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arXiv · 1608.01740

Ubiquitous strong electron phonon coupling at the interface of FeSe/SrTiO3

Abstract

The high temperature superconductivity in single-unit-cell (1UC) FeSe on SrTiO3 (STO)(001) and the observation of replica bands by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) have led to the conjecture that the coupling between FeSe electron and the STO phonon is responsible for the enhancement of Tc over other FeSe-based superconductors1,2. However the recent observation of a similar superconducting gap in FeSe grown on the (110) surface of STO raises the question of whether a similar mechanism applies3,4. Here we report the ARPES study of the electronic structure of FeSe grown on STO(110). Similar to the results in FeSe/STO(001), clear replica bands are observed. We also present a comparative study of STO (001) and STO(110) bare surfaces, where photo doping generates metallic surface states. Similar replica bands separating from the main band by approximately the same energy are observed, indicating this coupling is a generic feature of the STO surfaces and interfaces. Our findings suggest that the large superconducting gaps observed in FeSe films grown on two different STO surface terminations are likely enhanced by a common coupling between FeSe electrons and STO phonons.

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Chaofan Zhang, Zhongkai Liu, Zhuoyu Chen, Yanwu Xie, Ruihua He, Shujie Tang, Junfeng He, Wei Li, Tao Jia, Slavko. N. Rebec, Eric Yue Ma, Hao Yan, Makoto Hashimoto, Donghui Lu, Sung-Kwan Mo, Yasuyuki Hikita, Robert G. Moore, Harold Y. Hwang, Dunghai Lee, Zhixun Shen. 2016-08-05. Ubiquitous strong electron phonon coupling at the interface of FeSe/SrTiO3. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms14468

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