Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides

Patz, Aaron; Li, Tianqi; Ran, Sheng; Fernandes, Rafael M.; Schmalian, Joerg; Budko, Sergey L.; Canfield, Paul C.; Perakis, Ilias E.; Wang, Jigang

doi:10.1038/ncomms4229

Title: Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides

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Abstract

Many of the iron pnictides have strongly anisotropic normal-state characteristics, important for the exotic magnetic and superconducting behaviour these materials exhibit. Y et, the origin of the observed anisotropy is unclear. Electronically driven nematicity has been suggested, but distinguishing this as an independent degree of freedom from magnetic and structural orders is difficult, as these couple together to break the same tetragonal symmetry. Here we use time-resolved polarimetry to reveal critical nematic fluctuations in unstrained Ba(Fe_1-x Co_x)₂As₂. The femtosecond anisotropic response, which arises from the two-fold in-plane anisotropy of the complex refractive index, displays a characteristic two-step recovery absent in the isotropic response. The fast recovery appears only in the magnetically ordered state, whereas the slow one persists in the paramagnetic phase with a critical divergence approaching the structural transition temperature. The dynamics also reveal a gigantic magnetoelastic coupling that far exceeds electron–spin and electron–phonon couplings, opposite to conventional magnetic metals.

Authors:

Patz, Aaron ^[1]; Li, Tianqi ^[1]; Ran, Sheng ^[1]; Fernandes, Rafael M. ^[2]; Schmalian, Joerg ^[3]; Budko, Sergey L. ^[1]; Canfield, Paul C. ^[1]; Perakis, Ilias E. ^[4]; Wang, Jigang ^[1]

Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States); Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States)
Karlsruhe Inst. of Technology (KIT) (Germany)
Univ. of Crete, Heraklion (Greece); Foundation for Research and Technology, Hellas (Greece)

Publication Date:: Thu Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2014

Research Org.:: Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC)

OSTI Identifier:: 1139987

Report Number(s):: IS-J 8281
Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723

DOE Contract Number:: DE-AC02-07CH11358

Resource Type:: Journal Article

Journal Name:: Nature Communications

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Volume: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2041-1723

Publisher:: Nature Publishing Group

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 36 MATERIALS SCIENCE; physical sciences; condensed matter

Citation Formats


                    Patz, Aaron, Li, Tianqi, Ran, Sheng, Fernandes, Rafael M., Schmalian, Joerg, Budko, Sergey L., Canfield, Paul C., Perakis, Ilias E., and Wang, Jigang. Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides.  United States: N. p., 2014. 
        Web.  doi:10.1038/ncomms4229.

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                    Patz, Aaron, Li, Tianqi, Ran, Sheng, Fernandes, Rafael M., Schmalian, Joerg, Budko, Sergey L., Canfield, Paul C., Perakis, Ilias E., & Wang, Jigang. Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4229

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                    Patz, Aaron, Li, Tianqi, Ran, Sheng, Fernandes, Rafael M., Schmalian, Joerg, Budko, Sergey L., Canfield, Paul C., Perakis, Ilias E., and Wang, Jigang. 2014.  
        "Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms4229.

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@article{osti_1139987,

  title        = {Ultrafast observation of critical nematic fluctuations and giant magnetoelastic coupling in iron pnictides},

  author       = {Patz, Aaron and Li, Tianqi and Ran, Sheng and Fernandes, Rafael M. and Schmalian, Joerg and Budko, Sergey L. and Canfield, Paul C. and Perakis, Ilias E. and Wang, Jigang},

  abstractNote = {Many of the iron pnictides have strongly anisotropic normal-state characteristics, important for the exotic magnetic and superconducting behaviour these materials exhibit. Y et, the origin of the observed anisotropy is unclear. Electronically driven nematicity has been suggested, but distinguishing this as an independent degree of freedom from magnetic and structural orders is difficult, as these couple together to break the same tetragonal symmetry. Here we use time-resolved polarimetry to reveal critical nematic fluctuations in unstrained Ba(Fe1-x Cox)2As2. The femtosecond anisotropic response, which arises from the two-fold in-plane anisotropy of the complex refractive index, displays a characteristic two-step recovery absent in the isotropic response. The fast recovery appears only in the magnetically ordered state, whereas the slow one persists in the paramagnetic phase with a critical divergence approaching the structural transition temperature. The dynamics also reveal a gigantic magnetoelastic coupling that far exceeds electron–spin and electron–phonon couplings, opposite to conventional magnetic metals.},

  doi          = {10.1038/ncomms4229},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1139987},
  journal      = {Nature Communications},

  issn         = {2041-1723},

  number       = ,

  volume       = 5,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Thu Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2014},

  month        = {Thu Feb 06 00:00:00 EST 2014}

}

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