We study a unified mechanism for spin-density-wave (SDW) and superconductivity in a minimal model, in which itinerant electrons and local moments coexist as previously proposed for the iron pnictides [EPL, 88, 17010 (2009)]. The phase diagram obtained at the mean field level is in qualitative agreement with the experiment, which shows how the magnetic and superconducting (SC) instabilities are driven by the critial coupling between the itinerant/localized electrons. The spin and charge response functions at the random phase approximation (RPA) level further characterize the dynamical evolution of the system. In particular, the dynamic spin susceptibility displays a Goldstone mode in the SDW phase, which evolves into a gapped resonance-like mode in the superconducting phase. The latter persists all the way into the normal state above Tc, where a strong scattering between the itinerant electrons and local moments is restored, as an essential feature of the model.
We show how the general features of the electronic structure of the Fe-based high-Tc superconductors are a natural setting for a selective localization of the conduction electrons to arise. Slave-spin and Dynamical mean-field calculations support this picture and allow for a comparison of the magnetic properties with experiments.
Recent applications of Quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) technique to Fe-based superconductors opened a way to directly verify the applicability of the itinerant scenario for these systems. Fe-based superconductors undergo various instabilities upon lowering temperature (magnetism, superconductivity, nematicity/orbital order), and one can check whether the hierarchy of instabilities obtained within the itinerant approach is the same as in unbiased QMC simulations. In a recent paper [arXiv:1512:08523] the authors considered the simplest two-band model with interaction tailored to favor orbital order. T…
We report quantum oscillation measurements that enable the direct observation of the Fermi surface of the low temperature ground state of \ba122. From these measurements we characterize the low energy excitations, revealing that the Fermi surface is reconstructed in the antiferromagnetic state, but leaving itinerant electrons in its wake. The present measurements are consistent with a conventional band folding picture of the antiferromagnetic ground state, placing important limits on the topology and size of the Fermi surface.
Normal state spin dynamics of the recently discovered iron-pnictide superconductors is discussed by calculating spin structure factor S(q, omega) in an itinerant five-band model within RPA approximation. Due to the characteristic Fermi surface structure of iron-pnictide, column like response is found at (pi, 0) in extended Brillouin zone in the undoped case, which is consistent with the recent neutron scattering experiment. This indicates that the localized spin model is not necessary to explain the spin dynamics of this system. Furthermore, we show that the temperature dependence of inelastic…
We elucidate the pivotal role of the bandstructure's orbital content in deciding the type of commensurate magnetic order stabilized within the itinerant scenario of iron-pnictides. Recent experimental findings in the tetragonal magnetic phase attest to the existence of the so-called charge and spin ordered density wave over the spin-vortex crystal phase, the latter of which tends to be favored in simplified band models of itinerant magnetism. Here we show that employing a multiorbital itinerant Landau approach based on realistic bandstructures can account for the experimentally observed magnet…
In conventional Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) superconductors, superconductivity occurs when electrons form coherent Cooper pairs below the superconducting transition temperature Tc. Although the kinetic energy of paired electrons increases in the superconducting state relative to the normal state, the reduction in the ion lattice energy is sufficient to give the superconducting condensation energy. For iron pnictide superconductors derived from electron or hole doping of their antiferromagnetic (AF) parent compounds, the microscopic origin for supercnductivity is unclear. Here we use neutro…
Ferromagnetism and superconductivity are antagonistic phenomena. Their coexistence implies either a modulated ferromagnetic order parameter on a lengthscale shorter than the superconducting coherence length or a weak exchange coupling between the itinerant superconducting electrons and the localized ordered spins. In some iron based pnictide superconductors the coexistence of ferromagnetism and superconductivity has been clearly demonstrated. The nature of the coexistence, however, remains elusive since no clear understanding of the spin structure in the superconducting state has been reached …
A direct and element-specific measurement of the local Fe spin moment has been provided by analyzing the Fe 3s core level photoemission spectra in the parent and optimally doped CeFeAsO1-xFx (x = 0, 0.11) and Sr(Fe1 xCox)2As2 (x = 0, 0.10) pnictides. The rapid time scales of the photoemission process allowed the detection of large local spin moments fluctuating on a 10-15 s time scale in the paramagnetic, anti-ferromagnetic and superconducting phases, indicative of the occurrence of ubiquitous strong Hund's magnetic correlations. The magnitude of the spin moment is found to vary significantly …
We consider phase transitions and potential co-existence of spin-density-wave (SDW) magnetic order and extended s-wave ($s^+$) superconducting order within a two-band itinerant model of iron pnictides, in which SDW magnetism and $s^+$ superconductivity are competing orders. We show that depending on parameters, the transition between these two states is either first order, or involves an intermediate phase in which the two orders co-exist. We demonstrate that such co-existence is possible when SDW order is incommensurate.
