The normal-state charge transport is studied systematically in high-quality single crystals of BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.71). By substituting isovalent P for As, the spin-density-wave (SDW) state is suppressed and the dome-shaped superconducting phase (Tc 31 K) appears. Near the SDW end point (x ≈ 0.3), we observe striking linear temperature (T ) dependence of resistivity in a wide T -range, and remarkable low-T enhancement of Hall coefficient magnitude from the carrier number estimates. We also find that the magnetoresistance apparently violates the Kohler's rule and is well scaled by the Hall angle ΘH as ∆ρxx/ρxx ∝ tan 2 ΘH . These non-Fermi liquid transport anomalies cannot be attributed to the simple multiband effects. These results capture universal features of correlated electron systems in the presence of strong antiferromagnetic fluctuations.

Strongly interacting electrons can exhibit novel collective phases, among which the electronic nematic phases are perhaps the most surprising as they spontaneously break rotational symmetry of the underlying crystal lattice.1 The electron nematicity has been recently observed in the iron-pnictide 2-6 and cuprate 7-9 hightemperature superconductors. Whether such a tendency of electrons to self-organise unidirectionally has a common feature in these superconductors is, however, a highly controversial issue. In the cuprates, the nematicity has been suggested as a possible source of the pseudogap phase, 7-9 whilst in the iron-pnictides, it has been commonly associated with the tetragonalto-orthorhombic structural phase transition at T s . Here, we provide the first thermodynamic evidence in BaFe 2 (As 1−x P x ) 2 that the nematicity develops well above the structural transition and persists to the nonmagnetic superconducting regime, resulting in a new phase diagram strikingly similar to the pseudogap phase diagram in the cuprates.9,10 Our highly sensitive magnetic anisotropy measurements using microcantilever torque-magnetometry under in-plane field rotation reveal pronounced two-fold oscillations, which break the tetragonal symmetry. Combined with complementary high-resolution synchrotron X-ray and resistivity measurements, our results consistently identify two distinct temperaturesone at T * , signifying a true nematic transition, and the other at T s (< T * ), which we show to be not a true phase transition, but rather what we refer to as a "meta-nematic transition", in analogy to the well-known metamagnetic transition in the theory of magnetism. Our observation of the extended nematic phase above the superconducting dome establishes that the nematicity has primarily an electronic origin, inherent in the normal state of high-temperature superconductors.In the iron pnictides, the antiferromagnetic transition is closely intertwined with the structural phase transition from tetragonal (T) to orthorhombic (O) crystal symmetry. Although recent experiments, including neutron scattering, 2 ARPES, 3,11 STM, 4 and transport measurements, 5,6 have provided evidence for electronic anisotropy, these measurements were carried out either in the low-temperature orthorhombic phase, 2,4,11 where the crystal lattice structure has already broken C 4 symmetry, or in the tetragonal phase under uniaxial strain 3,5,6 that also breaks this symmetry. Therefore, the question remains open whether the electronic anisotropy can exist above the structural transition without an external driving force, including under the superconducting (SC) dome. In the past, the nematic transition in the pnictides has been associated either with the orbital ordering, [12][13][14][15][16][17][18] or with the spontaneous breaking of the Z 2 Ising symmetry between two collinear magnetic ordering wave-vectors Q = (π, 0) and (0, π).19-22 Therefore determining the nature of the nematicity is a key to understanding the microscopic origin of the lattice and magnetic...

