux method [16].
The as-grown single crystals were cleaved and shaped into
thin plates for measurements. Irradiation with 35.59 MeV
C4+ was carried out in a direction perpendicular to the broad
surface of the sample, using a square shaped beam 7 × 7 mm2
in cross-section. The sample was irradiated for a total time
of 3 min with ion dose of 3 × 1012 ions cm−2 . For the
2
M Shahbazi et al
sake of consistency, the irradiation and all the measurements
were carried out on the same piece of single crystal sample.
The sample was placed on a conductive sample holder
with conductive C-tape in order to prevent charging and
excessive heating during irradiation. The beam current was
measured before and after irradiation with a Faraday cup,
and the average beam current was approximately 10 nA.
Magnetization of the sample was measured using a magnetic
and physical properties measurement systems (MPMS and
PPMS, Quantum Design). The critical current density, Jc ,
was calculated from the magnetic hysteresis data using an
extended Bean model [17, 18]: 201m/a(1 − a/3b) (a < b),
where 1m is the height of the magnetization loop, and a
and b are the length and width of the sample perpendicular
to the applied magnetic field, respectively. The transport
properties were measured over a wide range of temperatures
and magnetic fields up to 13 T using the Quantum
Design PPMS.
The magnetic flux distribution inside the studied samples
was visualized with the help of the magneto-optical imaging
(MOI) technique. MOI measurements were conducted at
temperatures varying from 6.5 to 15 K. Images were acquired
by a computer-controlled charge-coupled display (CCD)
camera. An external magnetic field (Bext = 57 mT) was
applied perpendicular to the FeGdY garnet film and sample
surface after zero-field cooling of samples to the measurement
temperature. The local critical current density was determined
using numerical inversion of the Biot–Savart law, where the
measured z-component of the magnetic flux (Bz ) is related to
the in-plane critical current in the sample [19].
3. Results and discussion
Figure 1(a) shows the magnetization loops at 2 K for the
sample before and after irradiation. The magnetic moment
of the sample is obviously enhanced after C4+ -irradiation
over the entire range of magnetic fields investigated.
Figure 1(b) shows the calculated Jc for the pristine sample
and C4+ -irradiated single crystal as a function of magnetic
field with B k c. The irradiated sample exhibits enhanced Jc
performance, which is both field and temperature dependent.
For instance, at low temperatures (2 and 5 K) Jc of
the C4+ -irradiated sample is enhanced at all fields that
were studied, while at higher temperature (T = 10 K),
Jc improvement is observed at B < 4 T. In general, the
enhancement of current carrying ability for the sample before
and after irradiation (Jc-irr /Jc-un-irr ) is between 1.5 and 1 at
magnetic fields smaller than 4 T, as shown in figure 1(c).
As can be seen from figure 1(b), Jc is as high as 1.6 ×
109 A m−2 at 5 K and B = 0.5 T before irradiation, increasing
to 2.3 × 109 A m−2 after C4+ -irradiation. It has been reported
that for BaFe1.8 Co0.2 As2 crystals irradiated by neutrons with
a dose of 4 × 1017 cm−2 [12], the Jc increased from 3 × 105
to 7 × 105 A cm−2 at B = 0.5 T (Jc-irr /Jc-un-irr = 2.3).
These results are scalable with ours, taking into account the
much lower ion doses of C4+ (1012 ions cm−2 ) during the
irradiation process. Therefore, we demonstrate that light C4+
ion irradiation is also an effective approach towards enhancing
Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014
Figure 1. (a) Magnetization loops at 2 K before and after irradiation of the sample. (b) Magnetic field dependence of critical current density
before (dash–dot line) and after (solid line) C4+ -irradiation. (c) Jc-irr /Jc-un-irr ratio as a function of temperature at different applied fields.
Figure 2. MOI images of (a) irradiated and (b) reference sample
measured at T = 6.5 K and applied magnetic field Bext = 57 mT.
(c) Bz profiles taken along the red lines in (a) and (b) at T = 6.5, 8,
12 and 15 K. Solid (dotted) lines correspond to irradiated
(reference) sample. The inset in (c) represents the slope of flux
penetration (|dB/dx|) inside the samples (at Bz = 20 mT) as a
function of temperature. (Lines are only a guide for the eye.)
the Jc (B) performance in the Fe-based superconductors,
which seems to be more practical for large-scale application.
The peak effect, which is commonly observed in the Fe-based
3
M Shahbazi et al
superconductors, can be seen for both studied samples at
T = 10 K (figure 1(b)). Note that the peak position shifts to
