Thermal conductivity and annealing effects in the iron-based superconductor FeSe$_{0.3}$Te$_{0.7}$

Abstract

Thermal conductivity measurements in magnetic fields have been carried out for FeSe$_{0.3}$Te$_{0.7}$ single crystals as-grown and annealed at 400 {\degree}C for 100 h in vacuum ($\sim$ 10$^{-4}$ Pa). It has been found that the thermal conductivity in the {\it ab}-plane, {\kab}, of the annealed crystal shows an enhancement at low temperatures just below the superconducting transition temperature, {\tc}, owing to the thermal conductivity due to quasiparticles, while {\kab} of the as-grown crystal does not. This suggests that FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_{x}$ is a strongly correlated electron system. It has also been found that both the degree of the enhancement of {\kab} just below {\tc} and the behavior of the suppression of {\kab} by the application of magnetic field for the annealed crystal depend on the thickness of the crystal. These results indicate that bulk superconductivity is absent in the as-grown crystal, appears only in the surface area in the annealed-thick crystal and appears in the almost whole region in the annealed-thin crystal. It has been concluded that the excess Fe included in the as-grown crystal is removed from the surface through the vacuum-annealing.