title: Theory of point contact spectroscopy in correlated materials.
abstract: We developed a microscopic theory for the point-contact conductance between a metallic electrode and a strongly correlated material using the nonequilibrium Schwinger-Kadanoff-Baym-Keldysh formalism. We explicitly show that, in the classical limit, contact size shorter than the scattering length of the system, the microscopic model can be reduced to an effective model with transfer matrix elements that conserve in-plane momentum. We found that the conductance dI/dV is proportional to the effective density of states, that is, the integrated single-particle spectral function A(ω = eV) over the whole Brillouin zone. From this conclusion, we are able to establish the conditions under which a non-Fermi liquid metal exhibits a zero-bias peak in the conductance. This finding is discussed in the context of recent point-contact spectroscopy on the iron pnictides and chalcogenides, which has exhibited a zero-bias conductance peak.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801.
authors.forename: Wei-Cheng
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801.
authors.forename: Wan Kyu
authors.initials: WK
authors.lastname: Park
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801.
authors.forename: Hamood Z
authors.initials: HZ
authors.lastname: Arham
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801 lhgreene@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Laura H
authors.initials: LH
authors.lastname: Greene
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801.
authors.forename: Philip
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Phillips
keywords: correlated electron materials; electronic nematicity; iron-based superconductors; non-Fermi liquid; point contact spectroscopy