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A BCS-like gap in the superconductor SmFeAsO0.85F0.15

Nature volume 453, pages 1224–1227 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Since the discovery of superconductivity in the high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) copper oxides two decades ago, it has been firmly established that the CuO2 plane is essential for superconductivity and gives rise to a host of other very unusual properties. A new family of superconductors with the general composition of LaFeAsO1-xF x has recently been discovered1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 and the conspicuous lack of the CuO2 planes raises the tantalizing question of a different pairing mechanism in these oxypnictides. The superconducting gap (its magnitude, structure, and temperature dependence) is intimately related to pairing. Here we report the observation of a single gap in the superconductor SmFeAsO0.85F0.15 with Tc = 42 K as measured by Andreev spectroscopy. The gap value of 2Δ = 13.34 ± 0.3 meV gives 2Δ/kBTc = 3.68 (where kB is the Boltzmann constant), close to the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer (BCS) prediction of 3.53. The gap decreases with temperature and vanishes at Tc in a manner consistent with the BCS prediction, but dramatically different from that of the pseudogap behaviour in the copper oxide superconductors. Our results clearly indicate a nodeless gap order parameter, which is nearly isotropic in size across different sections of the Fermi surface, and are not compatible with models involving antiferromagnetic fluctuations, strong correlations, the t-J model, and the like, originally designed for the high-Tc copper oxides.

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Figure 1: Representative Andreev spectra at 4.52 K.
Figure 2: Andreev spectra of Au/SmFeAsO 0.85 F 0.15 point contacts at 4.52 K with various contact resistances.
Figure 3: Temperature dependence of the gap.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the US National Science Foundation and the Natural Science Foundation of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland 21218, USA,

    T. Y. Chen, Z. Tesanovic & C. L. Chien

  2. Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale and Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China,

    R. H. Liu & X. H. Chen

Authors
  1. T. Y. Chen
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  2. Z. Tesanovic
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. L. Chien.

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Chen, T., Tesanovic, Z., Liu, R. et al. A BCS-like gap in the superconductor SmFeAsO0.85F0.15. Nature 453, 1224–1227 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07081

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