Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 108, Issue 17, Pages 6878-6883Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1015572108
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- DOE Office of Basic Energy Science, Division of Materials Science and Engineering [DE-AC02-76SF00515]
- National Science Foundation
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Nematicity, defined as broken rotational symmetry, has recently been observed in competing phases proximate to the superconducting phase in the cuprate high-temperature superconductors. Similarly, the new iron-based high-temperature superconductors exhibit a tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition (i.e., a broken C-4 symmetry) that either precedes or is coincident with a collinear spin density wave (SDW) transition in undoped parent compounds, and superconductivity arises when both transitions are suppressed via doping. Evidence for strong in-plane anisotropy in the SDW state in this family of compounds has been reported by neutron scattering, scanning tunneling microscopy, and transport measurements. Here, we present an angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy study of detwinned single crystals of a representative family of electron-doped iron-arsenide superconductors, Ba(Fe1-xCox)(2)As-2 in the underdoped region. The crystals were detwinned via application of in-plane uniaxial stress, enabling measurements of single domain electronic structure in the orthorhombic state. At low temperatures, our results clearly demonstrate an in-plane electronic anisotropy characterized by a large energy splitting of two orthogonal bands with dominant d(xz) and d(yz) character, which is consistent with anisotropy observed by other probes. For compositions x > 0, for which the structural transition (T-S) precedes the magnetic transition (T-SDW), an anisotropic splitting is observed to develop above T-SDW, indicating that it is specifically associated with T-S. For unstressed crystals, the band splitting is observed close to T-S, whereas for stressed crystals, the splitting is observed to considerably higher temperatures, revealing the presence of a surprisingly large in-plane nematic susceptibility in the electronic structure.
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