A new collective mode in an iron-based superconductor with electronic nematicity

Abstract

Elucidation of the symmetry and structure of order parameter(OP) is a fundamental subject in the study of superconductors. Recently, a growing number of superconducting materials have been identified that suggest additional spontaneous symmetry breakings besides the primal breaking of U(1) gauge symmetry, including time-reversal, chiral, and rotational symmetries. Observation of collective modes in those exotic superconductors is particularly important, as they provide the fingerprints of the superconducting OP. Here we investigate the collective modes in an iron-based superconductor, FeSe, a striking example of superconductivity emergent in an electronic nematic phase where the rotational symmetry of electronic degree of freedom is spontaneously broken. By using terahertz nonlinear spectroscopy technique, we discovered a collective mode resonance located substantially below the superconducting gap energy, distinct from the amplitude Higgs mode. Comparison with theoretical calculations demonstrates that the observed mode is attributed to a collective fluctuation between the s+d-wave-like ground state and the subleading pairing channel, which corresponds to the so-called Bardasis-Schrieffer mode but also resembles an intraband Leggett mode. Our result corroborates the multicomponent pairing channels in FeSe activated in the lower space group symmetry in the electronic nematic phase.