Quasiparticle states around a nonmagnetic impurity in electron-doped iron-based superconductors with spin-density-wave order

TL;DR

This study explores how nonmagnetic impurities affect quasiparticle states in electron-doped iron-based superconductors with SDW order, revealing impurity-induced resonances and symmetry breaking depending on doping and impurity strength.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of impurity effects in SDW and superconducting phases using a two-orbital model tailored for surface layer properties.

Findings

Impurity-induced resonance peaks shift with scattering potential.

Sharp in-gap resonance peaks depend on doping and impurity strength.

Local density of states shows $C_2$ symmetry and sublattice division.

Abstract

The quasiparticle states around a nonmagnetic impurity in electron-doped iron-based superconductors with spin-density-wave (SDW) order are investigated as a function of doping and impurity scattering strength. In the undoped sample, where a pure SDW state exists, two impurity-induced resonance peaks are observed around the impurity site and they are shifted to higher (lower) energies as the strength of the positive (negative) scattering potential (SP) is increased. For the doped samples where the SDW order and the superconducting order coexist, the main feature is the existence of sharp in-gap resonance peaks whose positions and intensity depend on the strength of the SP and the doping concentration. In all cases, the local density of states exhibits clear $C_2$ symmetry. We also note that in the doped cases, the impurity will divide the system into two sublattices with distinct values of magnetic order. Here we use the band structure of a two-orbital model, which considers the asymmetry of the As atoms above and below the Fe-Fe plane. This model is suitable to study the properties of the surface layers in the iron-pnictides and should be more appropriate to describe the scanning tunneling microscopy experiments.