Iron based superconductors: Pnictides versus chalcogenides

We present a brief review of the present day situation with studies of high-temperature superconductivity in iron pnictides and chalcogenides. Recent discovery of superconductivity with T-c > 30 K in A(x)Fe(2-)x(/2)Se(2) (A=K, Cs, TI, etc) represents the major new step in the development of new concepts in the physics of Fe-based high-temperature superconductors. We compare LDA and ARPES data on the band structure and Fermi surfaces of novel superconductors and those of the previously studied FeAs superconductors, especially isostructural 122-superconductors like BaFe2As2. It appears that electronic structure of new superconductors is rather different from that of FeAs 122-systems. In particular, no nesting properties of electron and hole-like Fermi surfaces is observed, casting doubts on most popular theoretical schemes of Cooper pairing for these systems. Doping of novel materials is extremely important as a number of topological transitions of Fermi surface near the Gamma point in the Brillouin zone are observed for different doping levels. The discovery of Fe vacancies ordering and antiferromagnetic (AFM) ordering at pretty high temperatures (T-N > 500 K), much exceeding superconducting T-c makes these systems unique antiferromagnetic superconductors with highest T-N observed up to now. This poses very difficult problems for theoretical understanding of superconductivity. We discuss the role of both vacancies and AFM ordering in transformations of band structure and Fermi surfaces, as well as their importance for superconductivity. In particular, we show that system remains metallic with unfolded Fermi surfaces quite similar to that in paramagnetic state. Superconducting transition temperature T-c of new superconductors is discussed within the general picture of superconductivity in multiple band systems. It is demonstrated that both in FeAs-superconductors and in new FeSe-systems the value of Tc correlates with the value of the total density of states (DOSs) at the Fermi level. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.