ARPES view of orbitally resolved quasiparticle lifetimes in iron pnictides

TL;DR

This study uses ARPES to analyze orbitally resolved quasiparticle lifetimes in iron pnictides, revealing orbital-dependent behaviors that challenge conventional Fermi liquid descriptions and have implications for understanding their physics.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed ARPES measurements of orbitally resolved quasiparticle lifetimes in iron pnictides, highlighting orbital-dependent differences and their impact on Fermi liquid behavior.

Findings

$d_{xy}$ lifetimes are smaller near $E_F$ and more temperature-dependent.

$d_{xy}$ behavior aligns with Fermi liquid theory, unlike $d_{xz}$/$d_{yz}$.

Orbital character influences quasiparticle properties more than Fermi surface position.

Abstract

We study with ARPES the renormalization and quasiparticle lifetimes of the $d_{xy}$ and $d_{xz}$/$d_{yz}$ orbitals in two iron pnictides, LiFeAs and Ba(Fe$_{0.92}$Co$_{0.08}$)$_2$As$_2$ (Co8). We find that both quantities depend on orbital character rather than on the position on the Fermi Surface (for example hole or electron pocket). In LiFeAs, the renormalizations are larger for $d_{xy}$, while they are similar on both types of orbitals in Co8. The most salient feature, which proved robust against all the ARPES caveats we could think of, is that the lifetimes for $d_{xy}$ exhibit a markedly different behavior than those for $d_{xz}$/$d_{yz}$. They have smaller values near $E_F$ and exhibit larger $\omega$ and temperature dependences. While the behavior of $d_{xy}$ is compatible with a Fermi liquid description, it is not the case for $d_{xz}$/$d_{yz}$. This situation should have important consequences for the physics of iron pnictides, which have not been considered up to now. More generally, it raises interesting questions on how a Fermi liquid regime can be established in a multiband system with small effective bandwidths.