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In-plane electronic anisotropy of differently doped AFe2As2 (A = Ba, Eu) superconductors

Subject Area Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
Term from 2010 to 2018
Project identifier Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 167646007
 
Final Report Year 2020

Final Report Abstract

We studied the interplay of magnetic and nematic order, superconductivity and the collapsed tetragonal state in the prototypical AFe2As2 (A=Eu, Ca) based iron-pnictides. For EuFe2As2 we found little influence of Eu2+ moments on the electronic properties. However, already very small in-plane magnetic fields act on the configuration of twin domains arising below the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase transition. We found a persistent detwinning by small fields applied below the magnetic ordering of Eu2+ moments which could be quantitatively explained by a minuscule biquadratic coupling between the Eu and Fe magnetic moments, which tries to make the two as parallel as possible. Furthermore, the nature of the collapsed tetragonal state was investigated for Ca0.8Sr0.2Fe2As2. Utilizing synchrotron scattering and spectroscopy for various chemically pressurized single crystals, we found the Fe moments persisting despite the formation of interlayer As–As bonds implying that the Fe-As bond geometry is critical for stabilizing magnetism. Comparison with DFT calculations led us to conclude that the collapsed tetragonal phase is not primarily driven by forming an As-As bond and is instead a nonmagnetic and strongly covalent phase that should be distinguished from other magnetic or paramagnetic phases, even if under certain conditions they have relatively similar lattice parameters.

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