Enhancement of Superfluid Stiffness, Suppression of Superconducting T_c and Field-induced Magnetism in the Pnictide Superconductor LiFeAs

TL;DR

This study shows that LiFeAs exhibits enhanced superfluid stiffness relative to its transition temperature, with evidence of field-induced magnetism and proximity to magnetic instability, highlighting the role of Fe-Fe interactions.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the relationship between superfluid stiffness, superconducting transition temperature, and magnetic states in LiFeAs, a pnictide superconductor.

Findings

Enhanced superfluid stiffness compared to other pnictides

Field-induced magnetic state in suppressed T_c sample

LiFeAs is close to magnetic instability

Abstract

Transverse-field muon-spin rotation measurements performed on two samples of LiFeAs demonstrate that the superfluid stiffness of the superconducting condensate in relation to its superconducting transition temperature is enhanced compared to other pnictide superconductors. Evidence is seen for a field-induced magnetic state in a sample with a significantly suppressed superconducting transition temperature. The results in this system highlight the role of direct Fe-Fe interactions in frustrating pairing mediated by antiferromagnetic fluctuations and suggest that, in common with other pnictide superconductors, the system is close to a magnetic instability.