Intra-inter band pairing, order parameter symmetry in Fe-based superconductors: A model study

• MS deals with exciting research fields of condensed matter physics, the Fe-based superconductors.
• Fe-based superconductors with multiple gaps, it is important to show why it have a singleTcTc.
• We show the essestial requirement of both the intra and inter-band pairing channels.
• Signature of the above shown in characteristic ratio, thermal behaviour of specific heat jump.

In the quest of why there should be a single transition temperature in a multi-gapped system like Fe-based materials we use two band model for simplicity. The model comprises of spin density wave (SDW), orbital density wave (ODW) arising due to nested pieces of the electron and hole like Fermi surfaces; together with superconductivity of different pairing symmetries around electron and hole like Fermi surfaces. We show that either only intra or only inter band pairing is insufficient to describe some of the experimental results like large to small gap ratio, thermal behaviour of electronic specific heat jump etc. It is shown that the inter-band pairing is essential in Fe-based materials having multiple gaps to produce a single global TcTc. Some of our results in this scenario, matches with the earlier published work (Dolgov et al., 2009), and also have differences. The origin of difference between the two is also discussed. Combined intra–inter band pairing mechanism produces the specific heat jump to superconducting transition temperature ratio proportional to square of the transition temperature, both in the electron and hole doped regime, for sign changing s± wave symmetry which takes the d + s pairing symmetry form. Our work thus demonstrates the importance of combined intra-inter band pairing irrespective of the pairing mechanism.