Two distinct superconducting states controlled by orientations of local wrinkles in LiFeAs

Lu Cao, Wenyao Liu, Geng Li (), Guangyang Dai, Qi Zheng, Yuxin Wang, Kun Jiang, Shiyu Zhu, Li Huang, Lingyuan Kong, Fazhi Yang, Xiancheng Wang, Wu Zhou, Xiao Lin, Jiangping Hu, Changqing Jin, Hong Ding () and Hong-Jun Gao ()
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Lu Cao: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wenyao Liu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Geng Li: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Guangyang Dai: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Qi Zheng: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Yuxin Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Kun Jiang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Shiyu Zhu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Li Huang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Lingyuan Kong: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Fazhi Yang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiancheng Wang: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Wu Zhou: University of Chinese Academy of Sciences
Xiao Lin: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Jiangping Hu: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Changqing Jin: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hong Ding: Chinese Academy of Sciences
Hong-Jun Gao: Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nature Communications, 2021, vol. 12, issue 1, 1-7

Abstract: Abstract For iron-based superconductors, the phase diagrams under pressure or strain exhibit emergent phenomena between unconventional superconductivity and other electronic orders, varying in different systems. As a stoichiometric superconductor, LiFeAs has no structure phase transitions or entangled electronic states, which manifests an ideal platform to explore the pressure or strain effect on unconventional superconductivity. Here, we observe two types of superconducting states controlled by orientations of local wrinkles on the surface of LiFeAs. Using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, we find type-I wrinkles enlarge the superconducting gaps and enhance the transition temperature, whereas type-II wrinkles significantly suppress the superconducting gaps. The vortices on wrinkles show a C2 symmetry, indicating the strain effects on the wrinkles. By statistics, we find that the two types of wrinkles are categorized by their orientations. Our results demonstrate that the local strain effect with different directions can tune the superconducting order parameter of LiFeAs very differently, suggesting that the band shifting induced by directional pressure may play an important role in iron-based superconductivity.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26708-8

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