Abstract
The nature and origin of electronic nematicity remains a significant challenge in our understanding of the iron-based superconductors. This is particularly evident in the iron chalcogenide, FeSe, where it is currently unclear how the experimentally determined Fermi surface near the M point evolves from having two electron pockets in the tetragonal state, to exhibiting just a single electron pocket in the nematic state. This has posed a major theoretical challenge, which has become known as the missing electron pocket problem of FeSe, and is of central importance if we wish to uncover the secrets behind nematicity and superconductivity in the wider iron-based superconductors. Here, we review the recent experimental work uncovering this nematic Fermi surface of FeSe from both ARPES and STM measurements, as well as current theoretical attempts to explain this missing electron pocket of FeSe, with a particular focus on the emerging importance of incorporating the dxy orbital into theoretical descriptions of the nematic state. Furthermore, we will discuss the consequence this missing electron pocket has on the theoretical understanding of superconductivity in this system and present several remaining open questions and avenues for future research.
1 Introduction
One of the reasons for the huge interest in FeSe over the past decade has been the sense that it holds the key to the wider understanding of the whole Fe-based superconductor family [–]. With its minimalistic crystal structure and alluringly simple band structure in the tetragonal phase, alongside the prevalence of high-quality single crystals, it seemed like the ideal test bed to examine in detail the themes that were emerging in the field: strong orbital-dependent correlations [–], spin fluctuation pairing [, ], and most pertinently for this review, the so-called “nematic” phase [–], where C4 rotational symmetry is spontaneously broken below 90 K.
Spontaneous breaking of rotational symmetry of the underlying lattice due to electronic correlations, the signature of nematic order, is known to occur via many mechanisms, such as via a high field FFLO state, which has been proposed for various materials including FeSe [–]. However, whereas a clear theory for FFLO order exists, the precise microscopic origin of the zero field nematicity in FeSe is still an important open question. Part of the challenging in understanding this nematic state arises due to the formation of antiferromagnetism that often accompanies the onset of the nematic state in many systems, although not FeSe. FeSe is therefore the perfect candidate to uncover the origin of the nematic state, as well as elucidate the effect nematicity has on the superconducting properties of the iron-based superconductors.
The measurement of the momentum-dependence of the superconducting gap in FeSe, between 2016 and 2018, was a particular experimental triumph. The data from both scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) [] and multiple angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements [–] revealed a clear conclusion: the gap structure is extremely anisotropic, and broadly follows the dyz orbital weight around the Fermi surface. While a twofold-symmetric gap is of course symmetry-allowed in an orthorhombic system, the fact that such a strong anisotropy was observed implied that the nematic state must also induce a profound anistropic effect on the Fermi surface of FeSe. However due to significant uncertainty as to the correct description of the low-temperature electronic structure, multiple theoretical explanations for the anisotropic gap structure were proposed [, , –].
A critical question required to understand this anisotropic superconducting gap is how does the nematic state influence the low temperature Fermi surface and electronic structure of FeSe? Given that we have a second-order phase transition [], and that the lattice distortion is only ∼0.2%, the natural assumption, from an ab-initio perspective [], would be that nematicity should only weakly distort the established Fermi surface of the high-temperature tetragonal phase, which ARPES measurements have shown contains two hole pockets and two electron pockets [–]. Yet ARPES measurements in the nematic state have revealed sizeable band shifts, of the order of 10–50 meV [], much larger that what would be predicted from ab-initio calculations [].
Unfortunately, the precise identification of specific parts of the band structure, the nematic energy scales and even the Fermi surface of FeSe has been complicated by the formation of orthorhombic domains upon entering the nematic state. In an orthorhombic crystal, conventional ARPES experiments measure a superposition of two perpendicularly orientated crystallographic domains, which doubles the number of bands observed in the experimental data and creates ambiguity about which bands arise from which domain. For this reason, a recent focal point of research has involved overcoming this technical challenge of orthorhombic domains, for example by applying uniaxial strain [, –] or using NanoARPES [] or scanning tunneling microscopy [, , , ]. The conclusion from these measurements have been unanimous, and have revealed that within the nematic state the Fermi surface of FeSe consists of one hole pocket and one electron pocket.
This finding, however, is very surprising and presents a fundamental theoretical conundrum that is at the heart of understanding the nematic and superconducting properties of FeSe. The bands that generate the two electron pockets observed in the tetragonal state form saddle points at the high symmetry M point close to the Fermi level. It is therefore not trivial to deform or shift these saddle points to lift one of these electron pockets away from the Fermi level upon entering the nematic state. This current theoretical challenge has become known as the “missing electron pocket problem” of FeSe and resolving this problem promises deeper insight into the nematic state, and a wider understanding of superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors.
