Critical Charge Fluctuations and Ingap Collective Modes in the Superconducting State of the NaFe$_{\mathrm{1-x}}$Co$_{\mathrm{x}}$As Iron Pnictide Superconductor

ORAL

Abstract

We use polarization-resolved Raman spectroscopy to study the Raman susceptibility ($\chi (\omega $,T,x)) of the x-T phase diagram of NaFe$_{\mathrm{1-x}}$Co$_{\mathrm{x}}$As [1]. Above the structural T$_{\mathrm{S}}$(x) and the superconducting T$_{\mathrm{c}}$(x) transition, $\chi (\omega $,T,x) is dominated by a low-frequency quasielastic peak in B$_{\mathrm{2g}}$ symmetry displaying critical behavior across the entire phase diagram. Below T$_{\mathrm{c}}$(x), sharp ingap modes emerge for x$\ge $0.0165 in A$_{\mathrm{1g}}$ ($\approx $65 cm$^{-1})$ and B$_{\mathrm{2g}}$ ($\approx $25 and $\approx $55 cm$^{-1})$ symmetry. The critical charge fluctuations are interpreted in terms of plasma waves of quadrupole excitations which below T$_{\mathrm{c}}$(x) undergo a metamorphosis into the ingap modes. The A$_{\mathrm{1g}}$ mode is a particle-hole (p-h) charge exciton consistent with a non-conventional s$+$- superconducting groundstate. The minor B$_{\mathrm{2g}}$ mode is a Bardasis-Schrieffer Cooper pair exciton of d-wave symmetry which exists only in a narrow doping window of density wave and superconductivity coexistence. The major B$_{\mathrm{2g}}$ mode is a bound state of d$+$- p-h plasma oscillations. \\[4pt] [1] V. K. Thorsm{\o}lle \textit{et al.} arXiv:1410.6456v1.

*VKT and GB acknowledge support from NSF DMR-1104884 and from U.S. DOE, BES, Award DE-SC0005463. CZ, SVC and PD acknowledge support from U.S. DOE, BES, Contract DE-FG02-05ER46202.

Authors

  • Verner Thorsmolle

    • University of California at San Diego
  • Maxim Khodas

    • Racah Institute of Physics, The Hebrew University
  • Zhiping Yin

    • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
  • Chenglin Zhang

    • The University of Tennessee
    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Rice University
  • Scott Carr

    • Rice University
  • Pengcheng Dai

    • Rice University
  • Girsh Blumberg

    • Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
    • Rutgers University