Model for the Magnetic Order and Pairing Channels in Fe Pnictide Superconductors

A two-orbital model for Fe-pnictide superconductors is investigated using computational techniques on two-dimensional square clusters. The hopping amplitudes are derived from orbital overlap integrals, or by band structure fits, and the spin frustrating effect of the plaquette-diagonal Fe-Fe hopping is remarked. A spin striped state is stable in a broad range of couplings in the undoped regime, in agreement with neutron scattering. Adding two electrons to the undoped ground state of a small cluster, the dominant pairing operators are found. Depending on the parameters, two pairing operators were identified: they involve inter-xz-yz orbital combinations forming spin singlets or triplets, transforming according to the B(2g) and A(2g) representations of the D(4h) group, respectively.