In this review we will overview the recent experimental and theoretical work uncovering the Fermi surface of FeSe in the nematic state and tackling the missing electron pocket problem. In Section 2 we will briefly introduce the experimental electronic structure of FeSe in the tetragonal state, to use as the foundation for understanding the nematic electronic structure. In Section 3 we will discuss the recent experimental data uncovering the electronic structure in the nematic state, in particular focusing on measurements which overcome the technical problems associated with orthorhombic crystals, including ARPES measurements under uniaxial strain, NanoARPES measurements and Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements. In Section 4 we will review the latest theoretical attempts to resolve this missing electron pocket problem, highlighting the necessity of considering the dxy orbital in the phenomenological description of the nematic state. And in Section 5 we will discuss the consequence the updated Fermi surface has on the understanding of the superconducting properties of FeSe. A summary of the electronic structure and missing electron pocket problem of FeSe is presented in Figure 1.
FIGURE 1
2 Electronic Structure in the Tetragonal State
From both a theoretical and experimental point of view, the electronic structure of the tetragonal state is relatively well understood. Prior to the onset of nematicity at Ts = 90 K, FeSe exhibits tetragonal symmetry with a P4/nmm crystal structure [
The low energy electronic properties are governed by the partially-filled 3dxz, 3dyz and 3dxy orbitals of the two Fe atoms, which in momentum space gives rise to three hole bands around the Γ point and two symmetry-protected saddle point van-Hove singularities around the M point [
FIGURE 2

Electronic structure in the tetragonal state of FeSe. (A) Sketch of the low-energy band structure of a typical P4/nmm Fe-based superconductor along the Γ − M (kz = 0) or Z − A (kz = π) high symmetry points. The colours indicate the dominant orbital character of the bands. (B) Fermi surface in the tetragonal state measured at 100 K close to kz = π (hν = 56 eV). (C) Cut along the Z − A direction (equivalent to Γ − M but at kz = π) direction for the hole bands around the Z point for the same photon energy (hν = 56 eV). (D) Cut along the Z − A direction for the electron bands around the A point. Figures adapted from [
Of the three hole bands, two exist as a C4 symmetric pair exhibiting predominantly dxz and dyz orbital weight (labelled h1 and h2 in Figure 2A) and the third is dominated by dxy orbital character (h3). h1 and h2 would be energy degenerate at the high symmetry point, however spin orbit coupling lifts this degeneracy [
The experimentally measured Fermi surface of FeSe at 100 K (or more precisely, a map of the experimental spectral function at the chemical potential) at approximately kz = π is shown in Figure 2B, revealing a two-hole pocket and two electron pocket Fermi surface. Measurements around the center of the Brillouin zone show that both h1 and h2 cross the chemical potential at 100 K, as shown in Figure 2C. Their band maximas are separated by ∼20 meV due to spin-orbit coupling [
The third dxy hole band, h3, is observed to be much flatter and cross both h1 and h2 at an energy of approximately −50 meV. In most ARPES data sets, this band has a much lower intensity than the h1 and h2 bands, which is a consequence of photoemission-based matrix element effects, which ensures the intensity of photoelectrons originating from dxy states with momentum near |k| = 0 will be suppressed [
Near the corner of the Brillouin zone, both the dxy dominated electron band, connected to vH2, and the dxz/dyz electron band, connecting to vH1, are observed to cross the Fermi level. Here the outer four-fold symmetric electron pocket is dominated by dxy orbital character while the inner pocket is dominated by dxz and dyz orbital weight [
These two sets of electron bands connect to the saddle points which have an energy of approximately vH1 = − 20 meV and vH2 = − 40 meV at the high symmetry point. The exact position of these stationary points, however, are masked by the presence of self-energy interactions which give rise to a broadening of the electronic states around the M point. This broadening is also captured in theoretical simulations involving spin and charge fluctuations [
The ARPES data presented in Figure 2 is taken from our own works [
There are, however, serious quantitative issues with DFT-based calculations, which severely limit its use in describing the low energy properties of FeSe. First, DFT-based calculations overestimate the bandwidth of the Fe 3d-bands by a factor of ∼3 [
Due to the current limitations in ab-initio modelling however, a substantial amount of work has gone into developing quantitatively accurate tight binding models of FeSe [
3 Experimental Evidence for a Missing Electron Pocket in the Nematic State
We now focus on the electronic structure in the nematic state. Here experimental measurements encounter a major challenge. The nematic state is accompanied by a tetragonal to orthorhombic structural transition, at which point multiple orthorhombic domains form in the crystal. It has been identified that these domains are typically on the order of 1–5 μm in size [
FIGURE 3

Summary of ARPES measurements on FeSe in the nematic state. (A) Sketch of a photoemission setup on a twinned crystal, showing equal coverage of both red and blue orthorhombic domains. (B) Fermi surface measured from a measurement on a twinned crystal (hν = 56 eV). Taken from Watson et. al. [
3.1 ARPES Measurements on Twinned Crystals
Multiple ARPES measurements on twinned crystals of FeSe have been reported [
The challenge now lies in identifying which of these pockets, comes from which domain. The two hole pockets can be easily understood as one ellipse from each orthorhombic domain. Measurements of the band dispersion around the hole pocket reveal that the inner hole band (h2) undergoes a Lifshitz transition as a function of temperature and resides below the Fermi level at 10 K, whilst the outer hole band (h1) elongates into an elliptical shape. As all three hole bands can be tracked as a function of temperature from the tetragonal to nematic state, there is little ambiguity about the shape of the hole pocket Fermi surface at low temperatures. However, it is not possible to identify the orientation of the elliptical hole pocket from a single domain, i.e. to identify whether it elongates along the orthorhombic a or b axis simply from these twinned measurements.
