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Title: Spin dynamics and orbital-antiphase pairing symmetry in iron-based superconductors

Journal Article · · Nature Physics
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys3116· OSTI ID:1565329
 [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Rutgers Univ., Piscataway, NJ (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy

The symmetry of the wave function describing the Cooper pairs is one of the most basic quantities in a superconductor yet its measurement in the iron-based superconductors has proved to be very difficult. The complex multi-band nature of these materials makes the interplay of superconductivity with spin and orbital dynamics very intriguing, leading to very material dependent magnetic excitations, and pairing symmetries. In this work we use first-principles many-body method, including ab initio determined two-particle vertex function, to study the spin dynamics and superconducting pairing symmetry in a large number of iron-based superconductors. In iron compounds with high transition temperature, we find both the dispersive high-energy spin excitations, and very strong low energy commensurate or nearly commensurate spin response, suggesting that these low energy spin excitations play the dominate role in cooper pairing. We discover three closely competing types of pairing symmetries, which take a very simple form in the space of active iron 3d orbitals, and differ only in the relative quantum mechanical phase of the xz, yz and xy orbital contributions. The extensively discussed s+- symmetry appears when contributions from all orbitals have equal sign, while the opposite sign in xz and yz orbitals leads to the d wave symmetry. A novel orbital antiphase s+- symmetry emerges when xy orbital has opposite sign to xz and yz orbitals. We propose that this orbital-antiphase pairing symmetry explains the puzzling variation of the experimentally observed superconducting gaps on all the Fermi surfaces of LiFeAs. This novel symmetry of the order parameter may be realized in other iron superconductors.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; DMR–1308141; DMR–1405303
OSTI ID:
1565329
Journal Information:
Nature Physics, Vol. 10, Issue 11; ISSN 1745-2473
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group (NPG)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 126 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Impurity effects on spin dynamics in magnetic and superconducting iron pnictides and chalcogenides: Impurity effects on spin dynamics in iron pnictides and chalcogenides journal December 2016
Anomalous correlation effects and unique phase diagram of electron-doped FeSe revealed by photoemission spectroscopy journal March 2016
Observation of strong electron pairing on bands without Fermi surfaces in LiFe1−xCoxAs journal January 2015
Effect of magnetic frustration on nematicity and superconductivity in iron chalcogenides journal August 2015
Plain s-wave superconductivity in single-layer FeSe on SrTiO3 probed by scanning tunnelling microscopy journal August 2015
Structure of spin excitations in heavily electron-doped Li0.8Fe0.2ODFeSe superconductors journal July 2017
Spin excitations and the Fermi surface of superconducting FeS journal March 2017
Orbital-selective pairing and superconductivity in iron selenides journal May 2017
Half-integer level shift of vortex bound states in an iron-based superconductor journal August 2019
Evening out the spin and charge parity to increase $${T}_{c}$$Tc in $${{\rm{Sr}}}_{2}{{\rm{RuO}}}_{4}$$Sr2RuO4 journal December 2019
Spin excitations in hole-overdoped iron-based superconductors journal September 2016
Concealed d -wave pairs in the s ± condensate of iron-based superconductors journal May 2016
Theory perspective: SCES 2016 journal September 2016
The form and origin of orbital ordering in the electronic nematic phase of iron-based superconductors journal February 2015
ARPES measurements of the superconducting gap of Fe-based superconductors and their implications to the pairing mechanism journal July 2015
Nematicity, magnetism and superconductivity in FeSe journal December 2017
Low-energy microscopic models for iron-based superconductors: a review journal November 2016
The ab initio study of unconventional superconductivity in CeCoIn 5 and FeSe journal June 2017
Spectroscopic evidence of nematic fluctuations in LiFeAs journal July 2019
Revisiting orbital-fluctuation-mediated superconductivity in LiFeAs: Nontrivial spin-orbit interaction effects on the band structure and superconducting gap function journal October 2015
Robust determination of the superconducting gap sign structure via quasiparticle interference journal November 2015
Electron doping evolution of the magnetic excitations in NaFe 1 x Co x As journal June 2016
Impact of iron-site defects on superconductivity in LiFeAs journal October 2016
Orbital-differentiated coherence-incoherence crossover identified by photoemission spectroscopy in LiFeAs journal November 2016
Uniaxial pressure effect on the magnetic ordered moment and transition temperatures in BaFe 2 x T x As 2 ( T = Co , Ni ) journal February 2017
Competing instabilities, orbital ordering, and splitting of band degeneracies from a parquet renormalization group analysis of a four-pocket model for iron-based superconductors: Application to FeSe journal February 2017
Correlation-driven metal-insulator transition in proximity to an iron-based superconductor journal November 2017
Extensive impurity-scattering study on the pairing symmetry of monolayer FeSe films on SrTiO 3 journal January 2018
Detecting sign-changing superconducting gap in LiFeAs using quasiparticle interference journal February 2018
Realization of continuous electron doping in bulk iron selenides and identification of a new superconducting zone journal December 2018
Orbital Selective Spin Excitations and their Impact on Superconductivity of LiFe 1 x Co x As journal June 2016
Metal-Insulator Transition in VO 2 : A DFT + DMFT Perspective journal July 2016
Highly Anisotropic and Twofold Symmetric Superconducting Gap in Nematically Ordered FeSe 0.93 S 0.07 journal October 2016
Enhancement of the Superconducting Gap by Nesting in CaKFe 4 As 4 : A New High Temperature Superconductor journal December 2016
Nontrivial Role of Interlayer Cation States in Iron-Based Superconductors journal January 2017
Interplay between Magnetism, Superconductivity, and Orbital Order in 5-Pocket Model for Iron-Based Superconductors: Parquet Renormalization Group Study journal January 2017
Spin Waves in Detwinned BaFe 2 As 2 journal August 2018
Coexistence of Ferromagnetic and Stripe Antiferromagnetic Spin Fluctuations in SrCo 2 As 2 journal March 2019
Antiferromagnetic order and spin dynamics in iron-based superconductors journal August 2015
Evidence for Majorana bound states in an iron-based superconductor journal August 2018
Toward a predictive theory of correlated materials journal July 2018
Distinct itinerant spin-density waves and local-moment antiferromagnetism in an intermetallic ErPd2Si2 single crystal text January 2015
Distinct itinerant spin-density waves and local-moment antiferromagnetism in an intermetallic ErPd2Si2 single crystal journal January 2015
Antiferromagnetic order and spin dynamics in iron-based superconductors text January 2015
Magnetism, superconductivity, and spontaneous orbital order in iron-based superconductors: who comes first and why? text January 2016
Low-energy microscopic models for iron-based superconductors: a review text January 2016
Orbital-differentiated coherence-incoherence crossover identified by photoemission spectroscopy in LiFeAs text January 2016
Structure of spin excitations in heavily electron-doped Li0.8Fe0.2ODFeSe superconductors text January 2016
Non-trivial role of interlayer cation states in iron-based superconductors text January 2016
Interplay between magnetism, superconductivity, and orbital order in a 5-pocket model for iron-based superconductors - a parquet renormalization group study text January 2016
Probing pairing symmetry in multi-band superconductors by quasiparticle interference journal August 2018
High-energy spin fluctuation in low-Tc iron-based superconductor LaFePO0.9 journal November 2018
On the Remarkable Superconductivity of FeSe and Its Close Cousins journal August 2020