We examine the spin and charge excitations in antiferromagnetic iron pnictides by mean-field calculations with a random phase approximation in a five-band itinerant model. The calculated excitation spectra reproduce well spin-wave dispersions observed in inelastic neutron scattering, with a realistic magnetic moment for CaFe$_2$As$_2$. A particle-hole gap is found to be crucial to obtain consistent results; we predict the spin wave in LaFeAsO disappears at a lower energy than in CaFe$_2$As$_2$. We analyze that the charge dynamics to make predictions for resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spec…
Within the framework of density functional theory we investigate the nature of magnetism in various families of Fe-based superconductors. (i) We show that magnetization of stripe-type antiferromagnetic order always becomes stronger when As is substituted by Sb in LaOFeAs, BaFe$_2$As$_2$ and LiFeAs. By calculating Pauli susceptibilities, we attribute the magnetization increase obtained after replacing As by Sb to the enhancement of an instability at $(π,π)$. This points to a strong connection between Fermi surface nesting and magnetism, which supports the theory of the itinerant nature of magne…
We discuss the structure of the superconducting gap in iron pnictides. In the itinerant electron picture, gaps with or without nodes have the extended s-wave (s+) symmetry and emerge within the same pairing mechanism, determined by the interplay between intra-pocket repulsion and inter-band pair hopping. If the pair hopping is stronger, the system develops an s+ gap without nodes. In the opposite case the superconductivity is governed by of the momentum-dependent part of the pair-hopping, and an s+ gap shows nodes on electron Fermi surfaces. We argue that the gap without/with nodes emerges in …
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.
Orbital-ordering instability arising due to the intrapocket nesting is investigated for the tight-binding models of pnictides in the presence of orbital-lattice coupling. The incommensurate instabilities with small momentum, which may play an important role in the nematic-ordering transition, vary from model to model besides being more favorable in comparison to the spin-density wave instability in the absence of good interpocket nesting. We also examine the doping dependence of such instabilities. The electron-phonon coupling parameter required to induce them are compared with the first-princ…
A universal linear-temperature dependence of the uniform magnetic susceptibility has been observed in the nonmagnetic normal state of iron-pnictides. This non-Pauli and non-Curie-Weiss-like paramagnetic behavior cannot be understood within a pure itinerant picture. We argue that it results from the existence of a wide antiferromagnetic fluctuation window in which the local spin-density-wave correlations exist but the global directional order has not been established yet.
