Anisotropy of the coherence length from critical currents in the stoichiometric superconductor LiFeAs

Abstract

Miniature Hall-probe arrays were used to measure the critical current densities for the three main directions of vortex motion in the stoichiometric LiFeAs superconductor. These correspond to vortices oriented along the c-axis moving parallel to the ab-plane, and to vortices in the ab-plane moving perpendicular to, and within the plane, respectively. The measurements were carried out in the low-field regime of strong vortex pinning, in which the critical current anisotropy is solely determined by the coherence length anisotropy parameter, {\epsilon}_{\xi}. This allows extraction of {\epsilon}_{\xi} at magnetic fields far below the upper critical field B_c2. We find that increasing magnetic field decreases the anisotropy of the coherence length.