No Arabic abstract
We report conventional and time-resolved infrared spectroscopy on LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ superconducting thin films. The far-infrared transmission can be quantitatively explained by a two-component model including a conventional s-wave superconducting term and a Drude term, suggesting at least one carrier system has a full superconducting gap. Photo-induced studies of excess quasiparticle dynamics reveal a nanosecond effective recombination time and temperature dependence that agree with a recombination bottleneck in the presence of a full gap. The two experiments provide consistent evidence of a full, nodeless though not necessarily isotropic, gap for at least one carrier system in LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$.
Orbital ordering has recently emerged as another important state in iron based superconductors, and its role for superconductivity as well as its connection to magnetic order and orthorhombic lattice distortion are heavily debated. In order to search for signatures of this so-called nematic phase in oxypnictides, we revisit the normal state properties of the pnictide superconductor LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ with a focus on resistivity, Nernst effect, thermal expansion, and $^{75}$As NMR data. The transport properties at the underdoped level $x=0.05$ exhibit pronounced anomalies at about the same temperature where undoped LaFeAsO develops long-range nematic ordering, i.e. at about 160 K. Furthermore, the $^{75}$As-NMR spin-lattice relaxation rate $1/(T_1T)$ reveals a progressive slowing down of spin fluctuations. Yet, long-range magnetic order and also a detectable orthorhombic lattice distortion are absent. Thus, we conclude from the data that short-range orbital-nematic ordering or a slowly fluctuating form of it sets in near 160 K. Remarkably, all anomalies in the transport and also the indications of slow spin fluctuations disappear close to optimal doping $x=0.1$ which suggests that in LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ the nematic phase actually competes with superconductivity.
High-quality superconducting LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$ thin films were grown on single crystalline LaAlO$_{3}$ substrates with critical temperatures (onset) up to 28 K. Resistive measurements in high magnetic fields up to 40 T reveal a paramagnetically limited upper critical field, $mu_{0}H_{c2}$(0) around 77 T and a remarkable steep slope of -7.5 T/K near $T_{c}$. From transport measurements we observed a weak link behavior in low magnetic fields and the evidence for a broad reversible regime.
Spectroscopic ellipsometry is used to determine the dielectric function of the superconducting LaFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ ($T_c$ = 27 K) and undoped LaFeAsO polycrystalline samples in the wide range 0.01-6.5 eV at temperatures 10 $leq T leq$ 350 K. The free charge carrier response in both samples is heavily damped with the effective carrier density as low as 0.040$pm$0.005 electrons per unit cell. The spectral weight transfer in the undoped LaFeAsO associated with opening of the pseudogap at about 0.65 eV is restricted at energies below 2 eV. The spectra of superconducting LaFeAsO$_{0.9}$F$_{0.1}$ reveal a significant transfer of the spectral weight to a broad optical band above 4 eV with increasing temperature. Our data may imply that the electronic states near the Fermi surface are strongly renormalized due to electron-phonon and/or electron-electron interactions.
Density functional studies of 26K superconducting LaFeAs(O,F) are reported. We find a low carrier density, high density of states, $N(E_F)$ and modest phonon frequencies relative to $T_c$. The high $N(E_F)$ leads to proximity to itinerant magnetism, with competing ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic fluctuations and the balance between these controlled by doping level. Thus LaFeAs(O,F) is in a unique class of high $T_c$ superconductors: high $N(E_F)$ ionic metals near magnetism.
High resolution photoemission measurements have been carried out on non-superconducting SmOFeAs parent compound and superconducting Sm(O$_{1-x}$F$_x$)FeAs (x=0.12, and 0.15) compounds. The momentum-integrated spectra exhibit a clear Fermi cutoff that shows little leading-edge shift in the superconducting state which suggests the Fermi surface sheet(s) around the $Gamma$ point may not be gapped in this multiband superconductors. A robust feature at 13 meV is identified in all these samples. Spectral weight suppression near E$_F$ with decreasing temperature is observed in both undoped and doped samples that points to a possible existence of a pseudogap in these Fe-based compounds.