Magnetic and superconducting anisotropy in Ni-doped RbEuFe4As4 single crystals

We investigate the effect of Ni doping on the Fe site in single crystals of the magnetic superconductor RbEuFe4As4 for doping concentrations of up to 4%. A clear suppression in the superconducting transition temperature is observed in specific-heat, resistivity, and magnetization measurements. Upon Ni doping, the resistivity curves shift up in a parallel fashion, indicating a strong increase of the residual resistivity due to scattering by charged dopant atoms while the shape of the curve and thus the electronic structure appear largely unchanged. The observed step Delta C/T-c at the superconducting transition decreases strongly for increasing Ni doping in agreement with expectations based on a model of multiband superconductivity and strong interband pairing. The upper critical field slopes are reduced upon Ni doping for in-plane as well as out-of-plane fields, leading to a small reduction in the superconducting anisotropy. The specific-heat measurements of the magnetic transition reveal the same Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless behavior close to the transition temperature T-m for all doping levels. The transition temperature is essentially unchanged upon doping. The in-plane to out-of-plane anisotropy of Eu magnetism observed at small magnetic fields is unaltered as compared to the undoped compound. All of these observations indicate a decoupling of the Eu magnetism from superconductivity and essentially no influence of Ni doping on the Eu magnetism in this compound.