Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids ] (]]]]) ]]] ]]]

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Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids

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Superconducting gap in iron pnictides studied by optical spectroscopy

M. Nakajima a,b,c,, S. Ishida a,b,c, T. Liang a,b,c, K. Kihou b,c, Y. Tomioka b,c, T. Ito b,c, C.H. Lee b,c, H. Kito b,c, A. Iyo b,c, H. Eisaki b,c, K.M. Kojima a,c, T. Kakeshita a,c, S. Uchida a,c
a

Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba 305-8568, Japan c JST, Transformative Research-Project on Iron Pnictides, Tokyo 102-0075, Japan
b

a r t i c l e in f o

abstract
We investigated the in-plane optical spectrum of a Co-doped Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 single crystal showing superconductivity below Tc 25 K. In the normal state, the low-energy optical conductivity spectrum can be decomposed into a sharp Drude term and a broad incoherent term. Below Tc, an s-wave-like superconducting gap appears in both components. We also investigated a magnetic or spin-density-wave gap in the detwinned parent compound. & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: A. Superconductors C. Infrared spectroscopy D. Optical properties D. Superconductivity

1. Introduction One of the most important issues in iron-pnictide superconductors is their superconducting gap magnitude and gap symmetry. Possible symmetry is, as theoretically argued, s 7 wave which is basically s symmetry with a full gap opening every part of Fermi surfaces but with the order parameter changing its sign across separate Fermi surface sheets [1,2]. Angle-resolved-photoemission-spectroscopy (ARPES) studies on Co-doped BaFe2As2 observe momentum independent superconducting gaps with different values on several Fermi surface sheets [3]. We investigated the optical spectrum of optimally doped iron-pnictide superconductor, Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 with Tc 25 K. The optical conductivity spectrum above Tc can be decomposed into Drude and incoherent components, and both components contribute to the dc conductivity. With lowering temperature below Tc, an s-wave-like superconducting gap opens in both components. This behavior is quite contrasting with that of the parent compound in which a magnetic/spin-density-wave (SDW) gap opens only in the incoherent component.

measurement. The crystal showed sharp superconducting transition at 25 K (inset of Fig. 1). The optical reectivity Ro was measured on the ab plane of the newly cleaved sample in the frequency range 5040000 cm 1 at various temperatures by a Fourier transform infrared spectrometer (Bruker IFS113v) and a grating monochromator (JASCO CT-25C). The real part of optical conductivity s1 o was derived from the KramersKronig transformation of Ro.

3. Results and discussion The temperature dependence of the optical conductivity spectrum is shown in Fig. 1. The spectrum in the normal state exhibits slow decline with energy and has a peak at o 0 and a long tail extending to higher energy. Below Tc, conductivity in the low energy region is radically suppressed due to the opening of a superconducting gap, suggesting that Co-doped BaFe2As2 is a full gap superconductor in agreement with ARPES [3] and also with theoretical proposals [1,2]. This evolution of the spectrum with temperature is similar to that of K-doped BaFe2As2 [5]. Given that the low-energy spectrum contains some ambiguity due to experimental uncertainty and limitation in the energy region covered in the experiment, we cannot rule out the possibility that a second weak gap feature is hidden above the conductivity edge at $ 80 cm1 [6,7] or that nite conductivity remains in the region below 80 cm 1 which may show a gap feature indicative of a second smaller gap [8,9]. However, the existence of the conductivity edge $ 80 cm1 is a reliable result. So, if we take this as an s-wave gap edge, the gap magnitude would be 2D $ 80 cm1 at T 5 K corresponding to 2D=kB Tc $ 4:6. This value is very close to the value estimated by ARPES [3] and by the point-contact measurement [10]. In the case of K-doped BaFe2As2 with Tc 37 K, a similarly dened gap 2D is about 150 cm 1 (2D=kB Tc $ 5:8) [5].

2. Experimental Single crystals of optimally Co-doped Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 were synthesized using self-ux method [4]. The Co concentration of the sample was determined by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) analysis. A standard four-terminal technique was used for the resistivity
Corresponding author at: Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan. E-mail address: nakajima@lyra.phys.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp (M. Nakajima).

0022-3697/$ - see front matter & 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.jpcs.2010.10.049

Please cite this article as: M. Nakajima, et al., J. Phys. Chem. Solids (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jpcs.2010.10.049

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4 Ba (Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 Conductivity (103 -1 cm-1)

(m cm)

4
Tc = 25K

Ba (Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2
0.2 0.1 0

T = 30K

100 200 T (K)

300

Experiment (1) Drude (2) Incoherent (3) Interband (1)+(2)+(3)

1 20K 5K 0

30K

1
150K 300K

0
0 500 1000 Wavenumber (cm-1) 1500

Conductivity (103 -1 cm-1)

Fig. 1. Optical conductivity spectrum of Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 above and below Tc. The inset indicates temperature dependence of the in-plane resistivity, showing a sharp superconducting transition at Tc 25 K.