Fermi systems in the cross-over regime between weakly coupled Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) and strongly coupled Bose-Einstein-condensate (BEC) limits are among the most fascinating objects to study the behavior of an assembly of strongly interacting particles. The physics of this cross-over has been of considerable interest both in the fields of condensed matter and ultracold atoms. One of the most challenging issues in this regime is the effect of large spin imbalance on a Fermi system under magnetic fields. Although several exotic physical properties have been predicted theoretically, the experimental realization of such an unusual superconducting state has not been achieved so far. Here we show that pure single crystals of superconducting FeSe offer the possibility to enter the previously unexplored realm where the three energies, Fermi energy e F , superconducting gap Δ, and Zeeman energy, become comparable. Through the superfluid response, transport, thermoelectric response, and spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy, we demonstrate that e F of FeSe is extremely small, with the ratio Δ=e F ∼ 1(∼ 0:3) in the electron (hole) band. Moreover, thermal-conductivity measurements give evidence of a distinct phase line below the upper critical field, where the Zeeman energy becomes comparable to e F and Δ. The observation of this field-induced phase provides insights into previously poorly understood aspects of the highly spin-polarized Fermi liquid in the BCS-BEC cross-over regime.BCS-BEC cross-over | Fermi energy | quasiparticle interference | iron-based superconductors | exotic superconducting phase S uperconductivity in most metals is well explained by the weak-coupling Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer (BCS) theory, where the pairing instability arises from weak attractive interactions in a degenerate fermionic system. In the opposite limit of Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), composite bosons consisting of strongly coupled fermions condense into a coherent quantum state (1, 2). In BCS superconductors, the superconducting transition temperature is usually several orders of magnitude smaller than the Fermi temperature, T c =T F = 10 −5 -10 −4 , whereas in the BEC limit T c =T F is of the order of 10 −1 . Even in the high-T c cuprates, T c =T F is merely of the order of 10 −2 at optimal doping. Of particular interest is the BCS-BEC cross-over regime with intermediate coupling strength. In this regime the size of interacting pairs (∼ ξ), which is known as the coherence length, becomes comparable to the average distance between particles (∼ 1=k F ), i.e., k F ξ ∼ 1 (3-5), where k F is the Fermi momentum. This regime is expected to have the highest values of T c =T F = 0:1 − 0:2 and Δ=« F ∼ 0:5 ever observed in any fermionic superfluid.One intriguing issue concerns the role of spin imbalance: whether it will lead to a strong modification of the properties of the Fermi system in the cross-over regime. This problem has been of considerable interest not only in the context of superconductivity but also in ultraco...

In a superconductor, the ratio of the carrier density, n, to their effective mass, m * , is a fundamental property directly reflecting the length scale of the superfluid flow, the London penetration depth, λL. In two dimensional systems, this ratio n/m * (∼ 1/λ 2 L ) determines the effective Fermi temperature, TF . We report a sharp peak in the x-dependence of λL at zero temperature in clean samples of BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 at the optimum composition x = 0.30, where the superconducting transition temperature Tc reaches a maximum of 30 K. This structure may arise from quantum fluctuations associated with a quantum critical point (QCP). The ratio of Tc/TF at x = 0.30 is enhanced, implying a possible crossover towards the Bose-Einstein condensate limit driven by quantum criticality.In two families of high temperature superconductors, cuprates and iron-pnictides, superconductivity emerges in close proximity to an antiferromagnetically ordered state, and the critical temperature T c has a dome shaped dependence on doping or pressure [1][2][3]. What happens inside this superconducting dome is still a matter of debate [3][4][5]. In particular, elucidating whether a quantum critical point (QCP) is hidden inside it (Figs. 1A and B) may be key to understanding high-T c superconductivity [4,5]. A QCP marks the position of a quantum phase transition (QPT), a zero temperature phase transition driven by quantum fluctuations [7].The London penetration depth λ L is a property that may be measured at low temperature in the superconducting state to probe the electronic structure of the material, and look for signatures of a QCP. The absolute value of λ L in the zero-temperature limit immediately gives the superfluid density λ −2which is a direct probe of the superconducting state; here m * i and n i are the effective mass and concentration of the superconducting carriers in band i, respectively [8]. Measurements on high-quality crystals are necessary because impurities and inhomogeneity may otherwise wipe out the signatures of the QPT. Another advantage of this approach is that it does not require the application of a strong magnetic field, which may induce a different QCP or shift the zero-field QCP [9].BaFe 2 (As 1−x P x ) 2 is a particularly suitable system for penetration depth measurements as, in contrast to most other Fe-based superconductors, very clean [10] and homogeneous crystals of the whole composition series can be grown [11]. In this system, the isovalent substitution of P for As in the parent compound BaFe 2 As 2 offers an elegant way to suppress magnetism and induce superconductivity [11]. Non-Fermi liquid properties are apparent in the normal state above the superconducting dome ( Fig. 2A) [11,12] and de Haas-van Alphen (dHvA) oscillations [10] have been observed over a wide x range including the superconducting compositions, giving detailed information on the electronic structure. Because P and As are isoelectric, the system remains compensated for all values of x (i.e., volumes of the electron and hole Fermi surfaces...

