Electronic structure of ion arsenic high temperature superconductors studied by angle resolved photoemission spectroscopy

Abstract

The main purpose of the present thesis is to present our ARPES results on the iron arsenic superconductors. As revealed by a series of ARPES measurements on both the AEFe2As2 and the RFeAs(O,F) families (parent compound and carrier-doped systems), the electronic structures of the pnictides are complicated, three dimensional, and closely linked to their superconducting behavior (13; 14; 15; 16; 17; 18; 19). Parent compounds of these materials exhibit the basic hole-electron pocket dual plus an apparent Fermi surface reconstruction caused by long range antiferromagnetism (13; 15). When carriers are introduced, the chemical potential shifts in accordance with the Luttinger theorem and the rigid band shifting picture (13). Importantly, both the appearance and disappearance of the superconducting dome at low and high doping levels have intimate relation with topological changes at the Fermi surfaces, resulting in a specific Fermi topology being favored by superconductivity (15; 16). On the low doping side, superconductivity emerges in the phase diagram once the antiferromagnetic reconstruction disappears below the Fermi level, returning the Fermi surface to its paramagnetic-like appearance. On the high doping side, superconductivity disappears around a doping level at which the central hole pocket vanishes due to increasing electron concentration. Such phenomena are evidence for the governing role the electronic structure plays in their superconducting behavior.