We report on orbital-dependent quasiparticle dynamics in EuFe$_2$As$_2$, a parent compound of Fe-based superconductors and a novel way to experimentally identify this behavior, using time- and angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy across the spin density wave transition. We observe two different relaxation time scales for photo-excited d$_x$$_z$/d$_y$$_z$ and d$_x$$_y$ electrons. While d$_x$$_z$/d$_y$$_z$ electrons relax faster through the electron-electron scattering channel, showing an itinerant character, d$_x$$_y$ electrons form a quasi-equilibrium state with the lattice due to their l…
We present a general study of the magnetic excitations within a weak-coupling five-orbital model relevant to itinerant iron pnictides. As a function of enhanced electronic correlations, the spin excitations in the symmetry broken spin-density wave phase evolve from broad low-energy modes in the limit of weak interactions to sharply dispersing spin wave prevailing to higher energies at larger interaction strengths. We show how the resulting spin response at high energies depends qualitatively on the magnitude of the interactions. We also calculate the magnetic excitations in the nematic phase b…
We use the results of first-principles electronic structure calculations and a strong coupling perturbation approach, together with general theoretical arguments, to illustrate the differences in super-exchange interactions between the copper-oxides and iron-pnictides. We show that the two magnetic ground states can be understood in a simple manner within the same theoretical foundation. Contrary to the emerging view that magnetic order in the iron-pnictides is of itinerant nature, we argue that the observed magnetic moment is small because of frustration introduced by the electrons of the Fe …
Multiband systems, which possess a wide parameter space, allow to explore a variety of competing ground states. Bright examples are the Fe-based pnictides and chalcogenides, which demonstrate metallic, superconducting, and various magnetic phases. Here I discuss only one of the many interesting topics, namely, spin fluctuations in metallic multiband systems. I show how to calculate the effect of itinerant spin excitations on the electronic properties and formulate a theory of spin fluctuation-induced superconductivity. The superconducting state is unconventional and thus the system demonstrate…
We used the proximity effect as a tool to achieve an ideal (barrier - free) NS boundary for quantitative evaluation of transport phenomena that accompany converting dissipative current into supercurrent in NS systems with unconventional superconductors, single - crystal chalcogenide FeSe and granulated pnictide LaO(F)FeAs. Using features (limitations) of Andreev reflection in the NS systems with dispersion of the electron spin subbands, we revealed direct evidence for spin - polarized nature of transport and the absence of residual magnetization in iron - based superconductors in the normal st…
We study the doping dependence of the spin-density-wave (SDW) state in four models of the 1111 pnictides. The random-phase approximation is used to determine the ordering temperature and the ordering vector as functions of doping, and to evaluate the contribution of the various orbitals to the SDW instability. In addition to the usual assumption of orbitally rotation-invariant interactions, we consider the effect of reduced interactions involving the xy orbital, which are anticipated by crystal-structure considerations. We find that changing the relative strength of the interaction in the xy o…
We discuss the role of striction in the intertwined magnetic and structural phase transitions in the underdoped iron-pnictides. The magneto-elastic coupling to acoustic modes is then derived and estimated in framework of the multiband spectrum for itinerant electrons with nesting features. We argue that the 1-st order character of the magneto-elastic phase transition originates from the lattice instabilities near the onset of spin-density wave order introducing, thus, a shear acoustic mode as a new order parameter. Taking non-harmonic termis in the lattice energy into account may explain the s…
By applying density functional theory, we find strong evidence for an itinerant nature of magnetism in two families of iron pnictides. Furthermore, by employing dynamical mean field theory with continuous time quantum Monte Carlo as an impurity solver, we observe that the antiferromagnetic metal with small magnetic moment naturally arises out of coupling between unfrustrated and frustrated bands. Our results point to a possible scenario for magnetism in iron pnictides where magnetism originates from a strong instability at the momentum vector ($π$, $π$, $π$) while it is reduced by quantum fluc…
In a comprehensive study, we investigate the electronic scattering effects in EuFe$_{2}$(As$_{1-x}$P$_{x}$)$_{2}$ by using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy. In spite of the fact that Eu$^{2+}$ local moments order around $T_\text{Eu} \approx 20$\,K, the overall optical response is strikingly similar to the one of the well-known Ba-122 pnictides. The main difference lies within the suppression of the lower spin-density-wave gap feature. By analysing our spectra with a multi-component model, we find that the high-energy feature around 0.7\,eV -- often associated with Hund's rule coupling -…
