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  • Imaging orbital-selective q...
    Kostin, A; Sprau, P O; Kreisel, A; Chong, Yi Xue; Böhmer, A E; Canfield, P C; Hirschfeld, P J; Andersen, B M; Davis, J C Séamus

    Nature materials, 10/2018, Volume: 17, Issue: 10
    Journal Article

    Strong electronic correlations, emerging from the parent Mott insulator phase, are key to copper-based high-temperature superconductivity. By contrast, the parent phase of an iron-based high-temperature superconductor is never a correlated insulator. However, this distinction may be deceptive because Fe has five actived d orbitals while Cu has only one. In theory, such orbital multiplicity can generate a Hund's metal state, in which alignment of the Fe spins suppresses inter-orbital fluctuations, producing orbitally selective strong correlations. The spectral weights Z of quasiparticles associated with different Fe orbitals m should then be radically different. Here we use quasiparticle scattering interference resolved by orbital content to explore these predictions in FeSe. Signatures of strong, orbitally selective differences of quasiparticle Z appear on all detectable bands over a wide energy range. Further, the quasiparticle interference amplitudes reveal that Formula: see text, consistent with earlier orbital-selective Cooper pairing studies. Thus, orbital-selective strong correlations dominate the parent state of iron-based high-temperature superconductivity in FeSe.