Abstract
The distribution of valence electrons in metals usually follows the symmetry of the underlying ionic lattice. Modulations of this distribution often occur when those electrons are not stable with respect to a new electronic order, such as spin or charge density waves. Electron density waves have been observed in many families of superconductors1,2,3, and are often considered to be essential for superconductivity to exist4. Recent measurements5,6,7,8,9 seem to show that the properties of the iron pnictides10,11 are in good agreement with band structure calculations that do not include additional ordering, implying no relation between density waves and superconductivity in these materials12,13,14,15. Here we report that the electronic structure of Ba1-xK x Fe2As2 is in sharp disagreement with those band structure calculations12,13,14,15, and instead reveals a reconstruction characterized by a (π, π) wavevector. This electronic order coexists with superconductivity and persists up to room temperature (300 K).
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Wise, W. D. et al. Charge-density-wave origin of cuprate checkerboard visualized by scanning tunnelling microscopy. Nature Phys. 4, 696–699 (2008)
Kawasaki, S. et al. Enhancing the superconducting transition temperature of CeRh1-x Ir x In5 due to the strong-coupling effects of antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations: an 115In nuclear quadrupole resonance study. Phys. Rev. Lett. 96, 147001 (2006)
Morosan, E. et al. Superconductivity in Cu x TiSe2 . Nature Phys. 2, 544–550 (2006)
Chakravarty, S. et al. Hidden order in the cuprates. Phys. Rev. B 63, 094503 (2001)
Liu, C. et al. K-doping dependence of the Fermi surface of the iron-arsenic Ba1-x K x Fe2As2 superconductor using angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 177005 (2008)
Ding, H. et al. Observation of Fermi-surface-dependent nodeless superconducting gaps in Ba0. 6K0. 4Fe2As2 . Europhys. Lett. 83, 47001 (2008)
Zhang, Y. et al. Correlation effects of exchange splitting and coexistence of spin-density-wave and superconductivity in single crystalline Sr1-x K x Fe2As2 . Preprint at 〈http://arxiv.org/abs/0808.2738v1〉 (2008)
Yang, L. X. et al. Electronic structure and exotic exchange splitting in spin-density-wave states of BaFe2As2 . Preprint at 〈http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.2627v2〉 (2008)
Lu, D. H. et al. Electronic structure of the iron-based superconductor LaOFeP. Nature 455, 81–84 (2008)
Chen, X. H., Wu, T., Wu, G., Liu, R. H. & Fang, D. F. Superconductivity at 43 K in SmFeAsO1-x F x. . Nature 453, 761–762 (2008)
Kamihara, Y., Watanabe, T., Hirano, M. & Hosono, H. Iron-based layered superconductor La[O1-x F x ]FeAs (x = 0.05 – 0.12) with TC = 26 K. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 130, 3296–3297 (2008)
Singh, D. J. Electronic structure and doping in BaFe2As2 and LiFeAs: density functional calculations. Preprint at 〈http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.2643v1〉 (2008)
Ma, F., Lu, Z.-Y. & Xiang, T. Electronic band structure of BaFe2As2 . Preprint at 〈http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.3526v1〉 (2008)
Nekrasov, I. A., Pchelkina, Z. V. & Sadovskii, M. V. Electronic structure of prototype AFe2As2 and ReOFeAs high-temperature superconductors: a comparison. JETP Lett. 88, 155–160 (2008)
Mazin, I. I., Singh, D. J., Johannes, M. D. & Du, M. H. Unconventional sign-reversing superconductivity in LaFeAsO1-x F x . Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 057003 (2008)
de la Cruz, C. et al. Magnetic order close to superconductivity in the iron-based layered LaO1-x F x FeAs systems. Nature 453, 899–902 (2008)
Huang, Q. et al. Neutron-diffraction measurements of magnetic order and a structural transition in the parent BaFe2As2 compound of FeAs-based high-temperature superconductors. Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 257003 (2008)
Zhao, L. et al. Multiple nodeless superconducting gaps in (Ba0. 6K0. 4)Fe2As2 superconductor from angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy. Chin. Phys. Lett. 25, 4402–4405 (2008)
Brouet, V. et al. Angle-resolved photoemission study of the evolution of band structure and charge density wave properties in RTe3 (R = Y, La, Ce, Sm, Gd, Tb, and Dy). Phys. Rev. B 77, 235104 (2008)
Borisenko, S. V. et al. Pseudogap and charge density waves in two dimensions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 100, 196402 (2008)
Chen, H. et al. Coexistence of the spin-density-wave and superconductiviy in the Ba1-x K x Fe2As2 . Europhys. Lett. 85, 17006 (2009)
Christianson, A. D. et al. Resonant spin excitation in the high temperature superconductor Ba0. 6K0. 4Fe2As2 . Preprint at 〈http://arxiv.org/abs/0807.3932v1〉 (2008)
Evtushinky, D. V. et al. Momentum dependence of the superconducting gap in Ba1-x K x Fe2As2 . Preprint at 〈http://arxiv.org/abs/0809.4455v1〉 (2008)
Radtke, R. J. & Norman, M. R. Relation of extended Van Hove singularities to high temperature superconductivity within strong-coupling theory. Phys. Rev. B 50, 9554–9560 (1994)
Acknowledgements
The project was supported, in part, by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant numbers KN393/4 and BO 1912/2-1. We are grateful to I. Eremin, O. K. Andersen, L. Boeri, I. Mazin and M. Rümelli for discussions. We thank R. Hübel for technical support.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information
This file contains Supplementary Methods and Supplementary Figures S1-S4 with Legends (PDF 801 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zabolotnyy, V., Inosov, D., Evtushinsky, D. et al. (π, π) electronic order in iron arsenide superconductors. Nature 457, 569–572 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07714
Received:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nature07714
This article is cited by
-
Charge-doping-induced variation of the superconducting BaFe2As2 electronic structure and the emerging physical effects: a DFT+DMFT study
Journal of Materials Science (2021)
-
Probing the reconstructed Fermi surface of antiferromagnetic BaFe2As2 in one domain
npj Quantum Materials (2019)
-
Fermi surface and effective masses in photoemission response of the (Ba1−x K x )Fe2As2 superconductor
Scientific Reports (2017)
-
Weak-coupling superconductivity in a strongly correlated iron pnictide
Scientific Reports (2016)
-
High-temperature superconductivity from fine-tuning of Fermi-surface singularities in iron oxypnictides
Scientific Reports (2015)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