We report inelastic light scattering studies on Ca(Fe0.97Co0.03)2As2 in a wide spectral range of 120-5200 cm-1 from 5K to 300K, covering the tetragonal to orthorhombic structural transition as well as magnetic transition at Tsm ~ 160K. The mode frequencies of two first-order Raman modes B1g and Eg, both involving displacement of Fe atoms, show sharp increase below Tsm. Concomitantly, the linewidths of all the first-order Raman modes show anomalous broadening below Tsm, attributed to strong spin-phonon coupling. The high frequency modes observed between 400-1200 cm-1 are attributed to the elect…
Although the parent iron-based pnictides and chalcogenides are itinerant antiferromagnets, the use of local moment picture to understand their magnetic properties is still widespread. We study magnetic Raman scattering from a local moment perspective for various quantum spin models proposed for this new class of superconductors. These models vary greatly in the level of magnetic frustration and show a vastly different two-magnon Raman response. Light scattering by two-magnon excitations thus provides a robust and independent measure of the underlying spin interactions. In accord with other rec…
In the stoichiometric Fe-pnictides the same d-electrons form the local moments and participate in the metallic conductivity. In the manuscript the emergence of the magnetic moments on the Fe-sites, their interaction with the itinerant electrons are studied in the paramagnetic phase at the different relations between the onsite Coulomb repulsion and the intraatomic Hund's exchange. The energy of the local center that is due to its interaction with the conduction electrons is calculated exactly. It is found that the spin density wave transition is controlled by the RKKY interactions between the …
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 analyze how disorder affects the transition temperature $T_{c}$ of the $s^{+-}$superconducting state in the iron pnictides. The conventional wisdom is that $T_{c}$ should rapidly decrease with increasing inter-band non-magnetic impurity scattering, but we show that this behavior holds only in the overdoped region of the phase diagram. In the underdoped regime, where superconductivity emerges from a pre-existing magnetic state, disorder gives rise to two competing effects: breaking of the Cooper pairs, which tends to reduce $T_{c}$, and suppression of the itinerant magnetic order, which tend…
One of the major puzzles regarding unconventional superconductivity is how some of the most interesting superconductors are related to an insulating phase that lies in close proximity. Here we report scanning tunneling microscopy studies of the local electronic structure of Cu doped NaFeAs across the superconductor to insulator transition. We find that in the highly insulating regime the electronic spectrum develops an energy gap with diminishing density of state at the Fermi level. The overall lineshape and strong spatial variations of the spectra are strikingly similar to that of lightly dop…
Motivated by the iron pnictides, we examine the spin excitations in an itinerant antiferromagnet where a spin-density wave (SDW) originates from an excitonic instability of nested electron-like and hole-like Fermi pockets. Using the random phase approximation (RPA), we derive the Dyson equation for the transverse susceptibility in the excitonic SDW state. The Dyson equation is solved for two different two-band models, describing an antiferromagnetic insulator and metal, respectively. We determine the collective spin-wave dispersions and also consider the single-particle continua. The results f…
In most magnetically-ordered iron pnictides, the magnetic moments lie in the FeAs planes, parallel to the modulation direction of the spin stripes. However, recent experiments in hole-doped iron pnictides have observed a reorientation of the magnetic moments from in-plane to out-of-plane. Interestingly, this reorientation is accompanied by a change in the magnetic ground state from a stripe antiferromagnet to a tetragonal non-uniform magnetic configuration. Motivated by these recent observations, here we investigate the origin of the spin anisotropy in iron pnictides using an itinerant microsc…
The layered iron superconductors are discussed using electronic structure calculations. The four families of compounds discovered so far, including Fe(Se,Te) have closely related electronic structures. The Fermi surface consists of disconnected hole and electron cylinders and additional hole sections that depend on the specific material. This places the materials in proximity to itinerant magnetism, both due to the high density of states and due to nesting. Comparison of density functional results and experiment provides strong evidence for itinerant spin fluctuations, which are discussed in r…
