  The effect of Li substitution for Mg and of Li-C co-substitution on the
superconducting properties and crystal structure of MgB2 single crystals has
been investigated. It has been found that hole doping with Li decreases the
superconducting transition temperature Tc, but at a slower rate than electron
doping with C or Al. Tc of MgB2 crystals with simultaneously substituted Li for
Mg and C for B decreases more than in the case where C is substituted alone.
This means that holes introduced by Li cannot counterbalance the effect of
decrease of Tc caused by introduction of electrons coming from C. The possible
reason of it can be that holes coming from Li occupy the pi band while
electrons coming from C fill the sigma band. The temperature dependences of the
upper critical field Hc2 for Al and Li substituted crystals with the same Tc
show a similar dHc2/dT slope at Tc and a similar Hc2(T) behavior, despite of
much different substitution level. This indicates that the mechanism
controlling Hc2 and Tc is similar in both hole and electron doped crystals.
Electrical transport measurements show an increase of resistivity both in Li
substituted crystals and in Li and C co-substituted crystals. This indicates
enhanced scattering due to defects introduced by substitutions including
distortion of the lattice. The observed behavior can be explained as a result
of two effects, influencing both Tc and Hc2. The first one is doping related to
the changes in the carrier concentration, which may lead to the decrease or to
the increase of Tc. The second one is related to the introduction of new
scattering centers leading to the modification of the interband and/or
intraband scattering and therefore, to changes in the superconducting gaps and
to the reduction of Tc.
