Observation of orbital ordering and origin of the nematic order in FeSe

Abstract

In iron-based superconductors the interactions driving the nematic order that breaks the lattice four-fold rotational symmetry in the iron plane may also facilitate the Cooper pairing, but experimental determination of these interactions is challenging because the temperatures of the nematic order and the order of other electronic phases appear to match each other or to be close to each other. Here we performed field-dependent 77Se-nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) measurements on single crystals of iron-based superconductor FeSe, with magnetic field B 0 up to 16 T. The 77Se-NMR spectra and Knight shift split when the direction of B 0 is away from the direction perpendicular to the iron planes (i.e. B 0 ∥ c) upon cooling in temperature, with a significant change in the distribution and magnitude of the internal magnetic field at the 77Se nucleus, but these do not happen when B 0 is perpendicular to the iron planes, thus demonstrating that there is an orbital ordering. Moreover, stripe-type antiferromagnetism is absent, while giant antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations measured by the NMR spin-lattice relaxation gradually developed starting at ∼40 K, which is far below the nematic order temperature T nem = 89 K. These results provide direct evidence of orbital-driven nematic order in FeSe. © 2019 The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Institute of Physics and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft. ; Chinese Academy of Sciences, CAS: 51477167, 41527802 ; Ministério da Educação e Ciência, MEC: 2-2017-084 ; National Natural Science Foundation of China, NSFC: 61474096, 1804291 ; BK20180890, 20180889 ; Russian Foundation for Basic Research, RFBR: 17-29-10007 ; Government Council on Grants, Russian Federation ; Work at YZU was supported by National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grants #61474096 and 1804291) and NSF of Jiangsu (Grants #BK20180889 and BK20180890), and at CAS by NSFC (Grants# 51477167 and 41527802).DACthanks supports by the program 211 of the Russian Federation Government (RFG), agreement 02.A03.21.0006 and by the RFG Program of Competitive Growth of KFU.ANVthanks supports by Russian Foundation for Basic Research Grant#17-29-10007, by the Ministry of Education and Science of the RFG in the framework of ICP of NUST MISiS (Grant#K2-2017-084), and by Act 211 of RFG, agreements 02.A03.21.0004, 02.A03.21.0006, and 02.A03.21.0011.