For the electron pocket, however, the understanding was less clear, and historically several distinct band structures have been interpreted from nearly identical data sets [
3.2 ARPES Measurements on Detwinned Crystals
Compared to the measurements on twinned data, a much more preferable method to study the Fermi surface of FeSe would be to experimentally overcome the limitation imposed by these orthorhombic domains, and directly measure the electronic structure from a single crystallographic orientation. There are two strategies to overcome the twinning issue faced by ARPES measurements. Either 1) generate a sample with macroscopic ordering of the orthorhombic domains on length scales larger than the photon beam cross section, or 2) make the photon beam much smaller than the size of an orthorhombic domain. It has been known from earlier work on the 122 family of Fe-based superconductors that upon the application of “uniaxial” strain along the Fe-Fe direction, it becomes energetically favourable for a majority of the orthorhombic domains to align along that axis [
The first ARPES measurements on uniaxial strained samples of FeSe were performed in 2014 by Shimojima et. al. [
This finding of only a single electron pocket at the Fermi level was not the expected theoretical result [
Polarised light analysis of the matrix elements of FeSe has also been used to identify the orbital content of the bands. If one uses Linear Vertical polarised light (LV also known as odd, or s-polarised light) and measures through the M point parallel to ky as in Figures 3G–I, only bands with orbital character symmetric to the yz plane of the crystal should be detected [
3.3 Temperature Dependence ARPES Measurements of the Electron Pocket
So far we have only discussed the electronic structure of FeSe at either high temperature (e.g., 100 K, where two electron pockets exists) or low temperature (e.g., 10 K, where only one electron pocket exists). However, a natural question to ask is how does the electronic structure of the electron pockets evolve as a function of temperature? In principle, this data should be able to identify the mechanism responsible for the removal of an electron pocket at the Fermi level. Many temperature dependent studies on twinned samples exist (e.g., [
FIGURE 4

Summary of the temperature dependent ARPES measurements of the electron pocket of FeSe (A–D) measurements from twinned crystals of the electron bands near the A point (hν = 56 eV), as a function of temperature, taken from Watson et. al. [
More recently, technically challenging temperature dependent measurements on detwinned crystals have been accomplished. This highly necessary data ensures that the bands are easier to track than those taken on twinned samples. Huh et. al. [
Yi et. al, [
This evidence for a Lifshitz transition has however been challenged by Cai et. al. [
We conclude by noting that the analysis of data, even for detwinned samples, remains challenging. The kF magnitudes and energy separation of bands are small, challenging the resolution of ARPES instrumentation, and the spectral broadening at high temperatures and deeper energies frustrates the clear identification of the bands at around the M point. While performing the temperature-dependent measurements on detwinned samples, such measurements come with numerous complications, such as temperature-dependent domain populations and spectral contribution from the minority domain. Moreover it is known that samples with over 90% detwinning may experience changes to the underlying electronic properties [
3.4 NanoARPES
There are experimental complications with performing ARPES measurements on uniaxially strained crystals, which may leave doubt as to the validity of the conclusions presented above. First, it is hard to fully exclude if the application of uniaxial strain has actually perturbed the underlying electronic structure of the crystal you are measuring. For example in the tetragonal material Sr2RuO4, uniaxial strain on the order of 1% shifts the position of the vHs by nearly 20 meV [83]. In order to fully support the conclusions from these ARPES measurements on detwinned crystals, complementary techniques must be employed and their results compared. To this end, nanoARPES has also been performed on crystals of FeSe. In these technically demanding measurements, the photon beam is focused to sub-micrometer spatial resolution using a focusing optic close to the sample [84]. The reduction of the spot size comes at the cost of dramatically reducing the photon flux, and thus the energy and angular resolutions are typically relaxed (compared to the earlier high-resolution results presented) in order to have a reasonable signal of photoelectrons. Nevertheless, the technique has been improved over the past 10 years to allow for energy resolution better than 20 meV [85]. This sub-micrometer spot size is smaller than a single orthorhombic domain, allowing for a spatial map of the sample from which the two orthorhombic domains can be distinguished by analysing their differing ARPES spectra, shown as red and blue stripes in Figures 5A,B. Measurements of the Fermi surface and band dispersion around the electron pocket in both domains (Figures 5C–F) reveal an electronic structure totally consistent with that extracted from the ARPES measurements under uniaxial strain. In summary, the nanoARPES results fully support the conclusion of a Fermi surface in the nematic state consisting of a single hole pocket and a single electron pocket.
