Evolution of Superconducting Properties of LiFeAs Single Crystals Doped with Magnetic or Nonmagnetic Impurities

The effect of magnetic Co²⁺ and nonmagnetic Ga³⁺ impurities on the crystal structure and superconducting properties of LiFeAs single crystals has been investigated. A large T _c decrease of about 4.8 K/at% is observed in Ga-doped LiFeAs. This rate is higher than that of the material doped with magnetic Co impurities (～3.7 K/at%). The greater T _c suppression in the Ga case is likely due to the pair breaking associated with the significant changes in the crystal structure of the doped material. The increase of the critical current densities in intermediate magnetic fields (H⊥?ab) indicates that a very small amount of Ga (0.5 at%) acts as an effective pinning site for flux pinning enhancement in the material. The analysis of the temperature and field dependencies of the magnetic relaxation is consistent with the collective pinning model for the Co-doped material, while the magnetic relaxation measurements combined with the peak position of the critical current density in the B–T phase diagram of Ga-doped LiFeAs suggest an elastic–plastic transition of the vortex lattice at higher temperatures and fields.