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Quantum Spin Liquid Intertwining Nematic and Superconducting Order in Fese

Cornell Affiliated Author(s)

Author

J.-H. She
M.J. Lawler
Eun-Ah Kim

Abstract

Despite its seemingly simple composition and structure, the pairing mechanism of FeSe remains an open problem due to several striking phenomena. Among them are nematic order without magnetic order, nodeless gap and unusual inelastic neutron spectra with a broad continuum, and gap anisotropy consistent with orbital selection of unknown origin. Here we propose a microscopic description of a nematic quantum spin liquid that reproduces key features of neutron spectra. We then study how the spin fluctuations of the local moments lead to pairing within a spin-fermion model. We find the resulting superconducting order parameter to be nodeless s±d wave within each domain. Further we show that orbital dependent Kondo-like coupling can readily capture observed gap anisotropy. Our prediction calls for inelastic neutron scattering in a detwinned sample. © 2018 American Physical Society.

Date Published

Journal

Physical Review Letters

Volume

121

Issue

23

URL

https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-85058142703&doi=10.1103%2fPhysRevLett.121.237002&partnerID=40&md5=4b6b1ff4d8d03faad46603551727b9ff

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.121.237002

Group (Lab)

Michael Lawler Group

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