Exploring of point-contact spectra of Ba1-xNaxFe2As2 in the normal and superconducting state

Abstract

We present study of derivatives of current-voltage I(V) characteristics of point-contacts (PCs) based on Ba{1-x}Na{x}Fe2As2 (x=0.25) in the normal and superconducting state. The detailed analysis of dV/dI(V) data (also given in Appendix A) shows that the thermal regime, when temperature increases with a voltage at a rate of about 1.8 K/mV, is realized in the investigated PCs at least at high biases V above the superconducting (SC) gap Δ. In this case, specific resistivity ρ(T) in PC core is responsible for a peculiar dV/dI(V) behavior, while a pronounced asymmetry of dV/dI(V) is caused by large value of thermopower in this material. A reproducible zero-bias minima detected on dV/dI(V) at low biases in the range \pm(6--9)mV well below the SC critical temperature T_c could be connected with the manifestation of the SC gap Δ. Evaluation of these Andreev-reflection-like structures on dV/dI(V) points out to the preferred value of 2Δ/kT_c \approx 6. The expected second gap features on dV/dI(V) are hard to resolve unambiguously, likely due to impurity scattering, spatial inhomogeneity and transition to the mentioned thermal regime as the bias further increases. Suggestions are made how to separate spectroscopic features in dV/dI(V) from those caused by the thermal regime.

10 pages, 15 figs, two Apps, to be published in PRB

References in corpus (4)

• Momentum-dependence of Superconducting Gap, strong-coupling dispersion Kink, and tightly bound Cooper pairs in the high-Tc (Sr,Ba)1-x(K,Na)xFe2As2 superconductors
• Observation of Lattice and Andreev Bound States of Vortices in Ba0.6K0.4Fe2As2 Single Crystals with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy/Spectroscopy
• Evidence for two-gap superconductivity in (Ba,K)Fe_2As_2 by directional point contact Andreev reflection spectroscopy
• Manifestation of impurity induced s_{+-} -> s_{++} transition: multiband model for dynamical response functions

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