Unusual temperature evolution of superconductivity in LiFeAs

Abstract

We have performed temperature dependent tunneling spectroscopy on an impurity-free surface area of a LiFeAs single crystal. Our data reveal a highly unusual temperature evolution of superconductivity: at $T_c^*=18$~K a partial superconducting gap opens, as is evidenced by subtle, yet clear features in the tunneling spectra, i.e. particle-hole symmetric coherence peaks, and a dip-hump structure which signals strong-coupling superconductivity. At $T_c=16$~K, these features substantiate dramatically and become characteristic of full superconductivity. Remarkably, this is accompanied by an almost jump-like increase of the gap energy at $T_c$ to about 87\% of its low-temperature gap value. The energy of the bosonic mode as measured by the distance between the coherence peak and the higher-energy dip remains practically constant in the whole temperature regime $T\leq T_c^*$. The comparison of these findings with established experimental and theoretical results lead us to suggest that the bosonic mode is not directly related to incommensurate spin fluctuations that have previously been observed in inelastic neutron scattering.