Theory of point contact spectroscopy in correlated materials

Lee, Wei-Cheng; Park, Wan Kyu; Arham, Hamood Z.; Greene, Laura H.; Phillips, Philip

doi:10.1073/pnas.1422509112

Title: Theory of point contact spectroscopy in correlated materials

Journal Article · Mon Jan 05 00:00:00 EST 2015 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1422509112· OSTI ID:1235102

Lee, Wei-Cheng ^[1]; Park, Wan Kyu ^[1]; Arham, Hamood Z. ^[1]; Greene, Laura H. ^[1]; Phillips, Philip ^[1]

Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801

Here, we developed a microscopic theory for the point-contact conductance between a metallic electrode and a strongly correlated material using the nonequilibrium Schwinger-Kadanoff-Baym-Keldysh formalism. We explicitly show that, in the classical limit, contact size shorter than the scattering length of the system, the microscopic model can be reduced to an effective model with transfer matrix elements that conserve in-plane momentum. We found that the conductance dI/dV is proportional to the effective density of states, that is, the integrated single-particle spectral function A(ω = eV) over the whole Brillouin zone. From this conclusion, we are able to establish the conditions under which a non-Fermi liquid metal exhibits a zero-bias peak in the conductance. Lastly, this finding is discussed in the context of recent point-contact spectroscopy on the iron pnictides and chalcogenides, which has exhibited a zero-bias conductance peak.

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Research Organization:: Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRC). Center for Emergent Superconductivity (CES)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES); National Science Foundation (NSF)

Contributing Organization:: CES partners with Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL); Argonne National Laboratory; University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign; Los Alamos National Laboratory

Grant/Contract Number:: AC0298CH1088; NSF DMR 12-06766; AC02-98CH10886; 12-06766

OSTI ID:: 1235102

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1210472

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 Vol. 112 Journal Issue: 3; ISSN 0027-8424

Publisher:: Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 13 works

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