Multiband effects on the upper critical field angular dependence of 122-family iron pnictide superconductors

Detailed measurements of the in-plane resistivity were performed in a high-quality Ba($$\hbox {Fe}_{1-x}\hbox {Co}_{{x}}$$ Fe 1 - x Co x )$$_2\hbox {As}_2$$ 2 As 2 ($$x=0.065$$ x = 0.065 ) single crystal, in magnetic fields up to 9 T and with different orientations $$\theta$$ θ relative to the crystal c axis. A significant $$\rho (T)_{H,\theta }$$ ρ ( T ) H , θ rounding is observed just above the superconducting critical temperature $$T_c$$ T c due to Cooper pairs created by superconducting fluctuations. These data are analyzed in terms of a generalization of the Aslamazov-Larkin approach, that extends its applicability to high reduced-temperatures and magnetic fields. This method allows us to carry out a criterion-independent determination of the angular dependence of the upper critical field, $$H_{c2}(\theta )$$ H c 2 ( θ ) . In spite of the relatively small anisotropy of this compound, it is found that $$H_{c2}(\theta )$$ H c 2 ( θ ) presents a significant deviation from the single-band 3D anisotropic Ginzburg-Landau (3D-aGL) approach, particularly for large $$\theta$$ θ (typically above $$\sim 60^o$$ ∼ 60 o ). These results are interpreted in terms of the multiband nature of these materials, in contrast with other proposals for similar $$H_{c2}(\theta )$$ H c 2 ( θ ) anomalies. Our results are also consistent with an effective anisotropy factor almost temperature independent near $$T_c$$ T c , a result that differs from the ones obtained by using a single-band model.