The discovery of the new class of pnictide superconductors has engendered a controversy about their pairing symmetry, with proposals ranging from an extended s-wave or "s$_{\pm}$" symmetry to nodal or nodeless d-wave symmetry to still more exotic order parameters such as p-wave. In this paper, building on the earlier, similar work performed for the cuprates, we propose several phase-sensitive Josephson interferometry experiments, each of which may allow resolution of the issue.
By applying an exact unitary transformation to a two-band hamiltonian which also includes the effects due to large pnictogen polarizabilities, we show that an attractive spin-mediated Hubbard term appears in the $d_{xz}$, $d_{yz}$ nearest-neighbour channel. This pairing mechanism implies a singlet superconducting order parameter in iron pnictides.
We examine the nature of Josephson junction between two identical Fe-pnictides with anti-phase s-wave pairing. pi-phase shift is found if the junction barrier is thick and the two Fe-pnictides are oriented in certain directions relative to the interface. Our theory provides a possible explanation for the observed half integer flux quantum transitions in a niobium/polycrystal NdFeAsO loop, and attributes the pi-phase shift to intergrain junctions of Fe-pnictides.
One of the outstanding problems in Iron pnictide research is the unambiguous detection of its pairing symmetry. The most probable candidates are the two-band s$++$ and sign reversed s$\pm$ wave pairing. In this work, the Andreev conductance and shot noise are used as a probe for the pairing symmetry of Iron pnictide superconductors. Clear differences emerge in both the zero bias differential conductance and the shot noise in the tunneling limit for the two cases enabling an effective distinction between the two.
We propose a trilayer $π$-junction that takes advantage of the unconventional $s_{x^2 y^2}=\cos k_x \cos k_y$ pairing symmetry which changes sign between electron and hole Fermi pockets in the iron pnictides. In addition, we also present theoretical results for Andreev bound states in thin superconductor-normal metal (or insulator) iron-pnictide junctions. The presence of nontrivial in-gap states, which uniquely appear in this unconventional pairing state, is a distinct feature in comparison to other singlet pairing states.
In several members of the pnictide materials, spin density wave order coexists with superconductivity over a range of dopings and temperature. In this paper we show that odd-frequency superconductivity emerges on the edges of pnictides in such a coexistence phase. In particular, the breaking of spin-rotation symmetry by SDW and translation symmetry by the edge can lead to the development of odd-frequency spin-triplet Cooper pairing on edges of superconducting pnictide samples. In this case, the odd-frequency pairing has even parity components, which are immune to disorder. Our results show tha…
A phenomenological theory of tunneling spectroscopy for Fe-pnictide superconductors is developed by taking into consideration of asymmetric interface scattering between particle and holes. It is shown that in consistent with anti-phase $s^{\pm}$-wave pairing, appreciable zero-energy surface bound states exist on the [100] surface of Fe-pnictide superconductors. However, in contrast to the [110] bound states in $d$-wave cuprate superconductors, these bound states arise as a result of non-conservation of momentum perpendicular to the interface for tunneling electrons and the $s^{\pm}$ pairing, a…
We theoretically propose a method to identify $\pm s$-wave order parameter in recently discovered Fe-pnictide superconductors. Our idea uses the Riedel anomaly in ac-Josephson current through an SI($\pm$ S) (single-band s-wave superconductor/insulator/$\pm$s-wave two-band superconductor) junction. We show that the Riedel peak effect leads to vanishing ac-Josephson current at some values of biased voltage. This phenomenon does not occur in the case when the $\pm s$-wave superconductor is replaced by a conventional s-wave one, so that the observation of this vanishing Josephson current would be …
Some of the iron pnictides show coexisting superconductivity and spin-density-wave order. We study the superconducting pairing instability in the spin-density-wave phase. Assuming that the pairing interaction is due to spin fluctuations, we calculate the effective pairing interactions in the singlet and triplet channels by summing the bubble and ladder diagrams taking the reconstructed band structure into account. The leading pairing instabilities and the corresponding superconducting gap structures are then obtained from the superconducting gap equation. We illustrate this approach for a mini…
We examine the possibility that the superconductivity in the newly discovered FeAs materials may be caused by the Coulomb interaction between d-electrons of the iron atoms. We find that when the Hund's rule ferromagnetic interaction is strong enough, the leading pairing instability is in spin-triplet p-wave channel in the weak coupling limit. The resulting superconducting gap has nodal lines on the 3D Fermi surfaces. The k dependent hybridization of several orbitals around a Fermi pocket is the key for the appearance of the spin-triplet p-wave pairing.
