Emerging symmetric strain response and weakening nematic fluctuations in strongly hole-doped iron-based superconductors.

Electronic nematicity is often found in unconventional superconductors, suggesting its relevance for electronic pairing. In the strongly hole-doped iron-based superconductors, the symmetry channel and strength of the nematic fluctuations, as well as the possible presence of long-range nematic order, remain controversial. Here, we address these questions using transport measurements under elastic strain. By decomposing the strain response into the appropriate symmetry channels, we demonstrate the emergence of a giant in-plane symmetric contribution, associated with the growth of both strong electronic correlations and the sensitivity of these correlations to strain. We find weakened remnants of the nematic fluctuations that are present at optimal doping, but no change in the symmetry channel of nematic fluctuations with hole doping. Furthermore, we find no indication of a nematic-ordered state in the AFe2As2 (A = K, Rb, Cs) superconductors. These results revise the current understanding of nematicity in hole-doped iron-based superconductors.

Dominant In-Plane Symmetric Elastoresistance in CsFe_{2}As_{2}.

We study the elastoresistance of the highly correlated material CsFe_{2}As_{2} in all symmetry channels. Neutralizing its thermal expansion by means of a piezoelectric-based strain cell is demonstrated to be essential. The elastoresistance response in the in-plane symmetric channel is found to be large, while the response in the symmetry-breaking channels is weaker and provides no evidence for a divergent nematic susceptibility. Rather, our results can be interpreted naturally within the framework of a coherence-incoherence crossover, where the low-temperature coherent state is sensitively tuned by the in-plane atomic distances.

Competing Magnetic Fluctuations in Iron Pnictide Superconductors: Role of Ferromagnetic Spin Correlations Revealed by NMR.

In the iron pnictide superconductors, theoretical calculations have consistently shown enhancements of the static magnetic susceptibility at both the stripe-type antiferromagnetic and in-plane ferromagnetic (FM) wave vectors. However, the possible existence of FM fluctuations has not yet been examined from a microscopic point of view. Here, using ^{75}As NMR data, we provide clear evidence for the existence of FM spin correlations in both the hole- and electron-doped BaFe_{2}As_{2} families of iron-pnictide superconductors. These FM fluctuations appear to compete with superconductivity and are thus a crucial ingredient to understanding the variability of T_{c} and the shape of the superconducting dome in these and other iron-pnictide families.