No Arabic abstract
Although the pairing mechanism of the Fe-based superconductors (FeSCs) has not yet been settled with a consensus, as to the pairing symmetry and the superconducting (SC) gap function, the abundant majority of experiments are supporting for the spin-singlet sign-changing s-wave SC gaps on multibands ($s^{pm}$-wave state). This multiband $s^{pm}$-wave state is a very unique gap state {it per se} and displays numerous unexpected novel SC properties such as a strong reduction of the coherence peak, non-trivial impurity effects, nodal-gap-like nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals, various Volovik effects in the specific heat (SH) and thermal conductivity, and anomalous scaling behaviors with the SH jump and the condensation energy vs. $T_c$, etc. In particular, many of these non-trivial SC properties can be easily mistaken as evidence for a nodal gap state such as a d-wave gap. In this review, we provide detailed explanations of theoretical principles for the various non-trivial SC properties of the $s^{pm}$-wave pairing state, and then critically compare the theoretical predictions with the experiments of the FeSCs. This will provide a pedagogical overview of how much we can coherently understand the wide range of different experiments of the FeSCs within the $s^{pm}$-wave gap model.
The strong power law behavior of the specific heat jump $Delta C$ vs. $T_c$ ($Delta C/T_c sim T_c ^{alpha}, alphaapprox 2$), first observed by Budko, Ni, and Canfield (BNC)[1], has been confirmed with several families of the Fe-based superconducting compounds with a series of doping. We show here that this anomalous non-BCS behavior is an intrinsic property of the multiband superconducting state paired by a dominant interband interaction ($V_{inter} > V_{intra}$) reflecting the relation $frac{Delta_h}{Delta_e} sim sqrt{frac{N_e}{N_h}}$ near $T_c$, as in the $pm$S-wave pairing state. Then this $Delta C$ vs. $T_c$ relation can continuously change from the perfect BNC scaling to a considerable deviation at lower $T_c$ region with a moderate variation of the impurity scattering rate.
We discuss the nuclear magnetic relaxation rate and the superfluid density with the use of the effective five-band model by Kuroki et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 087004 (2008)] in Fe-based superconductors. We show that a fully-gapped anisotropic pm s-wave superconductivity consistently explains experimental observations. In our phenomenological model, the gaps are assumed to be anisotropic on the electron-like beta Fermi surfaces around the M point, where the maximum of the anisotropic gap is about four times larger than the minimum.
In materials without an inversion center of symmetry the spin degeneracy of the conducting band is lifted by an antisymmetric spin orbit coupling (ASOC). Under such circumstances, spin and parity cannot be separately used to classify the Cooper pairing states. Consequently, the superconducting order parameter is generally a mixture of spin singlet and triplet pairing states. In this paper we investigate the structure of the order parameter and its response to disorder for the most symmetric pairing state ($A_1$). Using the example of the heavy Fermion superconductor CePt$_3$Si, we determine characteristic properties of the superconducting instability as a function of (non-magnetic) impurity concentrations. Moreover, we explore the possibility of the presence of accidental line nodes in the quasiparticle gap. Such nodes would be essential to explain recent low-temperature data of thermodynamic quantities such as the NMR-$T_1^{-1}$, London penetration depth, and heat conductance.
Effects of disorder on electron-doped iron pnictides are investigated systematically based on self-consistent Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Multiply impurities with same scattering potential (SP) are randomly distributed in a square lattice. Probability distribution functions of normalized order parameters for different impurity concentrations $delta_{imp}$, different electron doping concentrations $delta$ are investigated for given SPs. Samples are found to be very robust against weak SP, in which order parameters do not have qualitative change even at very large $delta_{imp}$. While strong SP is able to easily break down the order parameters. For moderate SP, variations of order parameters on and around impurities strongly depend on $delta$, however the distribution functions of normalized order parameters have similar behavior as $delta_{imp}$ increases. Compared with superconducting (SC) order, the magnetic order is more sensitive to multi-impurity effect. The spatial spin density wave pattern has already been destroyed before the system loses its superconductivity. Dependence of SC order on temperature is similar to that of impurity-free case, with the critical temperature being remarkably suppressed for high $delta_{imp}$.
We report theoretical and experimental studies of the effect of Zn-impurity in Fe-based superconductors. Zn-impurity is expected to severely suppress sign reversed s$_pm$ wave pairing. The experimentally observed suppression of T$_c$ under Zn-doping strongly depends on the materials and the charge carrier contents, which suggests competition of $s_{++}$ and $s_{pm}$ pairings in Fe-base superconductors. We study a model incorporating both $s_{++}$ and $s_{pm}$ pairing couplings by using Bogoliubov de-Gennes equation, and show that the Zn-impurity strongly suppresses $s_{pm}$ pairing and may induce a transition from $s_{pm}$ to $s_{++}$-wave. Our theory is consistent with various experiments on the impurity effect. We present new experimental data on the Zn-doping SmFe$_{1-x}$Zn$_x$AsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ of T$_c=$ 50K, in further support of our proposal.