Effect of thickness on the superconducting properties of the thin films of FeTe0.55Se0.45 deposited on YSZ substrates using Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique

Abstract We report the successful fabrication of thin films of thickness ∼26 nm, 59 nm, 76 nm, and 158 nm of the composition FeTe 0.55 Se 0.45 on the (100)-oriented Yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) substrate using the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique. The effect of thickness on the structure and superconducting properties of the thin films has been investigated. X-ray diffraction study reveals the growth of thin films along the c -axis. The temperature-dependent resistivity measurements confirm superconductivity in all the fabricated thin films, and the highest T c onset ∼ 16.2 K has been observed for the thin film of thickness ∼59 nm, which is higher than the corresponding value of the polycrystalline target sample. The superconducting parameters such as upper critical magnetic field H c 2 0 , coherence length ξ 0 , thermally activated energy (TAE) U 0, and vortex phase state have been measured by magnetotransport measurements near T c in the different applied magnetic fields up to 12 T. The TAE values determined from the conventional and modified thermally activated flux flow (TAFF) models are discussed and compared. A crossover from 2-dimensional (2D) vortex to 3-dimensional (3D) vortex behaviour has been observed. The vortex phase diagrams are used to observe the transition from the vortex liquid to the vortex glass state in the grown thin films. Moreover, magnetoresistance (MR) measurements show non-saturating linear magnetoresistance (LMR) in the high field region, indicating the presence of the possible topological state in the grown thin films. The values of magnetic field dependent transport critical current density, J c H have been evaluated from the current-voltage ( I-V ) curves. Furthermore, the normalised pinning force density has been used to characterize the pinning processes using the Dew Hughes’ scaling rule which reveals that the grown thin films contain δl- surface pinning centers.