Quasiparticle interference in an iron-based superconductor

Abstract

We develop a model for the effect of a magnetic field on quasiparticle interference in an iron-based superconductor. Recently, scanning tunneling experiments have been performed on Fe(Se, Te) to determine the relative sign of the superconducting gap from the magnetic-field dependence of quasiparticle scattering amplitudes. Using a simple two-band BCS model, we study three different cases of scattering in a spin-split spectrum. The dominant effect of a magnetic field in iron-based superconductors is caused by the Pauli limiting of conduction electrons. Thereby time-reversal odd scattering is induced which enhances the sign-preserving and depresses the sign-reversing peaks in the quasiparticle interference patterns.