Abstract

Experiments on the iron-pnictide superconductors appear to show some materials where the ground state is fully gapped, and others where low-energy excitations dominate, possibly indicative of gap nodes. Within the framework of a five-orbital spin fluctuation theory for these systems, we discuss how changes in the doping, the electronic structure or interaction parameters can tune the system from a fully gapped to a nodal sign-changing gap with s-wave (A(1g)) symmetry (s(+/-)). In particular, we focus on the role of the hole pocket at the (pi, pi) point of the unfolded Brillouin zone, identified as crucial to the pairing by Kuroki et al (2009 Phys. Rev. B 79 224511), and show that its presence leads to additional nesting of hole and electron pockets, which stabilizes the isotropic s(+/-) state. The pocket’s contribution to the pairing can be tuned by doping, surface effects and by changes in interaction parameters, which we examine. Analytic expressions for orbital pairing vertices calculated within the random phase approximation (RPA) fluctuation exchange approximation allow us to draw connections between aspects of the electronic structure, interaction parameters and the form of the superconducting gap.