Electronic vortex structure of Fe-based superconductors: Application to LiFeAs

Detailed tunneling spectroscopy of vortex core states can provide important insight to the momentum structure of the superconducting order parameter. We present a theoretical study of vortex bound states in iron-based superconductors by use of a realistic five-band model relevant to these systems, and superconductivity stabilized by spin-fluctuation-generated pairing vertices yielding an s± gap structure. The computed local density of states agrees remarkably well with both the bias dependence of the local conductance and the spatial structure of the low-bias conductance as obtained by scanning tunneling microscopy measurements on LiFeAs [T. Hanaguri, Phys. Rev. B 85, 214505 (2012)PRBMDO1098-012110.1103/PhysRevB.85.214505].