Enhanced superconductivity accompanying a Lifshitz transition in electron-doped FeSe monolayer.

Shi, X; Han, Z-Q; Peng, X-L; Richard, P; Qian, T; Wu, X-X; Qiu, M-W; Wang, S C et al. · Nat Commun · 2017

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

The origin of enhanced superconductivity over 50 K in the recently discovered FeSe monolayer films grown on SrTiO<sub>3</sub> (STO), as compared to 8 K in bulk FeSe, is intensely debated. As with the ferrochalcogenides A<sub>x</sub>Fe<sub>2-y</sub>Se<sub>2</sub> and potassium-doped FeSe, which also have a relatively high-superconducting critical temperature (T<sub>c</sub>), the Fermi surface (FS) of the FeSe/STO monolayer films is free of hole-like FS, suggesting that a Lifshitz transition by which these hole FSs vanish may help increasing T<sub>c</sub>. However, the fundamental reasons explaining this increase of T<sub>c</sub> remain unclear. Here we report a 15 K jump of T<sub>c</sub> accompanying a second Lifshitz transition characterized by the emergence of an electron pocket at the Brillouin zone centre, which is triggered by high-electron doping following in situ deposition of potassium on FeSe/STO monolayer films. Our results suggest that the pairing interactions are orbital dependent in generating enhanced superconductivity in FeSe.