We analyze the effect of weak disorder on the competition between antiferromagnetic order and superconductivity in a model for iron-based superconductors. Under the assumption of an approximate particle-hole symmetry we show that conventional $s^{++}$ superconductivity cannot be realized in the case of coexisting magnetic and superconductive orders, observed experimentally at intermediate doping levels. This result holds for arbitrary impurity concentrations, and, in particular, in the clean limit. The inclusion of disorder further amplifies the phase competition between itinerant antiferromag…
First-principles FLAPW-GGA band structure calculations were employed to examine the structural, electronic properties and the chemical bonding picture for four ZrCuSiAs-like Th-based quaternary pnictide oxides ThCuPO, ThCuAsO, ThAgPO, and ThAgAsO. These compounds were found to be semimetals and may be viewed as "intermediate" systems between two main isostructural groups of superconducting and semiconducting 1111 phases. The Th 5f states participate actively in the formation of valence bands and the Th 5f states for ThMPnO phases are itinerant and partially occupied. We found also that the bon…
Motivated by recent experimental findings, we investigate the evolution of the superconducting gap anisotropy in 122 iron pnictides as a function of hole doping. Employing both a functional and a weak coupling renormalization group approach (FRG and WRG), we analyse the Fermi surface instabilities of an effective 122 model band structure at different hole dopings x, and derive the gap anisotropy from the leading superconducting instability. In the transition regime from collinear magnetism to s_{\pm}-wave, where strong correlations are present, we employ FRG to identify a non- monotonous chang…
Undoped iron superconductors accommodate $n=6$ electrons in five d-orbitals. Experimental and theoretical evidence shows that the strength of correlations increases with hole-doping, as the electronic filling approaches half-filling with $n=5$ electrons. This evidence delineates a scenario in which the parent compound of iron superconductors is the half-filled system, in analogy to cuprate superconductors. In cuprates the superconductivity can be induced upon electron or hole doping. In this work we propose to search for high-Tc superconductivity and strong correlations in chromium pnictides a…
We study collective spin excitations of a magnetically ordered state in a multi-component system composed of both itinerant electrons and local moments. Here the induced spin-density-wave (SDW) ordering of itinerant electrons and the collinear antiferromangetic (AF) ordering of local moments are locked together via a Hund's rule coupling. We show that the Goldstone theorem still holds at the RPA level with the gapless spin wave protected inside the small SDW gap of itinerant electrons, which, however, is fragile in the presence of ion-anisotropy. A gapped out-of-phase spin mode extending over …
In view of the recent experimental facts in the iron-pnictides, we make a proposal that the itinerant electrons and local moments are simultaneously present in such multiband materials. We study a minimal model composed of coupled itinerant electrons and local moments to illustrate how a consistent explanation of the experimental measurements can be obtained in the leading order approximation. In this mean-field approach, the spin-density-wave (SDW) order and superconducting pairing of the itinerant electrons are not directly driven by the Fermi surface nesting, but are mainly induced by their…
Using first-principle density functional theory calculations combined with insight from a tight-binding representation, dynamical mean field theory, and linear response theory, we have extensively investigated the electronic structures and magnetic interactions of nine ferropnictides representing three different structural classes. The calculated magnetic interactions are found to be short-range, and the nearest ($J_{1a}$) and next-nearest ($J_{2}$) exchange constants follow the universal trend of J_{1a}/2J_{2}\sim 1, despite their itinerant origin and extreme sensitivity to the z-position of …
The NMR results in iron pnictides BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 and Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 are analyzed based on the self-consistent renormalization (SCR) spin fluctuation theory. The temperature dependence of the NMR relaxation rate (T_1)^{-1} as well as the electrical resistivity is well reproduced by a SCR model where two-dimensional antiferromagnetic (AF) spin fluctuations are dominant. The successful description of the crossover feature from non-Fermi liquid to Fermi liquid behavior strongly suggests that low-lying spin fluctuations in BaFe2(As1-xPx)2 and Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 possess an itinerant AF nature, and …
We report x-ray absorption and photoemission spectroscopy of the electronic structure in the normal state of metallic YFe2Ge2. The data reveal evidence for large fluctuating spin moments on the Fe sites, as indicated by exchange multiplets appearing in the Fe 3s core level photoemission spectra, even though the compound does not show magnetic order. The magnitude of the multiplet splitting is comparable to that observed in the normal state of the Fe-pnictide superconductors. This shows a connection between YFe2Ge2 and the Fe-based superconductors even though it contains neither pnictogens nor …
