Effect of aliovalent substitution on the local structure of CaKFe4As4 superconductor

Abstract

Abstract We have investigated the local structure of the iron-based CaKFe4As4 superconductor featuring distinct aliovalent substitutions at the Ca and K sites, that is CaKFe4As4, CaK0.9Sr0.1Fe4As4, CaK0.9Ba0.1Fe4As4 and Ca0.9Na0.1K0.9Ba0.1Fe4As4. Temperature-dependent Fe K-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) measurements are used to determine the near-neighbors bondlengths and their stiffness. The EXAFS analysis reveals that the Fe–As bondlength undergoes negligible changes by substitution, however, the Fe–Fe bondlength and the As height are affected by the Sr substitution. The superconducting transition temperatures of CaK0.9Sr0.1Fe4As4 and CaK0.9Ba0.1Fe4As4 are very similar even if the mean As heights are significantly different suggesting that the anion height may not be a unique parameter to describe the superconductivity in CaKFe4As4. The mean As heights show a peculiar temperature dependence characteristic of CaKFe4As4 system. Furthermore, the temperature-dependent mean square relative displacements reveal similar Fe–Fe bond stiffness in all samples, instead the Fe–As bond is substantially stiffer in case of CaK0.9Sr0.1Fe4As4. The local structure results are discussed in relation to the differing transport properties of aliovalent substituted 1144 superconductor.