Synthesis and HRTEM Investigation of EuRbFe<sub>4</sub>As<sub>4</sub> Superconductor
Alena Yu. Degtyarenko,
Igor A. Karateev,
Alexey V. Ovcharov,
Vladimir A. Vlasenko,
Kirill S. Pervakov
Affiliations
Alena Yu. Degtyarenko
V.L. Ginzburg Centre for High-Temperature Superconductivity and Quantum Materials, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 53, Leninsky Ave., Moscow 119991, Russia
Igor A. Karateev
National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, 1, Kurchatov Sq, Moscow 123182, Russia
Alexey V. Ovcharov
National Research Centre “Kurchatov Institute”, 1, Kurchatov Sq, Moscow 123182, Russia
Vladimir A. Vlasenko
V.L. Ginzburg Centre for High-Temperature Superconductivity and Quantum Materials, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 53, Leninsky Ave., Moscow 119991, Russia
Kirill S. Pervakov
V.L. Ginzburg Centre for High-Temperature Superconductivity and Quantum Materials, P.N. Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 53, Leninsky Ave., Moscow 119991, Russia
In the stoichiometric iron-based superconductor EuRbFe4As4, superconductivity coexists with a long-range magnetic ordering in Eu layers. Using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), we observed an atomic structure of as-grown EuRbFe4As4 crystals. HRTEM shows that crystals have two-dimensional intrinsic nanoinclusions established to be the RbFe2As2 (122) phase with a volume fraction of ~5.6%. In contrast with the CaKFe4As4 compound, similar inclusions are not superconducting down to 2 K, and no second magnetization peak was observed in the magnetization measurements at low temperature with B ‖ ab. We show that the non-superconducting 122 phase nanoinclusions could act as 2D pinning centers.
