Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 7, 2026

Visualizing Uniaxial-strain Manipulation of Antiferromagnetic Domains in Fe1+YTe Using a Spin-polarized Scanning Tunneling Microscope
Published on: March 24, 2019
Nematicity as a probe of superconducting pairing in iron-based superconductors
Rafael M Fernandes1, Andrew J Millis
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA.
Abstract:
In several families of iron-based superconducting materials, a d-wave pairing instability may compete with the leading s-wave instability. Here, we show that when both states have comparable free energies, superconducting and nematic degrees of freedom are strongly coupled. Whereas nematic order causes a sharp nonanalytic increase in T(c), nematic fluctuations can change the character of the s-wave to d-wave transition, favoring an intermediate state that does not break time-reversal symmetry but does break tetragonal symmetry. The coupling between superconductivity and nematicity is also manifested in the strong softening of the shear modulus across the superconducting transition. Our results show that nematicity can be used as a diagnostic tool to search for unconventional pairing states in iron pnictides and chalcogenides.
Related Concept Videos
Types Of Superconductors
Ferromagnetism
Superconductor
Colors and Magnetism
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human eye.
Magnetic Susceptibility and Permeability
When diamagnetic materials are placed under an external magnetic field, the moments opposite to the field are induced. Hence, the susceptibility for diamagnets has a minimal negative value of 10-5–10-6. Since...
Diamagnetic Shielding of Nuclei: Local Diamagnetic Current