A leading contender for the pairing symmetry in the Fe-pnictide high temperature superconductors is extended s-wave $s_\pm$, a nodeless state in which the pairing changes sign between Fermi surfaces. Verifying such a pairing symmetry requires a special phase sensitive probe that is also momentum selective. We show that the sign structure of $s_\pm$ pairing leads to surface Andreev bound states at the sample edge. In the clean limit they only occur when the edge is along the nearest neighbor Fe-Fe bond, but not for a diagonal edge or a surface orthogonal to the c-axis. In contrast to d-wave And…
We suggest that an inhomogeneous (non-zero momentum) paired phase can appear in the absence of an external magnetic field in the system with a predominant interband pairing and with separate Fermi-surface sheets. The Fermi wave vector mismatch which appears in such situation can be compensated by nonzero center-of-mass momentum of the Cooper pairs, what can lead to a spontaneous appearance of the Fulde-Ferrell type of superconducting state. The idea is examined using a tight-binding model which emulates the hole-like and the electron-like bands of iron based superconductor. The state can appea…
We performed model calculations of Raman responses for multiband 2D superconductors. The multiband effects of screening in the A_{1g} symmetry channel were investigated analytically and numerically for a band structure model mimicing ARPES data on iron-pnictide materials. An acceptable agreement between our model calculations and recent experimental data is demonstrated by modification of the band structure parameters.
We explain that the study of impurity effect in iron pnictides are correctly calculated based on the T-matrix approximation, contrary to the Comment by Bang. The replacement T with T-I proposed by Bang breaks the perturbation theory and is therefore erroneous.
The magnetic moment in the parent phase of the iron-pnictide superconductors varies with composition even when the nominal charge of iron is unchanged. We propose the spin-lattice coupling due to the magneto-volume effect as the primary origin of this effect, and formulate a Landau theory to describe the dependence of the moment to the Fe-As layer separation. We then compare the superconductive critical temperature of doped iron pnictides to the local moment predicted by the theory, and suggest that the spin-phonon coupling may play a role in the superconductivity of this compound.
We use the functional renormalization group method to analyze the phase diagram of a 4-band model for the iron-pnictides subject to band interactions with certain A_{1g} momentum dependence. We determine the parameter regimes where an extended s-wave pairing instability with and without nodes emerges. On the electron-doped side, the parameter regime in which a nodal gap appears is found to be much narrower than recently predicted in arXiv:0903.5547. On the hole-doped side, the extended s-wave pairing never becomes nodal: above a critical strength of the intra-band repulsion, the system favors …
Transverse-field muon-spin rotation measurements performed on two samples of LiFeAs demonstrate that the superfluid stiffness of the superconducting condensate in relation to its superconducting transition temperature is enhanced compared to other pnictide superconductors. Evidence is seen for a field-induced magnetic state in a sample with a significantly suppressed superconducting transition temperature. The results in this system highlight the role of direct Fe-Fe interactions in frustrating pairing mediated by antiferromagnetic fluctuations and suggest that, in common with other pnictide s…
A linear temperature dependence of the electrical resistivity as T -> 0 is the hallmark of quantum criticality in heavy-fermion metals and the archetypal normal-state property of high-Tc superconductors, yet in both cases it remains unexplained. We report a linear resistivity on the border of spin-density-wave order in the organic superconductor (TMTSF)2X (X = PF6, ClO4), whose strength scales with the superconducting temperature Tc. This scaling, also present in the pnictide superconductors, reveals an intimate connection between linear-T scattering and pairing, shown by renormalization group…
The ThCr2Si2-type arsenide-selenide phase KFe2AsSe is proposed as a parent system for a new "intermediate" group of Fe-based superconducting materials bridging the known families of Fe-pnictides (such as BaFe2As2) and Fe-chalcogenides (such as KxFe2-ySe2) superconductors. The characterization of the proposed charge-balanced phase by means of FLAPW-GGA approach covers the crystal structure, As/Se atomic ordering, stability, electronic bands, Fermi surface, and density of electronic states.
