Superconductivity in the crystallogenide LaFeSiO1−δ with squeezed FeSi layers

• Published in: npj quantum materials Vol. 7; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Hansen, M. F., Vaney, J.-B., Lepoittevin, C., Bernardini, F., Gaudin, E., Nassif, V., Méasson, M.-A., Sulpice, A., Mayaffre, H., Julien, M.-H., Tencé, S., Cano, A., Toulemonde, P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 30-08-2022; Nature Publishing Group; Nature publishing; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/638/298/924; 639/766/119/1003; Anions; Antiferromagnetism; Condensed Matter; Condensed Matter Physics; Crystal structure; Fermi surfaces; First principles; Geometry; Iron silicide; Magnetic properties; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Physics; Spectrum analysis; Structural Materials; Superconductivity; Surfaces and Interfaces; Temperature; Thin Films
• ISSN: 2397-4648; 2397-4648
• DOI: 10.1038/s41535-022-00493-z

Pnictogens and chalcogens are both viable anions for promoting Fe-based superconductivity, and intense research activity in the related families has established a systematic correlation between the Fe-anion height and the superconducting critical temperature
T
c
, with an optimum Fe-anion height of ~1.38 Å. Here, we report the discovery of superconductivity in the compound LaFeSiO
1−
δ
that incorporates a crystallogen element, Si, and challenges the above picture: considering the strongly squeezed Fe–Si height of 0.94 Å, the superconducting transition at
T
c
 = 10 K is unusually high. In the normal state, the resistivity displays non-Fermi-liquid behavior while NMR experiments evidence weak antiferromagnetic fluctuations. According to first-principles calculations, the Fermi surface of this material is dominated by hole pockets without nesting properties, which explains the strongly suppressed tendency toward magnetic order and suggests that the emergence of superconductivity materializes in a distinct set-up, as compared to the standard
s
±
- and
d
-wave electron-pocket-based situations. These properties and its simple-to-implement synthesis make LaFeSiO
1−
δ
a particularly promising platform to study the interplay between structure, electron correlations, and superconductivity.