The coexistence and competition between superconductivity and electronic orders, such as spin or charge density waves, have been a central issue in high transition-temperature (Tc) superconductors. Unlike other iron-based superconductors, FeSe exhibits nematic ordering without magnetism whose relationship with its superconductivity remains unclear. Moreover, a pressure-induced fourfold increase of Tc has been reported, which poses a profound mystery. Here we report high-pressure magnetotransport measurements in FeSe up to ∼15 GPa, which uncover the dome shape of magnetic phase superseding the nematic order. Above ∼6 GPa the sudden enhancement of superconductivity (Tc≤38.3 K) accompanies a suppression of magnetic order, demonstrating their competing nature with very similar energy scales. Above the magnetic dome, we find anomalous transport properties suggesting a possible pseudogap formation, whereas linear-in-temperature resistivity is observed in the normal states of the high-Tc phase above 6 GPa. The obtained phase diagram highlights unique features of FeSe among iron-based superconductors, but bears some resemblance to that of high-Tc cuprates.

Using the de Haas-van Alphen effect we have measured the evolution of the Fermi surface of BaFe2(As1-xPx){2} as a function of isoelectric substitution (As/P) for 0.41

A long-standing controversial issue in the quest to understand the superconductivity in cuprates is the nature of the enigmatic pseudogap region of the phase diagram 1 . Especially important is whether the pseudogap state is a distinct thermodynamic phase characterized by broken symmetries below the onset temperature T * . Here we report torque-magnetometry measurements of anisotropic susceptibility within the ab planes in orthorhombic YBa 2 Cu 3 O y with exceptionally high precision. The in-plane anisotropy displays a significant increase with a distinct kink at the pseudogap onset temperature T * , showing a remarkable scaling behaviour with respect to T/T * in a wide doping range. Our systematic analysis reveals that the rotational symmetry breaking sets in at T * in the limit where the e ect of orthorhombicity is eliminated. These results provide thermodynamic evidence that the pseudogap onset is associated with a second-order nematic phase transition, which di ers from the recently reported charge-density-wave transition that accompanies translational symmetry breaking [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10] . The pseudogap state harbours anomalous electronic states such as Fermi arcs, charge density waves (CDW), and d-wave superconductivity 1 . Electronic nematicity, a four-fold (C 4 ) rotational symmetry breaking, has emerged as a key feature inside the pseudogap regime 11-14 , but the presence or absence of a nematic phase transition and its relationship to the pseudogap remain unresolved. Nematicity has been widely discussed in cuprates, and one of its mechanism is the onset of a stripe-type CDW order parameter which generally breaks rotation symmetry as well as translation symmetry with a nonzero wavenumber Q = 0 (refs 2-10,15-18). In Bi 2 Sr 2 CaCu 2 O 8+δ (BSCCO), scanning tunnelling microscopy experiments at low temperatures report an electronic state, consisting of short-range CDW of unidirectional (one-dimensional, 1D) type with a period of ∼4a 0 , where a 0 is the Cu-O-Cu distance 19,20 . This nano-stripe structure persists even well above the superconducting transition temperature T c (ref. 21). In YBa 2 Cu 3 O y (YBCO), the short-range CDW order forms a dome-shaped boundary inside the pseudogap regime 6,7 . Resonant X-ray scattering (RXS) experiments in YBCO report that the CDW is of unidirectional type with a periodicity of ∼3a 0 (ref. 4).In both BSCCO and YBCO, the CDW forms domains with a size of ∼3 nm in zero field, inside which the C 4 symmetry of the unit cell is strongly broken. In contrast to such CDW orders, the nematicity may also be caused by an instability without breaking translational symmetry, characterized by Q = 0.The measurement of the magnetic torque has a very high sensitivity for detecting magnetic anisotropy. The torque τ = µ 0 V M × H is a thermodynamic quantity, a differential of the free energy with respect to angular displacement. Here µ 0 is the permeability of vacuum, V is the sample volume, and M is the magnetization induced by the external magnetic field H. When H is rotated ...

We have observed Shubnikov-de Haas oscillations in FeSe. The Fermi surface deviates significantly from predictions of band-structure calculations and most likely consists of one electron and one hole thin cylinder. The carrier density is in the order of 0.01 carriers/ Fe, an order-of-magnitude smaller than predicted. Effective Fermi energies as small as 3.6 meV are estimated. These findings call for elaborate theoretical investigations incorporating both electronic correlations and orbital ordering.