Effects of Ni and Co doping on the physical properties of tetragonal FeSe0.5Te0.5 superconductor

Isoelectronic Tellurium (Te) substitution for Selenium (Se) in the tetragonal phase of FeSe (beta-FeSe) increases the superconducting transition temperature (T-c) by applying a negative pressure on the lattice. However, the normal state resistivity increases and shows semi-metallic behavior for samples with higher Te concentration. With increasing Te concentration, the T-c increases and reaches a maximum for FeSe0.5Te0.5 and then decreases with further increase of Te. We have investigated the effect of Cobalt (Co) and Nickel (Ni) doping in FeSe0.5Te0.5 in the nominal composition range Fe1-xTMxSe0.5Te0.5 (TM = Co (x = 0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2) and Ni (x = 0.05, 0.1)). Both Co and Ni doping suppress T-c and drives the system to metal-insulator transition. The in-plane ('a') and out-of-plane ('c') lattice constants decrease with increasing dopant concentration. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.