Emergence of well screened states in a superconducting material of the CaFe$_2$As$_2$ family

TL;DR

This study uses high-resolution photoemission spectroscopy to identify well-screened states emerging in CaFe$_{2}$As$_{2}$ superconductors, revealing their potential role in unconventional superconductivity.

Contribution

It uncovers a new low binding energy feature in Fe 2$p$ spectra that correlates with superconductivity, highlighting novel screening channels in Fe-based superconductors.

Findings

Emergence of a low binding energy feature in Fe 2$p$ spectra with cooling.

Reduced surface contribution in Ca 2$p$ peak of doped compound.

The feature's absence in the parent compound suggests its relevance to superconductivity.

Abstract

Coupling among conduction electrons (e.g. Zhang-Rice singlet) are often manifested in the core level spectra of exotic materials such as cuprate superconductors, manganites, etc. These states are believed to play key roles in the ground state properties and appear as low binding energy features. To explore such possibilities in the Fe-based systems, we study the core level spectra of a superconductor, CaFe$_{1.9}$Co$_{0.1}$As$_2$ (CaCo122) in the CaFe$_2$As$_2$ (Ca122) family employing high-resolution hard $x$-ray photoemission spectroscopy. While As core levels show almost no change with doping and cooling, Ca 2$p$ peak of CaCo122 show reduced surface contribution relative to Ca122 and a gradual shift of the peak position towards lower binding energies with cooling. In addition, we discover emergence of a feature at lower binding energy side of the well screened Fe 2$p$ signal in CaCo122. The intensity of this feature grows with cooling and indicate additional channels to screen the core holes. The evolution of this feature in the superconducting composition and it's absence in the parent compound suggests relevance of the underlying interactions in the ground state properties of this class of materials. These results reveal a new dimension in the studies of Fe-based superconductors and the importance of such states in the unconventional superconductivity in general.