Ba (Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 T = 5K

From the missing area of the conductivity spectrum in the superconducting state, we estimate the superuid density, Z oc rs 8 dos1 o, T C Tc s1 o, T 5 K: 1
0

Exp. (1) (2) (3) (1)+(2)+(3)

The London penetration depth l is related to the superuid density 2 by rs c2 =l . Calculating the missing area (setting oc $ 500 cm1 ) This value is in from our results, l is estimated to be 2770 7 250 A. good agreement with the values provided by other techniques [11,12]. Therefore, the FerrellGloverTinkham sum rule appears to hold in the present superconducting system. To quantify the charge dynamics, we t the optical conductivity spectrum in the normal state using DrudeLorentz oscillators. The low-energy spectrum cannot be reproduced by a simple Drude term. So, as shown in Fig. 2(a), we adopted two Drude components: one is a relatively sharp Drude term with small spectral weight (hatched region) and the other is an overdamped Drude term with large spectral weight (gray region, we call this incoherent term). The incoherent term does not show an appreciable change with temperature. Therefore, the temperature dependence of resistivity is dominated by the Drude term. In the superconducting state, the spectrum can be decomposed in such a way as displayed in Fig. 2(b). The dashed lines represent the Drude and the incoherent component at T 30 K just above Tc. The spectrum in the superconducting state at T 5 K cannot be t unless the superconducting gap affects both components. Incorporation of multiple superconducting gaps is not necessary as long as the level of tting is the one shown in Fig. 2(b). In contrast, a magnetic/SDW gap in the parent compound BaFe2As2 (magneto-structural transition temperature TN $ 140 K) opens selectively in the incoherent term. In Fig. 2(c) are shown the conductivity spectrum and its decomposition of BaFe2As2 at 5 K. The dashed line is the incoherent component at T 150 K. We see that the Drude weight does not change between above and below TN. On the other hand, the incoherent term transforms into two Lorentz terms with different gap energy scales. Probably, this happens due to a reconstruction of Fermi surfaces below TN. Very recently, the anisotropic resistivity of detwinned BaFe2As2 has been reported by two groups [13,14], stimulating us to observe anisotropic charge dynamics. To remove twin structure, we applied uniaxial pressure to a crystal. The temperature dependence of the measured resistivity shown in the inset of Fig. 3 is in good agreement with the previous reports [13,14].

0 BaFe2As2 5K 3 Exp. (1) (2) (3) (1)+(2)+(3) 2

0 0 500 1000 Wavenumber (cm-1) 1500

Fig. 2. Optical conductivity spectrum of Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2 As2 at (a) 30 K and (b) 5 K and (c) BaFe2As2. For the superconducting compound, the spectrum can be decomposed into a Drude and an incoherent terms above Tc. In the superconducting state, both components are affected by a superconducting gap. By contrast, for the parent material, a gap opens only in the incoherent term below TN.

Apparently, the anisotropy in resistivity is not large, only pronounced around TN, and disappears at the lowest temperatures. However, it turns out that a robust anisotropy exists in the optical conductivity, persisting to fairly large energies. Fig. 3 displays the conductivity spectra at 5 K for a- and b-axis polarization. Although the overall spectral features are not dramatically changed as compared with those in the spectrum of twinned crystal (Fig. 2(c)), the b-axis conductivity is lower up to 1500 cm 1. Emergence of anisotropic charge dynamics over such a wide energy range appears difcult to explain by the orthorhombic lattice distortion and/or collinear antiferromagnetic spin order. It requires involvement of the orbital degree of freedom.

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Acknowledgements

3 BaFe2As2 5K E//a Conductivity (103 -1 cm-1) E//b 2

We would like to thank Y. Yoshida and M. Mamiya for ICP analysis. This work was supported by Transformative ResearchProject on Iron Pnictides (TRIP) from the Japan Science and Technology Agency, by the Global Centers of Excellence Program and the Japan-China-Korea A3 Foresight Program from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, and by a Grant-in-Aid of Scientic Research on Innovative Areas Heavy Electrons (no. 20102005) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology in Japan.

(m cm)

0.3 0.2 0.1 0

warming
References

a axis b axis 0 100 200 T (K) 10000 300

0 100

1000 Wavenumber (cm-1)

Fig. 3. Optical conductivity spectra of detwinned BaFe2As2 at 5 K for a- and b-axis polarization. Below 1500 cm 1, b-axis conductivity is lower than that for a axis. The inset shows temperature dependence of resistivity along each axis.

4. Summary We investigated the optical spectrum of Ba(Fe0.94Co0.06)2As2 with Tc 25 K. The optical conductivity spectrum in the normal state can be decomposed into Drude and incoherent components. An s-wave-like superconducting gap opens in both components, while a magnetic/SDW gap of BaFe2As2 appears only in the incoherent term. It is difcult to nd a second gap directly from the spectrum and actually a single gap is enough to t the spectrum. For the detwinned BaFe2As2, although the overall spectral behaviors of a- and b-axis conductivity are similar to each other, there exists denite anisotropy over a wide energy range, implying that the orbital degree of freedom plays a crucial role in a reconstruction of Fermi surfaces.

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Please cite this article as: M. Nakajima, et al., J. Phys. Chem. Solids (2010), doi:10.1016/j.jpcs.2010.10.049