Suppression of nematicity by tensile strain in multilayer FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ films

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that tensile strain from SrTiO$_3$ suppresses nematicity in multilayer FeSe films near the interface, clarifying its relationship with superconductivity and resolving previous controversies.

Contribution

It provides direct experimental evidence that tensile strain suppresses nematicity in multilayer FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ films, elucidating the nematicity-superconductivity relationship.

Findings

Nematicity is suppressed near the interface by tensile strain.

Nematicity recovers to bulk value away from the interface.

The study clarifies the controversial relationship between nematicity and superconductivity.

Abstract

The nematicity in multilayer FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ films has been previously suggested to be enhanced with decreasing film thickness. Motivated by this, there have been many discussions about the competing relation between nematicity and superconductivity. However, the criterion for determining the nematicity strength in FeSe remains highly debated. The understanding of nematicity and its relation to superconductivity in FeSe films is therefore still controversial. Here, we fabricate multilayer FeSe/SrTiO$_3$ films using molecular beam epitaxy and study the nematic properties by combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, nuclear magnetic resonance, and scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. We unambiguously demonstrate that, near the interface, the nematicity is suppressed by the SrTiO$_3$-induced tensile strain; in the bulk region further away from the interface, the strength of nematicity recovers to the bulk value. Our results not only solve the controversy about the nematicity in multilayer FeSe films, but also offer valuable insights into the relationship between nematicity and superconductivity.