Study of anisotropy in the superconducting properties of FeTe0.55Se0.45 single crystal grown by the self-flux method

We report anisotropy in the superconducting properties of FeTe0.55Se0.45 bulk single crystal synthesized via the self-flux method. We have performed magnetotransport, magnetic and heat capacity measurements on single crystals of same batch. The grown crystals have also been characterized by XRD, XPS and Raman measurements. The superconductivity at T-C similar to 14 K has been affirmed by the temperature-dependent resistivity, magnetic, and specific heat measurements. The anisotropy in the upper critical field (H-C2), coherence length (xi), and critical current density (J(C)) have been studied from the magnetotransport and magnetic measurements, respectively, under applied magnetic fields of 0-12 T along the ab-plane and c-axis. The critical current density has been estimated by Bean's critical state model at different magnetic fields (J(C)(H)) and temperatures (J(C)(T)) measured for H parallel to ab-plane and H parallel to c axis. The anisotropic behaviour has also been observed for J(C)(H). The presence of 'peak effect' or fishtail characteristic has been noticed in M-H loops for H parallel to c only, which shows a shift towards the lower fields with increasing temperature. The nature of the pinning mechanisms in the sample has been determined by the normalized pinning force density using the Dew Hughes scaling rule, and the analysis of experimental data indicates the presence of delta l-pinning in the sample. The temperature-dependent electronic specific heat has been fitted with the exponential law and the evaluated coupling constant 2 Delta(0)/k(B)T(c) is similar to 3.42 which is close to the universal BCS value of 3.53. The observed low value of residual Sommerfeld coefficient gamma(res) approximate to 4.59 mJ mol(-1) K-2 indicates good quality of the grown single crystal.

Automated summary

We report the anisotropy in the superconducting properties of FeTe0.55Se0.45 bulk single crystal synthesized using the self-flux method. Magnetotransport, magnetic, and heat capacity measurements were performed on single crystals of the same batch. The anisotropy in the upper critical field, coherence length, and critical current density was studied under applied magnetic fields along the ab-plane and c-axis. The presence of 'peak effect' was observed in M-H loops for H parallel to c only, indicating the shift of the effect towards lower fields with increasing temperature. The pinning mechanisms were determined using the Dew Hughes scaling rule.