Josephson junctions between a $FeAs$-based superconductor with antiphase s-wave pairing and a conventional s-wave superconductor are studied. The translational invariance in a planar junction between a single crystal pnictide and an aluminum metal greatly enhances the relative weight of electron pockets in the pnictide to the critical current. In a wide doping region of the pnictide, a planar and a point contact junctions have opposite phases, which can be used to design a tri-junction ring with $π$ phase to probe the antiphase pairing.
Nuclear magnetic relaxation rate 1/T_1 in iron-pnictide superconductors is calculated using the gap function obtained in a microscopic calculation. Based on the obtained results, we discuss the issues such as the rapid decrease of 1/T_1 just below the transition temperature and the difference between nodeless and nodal s-wave gap functions. We also investigate the effect of Coulomb interaction on 1/T_1 in the random phase approximation and show its importance in interpreting the experimental results.
In the cuprate and iron-pnictide systems, valence changes induce high-temperature superconductivity while the local structural chemistry and local spin order both independently generate the attractive interactions responsible for the high transition temperature. We argue that together they favor d-wave singlet superconductivity in the cuprates but s-wave singlet in the pnictides. This difference arises from the existence of a large on-site repulsion between carriers in the cuprates largely absent in the pnictides. Fluorine is responsible for raising Tc significantly in some pnictides and in th…
We compare the one-loop functional renormalization group results for the cuprates and the iron pnictides. Interestingly a coherent picture suggesting that antiferromagnetic correlation causes pairing for both materials emerges.
We determine the anisotropy of the spin fluctuation induced pairing gap on the Fermi surface of the FeAs based superconductors as function of the exchange and Hund's coupling $J_{H}$. We find that for sufficiently large $J_{H}$, nearly commensurate magnetic fluctuations yield a fully gapped $s^{\pm}$-pairing state with small anisotropy of the gap amplitude on each Fermi surface sheet, but significant variations of the gap amplitude for different sheets of the Fermi surface. In particular, we obtain the large variation of the gap amplitude on different Fermi surface sheets, as seen in ARPES exp…
From a theoretical point of view, we propose an experimental method to determine the pairing symmetry of iron pnictides. We focus on two kinds of pairing symmetries, $s_{+-}$ and $s_{++}$, which are strong candidates for the pairing symmetry of iron pnictides. For each of these two symmetries, we calculate both the density and spin response functions by using the two-band BCS model within the one-loop approximation. As a result, a clear difference is found between the $s_{+-}$- and $s_{++}$-wave states in the temperature dependence of the response functions at nesting vector $\bf{Q}$, which co…
We have discovered first homologous series of iron pnictide oxide superconductors (Fe2As2)(Can+1(Sc,Ti)nOy) [n = 3,4,5]. These compounds have extremely thick blocking layers up to quintuple perovskite oxide layers sandwiched by the Fe2As2 layers. These samples exhibited bulk superconductivity with relatively high Tc up to 42 K. The relationship between Tc and the iron-plane interlayer distance suggested that superconductivity due to the mono Fe2As2 layer is substantially 40 K-class.
We pointed out that the main claim of Ref.[1] that the presence of the orbital degree of freedom is essential to describe the correct impurity effects for Iron-based superconductors is incorrect and demonstrated the equivalent results of Tc suppression due to impurities by both the band basis model and the orbital basis model.
