In-Plane Resistivity Anisotropy in an Underdoped Iron Arsenide Superconductor

Abstract

De-Twinning a Superconductor Insight into the mechanism of electrical transport in a solid can often be gained by measuring its resistivity along different spatial directions. However, iron-based superconductors form numerous twin boundaries where two different orientations of a crystal meet, and so the measured resistivity along any in-plane direction will be averaged over these orientations. Chu et al. (p. 824 ) were able to “de-twin” the compound Ba(Fe 1− x Co x ) 2 As 2 , enabling unambiguous measurements of its normal-state resistivity along the in-plane lattice axes. Differences were observed in the resistivity values along the two axes, which suggests that the breaking of the symmetry of the lattice and electron subsystems occur simultaneously.