lower magnetic field after C4+ -ion irradiation, as indicated by
the arrows in figure 1(b).
Another feature of BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal is
that the pristine and carbon irradiated single crystals
show the flux jumps effect, which is more pronounced
in the irradiated sample (figure 1(a)) at T = 2 K. Flux
jumps are usually associated with thermal instability of the
vortices that penetrate the compound above Hc1 . Vortex
motion is a mechanism that dissipates heat, therefore it
induce a sudden temperature rise and as a result sudden
decrease in magnetization. This may indicate a possible
correlation between flux jumps, Jc and defect density in the
superconducting sample. It should be noted the number of
flux jumps is increased in the irradiated sample; however,
its size decreases compared to the pristine sample, possibly
due to enhanced lattice defects produced by C4+ -irradiation.
The size of the flux jumps is smaller than that observed
in Ba0.72 K0.28 Fe2 As2 single crystal [11, 20], with the flux
lines fully penetrating into the whole sample. It is likely
that the heat dissipation in BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal
is not sufficient to depin the vortices and therefore to show
a complete flux jump [37]. Flux jumps disappear with
increasing temperature (T > 2 K) for both the pristine and
the irradiated sample.
The magneto-optical images of the irradiated and the
reference sample measured at T = 6.5 K and Bext = 57 mT
are shown in figures 2(a), (b). Both samples have defects
(bright areas marked by arrows) along which magnetic field
penetrates inside the sample more rapidly. These defects
are due to the uneven cutting of the single crystals (at the
edges) and alteration of the layered structure of iron-pnictide
superconductors (as seen at the bottom right corner of
the sample in figure 2(a)). The magnetic flux penetration
into the samples has been measured along the lines drawn
in figures 2(a), (b) (avoiding defect-occupied areas of the
samples) at different temperatures. The corresponding Bz
Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014
Figure 3. Jc (T) values for samples studied at Bext = 57 mT,
calculated from MOI images using the Biot–Savart law [19].
profiles are plotted in figure 2(c). As can be seen, at constant
temperature, the magnetic flux penetrates deeper inside the
reference sample compared to the irradiated sample. The slope
of flux penetration (|dB/dx|, inset in figure 2(c)) is steeper
(higher) for the irradiated sample at all temperatures studied.
This suggests that defects introduced by irradiation enhance
flux pinning in this sample. The effect of these defects is
reduced with increasing temperature, however, as can be seen
from the shrinking difference between |dB/dx| values for the
reference and irradiated samples as T → 15 K.
The Jc values were calculated from the MOI images
using the Biot–Savart law [19], and corresponding values at
each temperature are presented in figure 3. Note that there
is a good correlation between the results observed by the
quantitative MOI and the magnetometry techniques (figure 1).
In accordance with the magnetometry technique, the Jc values
are enhanced for the irradiated sample compared to the
M Shahbazi et al
Figure 4. Arrhenius plots of the resistivity for BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2
single crystal for B = 0.1, 0.5, 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11 and 13 T and B k ab.
Inset: temperature dependence of resistivity for zero magnetic field
before and after irradiation.
The C4+ -irradiation, however, only caused small changes in
Tc and the transition width in our sample.
Arrhenius plots of the resistivity for the irradiated
BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal in different magnetic fields,
B k ab, is shown in the main panel of figure 4. It was reported
that the broadening of the resistivity transition in a magnetic
field is a direct consequence of the thermal fluctuation
in the vortex system [24]. Therefore, resistive transport
measurements are commonly used to study vortices and
vortex phase transitions [25–29]. Note that the calculations
described below correspond to the irradiated sample only for
simplicity. The results leading to the vortex phase diagram for
the reference sample, however, will be summarized at the end
of this section.
According to vortex-glass theory [25], in the vortex-glass
state and close to the glass transition temperature, Tg , the
resistivity disappears as a power law
reference sample at all temperatures studied. Jc enhancement  s
is more significant, however, at low temperatures, and T
ρ = ρ0  − 1

