Appearance and disappearance of superconductivity with Fe site Co substitution in SmFe1-xCoxAsO (x = 0.0 to 1.0)

We report synthesis, structural details and magnetization of SmFe1-xCoxAsO with x ranging from 0.0 to 1.0 at close interval of 0.10. It is found that Co substitutes fully at Fe site in SmFeAsO in an iso-structural lattice with slightly compressed cell. The parent compound exhibited known spin density wave (SDW) character below 150K. Successive doping of Co at Fe site suppressed the SDW transition for x = 0.05 and later induced superconductivity for x = 0.10, 0.15 and 0.20 respectively at 14, 15.5 and 9K. The appearance of bulk superconductivity is established by wide open isothermal magnetization M(H) loops. For higher content of Co i.e. x \geq 0.30, superconductivity is not observed. Clearly the Co substitution at Fe site in SmFe1-xCoxAsO diminishes the Fe SDW character (x=0.05), introduces bulk superconductivity for x from 0.10 to 0.20 and finally becomes a non-superconductor. The SmCoAsO also exhibits a secondary AFM like transition at below around 50 K. The reported AFM ordering of Sm spins is seen from heat capacity Cp(T) at 4.5 K and the same remains invariant with Co doping in SmFe1-xCoxAsO. Further the FM ordering of Co-spins (seen in magnetization measurements) is not evident in Cp(T) studies, suggesting weak correlations between ordered Co-spins in these systems.

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