Phonons and Spin Excitations in Fe-Based Superconductor Ca10Pt4As8(Fe1-xPtxAs)10 (x ~ 0.2)

By means of neutron inelastic scattering, magnetic excitations and phonons were measured for a single crystal of slightly overdoped superconductor Ca10Pt4As8(Fe1-xPtxAs)10 (x ~ 0.2) with the transition temperature Tc of ~33 K. Below Tc, magnetic excitation spectra \{chi}"(Q, ω) measured at Q = QM [magnetic Γ points] are gapped, and in the relatively higher ω region, the \{chi}"(QM, ω)-increase was observed with decreasing T, where the maximum of the increase was found at ~18 meV at 3 K (<< Tc). These characteristics are favorable to orbital-fluctuation-mediated superconductivity with the so-called S++symmetry of the order parameter. The energy dependence of δQ-temperature(T) curve of the magnetic excitations seems to have anomalous behavior in rather wide T region above Tc, δQ being the width of the Q scan profile. In the phonon measurements, we observed softening of the in-plane TA mode, which corresponds to the elastic constant C66. This softening seems to start at rather high temperature T, as T is lowered. Additionally, anomalous increase in spectral weights of the TO-phonons at around QM in the region 35 < ω < 40 meV was found even above Tc, as T is lowered from ambient T . Because the spectral weights in this ω region mainly correspond to the in-plane motions of Fe atoms and because orbital fluctuations are expected to be strong at around QM, the result may present clues to investigate a possible coupling between the fluctuations of the orbitals and lattice system.

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