Suppression of nematicity by tensile strain in multilayer FeSe/SrTiO3 films

Abstract

The nematicity in multilayer FeSe/SrTiO3 films has been previously suggested to be enhanced with decreasing film thickness. Motivated by this, there have been many discussions about the competing relation between nematicity and superconductivity. However, the criterion for determining the nematicity strength in FeSe remains highly debated. The understanding of nematicity as well as its relation to superconductivity in FeSe films is therefore still controversial. Here, we fabricate multilayer FeSe/SrTiO3 films using molecular beam epitaxy and study the nematic properties by combining angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, Se77 nuclear magnetic resonance, and scanning tunneling microscopy experiments. We unambiguously demonstrate that, near the interface, the nematic order is suppressed by the SrTiO3-induced tensile strain; in the bulk region further away from the interface, the strength of nematicity recovers to the bulk value. Our results not only solve the recent controversy about the nematicity in multilayer FeSe films, but also offer valuable insights into the relationship between nematicity and superconductivity.