No Arabic abstract
We use a Greens function method to study the temperature-dependent average moment and magnetic phase-transition temperature of the striped antiferromagnetism of LaFeAsO, and other similar compounds, as the parents of FeAs-based superconductors. We consider the nearest and the next-nearest couplings in the FeAs layer, and the nearest coupling for inter-layer spin interaction. The dependence of the transition temperature TN and the zero-temperature average spin on the interaction constants is investigated. We obtain an analytical expression for TN and determine our temperature-dependent average spin from zero temperature to TN in terms of unified self-consistent equations. For LaFeAsO, we obtain a reasonable estimation of the coupling interactions with the experimental transition temperature TN = 138 K. Our results also show that a non-zero antiferromagnetic (AFM) inter-layer coupling is essential for the existence of a non-zero TN, and the many-body AFM fluctuations reduce substantially the low-temperature magnetic moment per Fe towards the experimental value. Our Greens function approach can be used for other FeAs-based parent compounds and these results should be useful to understand the physical properties of FeAs-based superconductors.
Dynamical potentials appear in many advanced electronic-structure methods, including self-energies from many-body perturbation theory, dynamical mean-field theory, electronic-transport formulations, and many embedding approaches. Here, we propose a novel treatment for the frequency dependence, introducing an algorithmic inversion method that can be applied to dynamical potentials expanded as sum over poles. This approach allows for an exact solution of Dyson-like equations at all frequencies via a mapping to a matrix diagonalization, and provides simultaneously frequency-dependent (spectral) and frequency-integrated (thermodynamic) properties of the Dyson-inverted propagators. The transformation to a sum over poles is performed introducing $n$-th order generalized Lorentzians as an improved basis set to represent the spectral function of a propagator, and using analytic expressions to recover the sum-over-poles form. Numerical results for the homogeneous electron gas at the $G_0W_0$ level are provided to argue for the accuracy and efficiency of such unified approach.
We performed angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) studies of the electronic structure of the nematic phase in LaFeAsO. Degeneracy breaking between the dxz and dyz hole bands near the {Gamma} and M point is observed in the nematic phase. Different temperature dependent band splitting behaviors are observed at the {Gamma} and M points. The energy of the band splitting near the M point decreases as the temperature decreases while it has little temperature dependence near the {Gamma} point. The nematic nature of the band shift near the M point is confirmed through a detwin experiment using a piezo device. Since a momentum dependent splitting behavior has been observed in other iron based superconductors, our observation confirms that the behavior is a universal one among iron based superconductors.
We study the electronic structure within a system of phase-decoupled one-dimensional superconductors coexisting with stripe spin and charge density wave order. This system has a nodal Fermi surface (Fermi arc) in the form of a hole pocket and an antinodal pseudogap. The spectral function in the antinodes is approximately particle-hole symmetric contrary to the gapped regions just outside the pocket. We find that states at the Fermi energy are extended whereas states near the pseudogap energy have localization lengths as short as the inter-stripe spacing. We consider pairing which has either local d-wave or s-wave symmetry and find similar results in both cases, consistent with the pseudogap being an effect of local pair correlations. We suggest that this state is a stripe ordered caricature of the pseudogap phase in underdoped cuprates with coexisting spin-, charge-, and pair-density wave correlations. Lastly, we also model a superconducting state which 1) evolves smoothly from the pseudogap state, 2) has a signature subgap peak in the density of states, and 3) has the coherent pair density concentrated to the nodal region.
We present measurements of the thermal expansion coefficient alpha of polycrystalline LaFeAsO1-xFx (x <= 0.1). The magnetic and structural transitions of the samples with x <= 0.04 give rise to large anomalies in alpha(T), while the onset of superconductivity in the crystals with x >= 0.05 is not resolved. Above the structural transition, the thermal expansion coefficient of LaFeAsO is significantly enhanced. This is attributed to fluctuations, which also affect the electrical transport properties of the compound. The complete absence of these fluctuations in the superconducting samples even for x = 0.05 is taken as evidence for an abrupt first-order type of suppression of the structural and magnetic transitions upon F doping.
The $kappa$-(ET)$_2$X layered conductors (where ET stands for BEDT-TTF) are studied within the dimer model as a function of the diagonal hopping $t^prime$ and Hubbard repulsion $U$. Antiferromagnetism and d-wave superconductivity are investigated at zero temperature using variational cluster perturbation theory (V-CPT). For large $U$, Neel antiferromagnetism exists for $t < t_{c2}$, with $t_{c2}sim 0.9$. For fixed $t$, as $U$ is decreased (or pressure increased), a $d_{x^2-y^2}$ superconducting phase appears. When $U$ is decreased further, the a $d_{xy}$ order takes over. There is a critical value of $t_{c1}sim 0.8$ of $t$ beyond which the AF and dSC phases are separated by Mott disordered phase.