No Arabic abstract
A pronounced local in-gap zero-energy bound state (ZBS) has been observed by recent scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) experiments on the interstitial Fe impurity (IFI) and its nearest-neighboring (nn) sites in $mathrm{FeTe_{0.5}Se_{0.5}}$ superconducting (SC) compound. By introducing a new impurity mechanism, the so-called tunneling impurity, and based on the Bogoliubove-de Gennes (BDG) equations we investigated the low-lying energy states of the IFI and the underlying Fe-plane. We found the peak of ZBS does not shift or split in a magnetic field as long as the tunneling parameter between IFI and the Fe-plane is sufficiently small and the Fe-plane is deep in the SC state. Our results are in good agreement with the experiments. We also predicted that modulation of spin density wave (SDW), or charge density wave (CDW) will suppress the intensity of the ZBS.
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 $delta_{imp}$.
The symmetries of superconducting gap functions remain an important question of iron-based superconductivity. Motivated by the recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopic measurements on iron-chalcogenide superconductors, we investigate the influence of pairing symmetries on the topological surface state. If the surface Dirac cone becomes gapped in the superconducting phase, it implies magnetization induced from time-reversal symmetry breaking pairing via spin-orbit coupling. Based on the crystalline symmetry constraints on the Ginzburg-Landau free energy, the gap function symmetries are among the possibilities of $A_{1g(u)}pm iA_{2g(u)}$, $B_{1g(u)}pm iB_{2g(u)}$, or, $E_{g(u)}pm i E_{g(u)}$. This time-reversal symmetry breaking effect can exist in the normal state very close to $T_c$ with the relative phase between two gap functions locked at $pm frac{pi}{2}$. The coupling between magnetization and superconducting gap functions is calculated based on a three-orbital model for the band structure of iron-chalcogenides. This study provides the connection between the gap function symmetries and topological properties of the surface state.
Iron-based superconducting layered compounds have the second highest transition temperature after cuprate superconductors. Their discovery is a milestone in the history of high-temperature superconductivity and will have profound implications for high-temperature superconducting mechanism as well as industrial applications. Raman scattering has been extensively applied to correlated electron systems including the new superconductors due to its unique ability to probe multiple primary excitations and their coupling. In this review, we will give a brief summary of the existing Raman experiments in the iron-based materials and their implication for pairing mechanism in particular. And we will also address some open issues from the experiments.
We examine the relevance of several major material-dependent parameters to the magnetic softness in iron-base superconductors by first-principles electronic structure analysis of their parent compounds. The results are explained in the spin-fermion model where localized spins and orbitally degenerate itinerant electrons coexist and are coupled by Hunds rule coupling. We found that the difference in the strength of the Hunds rule coupling term is the major material-dependent microscopic parameter for determining the ground-state spin pattern. The magnetic softness in iron-based superconductors is essentially driven by the competition between the double-exchange ferromagnetism and the superexchange antiferromagnetism.
Here we establish a combined electronic phase diagram of isoelectronic FeSe1-xSx (0.19 > x > 0.0) and FeSe1-yTey (0.04 < y < 1.0) single crystals. The FeSe1-yTey crystals with y = 0.04 - 0.30 are grown by a hydrothermal ion-deintercalation (HID) method. Based on combined experiments of the specific heat, electrical transport, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, no signature of the tetragonal-symmetry-broken transition to orthorhombic (nematic) phase is observed in the HID FeSe1-yTey samples, as compared with the FeSe1-xSx samples showing this transition at Ts. A ubiquitous dip-like temperature dependence of the Hall coefficient is observed around a characteristic temperature T* in the tetragonal regimes, which is well above the superconducting transition. More importantly, we find that the superconducting transition temperature Tc is positively correlated with the Hall-dip temperature T* across the FeSe1-xSx and FeSe1-yTey systems, suggesting that the tetragonal background is a fundamental host for the superconductivity.