FIGURE 5

Electronic structure within a single domain without the application of uniaxial strain. (A) Sketch of a NanoARPES measurement, where the beam is focused to have a cross section m. (B) Experimental spatial map of FeSe where the colour corresponds to the orthorhombic domains of FeSe, reproduced from Ref. [
3.5 STM Measurements
An entirely independent method to study the momentum resolved electronic structure within a single domain is to use scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). STM utilises quantum tunnelling, between the surface of a material and an atomically sharp tip, to study the electronic structure on the sub-nanometer scale. Information about the electronic structure can then be extracted in two ways. The first is by studying the differential conductance (dI/dV) to obtain a quantity proportional to the local density of states of the system. The second is to measure quasiparticle interference (QPI), to measure the perturbations to the local density of states generated by the presence of defects such as impurities or atomic vacancies. The wavelength associated with this perturbation contains direct information about the allowed momentum dependent scattering vectors associated with an electronic structure at a constant energy via q = k − k′.
Multiple STM measurements have been reported for FeSe, and information regarding the nematic [
The scattering vector vs. energy dispersion along the qx and qy directions, taken from Ref. [
We note that due to the indirect nature of QPI measurements, there is a degree of interpretation and uncertainty about the assignment of the electronic states and often it is necessary to directly simulate the QPI dispersion from a theoretical assumption of the electronic structure and compare the agreement. Due to the intrinsic broadness of the experimentally measured scattering vectors, this can lead to differing conclusions based on initial assumptions. For example, Kostin et. al. [
As an aside, it is interesting to note that the hole band maxima in 5(h) extends to + 25 meV [
3.6 Points of Contention
While we have so far presented a unified picture of the electronic structure of FeSe and have focused on points where broad agreement is found in the recent literature, historically there have been many points of disagreement surrounding the identification of bands and the nature of the Fermi surface, and there remain some points of contention.
Regarding the hole pockets, an outlying report is a recent claim from laser-ARPES measurements that there is additional splitting, most prominently resulting in two hole pockets at the Fermi level instead of one [93]. The implication is that the Kramer’s degeneracy of the bands is lifted, i.e., that either time-reversal or inversion symmetry is broken. However, it is worth noting that at low photon energies used the kz is not well-defined as the final states are not free electron-like, and the two Fermi contours identified appear to be fairly close to the known Fermi contours at kz = 0 and kz = π. Moreover, synchrotron-ARPES measurements with equally high energy resolution and better angular resolution (due to better definition of kz) do not identify any additional splitting either in the Γ or Z planes [
Regarding the electron pockets, while several groups have now coalesced around the one electron pocket scenario, it has previously been claimed that the ARPES data on twinned crystals is consistent with four features in the EDC at the M point [
4 Theoretical Explanations for the Missing Electron Pocket
As we have discussed, the low energy electronic structure of the tetragonal state of FeSe can be qualitatively understood just from symmetry based arguments regarding the crystal structure and the dxz, dyz and dxy orbitals of the Fe atoms. This band structure can be explained both from the framework of tight-binding modelling [
Within the nematic state, however, this is not the case. Following the previous logic, it would be assumed that the orthorhombic distortion produces a negligible change to the electronic structure, such that two hole pockets and two electron pockets should be present in the nematic state, which as the experimental data has revealed is clearly not the case. It is for this reason that the nematic state is believed to be of electronic or magnetic origin, yet the microscopic details still remain unclear. To address this, there has been a great deal of focus on trying to model how the nematic state evolves the electronic structure of a tetragonal-based model of FeSe, such as that shown in
Figures 6A–Coriginally presented in Ref. [
]. Specifically, theoretical research has attempted to develop a nematic order parameter which.
