A generic two-band model for unconventional superconductivity and spin-density-wave order in electron- and hole-doped iron-based superconductors

Abstract

Based on experimental data on the newly synthesized iron-based superconductors and the relevant band structure calculations, we propose a minimal two-band BCS-type Hamiltonian with the interband Hubbard interaction included. We illustrate that this two-band model is able to capture the essential features of unconventional superconductivity and spin-density-wave (SDW) ordering in this family of materials. It is found that bound electron-hole pairs can be condensed to reveal the SDW ordering for zero and very small doping, while the superconducting ordering emerges at small finite doping, whose pairing symmetry is qualitatively analyzed to be of nodal d-wave. The derived analytical formulas not only give out a nearly symmetric phase diagram for electron and hole doping, but also are likely able to account for existing main experimental results. Moreover, we also derive two important relations for a general two-band model and elaborate how to apply them to determine the band width ratio and the effective interband coupling strength from experimental data. © 2008 Europhysics Letters Association.