Effect of irradiation-induced disorder on the conductivity and critical temperature of the organic superconductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(SCN)2

Phys Rev Lett. 2006 May 5;96(17):177002. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.96.177002. Epub 2006 May 3.

Abstract

We have introduced defects into clean samples of the organic superconductor kappa-(BEDT-TTF)(2)Cu(SCN)(2) in order to determine their effect on the temperature dependence of the interlayer conductivity and the critical temperature T(c). We find a violation of Matthiessen's rule that can be explained by a model of involving a defect-assisted interlayer channel which acts in parallel with the bandlike conductivity. We observe an unusual dependence of T(c) on residual resistivity, inconsistent with the generalized Abrikosov-Gor'kov theory for an order parameter with a single component, providing an important constraint on models of the superconductivity in this material.