• Lowers the symmetry from C4 to C2 whilst still preserving mirror symmetry.
• Generates an elliptical hole pocket dominated by dxz orbital weight.
• Removes one of the two electron pockets from the Fermi surface.
FIGURE 6

Limitations of dxz/dyz nematic ordering and origin of the missing electron pocket problem. (A,B,C) Fermi surface and band dispersions around the Z and A point, for a tetragonal state model of the electronic structure from Ref. [
Historically, the first attempt to describe such a mechanism assumed that the C4 symmetry breaking was governed by a lifting of the energy degeneracy of the dxz and dyz orbitals [94].where is the number operator for the xz or yz orbital respectively on atom A and B in a two atom unit cell model of FeSe, and Φ1 is a scalar value used to describe the magnitude of the nematic order, which can in principle be fit to experiment.
This term, referred to in the literature as ferro-orbital ordering, is the simplest form of C4 symmetry breaking possible in this system. It acts in a momentum independent fashion to raise the binding energy of the dxz bands and lower the binding energy of the dyz band, similar to a Jahn-teller distortion [95]. In this scenario, the electronic structure would evolve to produce a Fermi surface as shown in Figure 6D, which despite producing the correct elliptical hole pocket, does not generate the one-electron-pocket Fermi surface determined from experiment.
Following the train of thought that the phenomenology of the nematic state may be captured by a degeneracy breaking of the dxz and dyz states, it was also noted that there are two additional B1g symmetry breaking terms that can be defined and are equally valid in the nematic state [
Here, describes a hopping from an xz or yz orbital on atom A (B) to a xz or yz orbital on atom B (A). These two terms, referred to as d-wave nematic bond order (Φ2) and extended-s wave bond order (Φ3) respectively, in combination with the ferro orbital order (Φ1) are the only possible nematic order parameters that can be defined for the dxz and dyz orbitals up to nearest neighbour hopping [
However, despite this vast amount of literature assuming these three dxz/dyz nematic order parameters as the starting point for theoretical analysis, there lies one big problem. No matter what values of Φ1, Φ2 and Φ3 are chosen, a Fermi surface consisting of one hole pocket and a single electron pocket can not be produced, at least not starting from a quantitatively accurate ARPES-based model of FeSe in the tetragonal state [
There is no experimental evidence for this large second electron pocket in the nematic state, and this discrepancy between theory and experiment has posed a major challenge for our theoretical understanding of nematicity. This is the central origin of the missing electron pocket problem. It has now become clear that a theory of nematicity only involving the physics captured in Eqs 1–3, i.e., nematicity derived solely from dxz and dyz orbital ordering, is insufficient to reproduce our experimental measurements, and additional explanations for this discrepancy have had to be developed.
4.1 Orbital Selective Quasiparticle Weights
The earliest attempt to explain this discrepancy came from attempts to understand local spin fluctuations in tetragonal FeSe, such as those incorporated by DFT + dynamic mean field theory (DMFT). Within this framework it has been shown that the self-consistently determined quasiparticle weight (Z) of the dxy orbital was significantly smaller than the quasiparticle weight of the dxz/yz orbitals [
FIGURE 7

Theoretical attempts to resolve the missing electron pocket problem. (A) Fermi surface of the electron pockets in the nematic state proposed by Christensen et. al. [100]. The spectral function is argued to have an increased decoherence of dxy weight, which is argued would not be observed by experiment and is simulated in (B). (C) Slave-spin calculations from Yu et. al. [
This argument, however, is not supported by experimental measurements. Both in the tetragonal and nematic state, bands of dxy orbital character have been identified, particularly around the M point [
A similar, more phenomenological, approach was later employed by Kreisel et. al. [
This formalism of “orbital selective quasiparticle weights”, i.e., suppressing the contribution of electronic states with dxz and dxy orbital character in the nematic state, has received the most traction out of the potential theories of the missing electron pocket of FeSe. It has been claimed to be in agreement with STM and QPI measurements of the electronic structure [
In our view, however, the success of this approach is due to accurately generating a Fermi surface of FeSe that has the correct one hole pocket and one electron pocket structure, and not necessarily due to the underlying assumptions behind the ansatz of highly anisotropic quasiparticle weights. Indeed, a change in spectral weight, on the order of magnitude as proposed by this theory, is something that should be directly observable with ARPES based measurements. In the tetragonal state, the quasiparticle weight of the dxz and dyz orbitals must be equivalent by symmetry, and thus, under this assumption, there would be a strong sudden suppression of the dxz dominated bands upon entering the nematic state. This is not what is observed in experimental measurements, bands of dxz dominated weight are detected at all temperatures within the nematic state, with no obvious reduction to the spectral intensity [
4.2 E-Type Order Parameters
More recent attempts to explain the missing electron pocket have gone back to studying the single-particle physics of FeSe. A recent DFT + U calculation by Long et. al. [106], involving symmetry preconditioned wavefunctions, found a lower energy configuration of FeSe by breaking the E symmetry via a multipole nematic order, as shown in Figure 7F. This has been further studied by Yamada et. al. [107]. This symmetry breaking essentially generates a tetragonal to monolclinic distortion by generating an overlap between a dxy orbital and either dxz or dyz orbital, which as a bi-product also breaks C4 symmetry. This consequentially generates a hybridisation between the dxy dominated electron band and either the dxz or dyz dominated electron band and was shown to produce a one-electron pocket Fermi surface within a certain parameter regime.
