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Tremendous efforts towards improvement in the critical current density (Jc) of iron based superconductors (FeSCs), especially at relatively low temperatures and magnetic fields, have been made so far through different methods, resulting in real progress. Jc at high temperatures in high fields still needs to be further improved, however, in order to meet the requirements of practical applications. Here, we demonstrate a simple approach to achieve this. Hydrostatic pressure can significantly enhance Jc in NaFe0.97Co0.03As single crystals by at least tenfold at low field and more than a hundredfold at high fields. Significant enhancement in the in-field performance of NaFe0.97Co0.03As single crystal in terms of pinning force density (Fp) is found at high pressures. At high fields, the Fp is over 20 and 80 times higher than under ambient pressure at12K and 14K, respectively, at P=1GPa. We believe that the Co-doped NaFeAs compounds are very exciting and deserve to be more intensively investigated. Finally, it is worthwhile to say that by using hydrostatic pressure, we can achieve more milestones in terms of high Jc values in different superconductors.

The impact of hydrostatic pressure up to 1.2 GPa on the critical current density (Jc) and the nature of the pinning mechanism in MgB2 have been investigated within the framework of the collective theory. We found that the hydrostatic pressure can induce a transition from the regime where pinning is controlled by spatial variation in the critical transition temperature ({\delta}T_c) to the regime controlled by spatial variation in the mean free path ({\delta}l). Furthermore, Tc and low field Jc are slightly reduced, although the Jc drops more quickly at high fields than at ambient pressure. We found that the pressure raises the anisotropy and reduces the coherence length, resulting in weak interaction of the vortex cores with the pinning centres. Moreover, the hydrostatic pressure can reduce the density of states [Ns(E)], which, in turn, leads to a reduction in the critical temperature from 39.7 K at P = 0 GPa to 37.7 K at P = 1.2 GPa.

Pressure is well known to significantly raise the superconducting transition temperature, Tc, in both iron pnictides and cuprate based superconductors. Little work has been done, however, on how pressure can affect the flux pinning and critical current density in the Fe-based superconductors. Here, we propose to use hydrostatic pressure to significantly enhance flux pinning and Tc in polycrystalline pnictide bulks. We have chosen Sr4V2O6Fe2As2 polycrystalline samples as a case study. We demonstrate that the hydrostatic pressure up to 1.2 GPa can not only significantly increase Tc from 15 K (underdoped) to 22 K, but also significantly enhance the irreversibility field, Hirr, by a factor of 4 at 7 K, as well as the critical current density, Jc, by up to 30 times at both low and high fields. It was found that pressure can induce more point defects, which are mainly responsible for the Jc enhancement. In addition, we found that the transformation from surface pinning to point pinning induced by pressure was accompanied by a reduction of anisotropy at high temperatures. Our findings provide an effective method to significantly enhance Tc, Jc, Hirr, and the upper critical field, Hc2, for other families of Fe-based superconductors in the forms of wires/tapes, films, and single crystal and polycrystalline bulks.

In this work, we report the simulation of C4+ irradiation and its significant effects towards the enhancement of the critical current density in BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2 single crystals. BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2 single crystals with and without the C-implantation were characterized by magneto-transport and magnetic measurements up to 13 T over a wide range of temperatures below and above the superconducting critical temperature, Tc. It is found that the C-implantation causes little change in Tc, but it can greatly enhance the in-field critical current density by a factor of up to 1.5 with enhanced flux jumping at 2 K. Our Monte Carlo simulation results show that all the C ions end up in a well defined layer, causing extended defects and vacancies at the layer, but few defects elsewhere on the implantation paths. This type of defect distribution is distinct from the columnar defects produced by heavy ion implantation. Furthermore, the normal state resistivity is enhanced by the light C4+ irradiation, while the upper critical field, Hc2, the irreversibility field, Hirr, and Tc were affected very little., Comment: 14 [pages, 7 figures

The vortex liquid-to-glass transition has been studied in Ba0.72K0.28Fe2As2, Ba0.9Co0.1Fe2As2, and Ba(Fe0.45Ni0.05)2As2 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 \leq B \leq 13 T, and the pinning potential was scaled according to a modified model for vortex liquid resistivity. Good scaling of the resistivity {\rho}(B, T) and the effective pinning energy U0(B,T) was obtained with the critical exponents s and B0. 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 cause 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., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures, submitted

We report that single crystals of (Ba,K)Fe2As2 with Tc = 32 K have a pinning potential, U0, as high as 10^4 K, with U0 showing very little field depend-ence. In addition, the (Ba,K)Fe2As2 single crystals become isotropic at low temperatures and high magnetic fields, resulting in a very rigid vortex lattice, even in fields very close to Hc2. The rigid vortices in the two dimensional (Ba,K)Fe2As2 distinguish this compound from 2D high Tc cuprate superconductors with 2D vortices, and make it being capable of cearrying very high critical current.Flux jumping due to high Jc was also observed in large samples at low temperatures., Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures. submitted

In this work, we present the following important results: 1) We introduce a new Si source, liquid SiCl4, which is free of C, to significantly enhance the irreversibility field (Hirr), the upper critical field (Hc2), and the critical current density (Jc), with little reduction in the critical temperature (Tc). 2) Although Si can not incorporate into the crystal lattice, we found a reduction in the a-axis lattice parameter, to the same extent as for carbon doping. 3) The SiCl4 treated MgB2 shows much higher Jc with superior field dependence above 20 K than undoepd MgB2 and MgB2 doped with various carbon sources. 3) We provide an alternative interpretation for the reduction of the a lattice parameter in C- and non-C doped MgB2. 4). We introduce a new parameter, RHH (Hc2/Hirr), which can clearly reflect the degree of flux pinning enhancement, providing us with guidance for further enhancing Jc. 5) We have found that spatial variation in the charge carrier mean free path is responsible for the flux pinning mechanism in the SiCl4 treated MgB2 with large in-field Jc., Comment: 18 pages, 9 figures

The flux pinning mechanism of NdO0.82F0.18FeAs superconductor made under high pressure, with a critical temperature, Tc, of 51 K, has been investigated in detail in this work. The field dependence of the magnetization and the temperature dependence of the magnetoresistivity were measured in fields up to 13 T. The field dependence of the critical current density, Jc(B), was analyzed within the collective pinning model. A crossover field, Bsb, from the single vortex to the small vortex bundle pinning regime was observed. The temperature dependence of Bsb(T) is in good agreement with the delta-l pinning mechanism, i.e., pinning associated with fluctuations in the charge-carrier mean free path, l. Analysis of resistive transition broadening revealed that thermally activated flux flow is found to be responsible for the resistivity contribution in the vicinity of Tc. The activation energy U0/kB is 2000 K in low fields and scales as B (-1/3) over a wide field range. Our results indicate that the NdO0.82F0.18FeAs has stronger intrinsic pinning than Bi-2212 and also stronger than MgB2 for H > 8 T., Comment: 4 pages, 6 figures. submitted on 8 June 2008