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We report inelastic neutron scattering experiments on single crystals of superconducting Ba0.67K0.33Fe2As2 (Tc = 38 K). In addition to confirming the resonance previously found in powder samples, we find that spin excitations in the normal state form longitudinally elongated ellipses along the QAFM direction in momentum space, consistent with density functional theory predictions. On cooling below Tc, while the resonance preserves its momentum anisotropy as expected, spin excitations at energies below the resonance become essentially isotropic in the in-plane momentum space and dramatically increase their correlation length. These results suggest that the superconducting gap structures in Ba0.67Ka0.33Fe2As2 are more complicated than those suggested from angle resolved photoemission experiments.
We report high-resolution neutron scattering measurements of the low energy spin fluctuations of KFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$, the end member of the hole-doped Ba$_{1-x}$K$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$ family with only hole pockets, above and below its superconducting transition temperature $T_c$ ($sim$ 3.5 K). Our data reveals clear spin fluctuations at the incommensurate wave vector ($0.5pmdelta$, 0, $L$), ($delta$ = 0.2)(1-Fe unit cell), which exhibit $L$-modulation peaking at $L=0.5$. Upon cooling to the superconducting state, the incommensurate spin fluctuations gradually open a spin-gap and form a sharp spin resonance mode. The incommensurability ($2delta$ = 0.4) of the resonance mode ($sim1.2$ meV) is considerably larger than the previously reported value ($2delta$ $approx0.32$) at higher energies ($gesim6$ meV). The determination of the momentum structure of spin fluctuation in the low energy limit allows a direct comparison with the realistic Fermi surface and superconducting gap structure. Our results point to an $s$-wave pairing with a reversed sign between the hole pockets near the zone center in KFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$.
We report polarized neutron scattering measurements of the low energy spin fluctuations of the iron-selenide superconductor Li$_{0.8}$Fe$_{0.2}$ODFeSe below and above its superconducting transition temperature $T_c=41$ K. Our experiments confirmed that the resonance mode near 21 meV is magnetic. Moreover, the spin excitations are essentially isotropic in spin space at 5$leq Eleq$ 29 meV in the superconducting and normal states. Our results suggest that the resonance mode in iron-based superconductors becomes isotropic when the influence of spin-orbit coupling and magnetic/nematic order is minimized, similar to those observed in cuprate superconductors.
A resonant inelastic x-ray scattering (RIXS) study of overdamped spin-excitations in slightly underdoped La$_{2-x}$Sr$_{x}$CuO$_4$ (LSCO) with $x=0.12$ and $0.145$ is presented. Three high-symmetry directions have been investigated: (1) the antinodal $(0,0)rightarrow (1/2,0)$, (2) the nodal $(0,0)rightarrow (1/4,1/4)$ and (3) the zone boundary direction $(1/2,0)rightarrow (1/4,1/4)$ connecting these two. The overdamped excitations exhibit strong dispersions along (1) and (3), whereas a much more modest dispersion is found along (2). This is in strong contrast to the undoped compound La$_{2}$CuO$_4$ (LCO) for which the strongest dispersions are found along (1) and (2). The $t-t^{prime}-t^{primeprime}-U$ Hubbard model used to explain the excitation spectrum of LCO predicts $-$ for constant $U/t$ $-$ that the dispersion along (3) scales with $(t^{prime}/t)^2$. However, the diagonal hopping $t^{prime}$ extracted on LSCO using single-band models is low ($t^{prime}/tsim-0.16$) and decreasing with doping. We therefore invoked a two-orbital ($d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{z^2}$) model which implies that $t^{prime}$ is enhanced. This effect acts to enhance the zone-boundary dispersion within the Hubbard model. We thus conclude that hybridization of $d_{x^2-y^2}$ and $d_{z^2}$ states has a significant impact on the zone-boundary dispersion in LSCO.
Although Fe-based superconductors are multiorbital correlated electronic systems, previous nuclei magnetic resonance (NMR) measurement suggests that a single spin-fluid model is sufficient to describe its spin behavior. Here, we firstly observed the breakdown of single spin-fluid model in a heavily hole-doped Fe-based superconductor CsFe2As2 by site-selective NMR measurement. At high temperature regime, both of Knight shift and nuclei spin-lattice relaxation at 133Cs and 75As nuclei exhibit distinct temperature-dependent behavior, suggesting the breakdown of single spin-fluid model in CsFe2As2. This is ascribed to the coexistence of both localized and itinerant spin degree of freedom at 3d orbits, which is consistent with orbital-selective Mott phase. However, single spin-fluid behavior is gradually recovered by developing a coherent state among 3d orbits with decreasing temperature. A Kondo liquid scenario is proposed for the low-temperature coherent state. The present work sets strong constraint on the theoretical model for Fe-based superconductors.
As a simple cubic system with only one f electron per cerium ion, CeB6 is of model character to investigate the interplay of orbital phenomena with magnetism. It is also a textbook example of a compound that exhibits magnetically hidden order -- a low-temperature magnetic phase with ordered quadrupolar moments. It is difficult to identify the symmetry of such hidden-order states in common x-ray or neutron scattering experiments, as there is no signal in zero field, however alternative techniques like neutron diffraction in external field, resonant x-ray scattering, or ultrasonic investigations can be applied. Another possible method for characterizing hidden order is to look at the magnetic excitation spectrum, which carries the imprint of the multipolar interactions and the hidden order parameter in its dispersion relations. Using a specific candidate model, the dispersion is calculated and then compared to that measured with inelastic neutron scattering. Until recently, only a limited amount of data which show the presence of dispersing excitations measured along a few high-symmetry directions in an applied magnetic field were available. Early attempts to compare such calculations with experiments showed that only strongest modes at high-symmetry points could be identified. The present review of the most recent neutron-scattering results is intended to satisfy the need of more accurate inelastic neutron-scattering experiments as a function of field and temperature, giving us the opportunity to identify existing excitation branches in CeB6 and conclusively compare them with the theoretically predicted multipolar excitations.