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Title: Local orthorhombic lattice distortions in the paramagnetic tetragonal phase of superconducting NaFe1-xNixAs

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
 [1];  [1];  [2];  [3]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1];  [4];  [5];  [5];  [6];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Rice Univ., Houston, TX (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  2. Northwestern Polytechnical Univ., Xian (China). Dept. of Applied Physics
  3. Max-Planck-Inst. fur Festkorperforschung, Stuttgart (Germany); Max Planck Society Outstation at the Forschungsneutronenquelle Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (MLZ), Garching (Germany)
  4. National Inst. of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg, MD (United States). Center for Neutron Research
  5. Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Neutron Scattering Division
  6. Renmin Univ. of China, Beijing (China). Dept. of Physics and Beijing Key Lab. of Opto-electronic Functional Materials and Micro-nano Devices

Understanding the interplay between nematicity, magnetism and superconductivity is pivotal for elucidating the physics of iron-based superconductors. Here we use neutron scattering to probe magnetic and nematic orders throughout the phase diagram of NaFe1-xNixAs, finding that while both static antiferromagnetic and nematic orders compete with superconductivity, the onset temperatures for these two orders remain well separated approaching the putative quantum critical points. We uncover local orthorhombic distortions that persist well above the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition temperature Ts in underdoped samples and extend well into the overdoped regime that exhibits neither magnetic nor structural phase transitions. These unexpected local orthorhombic distortions display Curie–Weiss temperature dependence and become suppressed below the superconducting transition temperature Tc, suggesting that they result from the large nematic susceptibility near optimal superconductivity. Finally, our results account for observations of rotational symmetry breaking above Ts, and attest to the presence of significant nematic fluctuations near optimal superconductivity.

Research Organization:
Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-00OR22725; SC0012311; C-1839; C-1818; DMR-1350237
OSTI ID:
1463970
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 9, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 19 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Cited By (6)

c-axis pressure-induced antiferromagnetic order in optimally P-doped BaFe2(As0.70P0.30)2 superconductor journal September 2018
Quantitative characterization of short-range orthorhombic fluctuations in FeSe through pair distribution function analysis journal July 2019
Disorder-induced electronic nematicity journal August 2019
Widespread orthorhombic fluctuations in the ( Sr , Na ) Fe 2 As 2 family of superconductors journal November 2018
Quantitative characterization of short-range orthorhombic fluctuations in FeSe through pair distribution function analysis text January 2019
Disorder-Induced Electronic Nematicity text January 2019

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