A stable E-type nematic order parameter was equally identified, within a tight-binding framework using parameters extracted from LDA-based calculations, by Steffensen et. al. [108]. Here it was shown that including nearest-neighbour Coloumbic repulsion, the self consistently calculated mean-field nematic order parameter that had the largest magnitude was an inter-orbital term hybridising the dxz and dxy orbitals (or dyz and dxy). This order parameter was equally able to generate a one-electron pocket Fermi surface, via a similar hybridisation mechanism as the DFT-based calculation as shown in Figures 7G,H.
This appears to suggest that long-range Coulomb repulsion can stabilise a C4 symmetry breaking ground state in FeSe. However, in this scenario, the E-type order parameter would also reduce the crystal symmetry of FeSe from tetragonal to monoclinic. Currently, the experimental evidence suggesting a tetragonal to monoclinic structural distortion in FeSe is lacking. However, upon % Te doping of the Se sites, a tetragonal to monoclinic transition has been realised [109]. This could hint that the known monoclinic structure of FeTe is actually stabilised by electron interactions [110], however whether this mechanism can describe the physics of FeSe will require further experimental investigation.
4.3 Non-Local dxy Nematic Order Parameter
When considering the relevant dxz, dyz and dxy orbitals of tetragonal FeSe within a tight binding framework, there are only four order parameters that can be defined which break the B1g rotational symmetry of the material within a single unit cell. The first three, described in Eqs 1–3, involve breaking the degeneracy of the dxz and dyz orbitals. However, a fourth equally valid order parameter involving the dxy orbital can also be defined as,
This term acts as a hopping anisotropy for nearest neighbour dxy orbitals, in a similar manner as Eq. 2 for the dxz and dyz orbitals. It was initially defined by Fernandes et. al. [
In Ref. [
However, in order to get quantitative agreement with the Fermi surface and low-energy electronic structure using Eqs 1–4, it was observed that the splitting of the dxy van-Hove singularity must be asymmetric. Specifically, ARPES measurements as a function of temperature find that the lower part of the dxy vHs around the M point remains approximately at the same energy [
4.4 Importance of the dxy Orbital in Theories of Nematicity
Each theory proposed to describe the low-energy electronic structure of the nematic state of FeSe has it is relative strengths and weaknesses. Nevertheless a common theme in these different attempts has begun to emerge. In all methods used to theoretically remove an electron pocket from the Fermi level, it has been necessary to modify the dxy orbital in some way. Whether that’s suppressing its contribution via quasiparticle weights, gapping out the dxy band via hybridisation, or rigidly shifting the dxy band above the Fermi level. What we can gleam from this analysis therefore, is that we should view the nematic state in a new light, not originating from a specific orbital ordering mechanism of dxz and dyz states, but rather as a symmetry breaking phenomena which couples to every orbital at the Fermi level. Further theoretical investigations are required in order to elucidate the origin of the nematic state. The importance of the dxy orbital has also been recently noted from NMR measurements [116] and angular dependent magnetoresistance [117].
5 Consequences for the Superconducting Gap Symmetry
One of the most striking properties of FeSe is it is highly tuneable superconducting transition temperature, ranging from 8 K in bulk crystals [
From an experimental point of view, the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap of bulk FeSe, has been extensively determined from ARPES [
In this section, we will review the experimental data of the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap, particularly from ARPES measurements, and discuss the theoretical consequence the updated Fermi surface topology has on the theoretical understanding of superconductivity in FeSe.
