No Arabic abstract
The superconductivity discovered in iron-pnictides is intimately related to a nematic ground state, where the C4 rotational symmetry is broken via the structural and magnetic transitions. We here study the nematicity in NaFeAs with the polarization dependent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. A uniaxial strain was applied on the sample to overcome the twinning effect in the low temperature C2-symmetric state, and obtain a much simpler electronic structure than that of a twinned sample. We found the electronic structure undergoes an orbital-dependent reconstruction in the nematic state, primarily involving the dxy- and dyz-dominated bands. These bands strongly hybridize with each other, inducing a band splitting, while the dxz-dominated bands only exhibit an energy shift without any reconstruction. These findings suggest that the development of orbital-dependent spin polarization is likely the dominant force to drive the nematicity, while the ferro-orbital ordering between dxz and dyz orbitals can only play a minor role here.
Pairing symmetry which characterizes the superconducting pairing mechanism is normally determined by measuring the superconducting gap structure ($|Delta_k|$). Here, we report the measurement of a strain-induced gap modulation ($partial|Delta_k|$) in uniaxially strained Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ utilizing angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy and $in$-$situ$ strain-tuning. We found that the uniaxial strain drives Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ into a nematic superconducting state which breaks the four-fold rotational symmetry of the superconducting pairing. The superconducting gap increases on the $d_{yz}$ electron and hole pockets while it decreases on the $d_{xz}$ counterparts. Such orbital selectivity indicates that orbital-selective pairing exists intrinsically in non-nematic iron-based superconductors. The $d_{xz}$ and $d_{yz}$ pairing channels are balanced originally in the pristine superconducting state, but become imbalanced under uniaxial strain. Our results highlight the important role of intra-orbital scattering in mediating the superconducting pairing in iron-based superconductors. It also highlights the measurement of $partial|Delta_k|$ as an effective way to characterize the superconducting pairing from a perturbation perspective.
Laser angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) is employed to investigate the temperature (T) dependence of the electronic structure in BaFe2As2 across the magneto-structural transition at TN ~ 140 K. A drastic transformation in Fermi surface (FS) shape across TN is observed, as expected by first-principles band calculations. Polarization-dependent ARPES and band calculations consistently indicate that the observed FSs at kz ~ pi in the low-T antiferromagnetic (AF) state are dominated by the Fe3dzx orbital, leading to the two-fold electronic structure. These results indicate that magneto-structural transition in BaFe2As2 accompanies orbital-dependent modifications in the electronic structure.
Multiorbital models are important to both the correlation physics and topological behavior of quantum materials. LiFeAs is a prototype iron pnictide suitable for indepth investigation of this issue. Its electronic structure is strikingly different from the prediction of the noninteracting description. Here, a multiorbital Hubbard model for this compound is studied using a $U(1)$ slave spin theory. We demonstrate a new mechanism for a large change in the size of the Fermi surface, namely, orbital selectivity of the energy-level renormalization cooperating with its counterpart in the quasiparticle spectral weight. Using this effect, we show how the dominating features of the electronic structure in LiFeAs are understood in terms of the local correlations alone. Our results reveal a remarkable degree of universality out of the seemingly complex multiorbital building blocks across a broad range of strongly correlated superconductors.
We have performed high-resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy on FeSe superconductor (Tc ~ 8 K), which exhibits a tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition at Ts ~ 90 K. At low temperature we found splitting of the energy bands as large as 50 meV at the M point in the Brillouin zone, likely caused by the formation of electronically driven nematic states. This band splitting persists up to T ~ 110 K, slightly above Ts, suggesting that the structural transition is triggered by the electronic nematicity. We have also revealed that at low temperature the band splitting gives rise to a van Hove singularity within 5 meV of the Fermi energy. The present result strongly suggests that this unusual electronic state is responsible for the unconventional superconductivity in FeSe.
We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study twinned and detwinned iron pnictide compound NaFeAs. Distinct signatures of electronic reconstruction are observed to occur at the structural (TS) and magnetic (TSDW) transitions. At TS, C4 rotational symmetry is broken in the form of an anisotropic shift of the orthogonal dxz and dyz bands. The magnitude of this orbital anisotropy rapidly develops to near completion upon approaching TSDW, at which temperature band folding occurs via the antiferromagnetic ordering wave vector. Interestingly, the anisotropic band shift onsetting at TS develops in such a way to enhance the nesting conditions in the C2 symmetric state, hence is intimately correlated with the long range collinear AFM order. Furthermore, the similar behaviors of the electronic reconstruction in NaFeAs and Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 suggests that this rapid development of large orbital anisotropy between TS and TSDW is likely a general feature of the electronic nematic phase in the iron pnictides, and the associated orbital fluctuations may play an important role in determining the ground state properties.