Flux Pinning and Vortex Transitions in Doped Bafe2as2 Single Crystals

The vortex liquid-to-glass transition has been studied in Ba0.72K0.28Fe2As2 (BaK-122), Ba(Fe0.91Co0.09)2As2(BaCo-122), and Ba(Fe0.95Ni0.05)2As2(BaNi-122) single crystal with superconducting transition temperature, Tc = 31.7, 17.3, and 18 K, respectively, by magnetoresistance measurements. For temperatures below Tc, the resistivity curves were measured in magnetic fields within the range of 0 ≤ B ≤ 13 T, and the pinning potential was scaled according to a modified model for vortex liquid resistivity. Good scaling of the resistivity ρ(B, T) and the effective pinning energy U0(B,T) were obtained. The vortex state is three-dimensional at temperatures lower than a characteristic temperature T*. The vortex phase diagram was determined based on the evolution of the vortex-glass transition temperature Tg with magnetic field and the upper critical field, Hc2. We found that non-magnetic K doping results in a high glass line close to the Hc2, while magnetic Ni and Co doping causes a low glass line which is far away from the Hc2. Our results suggest that non-magnetic induced disorder is more favourable for enhancement of pinning strength compared to magnetic induced disorder. Our results show that the pinning potential is responsible for the difference in the glass states.