Correlation of Fe-Based Superconductivity and Electron-Phonon Coupling in an FeAs/Oxide Heterostructure

Phys Rev Lett. 2017 Sep 8;119(10):107003. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.119.107003. Epub 2017 Sep 8.

Abstract

Interfacial phonons between iron-based superconductors (FeSCs) and perovskite substrates have received considerable attention due to the possibility of enhancing preexisting superconductivity. Using scanning tunneling spectroscopy, we studied the correlation between superconductivity and e-ph interaction with interfacial phonons in an iron-based superconductor Sr_{2}VO_{3}FeAs (T_{c}≈33 K) made of alternating FeSC and oxide layers. The quasiparticle interference measurement over regions with systematically different average superconducting gaps due to the e-ph coupling locally modulated by O vacancies in the VO_{2} layer, and supporting self-consistent momentum-dependent Eliashberg calculations provide a unique real-space evidence of the forward-scattering interfacial phonon contribution to the total superconducting pairing.