Anisotropic Impurity-States, Quasiparticle Scattering and Nematic Transport in Underdoped Ca(Fe1-xCox)2As2

TL;DR

This study visualizes atomic-scale impurity states in underdoped Ca(Fe1-xCox)2As2, revealing their anisotropic scattering effects that underpin the material's nematic transport properties and enhance understanding of dopant-induced electronic anisotropy.

Contribution

It provides direct atomic-scale imaging of impurity states and their anisotropic scattering, linking dopant distribution to nematic transport phenomena in iron-based superconductors.

Findings

Impurity states are ~8 Fe-Fe units long and aligned with the antiferromagnetic axis.

Impurity scattering is highly anisotropic, concentrated along the b-axis.

Nematicity increases with dopant density and is driven by anisotropic impurity scattering.

Abstract

Iron-based high temperature superconductivity develops when the `parent' antiferromagnetic/orthorhombic phase is suppressed, typically by introduction of dopant atoms. But their impact on atomic-scale electronic structure, while in theory quite complex, is unknown experimentally. What is known is that a strong transport anisotropy with its resistivity maximum along the crystal b-axis, develops with increasing concentration of dopant atoms; this `nematicity' vanishes when the `parent' phase disappears near the maximum superconducting Tc. The interplay between the electronic structure surrounding each dopant atom, quasiparticle scattering therefrom, and the transport nematicity has therefore become a pivotal focus of research into these materials. Here, by directly visualizing the atomic-scale electronic structure, we show that substituting Co for Fe atoms in underdoped Ca(Fe1-xCox)2As2 generates a dense population of identical anisotropic impurity states. Each is ~8 Fe-Fe unit cells in length, and all are distributed randomly but aligned with the antiferromagnetic a-axis. By imaging their surrounding interference patterns, we further demonstrate that these impurity states scatter quasiparticles in a highly anisotropic manner, with the maximum scattering rate concentrated along the b-axis. These data provide direct support for the recent proposals that it is primarily anisotropic scattering by dopant-induced impurity states that generates the transport nematicity; they also yield simple explanations for the enhancement of the nematicity proportional to the dopant density and for the occurrence of the highest resistivity along the b-axis.