Probing the Unconventional Superconducting State of LiFeAs by Quasiparticle Interference

Details Probing the Unconventional Superconducting State of LiFeAs by Quasiparticle Interference Probing the Unconventional Superconducting State of LiFeAs by Quasiparticle Interference

2011-06-21

arxiv.org/abs/1106.4217v4

Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 127001 (2012)

Physics

Condensed Matter

Superconductivity

Scientific paper

10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.127001

A crucial step in revealing the nature of unconventional superconductivity is to investigate the symmetry of the superconducting order parameter. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy has proven a powerful technique to probe this symmetry by measuring the quasiparticle interference (QPI) which sensitively depends on the superconducting pairing mechanism. A particularly well suited material to apply this technique is the stoichiometric superconductor LiFeAs as it features clean, charge neutral cleaved surfaces without surface states and a relatively high Tc~18K. Our data reveal that in LiFeAs the quasiparticle scattering is governed by a van-Hove singularity at the center of the Brillouin zone which is in stark contrast with other pnictide superconductors where nesting is crucial for both scattering and s+- superconductivity. Indeed, within a minimal model and using the most elementary order parameters, calculations of the QPI suggest a dominating role of the hole-like bands for the quasiparticle scattering. Our theoretical findings do not support the elementary singlet pairing symmetries s++, s+-, and d-wave. This brings to mind that the superconducting pairing mechanism in LiFeAs is based on an unusual pairing symmetry such as an elementary p-wave (which provides optimal agreement between the experimental data and QPI simulations) or a more complex order parameter (e.g. s+id-wave symmetry).

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