5.1 Experimental Measurements of the Superconducting Gap
The key findings from the multiple ARPES and QPI measurements are presented in Figure 8. For the gap situated on the hole pocket, a highly two-fold anisotropic momentum dependence of the gap was measured, as shown from QPI analysis by Sprau et. al. in Figure 8A. The angular dependence of the hole pocket using ARPES was first reported in 2016 by Xu et. al. [
FIGURE 8

Experimental measurements of the superconducting gap of FeSe. (A) Angular dependence of the gap around the hole pocket as extracted from BQPI measurements from Sprau et. al. [
Hashimoto et. al. additionally claimed that the gap structure produced a different behaviour with and without the presence of uniaxial strain. Without strain, they observed a cos (8θ) behaviour [
As for the electron pocket, the angular dependence of the gap from QPI measurements is presented in Figure 8G. Revealing a particularly constant gap magnitude across the length of the ellipse, which quickly decays towards zero at the tips of the pocket. This is where the orbital character of the pocket transforms from predominantly dyz weight to dxy weight. ARPES measurements by Kushnirenko et. al [
This extremely aniostropic gap structure for both the hole and electron pocket raises a question as to whether FeSe is a nodal or nodeless superconductor, which could have a profound effect on our understanding of the gap symmetry in this system. For example, neglecting the electron pocket, it was argued by Hashimoto et. al. that a nodal gap structure of the hole pocket would be consistent with p-wave superconductivity [
5.2 Theoretical Understanding of the Superconducting Gap
The most striking result from the experimentally determined gap structure of FeSe, is the clear realisation that the size of the superconducting gap at the Fermi level is correlated with the magnitude of dyz orbital weight. This tells us that the superconducting pairing mechanism is sensitive to orbital character, and is evidence for superconductivity mediated by Coulomb interactions, such as via a spin-fluctuation mechanism of superconductivity.
Although the idea that spin fluctuations govern the Cooper pairing in the iron-based superconductors, was originally proposed back when superconductivity in these materials were first discovered [
Indeed many theoretical simulations of the angular dependence of the superconducting gap in FeSe have been performed [
Initially, this was a confusing result, but with hindsight it is not that surprising. The presence of an extra electron pocket in the simulations would naturally influence the superconducting pairing. Due to the local nature of Coulomb repulsion, the pairing between electrons in real space will be largest for electrons located on the same atom in the same orbital. It follows from this argument, that the pairing of electrons in momentum space would be favoured if a spin scattering process occurs which couples electronic states of the same orbital character. In the nematic state of FeSe, spin-fluctuations are strongest when connecting the hole and electron pocket [
FIGURE 9

Theoretical simulation of the momentum dependence of the superconducting gap from Rhodes et. al. [
It has now been shown that irregardless of the theoretical mechanism employed to remove this second electron pocket from the superconducting calculation, whether that’s orbital selective quasiparticle weights [
This is a remarkable finding, not only does it further support the theory of spin-fluctuation mediated superconductivity in the iron-based superconductors, but it provides another independent piece of evidence for a single electron pocket around the M point in the nematic state of FeSe. This result highlights the incredible importance of correctly accounting for the missing electron pocket in the nematic state, as without it we can not begin to understand the superconducting properties of this material.
6 Discussion
This review has been wholly focused on what at first glance might appear to be an esoteric point of discussion, namely, the characterisation and modelling of the Fermi surface of FeSe in the nematic state. However, we propose that after the hundreds of papers and many years of debate and controversy on the subject, that there are very important conclusions to be drawn, which have wider implications for our understanding of both nematic ordering and superconductivity across the wider family of Fe-based superconductors.
The first conclusions surround nematic ordering, where the results establish.
• That nematic ordering affects all bands at the Fermi level, with the dxy derived bands playing as significant a role as the dxz and dyz derived bands.
• That nematic order manifests in the band structure through a combination of all allowed symmetry-breaking terms, primarily anisotropic hopping terms, and cannot be exclusively treated by on-site orbital ordering.
• That nematic ordering does not cause a minor perturbation of the electronic structure, but can lift an entire electron pocket away from the Fermi level.
We believe that these conclusions should be widely applicable across other Fe-based superconductors. While these conclusions do not yet constitute a self-consistent microscopic mechanism of nematic order, they do present strong constraints to any proposed microscopic models.
The second set of conclusions relate to the superconductivity:
• The superconducting gap of FeSe is remarkably anisotropic.
