Influence of magnetic impurities on superconducting property of polycrystalline iron-based NdFeAsO0.88F0.12 Original Research Article

Polycrystalline iron-based superconducting NdFeAsO0.88F0.12 was prepared via solid-state reaction in ambient pressure. Small amounts of ferromagnetic impurities were detected by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. To study the influence of magnetism on superconducting properties of the sample, magnetization M(T, H) measurements were performed in fields up to 1.5 T and in the temperature range of 5–60 K. The abnormal behavior was observed in the χ(T) curves, and the magnetization hysteresis loops (MHLs) can be described by a sum of the contributions of superconductive hysteresis, ferromagnetic hysteresis of the impurities and the paramagnetic background of the isolated Nd3+ ions. The influence of the ferromagnetic impurities and the paramagnetic background were investigated and discussed. After the corrections of the magnetism contributions, the intrinsic superconductive MHLs as well as the critical current density were obtained.