No Arabic abstract
We investigate an unusual symmetry of Fe-based superconductors (FeSCs) and find novel superconducting pairing structures. FeSCs have a minimal translational unit cell composed of two Fe atoms due to the staggered positions of anions with respect to the Fe plane. We study the physical consequences of the additional glide symmetry that further reduces the unit cell to have only one Fe atoms. In the regular momentum space, it not only leads to a particular orbital parity separated spectral function but also dictates orbital parity distinct pairing structures. Furthermore, it produces accompanying Cooper pairs of $(pi,pi,0)$ momentum, which have a characteristic textit{odd} form factor and break time reversal symmetry. Such novel pairing structures explain the unusual angular modulations of the superconducting gaps on the hole pockets in recent ARPES and STS experiments.
We analyze antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in novel $Fe-$based superconductors within the itinerant model of small electron and hole pockets near $(0,0)$ and $(pi,pi)$. We argue that the effective interactions in both channels logarithmically flow towards the same values at low energies, {it i.e.}, antiferromagnetism and superconductivity must be treated on equal footings. The magnetic instability comes first for equal sizes of the two pockets, but looses to superconductivity upon doping. The superconducting gap has no nodes, but changes sign between the two Fermi surfaces (extended s-wave symmetry). We argue that the $T$ dependencies of the spin susceptibility and NMR relaxation rate for such state are exponential only at very low $T$, and can be well fitted by power-laws over a wide $T$ range below $T_c$.
Electron correlations play a central role in iron-based superconductors. In these systems, multiple Fe $3d$-orbitals are active in the low-energy physics, and they are not all degenerate. For these reasons, the role of orbital-selective correlations has been an active topic in the study of the iron-based systems. In this paper, we survey the recent developments on the subject. For the normal state, we emphasize the orbital-selective Mott physics that has been extensively studied, especially in the iron chalcogenides, in the case of electron filling $n sim 6$. In addition, the interplay between orbital selectivity and electronic nematicity is addressed. For the superconducting state, we summarize the initial ideas for orbital-selective pairing, and discuss the recent explosive activities along this direction. We close with some perspectives on several emerging topics. These include the evolution of the orbital-selective correlations, magnetic and nematic orders and superconductivity as the electron filling factor is reduced from $6$ to $5$, as well as the interplay between electron correlations and topological bandstructure in iron-based superconductors.
The pairing symmetry is examined in highly electron-doped Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As)$_2$ and A$_y$Fe$_2$Se$_2$ (with A=K, Cs) compounds, with similar crystallographic and electronic band structures. Starting from a phenomenological two-orbital model, we consider nearest-neighbor and next-nearest-neighbor intraorbital pairing interactions on the Fe square lattice. In this model, we find a unified description of the evolution from $s_pm$-wave pairing ($2.0 < n lesssim 2.4$) to $d$-wave pairing ($2.4 lesssim n lesssim 2.5$) as a function of electron filling. In the crossover region a novel time-reversal symmetry breaking state with $s_pm+id$ pairing symmetry emerges. This minimal model offers an overall picture of the evolution of superconductivity with electron doping for both $s_pm$-wave [Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As)$_2$] and $d$-wave [A$_y$Fe$_2$Se$_2$] pairing, as long as the dopants only play the role of a charge reservoir. However, the situation is more complicated for Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As)$_2$. A real-space study further shows that when the impurity scattering effects of Co dopants are taken into account, the superconductivity is completely suppressed for $n > 2.4$. This preempts any observation of $d$-wave pairing in this compound, in contrast to A$_y$Fe$_2$Se$_2$.
I review theoretical ideas and implications of experiments for the gap structure and symmetry of the Fe-based superconductors. Unlike any other class of unconventional superconductors, one has in these systems the possibility to tune the interactions by small changes in pressure, doping or disorder. Thus, measurements of order parameter evolution with these parameters should enable a deeper understanding of the underlying interactions. I briefly review the standard paradigm for $s$-wave pairing in these systems, and then focus on developments in the past several years which have challenged this picture. I discuss the reasons for the apparent close competition between pairing in s- and d-wave channels, particularly in those systems where one type of Fermi surface pocket -- hole or electron -- is missing. Observation of a transition between $s$- and $d$-wave symmetry, possibly via a time reversal symmetry breaking $s+id$ state, would provide an importantconfirmation of these ideas. Several proposals for detecting these novel phases are discussed, including the appearance of order parameter collective modes in Raman and optical conductivities. Transitions between two different types of $s$-wave states, involving various combinations of signs on Fermi surface pockets, can also proceed through a ${cal T}$-breaking $s+is$ state. I discuss recent work that suggests pairing may take place away from the Fermi level over a surprisingly large energy range, as well as the effect of glide plane symmetry of the Fe-based systems on the superconductivity, including various exotic, time and translational invariance breaking pair states that have been proposed. Finally, I address disorder issues, and the various ways systematic introduction of disorder can (and cannot) be used to extract information on gap symmetry and structure.
The pairing symmetry of the newly proposed cobalt high temperature (high-$T_c$) superconductors formed by vertex shared cation-anion tetrahedral complexes is studied by the methods of mean field, random phase approximation (RPA) and functional renormalization group (FRG) analysis. The results of all these methods show that the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ pairing symmetry is robustly favored near half filling. The RPA and FRG methods, which are valid in weak interaction regions, predict that the superconducting state is also strongly orbital selective, namely the $d_{x^2-y^2}$ orbital that has the largest density near half filling among the three $t_{2g}$ orbitals dominates superconducting pairing. These results suggest that the new materials, if synthesized, can provide indisputable test to high-$T_c$ pairing mechanism and the validity of different theoretical methods.