Signature of the Leggett mode in the A1g Raman response: From MgB2 to iron-based superconductors

The Raman response in a superconductor is a powerful probe to investigate the symmetry of the superconducting gap. Here we show that in a multiband superconductor it also offers the unique opportunity to establish whether the driving pairing interaction has an intraband or interband character. In the model with one hole and one electron band the full gauge-invariant Raman response, obtained by accounting for the fluctuations of both the density and superconducting phase degrees of freedom, is always dominated by the Leggett mode, regardless its nature. However, while in the case of intraband-dominated pairing the Josephson-like phase fluctuations of the two condensates identify a well-defined peak, as observed in MgB2, for dominant interband pairing the Leggett resonance is pushed at twice the largest gap, resembling apparently a pair-breaking peak. The latter case is in very good agreement with experimental data in iron-based superconductors, suggesting that an interband pairing mechanism should be at play in these systems. These results have also interesting implications for the nonlinear optical response probed by means of intense THz fields.