Orbital-Selective High-Temperature Cooper Pairing Developed in the Two-Dimensional Limit

Nano Lett. 2022 Apr 27;22(8):3245-3251. doi: 10.1021/acs.nanolett.1c04863. Epub 2022 Apr 13.

Abstract

For multiband superconductors, the orbital multiplicity yields orbital differentiation in normal-state properties and can lead to orbital-selective spin-fluctuation Cooper pairing. The orbital-selective phenomenon has become increasingly pivotal in clarifying the pairing "enigma", particularly for multiband high-temperature superconductors. Meanwhile, in one-unit-cell (1-UC) FeSe/SrTiO3, since the standard electron-hole Fermi pocket nesting scenario is inapplicable, the actual pairing mechanism is subject to intense debate. Here, by measuring high-resolution Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference, we report observations of highly anisotropic magnetic Cooper pairing in 1-UC FeSe. Theoretically, it is important to incorporate orbitally selective effects of electronic correlations within a spin-fluctuation pairing calculation, where the dxy orbital becomes coherence-suppressed. The resulting pairing gap is compatible with the experimental findings, which suggests that high-Tc Cooper pairing with orbital selectivity applies to 2D-limit 1-UC FeSe. Our findings imply the general existence of orbital selectivity in iron-based superconductors and the universal significance of electron correlations in high-Tc superconductors.

Keywords: Bogoliubov quasiparticle interference; Cooper pairing; one-unit-cell FeSe/SrTiO3; orbital selectivity; self-energy.