Comparative study of the effects of electron irradiation and natural disorder in single crystals of SrFe2(As1-x Px)2 superconductor (x=0.35)

Abstract

The London penetration depth λ(T) was measured in single crystals of a SrFe2(As1-xPx)2 (x=0.35) iron-based superconductor. The influence of disorder on the transition temperature Tc and on λ(T) was investigated. The effects of scattering controlled by the annealing of as-grown crystals was compared with the effects of artificial disorder introduced by 2.5 MeV electron irradiation. The low-temperature behavior of λ(T) can be described by a power-law function Δλ(T)=ATn, with the exponent n close to one in pristine annealed samples, as expected for a superconducting gap with line nodes. Upon electron irradiation with a dose of 1.2×1019 e/cm2, the exponent n increases rapidly, exceeding a dirty limit value of n=2, implying that the nodes in the superconducting gap are accidental and can be lifted by the disorder. The variation of the exponent n with Tc is much stronger in the irradiated crystals compared to the crystals in which disorder was controlled by the annealing of the growth defects. We discuss the results in terms of different influence of different types of disorder on intraband and interband scattering. © 2014 American Physical Society.