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    Two distinct superconducting phases in LiFeAs
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2016) Nag, P.K.; Schlegel, R.; Baumann, D.; Grafe, H.-J.; Beck, R.; Wurmehl, S.; Büchner, B.; Hess, C.
    A non-trivial temperature evolution of superconductivity including a temperature-induced phase transition between two superconducting phases or even a time-reversal symmetry breaking order parameter is in principle expected in multiband superconductors such as iron-pnictides. Here we present scanning tunnelling spectroscopy data of LiFeAs which reveal two distinct superconducting phases: at = 18 K a partial superconducting gap opens, evidenced by subtle, yet clear features in the tunnelling spectra, i.e. particle-hole symmetric coherence peak and dip-hump structures. At Tc = 16 K, these features substantiate dramatically and become characteristic of full superconductivity. Remarkably, the distance between the dip-hump structures and the coherence peaks remains practically constant in the whole temperature regimeT ≤ . This rules out the connection of the dip-hump structures to an antiferromagnetic spin resonance.
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    Signatures of a magnetic field-induced unconventional nematic liquid in the frustrated and anisotropic spin-chain cuprate LiCuSbO4
    (London : Nature Publishing Group, 2017) Grafe, H.-J.; Nishimoto, S.; Iakovleva, M.; Vavilova, E.; Spillecke, L.; Alfonsov, A.; Sturza, M.-I.; Wurmehl, S.; Nojiri, H.; Rosner, H.; Richter, J.; Rößler, U.K.; Drechsler, S.-L.; Kataev, V.; Büchner, B.
    Modern theories of quantum magnetism predict exotic multipolar states in weakly interacting strongly frustrated spin-1/2 Heisenberg chains with ferromagnetic nearest neighbor (NN) inchain exchange in high magnetic fields. Experimentally these states remained elusive so far. Here we report strong indications of a magnetic field-induced nematic liquid arising above a field of ~13 T in the edge-sharing chain cuprate LiSbCuO4 ≡ LiCuSbO4. This interpretation is based on the observation of a field induced spin-gap in the measurements of the 7Li NMR spin relaxation rate T1−1 as well as a contrasting field-dependent power-law behavior of T1−1 vs. T and is further supported by static magnetization and ESR data. An underlying theoretical microscopic approach favoring a nematic scenario is based essentially on the NN XYZ exchange anisotropy within a model for frustrated spin-1/2 chains and is investigated by the DMRG technique. The employed exchange parameters are justified qualitatively by electronic structure calculations for LiCuSbO4.