We examine the effect of a single, non-magnetic impurity in a multiband, extended s-wave superconductor allowing for anisotropy of the gaps on the Fermi surfaces. We derive analytic expressions for the Green's functions in the continuum and analyse the conditions for the existence of sharp impurity-induced resonant states. Underlying band structure is more relevant for the multiband than for single band case, and mismatch between the bands generically makes the formation of the impurity states less likely in the physical regime of parameters. We confirm these conclusions by numerically solving…
We derive the effective action for superconducting fluctuations in a four-band model for pnictides, discussing the emergence of a single critical mode out of a dominant interband pairing mechanism. We then apply our model to calculate the paraconductivity in two-dimensional and layered three-dimensional systems, and compare our results with recent resistivity measurements in SmFeAsOF
Charge doping of iron-pnictide superconductors leads to collective pinning of flux vortices, whereas isovalent doping does not. Moreover, flux pinning in the charge-doped compounds is consistently described by the mean-free path fluctuations introduced by the dopant atoms, allowing for the extraction of the elastic quasiparticle scattering rate. The absence of scattering by dopant atoms in isovalently doped BaFe$_{2}$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_{2}$ is consistent with the observation of a linear temperature dependence of the low-temperature penetration depth in this material.
We study Josephson junctions between a multi-band iron-pnictide Ba1-xNaxFe2As2 and conventional s-wave superconductors Nb and Cu/Nb bilayer. We observe that junctions with a Cu interlayer exhibit much larger IcRn, despite a weaker proximity-induced superconductivity. This counterintuitive result is attributed to the difference in Fermi surface geometries of Nb and Cu, which leads to a selective one-band tunneling from Cu and a non-selective multi-band tunnelng from Nb. The latter leads to a mutual cancellation of supercurrents due to the sign-reversal s+- symmetry of the order parameter in the…
Muon-spin rotation experiments were performed on the pnictide high temperature superconductor SmFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_{x}$ with x=0.18 and 0.3. We observed an unusual enhancement of slow spin fluctuations in the vicinity of the superconducting which suggests that the spin fluctuations contribute to the formation of an unconventional superconducting state. An estimate of the in-plane penetration depth $λ_{ab}(0)=190(5)$\thinspace nm was obtained, which confirms that the pnictide superconductors obey an Uemura-style relationship between $T_{\mathrm{c}}$ and $λ_{ab}(0)^{-2}$.
In several members of the ferro-pnictides, spin density wave (SDW) order coexists with superconductivity over a range of dopings. In this letter we study the anomalous magnetic Zeeman response of this coexistence state and show that it can be used to confirm the extended s-wave gap structure as well as structure of superconducting (SC) gap in coexisting phase. On increasing the field, a strongly anisotropic reduction of SC gap is found. The anisotropy is directly connected to the gap structure of superconducting phase. The signature of this effect in quasiparticle interference measured by STM,…
Single impurity problem in iron-pnictide superconductors is investigated by solving Bogoliubov-de Gennes (BdG) equation in the five-orbital model, which enables us to distinguish s$_{+-}$ and s$_{++}$ superconducting states. We construct a five-orbital model suitable to BdG analysis. This model reproduces the results of random phase approximation in the uniform case. Using this model, we study the local density of states around a non-magnetic impurity and discuss the bound-state peak structure, which can be used for distinguishing s$_{+-}$ and s$_{++}$ states. A bound state with nearly zero-en…
Based on a phenomenological model with $s_{\pm}$ or s-wave pairing symmetry, the mixed-state effect on the low-energy spin dynamics in optimally-doped iron pnictide superconductors is studied by solving Bogoliubov-de Gennes equations. Our results of the spin susceptibility at $\mathbf{q}=\mathbf{Q}$ in the normal, superconducting and mixed states agree qualitatively with recent neutron scattering experiments. We also propose that the field-induced intensity change shows different behaviors between the $s_{\pm}$ and s-wave symmetries in both momentum and real space, thus it can be used to disti…
