Abstract
In iron-based superconductors, the (0, pi) or (pi, 0) nematicity, which describes an electronic anisotropy with a four-fold symmetry breaking, is well established and believed to be important for understanding the superconducting mechanism. However, how exactly such a nematic order observed in the normal state can be related to the superconducting pairing is still elusive. Here, by performing angular-dependent in-plane magnetoresistivity using ultra-thin flakes in the steep superconducting transition region, we unveil a nematic superconducting order along the (pi, pi) direction in electron-doped BaFe2 - x Ni x As2 from under-doped to heavily overdoped regimes with x = 0.065-0.18. It shows superconducting gap maxima along the (pi, pi) direction rotated by 45 degrees from the nematicity along (0, pi) or (pi, 0) direction observed in the normal state. A similar (pi, pi)-type nematicity is also observed in the under-doped and optimally doped hole-type Ba1 - y K y Fe2As2, with y = 0.2-0.5. These results suggest that the (pi, pi) nematic superconducting order is a universal feature that needs to be taken into account in the superconducting pairing mechanism in iron-based superconductors.