Upper Critical Field of a Two-Band SrFe2 − xNixAs2 Superconductor

The upper critical field of an iron-based SrFe2 − xNixAs2 superconductor single crystal is measured for the first time in longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields up to 16 T in the basal ab plane and to it along the c axis. The Hc2(0) values are 18 and 25 T for H ∥ c and H ∥ ab, respectively. The anisotropy of the upper critical field γ(T) = Hc2 / Hc2 decreases monotonically to 1.4 with decreasing temperature. The temperature dependence of Hc2 is not described fully by the Werthamer–Helfand–Hohenberg model taking into account the influence of orbital and spin paramagnetic effects. However, an effective two-band model reproduces well the measured temperature dependence. This indicates the two-band nature of this superconductor, where one of the bands is almost isotropic. According to the two-band model approximation, the contribution from the anisotropic band dominates near Tc, whereas the main contribution at low temperatures comes from the isotropic band with a lower diffusion coefficient.