• The fact that the gap follows the dyz orbital character is strong experimental evidence that the pairing mechanism is sensitive to local orbital degrees of freedom, i.e., for spin-fluctuation pairing.
• The superconducting gap of FeSe can be naturally reproduced by spin-fluctuation calculations assuming only one electron pocket at the Fermi level.
There has long been a consensus that the superconductivity in the Fe-based systems is mediated by spin-fluctuation pairing, but we argue that FeSe provides some of the most direct experimental support for this. As long as one starts with the one-electron pocket Fermi surface, the further details of the calculation are not critical, because in this scenario the only orbital component which is present on both the hole and electron pockets is the dyz character, and so this channel dominates the structure of the gap. The success of this result justifies the use of similar spin-fluctuation pairing calculations on other Fe-based superconductors, although we emphasize the importance of starting with an experimentally accurate Fermi surface.
Importantly this insight has only been unlocked once we understand that the true Fermi surface of FeSe consists of one hole pocket and a single electron pocket, rather than one hole pocket and two electron pockets as was initially believed. However, despite us emphasizing how the one electron pocket scenario is key to the understanding of the unusual properties of FeSe, we believe it is still an open question as to what mechanism really drives this modification of the electronic structure. The models of describing the electronic structure in the nematic state have grown more accurate and more sophisticated, yet there is a lack of intuition about what is the real driving force for the evolution of the electronic structure that we observe. In our opinion it remains a delicate and important open question, but solving it in the case of FeSe could unlock a wider understanding of nematicity in the iron-based superconductors.
Additionally, whilst the experimental challenge imposed by measuring the electronic structure of orthorhombic crystals has always been present, the focus on an answer to the origin of nematicity in FeSe has particularly emphasised the continued development of detwinning methods in ARPES [
The anisotropic Fermi surface of the nematic state also has important consequences for the understanding of the spin excitation spectrum of FeSe, which has also been shown to be highly anisotropic [
7 Outlook and Conclusion
With an outlook to the future, there are still multiple open questions regarding the missing electron pocket problem, nematicity and superconductivity in FeSe. Firstly, can we experimentally identify the exact conditions when one of the electron pockets in the tetragaonal state appears or disappears from the Fermi level? So far, this has remained slightly ambiguous, with some experiments claiming a gradual disappearance of the electron pocket [
Another open question is how the missing electron pocket scenario can be reconciled with the QPI measurements as a function of sulphur doping [
Finally, an important avenue of research is how does the momentum-dependence of the superconducting gap change as nematicity is supressed, e.g., as a function of sulphur doping. The momentum dependence of the superconducting gap for undoped FeSe has now been extensively characterised, and theoretical predictions of how the gap should evolve as nematicity is suppressed have been proposed [
As the study of the Fe-based superconductors has matured since they exploded onto the scene in 2008, the emphasis has shifted from basic characterisation of a wide variety of superconducting families, to detailed examination of particular cases. FeSe has been the subject of particularly focused attention, and the effort has been worthwhile, with two remarkable results emerging: the one electron pocket Fermi surface, and the highly anisotropic superconducting gap structure. We have argued that these two, taken together, provide strong evidence for spin-fluctuation pairing in FeSe, which is presumably applicable to the wider family of Fe-based superconductors. However, the extent to which the one electron pocket phenomenology may be applicable to the nematic phase of other material systems is a large open question; as well as FeSe1−xSx and FeSe1−xTex, we propose NaFeAs [125] as a candidate worthy of re-examination. Thus as this review of FeSe concludes, we propose it is time to take the experimental and theoretical tools developed for case of FeSe, and apply them with renewed vigour to the wider field of Fe-based superconductors.
Statements
Author contributions
All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.
Funding
LR acknowledges funding from the royal commission for the exhibition for the 1851.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Publisher’s note
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Summary
Keywords
FeSe, ARPES, electronic structure, superconductivity, nematicity, strong correlations, iron based superconductors
Citation
Rhodes LC, Eschrig M, Kim TK and Watson MD (2022) FeSe and the Missing Electron Pocket Problem. Front. Phys. 10:859017. doi: 10.3389/fphy.2022.859017
Received
20 January 2022
Accepted
07 March 2022
Published
09 May 2022
Volume
10 - 2022
Edited by
Anna Böhmer, Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
Reviewed by
Ming Yi, Rice University, United States
Konrad Jerzy Kapcia, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
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Copyright
© 2022 Rhodes , Eschrig , Kim and Watson .
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Luke C. Rhodes , lcr23@st-andrews.ac.uk
This article was submitted to Condensed Matter Physics, a section of the journal Frontiers in Physics
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