Twenty two years after the opening of the field of high temperature superconductivity by Georg Bednorz and Alex Müller a new addition to this class of materials, namely the iron-pnictides and chalcogenides, perplexes the scientific community. Making use of the accumulated wisdom, a great deal of their physics has been “mapped” in record time using all available measurement techniques. Among these, specific-heat has been proven a powerful and unique technique in the study of physical properties of bulk materials, especially of superconductors. We report here specific-heat measurements on the nearly optimally doped iconic iron-arsenide superconductor Ba0.59K0.41Fe2As2. We use a new method, based on direct comparisons of α-model expressions for the electron contribution with the measured total specific heat, to extract the electron contribution. It circumvents the need in the conventional analyses for an independent, necessarily approximate, determination of the lattice contribution, which is subtracted from the total to obtain the electron contribution, and it eliminates the consequent uncertainties in the electron contribution. For Ba0.59K0.41Fe2As2 the electron density of states is comprised of contributions from two electron bands with superconducting-state energy gaps differing by a factor 3.8, with 77% coming from the band with the larger gap. The vortex-state specific heat suggests nodeless gaps. Comparison of the normal-state density of states with band-structure calculations shows an extraordinarily large effective mass enhancement, for which there is no precedent in simple metals and no theoretical explanation.

We report specific-heat measurements on Ba0.59K0.41Fe2As2, one of a family of high-Tc Fe-pnictide superconductors for which the pairing interaction is of special interest. We use a new method, based on direct comparisons of α-model expressions for the electron contribution with the measured total specific heat, to extract the electron contribution. It circumvents the need in the conventional analyses for an independent, necessarily approximate, determination of the lattice contribution, which is subtracted from the total to obtain the electron contribution, and it eliminates the consequent uncertainties in the electron contribution. For Ba0.59K0.41Fe2As2 the electron density of states is comprised of contributions from two electron bands with superconducting-state energy gaps differing by a factor 3.8, with 77% coming from the band with the larger gap. The vortex-state specific heat suggests nodeless gaps. Comparison of the normal-state density of states with band-structure calculations shows an extraordinarily large effective mass enhancement, for which there is no precedent in simple metals and no theoretical explanation.

Topological insulators host spin-polarized surface states born out of the energetic inversion of bulk bands driven by the spin-orbit interaction. Here we discover previously unidentified consequences of band-inversion on the surface electronic structure of the topological insulator Bi₂Se₃. By performing simultaneous spin, time, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we map the spin-polarized unoccupied electronic structure and identify a surface resonance which is distinct from the topological surface state, yet shares a similar spin-orbital texture with opposite orientation. Its momentum dependence and spin texture imply an intimate connection with the topological surface state. Calculations show these two distinct states can emerge from trivial Rashba-like states that change topology through the spin-orbit-induced band inversion. This work thus provides a compelling view of the coevolution of surface states through a topological phase transition, enabled by the unique capability of directly measuring the spin-polarized unoccupied band structure.