No Arabic abstract
We report on orbital-dependent quasiparticle dynamics in EuFe$_2$As$_2$, a parent compound of Fe-based superconductors and a novel way to experimentally identify this behavior, using time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy across the spin density wave transition. We observe two different relaxation time scales for photo-excited d$_x$$_z$/d$_y$$_z$ and d$_x$$_y$ electrons. While d$_x$$_z$/d$_y$$_z$ electrons relax faster through the electron-electron scattering channel, showing an itinerant character, d$_x$$_y$ electrons form a quasi-equilibrium state with the lattice due to their localized character, and the state decays slowly. Our findings suggest that electron correlation in Fe-pnictides is an important property, which should be taken into careful account when describing the electronic properties of both parent and electron-doped compounds, and therefore establish a strong connection with cuprates.
We investigate the origin of exoticity in Fe-based systems via studying the Fermiology of CaFe2As2 employing Angle Resolved Photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). While the Fermi surfaces (FSs) at 200 K and 31 K are observed to exhibit two dimensional (2D) and three dimensional (3D) topology, respectively, the FSs at intermediate temperatures reveal emergence of the 3D topology at much lower temperature than the structural & magnetic phase transition temperature (170 K, for the sample under scrutiny). This leads to the conclusion that the evolution of FS topology is not directly driven by the structural transition. In addition, we discover the existence in ambient conditions of energy bands related to the collapsed tetragonal (cT) phase. These bands are distinctly resolved in the high-photon energy spectra exhibiting strong Fe 3d character. They gradually move to higher binding energies due to thermal compression with cooling, leading to the emergence of 3D topology in the Fermi surface. These results reveal the so-far hidden existence of a cT phase in ambient conditions, which is argued to lead to quantum fluctuations responsible for the exotic electronic properties in Fe-pnictide superconductors.
A review of high-pressure studies on Fe-pnictide superconductors is given. The pressure effects on the magnetic and superconducting transitions are discussed for different classes of doped and undoped FeAs-compounds, ROFeAs (R = rare earth), AeFe2As2 (Ae = Ca, Sr, Ba), and AFeAs (A = Li, Na). Pressure tends to decrease the magnetic transition temperature in the undoped or only slightly doped compounds. The superconducting Tc increases with pressure for underdoped FeAs-pnictides, remains approximately constant for optimal doping, and decreases linearly in the overdoped range. The undoped LaOFeAs and AeFe2As2 become superconducting under pressure although nonhydrostatic pressure conditions seem to play a role in CaFe2As2. The superconductivity in the (undoped) AFeAs is explained as a chemical pressure effect due to the volume contraction caused by the small ionic size of the A-elements. The binary FeSe shows the largest pressure coefficient of Tc in the Se-deficient superconducting phase.
In this paper we discuss the normal and superconducting state properties of two pnictide superconductors, LaOFeAs and LaONiAs, using Migdal-Eliashberg theory and density functional perturbation theory. For pure LaOFeAs, the calculated electron-phonon coupling constant $lambda=0.21$ and logarithmic-averaged frequency $omega_{ln}=206 K$, give a maximum $T_c$ of 0.8 K, using the standard Migdal-Eliashberg theory. Inclusion of multiband effects increases the Tc only marginally. To reproduce the experimental $T_c$, a 5-6 times larger coupling constant would be needed. Our results indicate that standard electron-phonon coupling is not sufficient to explain superconductivity in the whole family of Fe-As based superconductors. At the same time, the electron-phonon coupling in Ni-As based compounds is much stronger and its normal and superconducting state properties can be well described by standard Migdal-Eliashberg theory.
We report B_c2 data for LaO_{0.9}F_{0.1}FeAs_{1-delta} in a wide T and field range up to 60 Tesla. The large slope of B_c2 approx ~ -6 Tesla/K near an improved T_c = 28.5 K of the in-plane B_c2(T) contrasts with a flattening starting at 23 K above 30 Tesla we regard as the onset of Pauli-limited behavior (PLB) with B_c2(0) about 65 Tesla. We interpret a similar hitherto unexplained flattening of the B_c2(T) curves reported for at least three other disordered closely related systems as also as a manifestation of PLB. Their Maki parameters have been estimated analyzing their B_c2(T) data within the WHH approach. The pronounced PLB of (Ba,K)Fe_2As_2 single crystals from a tin-flux is attributed also to a significant As deficiency. Consequences of our results are discussed in terms of disorder effects within conventional (CSC) and unconventional superconductivity (USC). USC scenarios with nodes on individual Fermi surface sheets (FSS), can be discarded for our samples. The increase of dB_c2/dT|_{T_c} by sizeable disorder provides evidence for an important intraband (intra-FSS) contribution to the orbital upper critical field. We suggest that it can be ascribed either to an impurity driven transition from s_{+-} USC to CSC of an extended s_{++}-wave state or to a stabilized s_{+-}-state provided As-vacancies cause predominantly strong intraband scattering in the unitary limit. We compare our results with B_c2 data from the literature with no PLB for fields below 60 to 70 Tesla probed so far. A novel disorder related scenario of a complex interplay of SC with two different competing magnetic instabilities is suggested.
We have performed an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of the new superconductor Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ in the low energy range. We report the observation of an anomaly around 25 meV in the dispersion of superconducting Ba$_{0.6}$K$_{0.4}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ samples that nearly vanishes above $T_c$. The energy scale of the related mode (13$pm$2 meV) and its strong dependence on orbital and temperature indicates that it is unlikely related to phonons. Moreover, the momentum locations of the kink can be connected by the antiferromagnetic wavevector. Our results point towards an unconventional electronic origin of the mode and the superconducting pairing in the Fe-based superconductors, and strongly support the anti-phase s-wave pairing symmetry.