The puzzling nature of magnetic and lattice phase transitions of iron pnictides is investigated via a first-principles Wannier function analysis of representative parent compound LaOFeAs. A rare ferro-orbital ordering is found to give rise to the recently observed highly anisotropic magnetic coupling, and drive the phase transitions--without resorting to widely employed frustration or nesting picture. The revealed necessity of the additional orbital physics leads to a correlated electronic structure fundamentally distinct from that of the cuprates. In particular, the strong coupling to the mag…
In- and out-of-plane magnetic penetration depths were measured in three iron-based pnictide superconducting systems. All studied samples of both 122 systems show a robust power-law behavior, $λ(T) T^n$, with the sample-dependent exponent n=2-2.5, which is indicative of unconventional pairing. This scenario could be possible either through scattering in a $s_{\pm }$ state or due to nodes in the superconducting gap. In the Nd-1111 system, the interpretation of data may be obscured by the magnetism of rare-earth ions. The overall anisotropy of the pnictide superconductors is small. The 1111 syste…
We discuss the type of pairing in the hexagonal pnictide superconductor SrPtAs, taking into account its multiband structure. The topological chiral $d$-wave state with time-reversal-symmetry breaking has been anticipated from the spontaneous magnetization observed by the muon-spin-relaxation experiment. We point out in this paper that the recent experimental reports on the nuclear-spin-lattice relaxation rate $T_1^{-1}$ and superfluid density $n_s(T)$, which seemingly support the conventional $s$-wave pairing, are also consistent with the chiral $d$-wave state. The compatibility of the gap and…
We studied double superconducting (SC) domes in LaFeAsO1-xHx by using 75As- and 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, and unexpectedly discovered that a new antiferromagnetic (AF) phase follows the double SC domes on further H doping, forming a symmetric alignment of AF and SC phases in the electronic phase diagram. We demonstrated that the new AF ordering originates from the nesting between electron pockets, unlike the nesting between electron and hole pockets as seen in the majority of undoped pnictides. The new AF ordering is derived from the features common to high-Tc pnictides: howeve…
The pairing symmetry is one of the major issues in the study of iron-based superconductors. We adopt a low-energy effective kinetic model based on the first-principles band structure calculations combined with the $J_1$-$J_2$ model for KFe$_2$As$_2$, the phase diagram of pairing symmetries is constructed. Putting the values of $J_1$ and $J_2$ of the $J_1$-$J_2$ model obtained by the first-principles calculations into this phase diagram, we find that the pairing symmetry for KFe$_2$As$_2$ is a nodal $d_{xy}$-wave in the folded Brillouin zone with two iron atoms per unit cell. This is in good ag…
We microscopically examine the intergrain Josephson current in iron-pnictide superconductors in order to solve the puzzle of why the intergrain current is much lower than the intragrain one. The theory predicts that the intergrain Josephson current is significantly reduced by the $\pm$s-wave symmetry when the incoherent tunneling becomes predominant and the density of states and the gap amplitude between two bands are identical. We find in such a situation that the temperature dependence of the intergrain Josephson current shows an anomalously flat curve over a wide temperature range. Finally,…
Electrical resistivity measurements of detwinned single crystals of the representative iron arsenide Ba(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$ reveal a dramatic in-plane anisotropy associated with the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition that precedes the onset of long-range antiferromagnetic order. These results indicate that the structural transition in this family of compounds is fundamentally electronic in origin.
The magnetoresistance of iron pnictide superconductors is often dominated by electron-electron correlations and deviates from the H$^2$ or saturating behaviors expected for uncorrelated metals. Contrary to similar Fe-based pnictide systems, the superconductor LaRu$_2$P$_2$ (T$_c$ = 4 K) shows no enhancement of electron-electron correlations. Here we report a non-saturating magnetoresistance deviating from the H$^2$ or saturating behaviors in LaRu$_2$P$_2$. We have grown and characterized high quality single crystals of LaRu$_2$P$_2$ and measured a magnetoresistance following H$^{1.3}$ up to 22…
