Anisotropic spin fluctuations in detwinned FeSe

Tong Chen; Youzhe Chen; Andreas Kreisel; Xingye Lu; Astrid Schneidewind; Yiming Qiu; J. T. Park; Toby G. Perring; J. Ross Stewart; Huibo Cao; Rui Zhang; Yu Li; Yan Rong; Yuan Wei; Brian M. Andersen; P. J. Hirschfeld; Collin Broholm; Pengcheng Dai

doi:10.1038/s41563-019-0369-5

Anisotropic spin fluctuations in detwinned FeSe

Tong Chen, Youzhe Chen, Andreas Kreisel, Xingye Lu, Astrid Schneidewind, Yiming Qiu, J. T. Park, Toby G. Perring, J. Ross Stewart, Huibo Cao, Rui Zhang, Yu Li, Yan Rong, Yuan Wei, Brian M. Andersen, P. J. Hirschfeld, Collin Broholm, Pengcheng Dai

Single Crystal Diffraction

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67 Scopus citations

Abstract

Superconductivity in FeSe emerges from a nematic phase that breaks four-fold rotational symmetry in the iron plane. This phase may arise from orbital ordering, spin fluctuations or hidden magnetic quadrupolar order. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering on a mosaic of single crystals of FeSe, detwinned by mounting on a BaFe₂As₂ substrate to demonstrate that spin excitations are most intense at the antiferromagnetic wave vectors Q_AF = (±1, 0) at low energies E = 6–11 meV in the normal state. This two-fold (C₂) anisotropy is reduced at lower energies, 3–5 meV, indicating a gapped four-fold (C₄) mode. In the superconducting state, however, the strong nematic anisotropy is again reflected in the spin resonance (E = 3.6 meV) at Q_AF with incommensurate scattering around 5–6 meV. Our results highlight the extreme electronic anisotropy of the nematic phase of FeSe and are consistent with a highly anisotropic superconducting gap driven by spin fluctuations.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	709-716
Number of pages	8
Journal	Nature Materials
Volume	18
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-019-0369-5
State	Published - Jul 1 2019

Funding

We thank D. Abernathy, Q. Wang, Y. Hao and H. Hu for useful discussions. The neutron-scattering work at Rice University was supported by the US Department of Energy, BES DE-SC0012311 (P.D.). The single-crystal synthesis work was supported by Robert A. Welch Foundation grant no. C-1839 (P.D.). X.L. is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 11734002. C.B. and Y.C. are supported by the US Department of Energy grant no. DE-FG02-08ER46544. B.M.A. acknowledges financial support from the Carlsberg Foundation. P.J.H. was supported by the Department of Energy under grant no. DE-FG02-05ER46236. This research used resources at the High Flux Isotope Reactor and Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Access to MACS was provided by the Center for High Resolution Neutron Scattering, a partnership between the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the National Science Foundation under agreement No. DMR-1508249.

Funders	Funder number
Robert A. Welch Foundation
US Department of Energy	BES DE-SC0012311
National Science Foundation	1508249
U.S. Department of Energy
National Institute of Standards and Technology
National Natural Science Foundation of China	11734002
Carlsbergfondet

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title = "Anisotropic spin fluctuations in detwinned FeSe",

abstract = "Superconductivity in FeSe emerges from a nematic phase that breaks four-fold rotational symmetry in the iron plane. This phase may arise from orbital ordering, spin fluctuations or hidden magnetic quadrupolar order. Here we use inelastic neutron scattering on a mosaic of single crystals of FeSe, detwinned by mounting on a BaFe2As2 substrate to demonstrate that spin excitations are most intense at the antiferromagnetic wave vectors QAF = (±1, 0) at low energies E = 6–11 meV in the normal state. This two-fold (C2) anisotropy is reduced at lower energies, 3–5 meV, indicating a gapped four-fold (C4) mode. In the superconducting state, however, the strong nematic anisotropy is again reflected in the spin resonance (E = 3.6 meV) at QAF with incommensurate scattering around 5–6 meV. Our results highlight the extreme electronic anisotropy of the nematic phase of FeSe and are consistent with a highly anisotropic superconducting gap driven by spin fluctuations.",

author = "Tong Chen and Youzhe Chen and Andreas Kreisel and Xingye Lu and Astrid Schneidewind and Yiming Qiu and Park, {J. T.} and Perring, {Toby G.} and Stewart, {J. Ross} and Huibo Cao and Rui Zhang and Yu Li and Yan Rong and Yuan Wei and Andersen, {Brian M.} and Hirschfeld, {P. J.} and Collin Broholm and Pengcheng Dai",

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AU - Chen, Youzhe

AU - Kreisel, Andreas

AU - Lu, Xingye

AU - Schneidewind, Astrid

AU - Qiu, Yiming

AU - Park, J. T.

AU - Perring, Toby G.

AU - Stewart, J. Ross

AU - Cao, Huibo

AU - Zhang, Rui

AU - Li, Yu

AU - Rong, Yan

AU - Wei, Yuan

AU - Andersen, Brian M.

AU - Hirschfeld, P. J.

AU - Broholm, Collin

AU - Dai, Pengcheng

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Anisotropic spin fluctuations in detwinned FeSe

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