Publication Date
9-3-2018
Department
Ames Laboratory; Physics and Astronomy
Campus Units
Physics and Astronomy, Ames Laboratory
OSTI ID+
1477246
Report Number
IS-J 9710; BNL-209435-2018-JAAM
DOI
10.1038/s41563-018-0151-0
Journal Title
Nature Materials
Volume Number
17
First Page
869
Last Page
874
Abstract
Strong electronic correlations, emerging from the parent Mott insulator phase, are key to copper-based high temperature superconductivity (HTS). By contrast, the parent phase of iron-based HTS is never a correlated insulator. But this distinction may be deceptive because Fe has five active d-orbitals while Cu has only one. In theory, such orbital multiplicity can generate a Hund’s Metal state, in which alignment of the Fe spins suppresses inter-orbital fluctuations producing orbitally selective strong correlations. The spectral weights 𝒁𝒎 of quasiparticles associated with different Fe orbitals 𝒎 should then be radically different. Here we use quasiparticle scattering interference resolved by orbital content to explore these predictions in FeSe. Signatures of strong, orbitally selective differences of quasiparticle 𝒁𝒎 appear on all detectable bands over a wide energy range. Further, the quasiparticle interference amplitudes reveal that 𝒁𝒙𝒚 < 𝒁𝒙𝒛 ≪ 𝒁𝒚𝒛 , consistent with earlier orbital-selective Cooper pairing studies. Thus, orbital-selective strong correlations dominate the parent state of iron-based HTS in FeSe.
DOE Contract Number(s)
AC02-07CH11358; SC0012704
Language
en
Department of Energy Subject Categories
74 ATOMIC AND MOLECULAR PHYSICS; 75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY
Publisher
Iowa State University Digital Repository, Ames IA (United States)
