Observation of Distinct Spatial Distributions of the Zero and Nonzero Energy Vortex Modes in <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mo stretchy="false">(</mml:mo><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Li</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0.84</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:msub><mml:mrow><mml:mi>Fe</mml:mi></mml:mrow><mml:mrow><mml:mn>0.16</mml:mn></mml:mrow></mml:msub><mml:mo stretchy="false">)</mml:mo><mml:mi>OHFeSe</mml:mi></mml:math>
Tianzhen Zhang, Wei-Cheng Bao, Chen Chen, Dong Li, Zouyuwei Lu, Yining Hu, Wentao Yang, Dongming Zhao, Y. J. Yan, Xiaoli Dong, Qiang-Hua Wang, Tong Zhang, Donglai Feng
Abstract
The energy and spatial distributions of vortex bound state in superconductors carry important information about superconducting pairing and the electronic structure. Although discrete vortex states, and sometimes a zero energy mode, had been observed in several iron-based superconductors, their spatial properties are rarely explored. In this study, we used low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy to measure the vortex state of (Li,Fe)OHFeSe with high spatial resolution. We found that the nonzero energy states display clear spatial oscillations with a period corresponding to bulk Fermi wavelength; while in contrast, the zero energy mode does not show such oscillation, which suggests its distinct electronic origin. Furthermore, the oscillations of positive and negative energy states near E_{F} are found to be clearly out of phase. Based on a two-band model calculation, we show that our observation is more consistent with an s_{++} wave pairing in the bulk of (Li, Fe)OHFeSe, and superconducting topological states on the surface.