becomes smaller with increasing temperature. This behaviour
is consistent with reduced pinning strength on defects
introduced by irradiation as T → Tc .
The temperature dependence of the resistivity, ρ(T),
at zero magnetic field for the sample before and after
C4+ -irradiation is shown in the inset of figure 4. The
(1)
Tg
where s is a constant, which depends on the type of disorder,
and ρ0 is a characteristic resistivity related to the normal state.
According to [29], the temperature difference T − Tg can be
replaced by the energy difference kB T − U0 , where (U0 ) is an
effective pinning energy. This modifies equation (1) to
resistivity decreases with decreasing temperature from 200 to  s
20 K for both samples, supporting their metallic behaviour  kB T
ρ = ρn 

 − 1 (2)
above Tc . At 200 K, the resistivity of the sample increases U0 (B, T)
from 14.3 × 10−5  cm (before) to 31 × 10−5  cm (after
where ρn is the normal state resistivity. In this model,
irradiation), which is related to increased electron scattering
the transition from the vortex-solid to the vortex-liquid
on defects induced by C4+ -irradiation.
state occurs when the two energy scales are equal,
The transition temperature, Tc , was determined from the
i.e. U0 (B, Tg ) = kB Tg [28]. The effective pinning energy was
ρ(T) curves measured at zero magnetic field. The Tc was
found empirically as
18.3 K, with a transition width (1Tc ) of 0.9 K for the sample  
without irradiation. Remarkably, the Tc value decreased to T
U0 (B, T) = UB 1 − with
17.8 K (by 0.5 K only) with almost the same 1Tc (0.8 K) Tc
after C4+ -irradiation. The reduction of Tc after ion irradiation
UB = kB Tc / (B/B0 )β (3)
is a common feature observed in many cuprate and pnictide
superconductors [12, 21] and is related to such effects as where both B0 and β are temperature and field independent
interband scattering [22], a reduction in anisotropy [23], etc. constants. By considering pinning energy at the glass

4
Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014 M Shahbazi et al

Figure 5. Vortex-glass line (Bg ) for the irradiated sample. The solid Figure 6. Resistivity scaling according to equation (5) for
curve is a fit to equation (4). Inset: Determination of Tg and T ∗ from BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal for 0 ≤ B ≤ 13 T.
the Vogel–Fulcher relation.

meandering, and therefore, the critical current density was

temperature, i.e. U0 (B, Tg ) = kB Tg , the temperature increased by C4+ -irradiation. Similar effects of point disorder
dependence of the vortex-glass line is obtained as follows on the location of the solid-to-liquid transition have been
[27, 28]: reported for Re-123 superconductors [25, 31].
As shown in the inset of figure 5, at T > T ∗ there
1 − T/Tc 1/β is a crossover from the low temperature (linear) region to
 
Bg (T) = B0 . (4) the high temperature regime, where resistivity corresponds
T/Tc
to the Arrhenius plot [32]. This crossover occurs at a
It was shown that equation (4) describes the vortex-glass temperature T ∗ , where the 3D vortex-glass correlation length
transition for Y-123 [27–30]. become significant. In layered superconductors, above this
A useful scaling form for resistivity was obtained by a temperature (T > T ∗ ), the vortex flux lines act as 2D pancake
combination of equations (2) and (3): vortices [32]. The parameter B0 in equation (4) controls this
(field-induced) change from the 3D to the 2D regime of the
 T(Tc − Tg )
 s
vortex fluctuations. We have estimated values of B0 = 16.4
ρ = ρn  − 1 .

(5)
and β = 0.91 by fitting the Bg (T/Tc ) data using equation (4)

Tg (Tc − T)
According to the vortex-glass model (equation (1)), the
resistance goes to zero at the glass temperature, Tg , as
ρ ∝ (T − Tg )s . Consequently, Tg (B) can be extracted by
applying the Vogel–Fulcher relation (d ln ρ/dT)−1 ∝ (T −Tg )
to the resistive tails [29]. We can rewrite equation (5) in the
form:
∂ ln ρ −1
   
