Browsing by Author "Maier, Thomas A."

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    Neutron spin resonance as a probe of Fermi surface nesting and superconducting gap symmetry in Ba0.67K0.33(Fe1−xCox)2As2
    (American Physical Society, 2018) Zhang, Rui; Wang, Weiyi; Maier, Thomas A.; Wang, Meng; Stone, Matthew B.; Chi, Songxue; Winn, Barry; Dai, Pengcheng
    We use inelastic neutron scattering to study the energy and wave-vector dependence of the superconductivity-induced resonance in hole-doped Ba0.67K0.33(Fe1−xCox)2As2 (x=0 and 0.08 with Tc≈37 and 28 K, respectively). In previous work on electron-doped Ba(Fe0.963Ni0.037)2As2 (TN=26K and Tc=17 K), the resonance is found to peak sharply at the antiferromagnetic (AF) ordering wave vector QAF along the longitudinal direction, but disperses upwards away from QAF along the transverse direction [Kim et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 177002 (2013)]. For hole-doped x=0 and 0.08 without AF order, we find that the resonance displays a ringlike upward dispersion away from QAFalong both the longitudinal and transverse directions. By comparing these results with calculations using the random phase approximation, we conclude that the dispersive resonance is a direct signature of isotropic superconducting gaps arising from nested hole-electron Fermi surfaces.
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    Orbital Selective Spin Excitations and their Impact on Superconductivity of LiFe1−xCoxAs
    (American Physical Society, 2016) Li, Yu; Yin, Zhiping; Wang, Xiancheng; Tam, David W.; Abernathy, D.L.; Podlesnyak, A.; Zhang, Chenglin; Wang, Meng; Xing, Lingyi; Jin, Changqing; Haule, Kristjan; Kotliar, Gabriel; Maier, Thomas A.; Dai, Pengcheng
    We use neutron scattering to study spin excitations in single crystals of LiFe0.88Co0.12As, which is located near the boundary of the superconducting phase of LiFe1−xCoxAs and exhibits non-Fermi-liquid behavior indicative of a quantum critical point. By comparing spin excitations of LiFe0.88Co0.12As with a combined density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory calculation, we conclude that wave-vector correlated low energy spin excitations are mostly from the dxy orbitals, while high-energy spin excitations arise from the dyz and dxz orbitals. Unlike most iron pnictides, the strong orbital selective spin excitations in the LiFeAs family cannot be described by an anisotropic Heisenberg Hamiltonian. While the evolution of low-energy spin excitations of LiFe1−xCoxAs is consistent with the electron-hole Fermi surface nesting conditions for the dxy orbital, the reduced superconductivity in LiFe0.88Co0.12As suggests that Fermi surface nesting conditions for the dyz and dxz orbitals are also important for superconductivity in iron pnictides.
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    Short-range cluster spin glass near optimal superconductivity in BaFe2−xNixAs2
    (American Physical Society, 2014) Lu, Xingye; Tam, David W.; Zhang, Chenglin; Luo, Huiqian; Wang, Meng; Zhang, Rui; Harriger, Leland W.; Keller, T.; Keimer, B.; Regnault, L.-P.; Maier, Thomas A.; Dai, Pengcheng
    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 BaFe2−xNixAs2 is not a spin-density wave arising from the itinerant electrons in nested Fermi surfaces, but is consistent with a cluster spin glass in the matrix of the superconducting phase. Therefore, optimal superconductivity in iron pnictides coexists and competes with a mesoscopically separated cluster spin glass phase, much different from the homogeneous coexisting AF and superconducting phases in the underdoped regime.