Novel electronic nematicity in heavily hole-doped iron pnictide superconductors

Journal Article · 11 March 2020 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1909172117 · OSTI ID:1604261

Ishida, Kousuke ^[1]; Tsujii, Masaya ^[1]; Hosoi, Suguru ^[1]; Mizukami, Yuta ^[1]; Ishida, Shigeyuki ^[2]; Iyo, Akira ^[2]; Eisaki, Hiroshi ^[2]; Wolf, Thomas ^[3]; Grube, Kai ^[3]; v. Löhneysen, Hilbert ^[4]; Fernandes, Rafael M. ^[5]; Shibauchi, Takasada  ^[1]

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1. Department of Advanced Materials Science, University of Tokyo, Kashiwa, Chiba 277-8561, Japan,
2. Electronics and Photonics Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8568, Japan,
3. Institut für Festkörperphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany,
4. Institut für Festkörperphysik, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany,, Physikalisches Institut, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 76031 Karlsruhe, Germany,
5. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Significance Strongly correlated electron systems often exhibit exotic states of matter, and perhaps the most surprising is the electronic nematicity with broken rotational symmetry. In such nematic states, the nematic director usually points to certain directions of the underlying crystal, and, thus, these states have been classified as Ising-type. Here, we find in a heavily hole-doped iron-pnictide system that the director is rotated by 45° from the Fe–Fe direction. Moreover, there is a doping range that shows a signature of a class of electronic quantum liquid-crystalline state of XY type, where the nematic director can point anywhere in the Fe planes. These findings reveal another type of quantum liquid crystals, which are expected to host several unique quantum many-body phenomena.

• Research Organization: Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Materials Sciences & Engineering Division
• Grant/Contract Number: SC0012336; SC0020045
• OSTI ID: 1604261
• Journal Information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Journal Name: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal Issue: 12 Vol. 117; ISSN 0027-8424
• Publisher: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English