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Title: Emergent Magnetic Degeneracy in Iron Pnictides due to the Interplay between Spin-Orbit Coupling and Quantum Fluctuations

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. Univ. of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN (United States). School of Physics and Astronomy
  2. Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Ames Lab. and Iowa State Univ., Ames, IA (United States)
  3. Univ. of Copenhagen (Denmark). The Niels Bohr Inst.

Recent experiments in iron pnictide superconductors reveal that, as the putative magnetic quantum critical point is approached, different types of magnetic order coexist over a narrow region of the phase diagram. Although these magnetic configurations share the same wave vectors, they break distinct symmetries of the lattice. Importantly, the highest superconducting transition temperature takes place close to this proliferation of near-degenerate magnetic states. In this Letter, we employ a renormalization group calculation to show that such a behavior naturally arises due to the effects of spin-orbit coupling on the quantum magnetic fluctuations. Formally, the enhanced magnetic degeneracy near the quantum critical point is manifested as a stable Gaussian fixed point with a large basin of attraction. Implications of our findings to the superconductivity of the iron pnictides are also discussed.

Research Organization:
Ames Lab., Ames, IA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012336; AC02-07CH11358
OSTI ID:
1464480
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1462154
Report Number(s):
IS-J-9727; PRLTAO; TRN: US1902391
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 121, Issue 5; ISSN 0031-9007
Publisher:
American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 13 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

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Space group symmetry, spin-orbit coupling and the low energy effective Hamiltonian for iron based superconductors text January 2013
Impact of local-moment fluctuations on the magnetic degeneracy of iron arsenide superconductors text January 2013
Symmetry of re-entrant tetragonal phase in Ba1-xNaxFe2As2: Magnetic versus orbital ordering mechanism text January 2014
Direct observation of spin-orbit coupling in iron-based superconductors text January 2014
Competing magnetic double-Q phases and superconductivity-induced re-entrance of C2 magnetic stripe order in iron pnictides text January 2015
Antiferromagnetic order and spin dynamics in iron-based superconductors text January 2015
Vestigial chiral and charge orders from bidirectional spin-density waves: Application to the iron-based superconductors text January 2015
Double-Q spin-density wave in iron arsenide superconductors text January 2015
Complex phase diagram of Ba$_{1-x}$Na$_{x}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$: a multitude of phases striving for the electronic entropy text January 2015
Detailed magnetic and structural analysis mapping a robust magnetic C4 dome in Sr1-xNaxFe2As2 text January 2016
Non-trivial role of interlayer cation states in iron-based superconductors text January 2016
Hedgehog spin-vortex crystal stabilized in a hole-doped iron-based superconductor text January 2017
Local orthorhombicity in the magnetic $C_4$ phase of the hole-doped iron-arsenide superconductor Sr$_{1-x}$Na$_{x}$Fe$_2$As$_2$ text January 2017

Cited By (1)

Preferred Magnetic Excitations in the Iron-Based Sr 1 x Na x Fe 2 As 2 Superconductor journal January 2019