T − Tg Tc − T
= . (6)
∂T s Tc − Tg
This expression differs from the Vogel–Fulcher relation by a
correction factor A(T) = (Tc − T)/(Tc − Tg ), which is close to
1 at temperatures sufficiently close to Tg . Therefore, the usual
Vogel–Fulcher relation can be applied to the resistivity tail to
estimate Tg directly.
The inset in figure 5 shows the experimental data fitted
by a straight line, which corresponds to equation (6). As can
be seen, there is a good agreement between the data and
the Vogel–Fulcher relation at low temperature (below T ∗ ).
The intercepts of the fitting lines with the x-axis give Tg
values of 14.7 and 15.5 K for the irradiated and the pristine
sample, respectively. It is likely that enhancement of point
defects due to the C4+ -irradiation results in reduction of Tg
for the irradiated sample. The effect of point disorder can
be understood as promotion of increased vortex bending and
5
(the main panel of figure 5).
In both the vortex-glass and the modified vortex-glass
models [23, 25, 27, 28], the 2D regime is achieved for
fields larger than B0 ∼ = 80 /(γ d)2 , where 80 is the flux
quantum, d is the interplane spacing and γ is the effective
mass anisotropy. Using the above value of 16.4 for B0 and
assuming γ = (ρc /ρab )1/2 = 12.3 for undoped BaFe2 As2
single crystal, as reported in [33], we have estimated the
interplane spacing d = 9.3 Å. There is a qualitative agreement
between our analysis of d (from fitted B0 ) and the value
found in [34] for Ba-122 superconductor. This gives evidence
that the vortex lattice becomes 2D at temperatures higher
than the crossover temperature T ∗ , while it will become 3D
at sufficiently low temperatures due to the finite interplane
coupling. However, the exact explanation of the nature of the
dimensional crossover in Ba-122 superconductor will require
further study.
Equation (5) suggests that there is scaling behaviour
between the normalized resistivity ρ/ρn and the scaled
temperature Tsc = [T(Tc − Tg )/Tg (Tc − T)]−1 , which is
plotted in figure 6. The resistivity transitions at fields between
0 and 13 T scale into one curve at critical exponent s =
2.6 ± 0.4, which is in agreement with the value of 2.8
observed from the vortex-glass model. This resistivity scaling
behaviour of the vortex liquid has been observed in several
Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014
Figure 7. Pinning potential U0 (B, T) calculated according to
equation (7) in fields of 0 ≤ B ≤ 13 T.
high-Tc superconductors such as oxygen-deficient Y-123
single crystal [28, 29] and Tl-2212 thin film.
By solving equation (2) for U0 , one obtains
"  1/s #−1
ρ
U0 (B, T) = kB T 1 + . (7)
ρn
According to equation (7), the pinning potential can be
calculated directly from experimental data, provided that
one knows the ρn and the exponent s. The s parameter is
estimated from the inverse slope of the resistivity in the
vortex-glass state, as mentioned above, and ρn as the normal
state resistivity of the samples at T = 20 K. The calculated
U0 (B, T) for the C4+ -irradiated BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single
crystal for fields between 0 and 13 T is shown in figure 7.
In figure 7, the dashed–dotted lines, fitting the low
temperature part of the resistivity curves, are well described
by equation (3) with a field dependent UB , where UB is the
pinning energy at 0 K.
The extrapolation of the linear behaviour of U0 (T) at
temperatures close to Tg and different fields merges in the
point T = Tc and U0 = 0 (in agreement with equation (3)).
Thus, the field dependence of the pinning energy UB can be
estimated directly from the slope of these lines.
The field dependence of the estimated UB values is shown
in figure 8. Note that different power law dependences are
found at low and high magnetic fields. UB /kB decreases
slowly with increasing applied magnetic field for B < 1 T
and scales as B−0.14 , but it scales as B−1.17 for B > 1 T. This
result suggests that at low fields, the single vortex pinning may
co-exist with collective creep, while at high magnetic fields,
collective creep dominates.
Another important point is that one can directly obtain
the Tg values by taking the crossing points of the (solid)
U0 (B, T) lines and the U0 = kB T lines, as indicated by the
arrow in figure 7. This criterion was used for estimation Tg
in the modified vortex-glass model [28, 29]. According to
equation (2), U0 (B, T) is the average pinning energy in the
system and gives the vortex solid-to-liquid transition when
U0 (B, Tg ) = kB Tg .
6
M Shahbazi et al
Figure 8. Magnetic field dependence of UB /kB as estimated from
equation (3) and the slopes in figure 7 for the irradiated and
unirradiated sample. The solid lines are the fits to data, giving the
relation UB /kB ≈ B−n with n = 0.14 at B < 1 T and n = 1.17 at
B > 1 T. Inset: field dependence of the estimated activation energy
based on the thermally activated flux flow (TAFF) model for the
irradiated sample.
In many studies, the vortex-liquid resistivity is described
by a thermally activated flux flow (TAFF) model [24],
ρ(T, H) = ρn exp(−U ∗ /kB T) [35], where ρn is the normal
state resistivity and kB is the Boltzmann constant. By using
the TAFF model, we obtained the activation energy, U ∗ /kB =
∂ ln ρ/∂(1/T), which is shown in the inset of figure 8. At
B = 0.5 T, U ∗ /kB was 2052 K and UB /kB was 203 K for the
irradiated sample. Although U ∗ is larger than UB by an about
one order of magnitude, they have a similar magnetic field
dependence. In order to compare the U ∗ and UB values, we
took the derivative [∂ ln ρ/∂(1/T)] of equation (2) and used
equation (3). As a result, one can obtain the relation
2
s 1 + (ρ/ρn )1/s

