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Title: A Mott insulator continuously connected to iron pnictide superconductors

Abstract

Iron-based superconductivity develops near an antiferromagnetic order and out of a bad-metal normal state, which has been interpreted as originating from a proximate Mott transition. Whether an actual Mott insulator can be realized in the phase diagram of the iron pnictides remains an open question. Here we use transport, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and neutron scattering to demonstrate that NaFe1-xCuxAs near x≈0.5 exhibits real space Fe and Cu ordering, and are antiferromagnetic insulators with the insulating behaviour persisting above the Néel temperature, indicative of a Mott insulator. On decreasing x from 0.5, the antiferromagnetic-ordered moment continuously decreases, yielding to superconductivity ~x=0.05. Our discovery of a Mott-insulating state in NaFe1-xCuxAs thus makes it the only known Fe-based material, in which superconductivity can be smoothly connected to the Mott-insulating state, highlighting the important role of electron correlations in the high-Tc superconductivity.

Authors:
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [6];  [6];  [7];  [7];  [7];  [8];  [9];  [9];  [10];  [1];  [1];  [1] more »; ORCiD logo [1] « less
  1. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. Rice Center for Quantum Materials
  2. Chalk River Labs., ON (Canada). Canadian Neutron Beam Centre
  3. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy. Rice Center for Quantum Materials; Northwestern Polytechnical Univ., Xi'an (China). Dept. of Applied Physics
  4. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). NIST Center for Neutron Research
  5. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). NIST Center for Neutron Research; Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD (United States). Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering
  6. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States). Dept. of Condensed Matter Physics and Materials Science
  7. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Quantum Condensed Matter Division
  8. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Swiss Light Source; Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), Beijing (China). Beijing National Lab. for Condensed Matter Physics. Inst. of Physics
  9. Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland). Swiss Light Source
  10. Renmin Univ. of China, Beijing (China). Dept. of Physics. Beijing Key Lab. of Opto-electronic Functional Materials & Micro-nano Devices; Shanghai Jiao Tong Univ. (China). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing (China)
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States); Paul Scherrer Inst. (PSI), Villigen (Switzerland); Renmin Univ. of China, Beijing (China); Northwestern Polytechnical Univ., Xi'an (China)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); Robert A. Welch Foundation (United States); National Science Foundation (NSF); Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (Germany); Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC); Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (China); Research Funds of Remnin University of China; National Key Research and Development Program of China; Shaanxi International Cooperation Program (China)
OSTI Identifier:
1427592
Grant/Contract Number:  
AC05-00OR22725; AC02-98CH10886; SC0012311; C-1839; C-1818; C-1411; DMR-1350237; DMR-1611392; 200021L 141325; 11374361; 51471135; 14XNLF08; 2016YFB1100101
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 7; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing Group
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; magnetic properties and materials; superconducting properties and materials

Citation Formats

Song, Yu, Yamani, Zahra, Cao, Chongde, Li, Yu, Zhang, Chenglin, Chen, Justin S., Huang, Qingzhen, Wu, Hui, Tao, Jing, Zhu, Yimei, Tian, Wei, Chi, Songxue, Cao, Huibo, Huang, Yao-Bo, Dantz, Marcus, Schmitt, Thorsten, Yu, Rong, Nevidomskyy, Andriy H., Morosan, Emilia, Si, Qimiao, and Dai, Pengcheng. A Mott insulator continuously connected to iron pnictide superconductors. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.1038/ncomms13879.
Song, Yu, Yamani, Zahra, Cao, Chongde, Li, Yu, Zhang, Chenglin, Chen, Justin S., Huang, Qingzhen, Wu, Hui, Tao, Jing, Zhu, Yimei, Tian, Wei, Chi, Songxue, Cao, Huibo, Huang, Yao-Bo, Dantz, Marcus, Schmitt, Thorsten, Yu, Rong, Nevidomskyy, Andriy H., Morosan, Emilia, Si, Qimiao, & Dai, Pengcheng. A Mott insulator continuously connected to iron pnictide superconductors. United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13879
Song, Yu, Yamani, Zahra, Cao, Chongde, Li, Yu, Zhang, Chenglin, Chen, Justin S., Huang, Qingzhen, Wu, Hui, Tao, Jing, Zhu, Yimei, Tian, Wei, Chi, Songxue, Cao, Huibo, Huang, Yao-Bo, Dantz, Marcus, Schmitt, Thorsten, Yu, Rong, Nevidomskyy, Andriy H., Morosan, Emilia, Si, Qimiao, and Dai, Pengcheng. Mon . "A Mott insulator continuously connected to iron pnictide superconductors". United States. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13879. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1427592.
@article{osti_1427592,
title = {A Mott insulator continuously connected to iron pnictide superconductors},
author = {Song, Yu and Yamani, Zahra and Cao, Chongde and Li, Yu and Zhang, Chenglin and Chen, Justin S. and Huang, Qingzhen and Wu, Hui and Tao, Jing and Zhu, Yimei and Tian, Wei and Chi, Songxue and Cao, Huibo and Huang, Yao-Bo and Dantz, Marcus and Schmitt, Thorsten and Yu, Rong and Nevidomskyy, Andriy H. and Morosan, Emilia and Si, Qimiao and Dai, Pengcheng},
abstractNote = {Iron-based superconductivity develops near an antiferromagnetic order and out of a bad-metal normal state, which has been interpreted as originating from a proximate Mott transition. Whether an actual Mott insulator can be realized in the phase diagram of the iron pnictides remains an open question. Here we use transport, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and neutron scattering to demonstrate that NaFe1-xCuxAs near x≈0.5 exhibits real space Fe and Cu ordering, and are antiferromagnetic insulators with the insulating behaviour persisting above the Néel temperature, indicative of a Mott insulator. On decreasing x from 0.5, the antiferromagnetic-ordered moment continuously decreases, yielding to superconductivity ~x=0.05. Our discovery of a Mott-insulating state in NaFe1-xCuxAs thus makes it the only known Fe-based material, in which superconductivity can be smoothly connected to the Mott-insulating state, highlighting the important role of electron correlations in the high-Tc superconductivity.},
doi = {10.1038/ncomms13879},
journal = {Nature Communications},
number = ,
volume = 7,
place = {United States},
year = {Mon Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2016},
month = {Mon Dec 19 00:00:00 EST 2016}
}

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