This review discusses and compares electronic spectra of new iron-based high-temperature superconductors (HTSC), as well as a number of chemically similar compounds. Particular attention is payed to iron chalcogenide K_{1-x}Fe_{2-y}Se_2, which is isostructural to BaFe_2As_2 (122) pnictide. It is shown, that Fermi surfaces of K_{1-x}Fe_{2-y}Se_2 are essentially different from those for pnictides. Using LDA+DMFT and LDA'+DMFT calculations we show, that electronic correlations in K_{1-x}Fe_{2-y}Se_2 influence the electronic structure much more significantly, than in the most studied 122 system. W…
We report specific-heat and resistivity experiments performed in parallel in a Bridgman-type of pressure cell in order to investigate the nature of pressure-induced superconductivity in the iron pnictide compound CaFe2As2. The presence of a pronounced specific-heat anomaly at Tc reveals a bulk nature of the superconducting state. The thermodynamic transition temperature differs dramatically from the onset of the resistive transition. Our data indicates that superconductivity occurs in the vicinity of a crystallographic phase transition. We discuss the discrepancy between the two methods as cau…
Josephson current between two superconductors provides a phase sensitive tool for probing their pairing symmetries. Here we fabricate and study experimentally high-quality Josephson junctions between a conventional s-wave superconductor Nb and a multi-band iron-pnictide Ba$_{1-x}$Na$_x$Fe$_2$As$_2$. Junctions exhibit a large enough critical current density to preclude the d-wave symmetry of the order parameter in the pnictide. However, the $I_cR_n$ product is very small $\simeq 3~μ$V, which is not consistent with the sign-preserving $s_{++}$ symmetry either. We argue that the small $I_cR_n$ va…
A review of high-pressure studies on Fe-pnictide superconductors is given. The pressure effects on the magnetic and superconducting transitions are discussed for different classes of doped and undoped FeAs-compounds, ROFeAs (R = rare earth), AeFe2As2 (Ae = Ca, Sr, Ba), and AFeAs (A = Li, Na). Pressure tends to decrease the magnetic transition temperature in the undoped or only slightly doped compounds. The superconducting Tc increases with pressure for underdoped FeAs-pnictides, remains approximately constant for optimal doping, and decreases linearly in the overdoped range. The undoped LaOFeA…
An optical analysis reveals that the electronic correlations in the `parent' compounds of the iron pnictide superconductors are sufficiently strong to significantly impede the mobility of the electrons.
We establish in a combination of ab initio theory and experiments that the tunneling process in scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy on the A-122 iron pnictide superconductors - in this case BaFe$_{2-x}$Co$_x$As$_2$ - involve a strong adatom filtering of the differential conductance from the near-EF Fe3d states, which in turn originates from the top-most sub-surface Fe layer of the crystal. The calculations show that the dominance of surface Ba-related tunneling pathways leaves fingerprints found in the experimental differential conductance data, including large particle-hole asymmetry a…
A new iron pnictide LiFeP superconductor was found. The compound crystallizes into a Cu2Sb structure containing an FeP layer showing superconductivity with maximum Tc of 6K. This is the first 111 type iron pnictide superconductor containing no arsenic. The new superconductor is featured with itinerant behavior at normal state that could helpful to understand the novel superconducting mechanism of iron pnictide compounds.
We discuss the nuclear magnetic relaxation rate and the superfluid density with the use of the effective five-band model by Kuroki et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 087004 (2008)] in Fe-based superconductors. We show that a fully-gapped anisotropic \pm s-wave superconductivity consistently explains experimental observations. In our phenomenological model, the gaps are assumed to be anisotropic on the electron-like βFermi surfaces around the M point, where the maximum of the anisotropic gap is about four times larger than the minimum.