∗
U = UB = AUB . (8)
(ρ/ρn )1/s
From using s = 2.6 and experimental data for ρ/ρn ≈ 10−2 ,
the coefficient A is 21. Therefore, our data analysis yields
agreement between both the TAFF and the vortex-glass
models in the vortex-liquid region.
The upper critical fields, Bc2 , were obtained from the
90% of corresponding resistivity values near the transition to
normal state. Using the estimated vortex-glass line, Bg , the
reconstructed B − T phase diagram is shown in figure 9. The
slopes of Bc2 and Bg are 3.5 and 1.9 T K−1 for B k c before
irradiation, and they change slightly to 3.1 and 1.8 T K−1
after C4+ -irradiation, respectively. According to the collective
pinning model [23], the disorder-induced spatial fluctuations
in the solid-vortex lattice can be clearly divided into markedly
different regimes according to the strength of the applied field.
Two different regimes are distinguishable: (1) vortex glass,
which governs the region below Bg , and (2) vortex liquid,
which holds between Bg and Bc2 , where thermal fluctuations
are important.
Supercond. Sci. Technol. 26 (2013) 095014
Figure 9. Vortex phase diagram for the irradiated and unirradiated
BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal.
The vortex-solid state is characterized by non-zero Jc ,
while the vortex liquid is dissipative at all currents. In a
very clean system, the solid-to-liquid phase transition is most
likely a first order melting transition. It turns into a second
order vortex-glass transition, however, for highly disordered
systems including point defects or twin boundaries in systems,
or artificial defects resulting from ion irradiation [36]. As can
be seen from figure 9, the vortex-glass phase indicates that
the C4+ -irradiated BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal exhibits
very wide regions of vortex-glass phase, which originates
from the vastly enhanced vortex pinning. Especially at low
temperature, the vortex-glass line Bg exhibits an upward
curvature, which indicates even stronger pinning behaviour
at low temperature. It should be noted that Bc2 and Bg were
slightly decreased after C4+ -irradiation. This is related to the
reduction of the electron mean free path due to the increasing
scattering after C4+ -irradiation.
4. Summary
In conclusion, we investigated the effects of C4+ -irradiation
in BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2 single crystal. It was found that C4+ -
irradiation causes little change in Tc , but it can greatly enhance
in-field critical current density by a factor of up to 1.5,
with enhanced flux jumping at 2 K. Also, the MOI results
confirm the enhancement of Jc for the irradiated sample. Our
results suggest that light C4+ ion irradiation is an effective
method for the enhancement of Jc in Fe superconductors
compared to heavy ion irradiation and neutron irradiation. In
addition, the glass transition that is introduced based on a
modified model for the vortex-glass transition can be applied
to both the pristine and C4+ -irradiated BaFe1.9 Ni0.1 As2
single crystal. For temperatures below the superconducting
transition temperature, a scaling of all measured resistivity
ρ(B, T) and of the pinning potential U0 (B, T) in magnetic
fields up to 13 T with the critical exponent s = 2.6 ± 0.41
is obtained. The vortex phase diagram was determined based
on the evolution of the vortex-glass transition temperature Tg
7
M Shahbazi et al
with magnetic field and the upper critical field. Furthermore,
a comparison was made with the thermally activated flux
flow behaviour which is usually employed to account for the
resistivity in the vortex-liquid region.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council
through Discovery Projects DP1094073 and DP120100095.
M Shahbazi would like thank Australian Institute of Nuclear
Science and Engineering (AINSE) for experimental support.
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