Strong anisotropy effect in iron-based superconductor CaFe$_{0.882}$Co$_{0.118}$AsF

Abstract

The anisotropy of the Fe-based superconductors is much smaller than that of the cuprates and the theoretical calculations. A credible understanding for this experimental fact is still lacking up to now. Here we experimentally study the magnetic-field-angle dependence of electronic resistivity in the superconducting phase of iron-based superconductor CaFe$_{0.882}$Co$_{0.118}$AsF, and find the strongest anisotropy effect of the upper critical field among the iron-based superconductors based on the framework of Ginzburg-Landau theory. The evidences of energy band structure and charge density distribution from electronic structure calculations demonstrate that the observed strong anisotropic effect mainly comes from the strong ionic bonding in between the ions of Ca$^{2+}$ and F$^-$, which weakens the interlayer coupling between the layers of FeAs and CaF. This finding provides a significant insight into the nature of experimentally observed strong anisotropic effect of electronic resistivity, and also paves an avenue to design exotic two dimensional artificial unconventional superconductors in future.