Elementary Excitations due to Orbital Degrees of Freedom in Iron Based Superconductors

Abstract

One central issue under intense debate in the study of the iron based superconductors is the origin of the structural phase transition that changes the crystal lattice symmetry from tetragonal to orthorhombic. This structural phase transition, occurring universally in almost every family of the iron-based superconductors, breaks the lattice $C_4$ rotational symmetry and results in an anisotropy in a number of physical properties. Due to the unique topology of the Fermi surface, both orbital- and spin-based scenarios have been proposed as the driving force. In this review, we focus on theories from the orbital-based scenario and discuss several related experiments. It is pointed out that although both scenarios lead to the same macroscopic phases and are not distinguishable in bulk measurements of the thermodynamic properties, the elementary excitations could be fundamentally different, and provide us with the possibility to resolve this long-standing debate between orbital- and spin-based theories.