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Anisotropic impurity states, quasiparticle scattering and nematic transport in underdoped Ca(Fe1−xCox)2As2

Nature Physics volume 9, pages 220–224 (2013)Cite this article

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Abstract

Iron-based high-temperature superconductivity develops when the ‘parent’ antiferromagnetic/orthorhombic phase is suppressed, typically by introduction of dopant atoms1. But their impact on atomic-scale electronic structure, although in theory rather complex2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13, is unknown experimentally. What is known is that a strong transport anisotropy14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25 with its resistivity maximum along the crystal b axis14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25, develops with increasing concentration of dopant atoms14,20,21,22,23,24,25; this ‘nematicity’vanishes when the parent phase disappears near the maximum superconducting Tc. The interplay between the electronic structure surrounding each dopant atom, quasiparticle scattering therefrom and the transport nematicity has therefore become a pivotal focus7,8,12,22,23 of research into these materials. Here, by directly visualizing the atomic-scale electronic structure, we show that substituting Co for Fe atoms in underdoped Ca(Fe1−xCox)2As2 generates a dense population of identical anisotropic impurity states. Each is ∼ 8 Fe–Fe unit cells in length, and all are distributed randomly but aligned with the antiferromagnetic a axis. By imaging their surrounding interference patterns, we further demonstrate that these impurity states scatter quasiparticles in a highly anisotropic manner, with the maximum scattering rate concentrated along the b axis. These data provide direct support for the recent proposals7,8,12,22,23 that it is primarily anisotropic scattering by dopant-induced impurity states that generates the transport nematicity; they also yield simple explanations for the enhancement of the nematicity proportional to the dopant density14,20,21,22,23,24,25 and for the occurrence of the highest resistivity along the b axis14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25.

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Figure 1: Anisotropic transport and QPI in underdoped iron-based superconductors.
Figure 2: Visualizing the anisotropic impurity state structure in Ca-122.
Figure 3: Anisotropic QPI from anisotropic impurity states.
Figure 4: Anisotropic transport due to scattering from anisotropic impurity states.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge and thank F. Baumberger, P. Dai, P. J. Hirschfeld, J. E. Hoffman, A. Kaminski, E-A. Kim, D-H. Lee, J. Orenstein, A. Pasupathy, G. Sawatzky, D. J. Scalapino, J. Schmalian and S. Uchida for helpful discussions and communications. We are grateful to N. D. Loh for insightful suggestions and to A. W. Rost for proposing the analysis and presentation in Fig. 4b. The reported studies are supported by the Center for Emergent Superconductivity, a DOE Energy Frontier Research Center headquartered at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Work at the Ames National Laboratory was supported by the DOE, Basic Energy Sciences under Contract no. DE-AC02- 07CH11358; the ARPES experiments were supported by the DOE DE-FG02-03ER46066 through the University of Colorado, and were performed at the Advanced Light Source supported by the DOE Office of Science. Further support came from NSF/DMR-0654118 through the National High Magnetic Field (T-M.C.), the Cornell Center for Materials Research under NSF/DMR-0520404 (Y.X.); the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council and the Scottish Funding Council under the PhD plus program (M.P.A.); and the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (FOM) of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (F.M. and M.S.G.).

The authors wish to dedicate this study to the memory of Prof. Zlatko Tešanović, some of whose recent research was focused on issues addressed herein.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich, Switzerland

    M. P. Allan

  2. Department of Physics, LASSP, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

    M. P. Allan, T-M. Chuang, F. Massee, Yang Xie & J. C. Davis

  3. CMPMS Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, New York 11973, USA

    M. P. Allan, T-M. Chuang, F. Massee & J. C. Davis

  4. Institute of Physics, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei 11529, Taiwan

    T-M. Chuang

  5. Department of Physics, NHMFL, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida 32310, USA

    T-M. Chuang & G. S. Boebinger

  6. Van der Waals-Zeeman Institute, University of Amsterdam, 1098 XH Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    F. Massee & M. S. Golden

  7. US Department of Energy, Ames Laboratory, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

    Ni Ni, S. L. Bud’ko & P. C. Canfield

  8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA

    Ni Ni, S. L. Bud’ko & P. C. Canfield

  9. Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309, USA

    Q. Wang & D. S. Dessau

  10. SUPA, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife KY16 9SS, UK

    J. C. Davis

  11. Kavli Institute at Cornell for Nanoscale Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14850, USA

    J. C. Davis

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Contributions

M.P.A. and T-M.C. carried out the SI-STM experiments with contributions from F.M.; N.N., S.L.B. and P.C.C. synthesized and characterized the sequence of samples; Q.W. and D.S.D. were responsible for the ARPES work and analysis; M.P.A. proposed the anisotropic impurity states and performed the subsequent SI-STM data analysis and figure development; J.C.D. and M.P.A. wrote the paper with contributions from F.M., T-M.C., M.S.G., G.S.B., D.S.D. and Y.X.; J.C.D. supervised the project. The manuscript reflects the contributions and ideas of all authors.

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Correspondence to J. C. Davis.

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Allan, M., Chuang, TM., Massee, F. et al. Anisotropic impurity states, quasiparticle scattering and nematic transport in underdoped Ca(Fe1−xCox)2As2. Nature Phys 9, 220–224 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2544

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