The discovery of the Fe pnictide superconductors generated great interest as the structure consists of planes of a magnetic material quite similar to the cuprate superconductors. Fe(Te0.5Se0.5) is a particularly simple system whose planes are isostructural to the FeAs layers found in the originally discovered superconductors of this type. We report here neutron scattering measurements on this material that provide an understanding of the superconductivity. Since the information about the Fermi surface is available both from photoemission and band structure calculations for FeTe, FeSe and other…
By applying density functional theory calculations to iron chalcogenides, we find that magnetic order in Fe$_{1+y}$Te and magnetic instability at $(π,π)$ in K$_y$Fe$_2$Se$_2$ are controlled by interstitial and interlayer cations, respectively. While in Fe$_{1+y}$Te, magnetic phase transitions occur among collinear, exotic bicollinear and plaquette-ordered antiferronmagnetic states when the height of interstitial irons measured from iron plane or the concentration of interstitial irons is varied, the magnetic instability at $(π,π)$ which is believed to be responsible for the Cooper pairing in i…
Through a systematic high resolution angle-resolved photoemission study of the iron pnictide compounds (Ba,Sr)Fe$_2$As$_2$, we show that the electronic structures of these compounds are significantly reconstructed across the spin density wave ordering, which cannot be described by a simple folding scenario of conventional density wave ordering. Moreover, we find that LDA calculations with an incorporated suppressed magnetic moment of 0.5$μ_{\tiny{\textrm{B}}}$ can match well the details in the reconstructed electronic structure, suggesting that the nature of magnetism in the pnictides is more …
The magnetic excitations of the iron pnictides are explained within a degenerate double-exchange model. The local-moment spins are coupled by superexchanges $J_1$ and $J_2$ between nearest and next-nearest neighbors, respectively, and interact with the itinerant electrons of the degenerate $d_{xz}$ and $d_{yz}$ orbitals via a ferromagnetic Hund exchange. The latter stabilizes $(π,0)$ stripe antiferromagnetism due to emergent ferro-orbital order and the resulting kinetic energy gain by hopping preferably along the ferromagnetic spin direction. Taking the quantum nature of the spins into account…
$A$Co$_2$Se$_2$ ($A$=K,Rb,Cs) is a homologue of the iron-based superconductor, $A$Fe$_2$Se$_2$. From a comprehensive study of RbCo$_2$Se$_2$ via measurements of magnetization, transport, neutron diffraction, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and first-principle calculations, we identify a ferromagnetic order accompanied by an orbital-dependent spin-splitting of the electronic dispersions. Furthermore, we identify the ordered moment to be dominated by a $d_{x^2-y^2}$ flatband near the Fermi level, which exhibits the largest spin splitting across the ferromagnetic transition, suggesting…
The longitudinal in-plane magnetoresistance (LMR) has been measured in different Ba(Fe_(1-x)Co_x)2As2 single crystals and in LiFeAs. For all these compounds, we find a negative LMR in the paramagnetic phase whose magnitude increases as H^2. We show that this negative LMR can be readily explained in terms of suppression of the spin fluctuations by the magnetic field. In the Co-doped samples, the absolute value of the LMR coefficient is found to decrease with doping content in the paramagnetic phase. The analysis of its T dependence in an itinerant nearly antiferromagnetic Fermi liquid model evi…
We show that the combined effects of spin-orbit, monoclinic distortion, and p-d hybridization in tetrahedrally coordinated Fe in LaOFeAs invalidates the naive Hund's rule filling of the Fe d-levels. The two highest occupied levels have one electron each but as a result of the p-d hybridization have very different on-site repulsions. As a result, electrons in the upper level are more itinerant while those in the lower level are more localized. It is the xy-projection of the spin in the lower level that orders antiferromagnetically as the z-components of the spins in the two levels is shown to b…
The Coulomb repulsion, impeding electrons' motion, has an important impact on the charge dynamics. It mainly causes a reduction of the effective metallic Drude weight (proportional to the so-called optical kinetic energy), encountered in the optical conductivity, with respect to the expectation within the nearly-free electron limit (defining the so-called band kinetic energy), as evinced from band-structure theory. In principle, the ratio between the optical and band kinetic energy allows defining the degree of electronic correlations. Through spectral weight arguments based on the excitation …
