Annealing effects on the properties of BFe2As2 (B = Ca, Sr, Ba) superconducting parents.

The effects of thermal-annealing on the antiferromagnetic (TN) and structural (Ts) transition temperatures of ThCr2Si2-type BaFe2As2 and SrFe2As2 ('122') crystals are reported and compared to that of CaFe2As2. Although the shift in transition temperature for CaFe2As2 can be as high as 75 K, we find modest changes of ∼6 K for BaFe2As2 and SrFe2As2. Such findings are based on the measurements of temperature dependence of electrical resistivity, magnetization, and heat capacity. Residual resistivity ratios show an improvement of crystal quality upon annealing for both BaFe2As2 and SrFe2As2. We confirm the pressure-like influence of annealing on the 122 crystals.