Phonons of Fe-based superconductor Ca10Pt4As8(Fe1-xPtxAs)(10)

Abstract

We report the results of inelastic neutron scattering measurements on particular phonons of a superconducting (SC) Ca10Pt4As8(Fe1-xPtxAs)(10) with the onset transition temperature T-c similar to 33 K to investigate mainly what roles orbital fluctuation plays in Cooper pairing, where we observed a slight softening of the in-plane transverse acoustic mode corresponding to the elastic constant C-66. This softening starts at temperature T well above the SC T-c, as T decreases. An anomalously strong change of the scattering intensity of in-plane optical modes was observed at the M point of the pseudo tetragonal reciprocal space in the range of 35 < omega < 40 meV with decreasing T from far above T-c. Because this. region mainly corresponds to the motion of Fe and As atoms in the FeAs planes, the finding presents information on the coupling between the orbital fluctuation of Fe 3d electrons and the lattice system, useful for studying the possible roles of orbital fluctuation in the pairing mechanism and/or the appearance of the so-called nematic phase.