High-temperature superconductivity in iron pnictides occurs when electrons are doped into their antiferromagnetic (AF) parent compounds. In addition to inducing superconductivity, electron-doping also changes the static commensurate AF order in the undoped parent compounds into short-range incommensurate AF order near optimal superconductivity. Here we use neutron scattering to demonstrate that the incommensurate AF order in BaFe$_{2-x}$Ni$_{x}$As$_{2}$ is not a spin-density-wave arising from the itinerant electrons in nested Fermi surfaces, but consistent with a cluster spin glass in the matr…
We report on the crystal structure, physical properties, and electronic structure calculations for the ternary pnictide compound EuCr2As2. X-ray diffraction studies confirmed that EuCr2As2 crystalizes in the ThCr2Si2-type tetragonal structure (space group I4/mmm). The Eu ions are in a stable divalent state in this compound. Eu moments in EuCr2As2 order magnetically below Tm = 21 K. A sharp increase in the magnetic susceptibility below Tm and the positive value of the paramagnetic Curie temperature obtained from the Curie-Weiss fit suggest dominant ferromagnetic interactions. The heat capacity …
Variant approaches, either based on the Fermi surface nesting or started from the proximity to a Mott-insulator, were proposed to elucidate the physics in iron pnictides, but no consensus has been reached. A fundamental problem concerns the nature of their 3d electrons. Here we report the magnetoresistivity (ρ_xx) and the Hall resistivity (ρ_xy) of Ba(Fe1-xCox)2As2 (x=0 and 0.05) in a magnetic field of up to 55T. The magnetic transition is extremely robust against magnetic field, giving strong evidence that the magnetic ordering is formed by local moments. The magnetic state is featured with a…
We investigate the electronic state and the superconductivity in the 5-orbital Hubbard model for iron pnictides by using the dynamical mean-field theory in conjunction with the Eliashberg equation. The renormalization factor exhibits significant orbital dependence resulting in the large change in the band dispersion as observed in recent ARPES experiments. The critical interactions towards the magnetic, orbital and superconducting instabilities are suppressed as compared with those from the random phase approximation (RPA) due to local correlation effects. Remarkably, the s++-pairing phase due…
The recent discovery of superconductivity in the iron-based layered pnictides with T_c ranging between 26 and 56K generated enormous interest in the physics of these materials. Here, we review some of the peculiarities of the antiferromagnetic order in the iron pnictides, including the selection of the stripe magnetic order and the formation of the Ising-nematic state in the unfolded BZ within an itinerant description. In addition we analyze the properties of the quasiparticle interference spectrum in the parent antiferromagnetic phase.
Iron-based superconductors have been found to exhibit an intimate interplay of orbital, spin, and lattice degrees of freedom, dramatically affecting their low-energy electronic properties, including superconductivity. Albeit the precise pairing mechanism remains unidentified, several candidate interactions have been suggested to mediate the superconducting pairing, both in the orbital and in the spin channel. Here, we employ optical spectroscopy (OS), angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES), ab initio band-structure, and Eliashberg calculations to show that nearly optimally doped NaF…
The Nernst effect has recently proven a sensitive probe for detecting unusual normal state properties of unconventional superconductors. In particular, it may sensitively detect Fermi surface reconstructions which are connected to a charge or spin density wave (SDW) ordered state, and even fluctuating forms of such a state. Here we summarize recent results for the Nernst effect of the iron pnictide superconductor $\rm LaO_{1-x}F_xFeAs$, whose ground state evolves upon doping from an itinerant SDW to a superconducting state, and the cuprate superconductor $\rm La_{1.8-x}Eu_{0.2}Sr_xCuO_4$ which…
In this paper, instabilities of the isotropic metallic phase in iron pnictides are investigated. The relevant quartic fermionic interaction terms in the model are identified using phase space arguments. Using the functional integral formalism, a Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation is used to decouple these quartic terms. This procedure introduces several bosonic fields which describe the low-energy collective modes of the system. By studying the behavior of these collective modes, a possible instability is found in the forward scattering channel of the isotropic phase driven by magnetic fluctu…
The response of superconductors to controlled introduction of point-like disorder is an important tool to probe their microscopic electronic collective behavior. In the case of iron-based superconductors (IBS), magnetic fluctuations presumably play an important role in inducing high temperature superconductivity. In some cases, these two seemingly incompatible orders coexist microscopically. Therefore, understanding how this unique coexistence state is affected by disorder can provide important information about the microscopic mechanisms involved. In one of the most studied pnictide family, h…
