Orbital Selective Spin Excitations and their Impact on Superconductivity of LiFe1xCoxAs

Yu Li, Zhiping Yin, Xiancheng Wang, David W. Tam, D. L. Abernathy, A. Podlesnyak, Chenglin Zhang, Meng Wang, Lingyi Xing, Changqing Jin, Kristjan Haule, Gabriel Kotliar, Thomas A. Maier, and Pengcheng Dai
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 247001 – Published 17 June 2016
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Abstract

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 LiFe1xCoxAs 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 LiFe1xCoxAs 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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  • Received 18 January 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.247001

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
  1. Physical Systems
Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

Yu Li1, Zhiping Yin2,3,*, Xiancheng Wang4, David W. Tam1, D. L. Abernathy5, A. Podlesnyak5, Chenglin Zhang1, Meng Wang6, Lingyi Xing4, Changqing Jin4,7, Kristjan Haule3, Gabriel Kotliar3,8, Thomas A. Maier9, and Pengcheng Dai1,2,†

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, USA
  • 2Center for Advanced Quantum Studies and Department of Physics, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • 3Department of Physics, Rutgers University, Piscataway, New Jersey 08854, USA
  • 4Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 5Quantum Condensed Matter Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA
  • 6Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, California 94720, USA
  • 7Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter, Beijing, China
  • 8Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973-5000, USA
  • 9Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences and Computer Science and Mathematics Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA

  • *yinzhiping@bnu.edu.cn
  • pdai@rice.edu

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Issue

Vol. 116, Iss. 24 — 17 June 2016

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