Visualizing Pair-breaking Scattering Interference in Bulk FeSe

TL;DR

This study uses advanced scanning tunneling microscopy to identify pair-breaking scattering interference as a cause of superconducting gap modulations in bulk FeSe, challenging the common attribution to pair density waves.

Contribution

It demonstrates that PBSI can produce observable gap modulations in FeSe, providing a new explanation for such phenomena without requiring finite-momentum pairing.

Findings

Identification of subsurface magnetic scatterers with Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states in FeSe

Observation of particle-hole symmetric gap modulations around scatterers

Phase-referenced quasiparticle interference imaging as a direct PBSI probe

Abstract

Spatially periodic modulations of the superconducting gap have been recently reported in diverse materials and are often attributed to pair density wave order. An alternative mechanism, termed pair-breaking scattering interference (PBSI), was proposed to produce gap modulations without finite-momentum pairing. Here we investigate signatures of PBSI in bulk FeSe using scanning tunneling microscopy with superconductive tips, enabling enhanced energy resolution and Josephson tunneling. Subsurface magnetic scatterers with Yu-Shiba-Rusinov states are identified in FeSe, around which we observe particle-hole symmetric gap modulations accompanied by spatial modulation of the Josephson current. Those modulations have wavevectors consistent with intra-pocket PBSI. We further demonstrate that phase-referenced quasiparticle interference imaging offers an independent and direct probe of PBSI beyond gap mapping. These results establish PBSI as a viable origin of gap modulations in superconductors lacking preexisting charge/spin density wave orders, and motivate further investigation of the intriguing gap modulation phenomenology.