Electron doping evolution of the neutron spin resonance in NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_{x}$As

TL;DR

This study investigates how neutron spin resonance features evolve with electron doping in NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As, revealing complex behavior linked to multi-orbital effects and impurity scattering across the superconducting phase diagram.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive doping-dependent analysis of neutron spin resonance in NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As, highlighting the coexistence and evolution of multiple resonance modes.

Findings

Underdoped compositions show two coexisting resonance modes.

Increased doping shifts spectral weight from low to high-energy resonance.

Overdoped regime exhibits a single, broader resonance with stable energy despite reduced $T_c$.

Abstract

Neutron spin resonance, a collective magnetic excitation coupled to superconductivity, is one of the most prominent features shared by a broad family of unconventional superconductors including copper oxides, iron pnictides, and heavy fermions. In this work, we study the doping evolution of the resonances in NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As covering the entire superconducting dome. For the underdoped compositions, two resonance modes coexist. As doping increases, the low-energy resonance gradually loses its spectral weight to the high-energy one but remains at the same energy. By contrast, in the overdoped regime we only find one single resonance, which acquires a broader width in both energy and momentum, but retains approximately the same peak position even when $T_c$ drops by nearly a half compared to optimal doping. These results suggest that the energy of the resonance in electron overdoped NaFe$_{1-x}$Co$_x$As is neither simply proportional to $T_c$ nor the superconducting gap, but is controlled by the multi-orbital character of the system and doped impurity scattering effect.