AIP Advances (Jun 2017)

The influence of the in-plane lattice constant on the superconducting transition temperature of FeSe0.7Te0.3 thin films

  • Feifei Yuan,
  • Kazumasa Iida,
  • Vadim Grinenko,
  • Paul Chekhonin,
  • Aurimas Pukenas,
  • Werner Skrotzki,
  • Masahito Sakoda,
  • Michio Naito,
  • Alberto Sala,
  • Marina Putti,
  • Aichi Yamashita,
  • Yoshihiko Takano,
  • Zhixiang Shi,
  • Kornelius Nielsch,
  • Ruben Hühne

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4989566
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 6
pp. 065015 – 065015-6

Abstract

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Epitaxial Fe(Se,Te) thin films were prepared by pulsed laser deposition on (La0.18Sr0.82)(Al0.59Ta0.41)O3 (LSAT), CaF2-buffered LSAT and bare CaF2 substrates, which exhibit an almost identical in-plane lattice parameter. The composition of all Fe(Se,Te) films were determined to be FeSe0.7Te0.3 by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, irrespective of the substrate. Albeit the lattice parameters of all templates have comparable values, the in-plane lattice parameter of the FeSe0.7Te0.3 films varies significantly. We found that the superconducting transition temperature (Tc) of FeSe0.7Te0.3 thin films is strongly correlated with their a-axis lattice parameter. The highest Tc of over 19 K was observed for the film on bare CaF2 substrate, which is related to unexpectedly large in-plane compressive strain originating mostly from the thermal expansion mismatch between the FeSe0.7Te0.3 film and the substrate.