Electron doping evolution of the magnetic excitations in NaFe1 xCoxAs

We use time-of-flight (TOF) inelastic neutron scattering (INS) spectroscopy to investigate the doping dependence of magnetic excitations across the phase diagram of NaFe1-xCoxAs with x = 0, 0.0175, 0.0215, 0.05, and 0.11. The effect of electron-doping by partially substituting Fe by Co is to form resonances that couple with superconductivity, broaden and suppress low energy (E 80 meV) spin excitations compared with spin waves in undoped NaFeAs. However, high energy (E > 80 meV) spin excitations are weakly Co-doping dependent. Integration of the local spin dynamic susceptibility "(!) of NaFe1-xCoxAs reveals a total fluctuating moment of 3.6 μ2 B/Fe and a small but systematic reduction with electron doping. The presence of a large spin gap in the Cooverdoped nonsuperconducting NaFe0.89Co0.11As suggests that Fermi surface nesting is responsible for low-energy spin excitations. These results parallel Ni-doping evolution of spin excitations in BaFe2-xNixAs2, confirming the notion that low-energy spin excitations coupling with itinerant electrons are important for superconductivity, while weakly doping dependent high-energy spin excitations result from localized moments.