We have discovered new nickel-based pnictide oxide superconductors, (Ni2Pn2)(Sr4Sc2O6) (Pn = P, As). These compounds have a tetragonal unit cell with a space group of P4/nmm and they consist of alternate stacking of anti-fluorite Ni2Pn2 layers and K2NiF4-type Sr4Sc2O6 blocking layers. Lattice parameters were a = 4.044 A and c = 15.23 A for (Ni2P2)(Sr4Sc2O6) and a = 4.078 A and c = 15.41 A for (Ni2As2)(Sr4Sc2O6), indicating their thicker blocking layers than that of LaNiPO (c ~ 8.1 A). Both (Ni2P2)(Sr4Sc2O6) and (Ni2As2)(Sr4Sc2O6) exhibited superconductivity with zero resistivity at 3.3 K and 2…
Considering model Hamiltonians that respect the symmetry properties of the pnictides, it is argued that pairing interactions that couple electrons at different orbitals with an orbital-dependent pairing strength inevitably lead to interband pairing matrix elements, at least in some regions of the Brillouin zone. Such interband pairing has not been considered of relevance in multiorbital systems in previous investigations. It is also observed that if, instead, a purely intraband pairing interaction is postulated, this requires that the pairing operator has the form $Δ^+(k)=f(k) \sum_α d^+_{k,α,…
This paper reviews quantum oscillation studies of iron-pnictide superconductors and related materials. These measurements give unique information regarding the full three dimensional topology of the Fermi surfaces and the renormalisation of the quasi-particle masses. The review will cover measurements of the 122 arsenide end members, XFe_2As_2 (X = Ba, Sr, Ca) which have a spin density wave ground state, but will concentrate on the phosphide end members (LaFePO and XFe2P2) which have a paramagnetic ground state and a Fermi surface topology which is similar to the higher Tc superconducting iron…
Using an RPA approximation, we have calculated the strengths of the singlet and triplet pairing interactions which arise from the exchange of spin and orbital fluctuations for a 2-orbital model of the Fe-pnictide superconductors. When the system is doped with F, the electron pockets become dominant and we find that the strongest pairing occurs in the singlet d-wave pairing and the triplet p-wave pairing channels, which compete closely. The pairing structure in the singlet d-wave channel corresponds to a superposition of near neighbor intra-orbital singlets with a minus sign phase difference be…
We report electronic structure calculations for BaTi$_2$Sb$_2$O and discuss the results in relation to the observed superconductivity of this material when hole doped with Na. The Fermi surface shows several sheets. These include a nested nearly 2D cylinder. There are also two sheets, which are three dimensional, in spite of the layered crystal structure. A magnetic instability associated with Fermi surface nesting is found. A sign-changing s-wave state, different from the one in the Fe-based superconductors, is predicted within a scenario of spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity.
We have studied the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity in LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$F$_x$ and Ca(Fe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$)$_2$As$_2$. While antiferromagnetic spin density wave formation is suppressed and superconductivity evolves, all samples show a doping independent strong increase of the normal state susceptibility upon heating which appears a general feature of iron pnictides. The data provide evidence for robust local antiferromagnetic correlations persisting even in the superconducting regime of the phase diagram.
Superconductivity in iron pnictides is studied by using a two-orbital Hubbard model in the large U limit. The Coulomb repulsion induces an orbital-dependent pairing between charge carriers. The pairing is found mainly from the scattering within the same Fermi pocket. The inter-pocket pair scatterings determine the symmetry of the superconductivity, which is extended s-wave at small Hund's coupling, and d-wave at large Hund's coupling and large U. The former is consistent with recent experiments of ARPES and Andreev reflection spectroscope.
The pairing symmetry of the hexagonal pnictide superconductor SrPtAs is discussed with taking into account its multiband structure. The topological chiral $d$-wave state with time-reversal-symmetry breaking has been anticipated from the spontaneous magnetization observed by the muon-spin-relaxation experiment. We point out in this paper that the recent experimental reports on the nuclear-spin-lattice relaxation rate $T_1^{-1}$ and superfluid density $n_s(T)$, which seemingly support the conventional $s$-wave pairing, are also consistent with the chiral $d$-wave state. The compatibility of the …
We introduce and study an extended "t-U-J" two-orbital model for the pnictides that includes Heisenberg terms deduced from the strong coupling expansion. Including these J terms explicitly allows us to enhance the strength of the (pi, 0)-(0, pi) spin order which favors the presence of tightly bound pairing states even in the small clusters that are here exactly diagonalized. The A1g and B2g pairing symmetries are found to compete in the realistic spin-ordered and metallic regime. The dynamical pairing susceptibility additionally unveils low-lying B1g states, suggesting that small changes in pa…
High critical temperature superconductors have zero power consumption and could be used to produce ideal electric power lines. The principal obstacle in fabricating superconducting wires and tapes is grain boundaries-the misalignment of crystalline orientations at grain boundaries, which is unavoidable for polycrystals, largely deteriorates critical current density. Here, we report that High critical temperature iron pnictide superconductors have advantages over cuprates with respect to these grain boundary issues. The transport properties through well-defined bicrystal grain boundary junction…
