Magnetic order close to superconductivity in the iron-based layered LaO1-xFxFeAs systems

By C. Cruz, C. D. Cruz, Q. Huang, J. Lynn, Jiying Li, W. Ratcliff, J. Zarestky, H. Mook, G. Chen, Jian-lin Luo and 2 more. Nature, 2008

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Following the discovery of long-range antiferromagnetic order in the parent compounds of high-transition-temperature (high-Tc) copper oxides, there have been efforts to understand the role of magnetism in the superconductivity that occurs when mobile ‘electrons’ or ‘holes’ are doped into the antiferromagnetic parent compounds. Superconductivity in the newly discovered rare-earth iron-based oxide systems ROFeAs (R, rare-earth metal) also arises from either electron or hole doping of their non-superconducting parent compounds. The parent material LaOFeAs is metallic but shows anomalies near 150 K in both resistivity and d.c. magnetic susceptibility. Although optical conductivity and theoretical calculations suggest that LaOFeAs exhibits a spin-density-wave (SDW) instability that is suppressed by doping with electrons to induce superconductivity, there has been no direct evidence of SDW order. Here we report neutron-scattering experiments that demonstrate that LaOFeAs undergoes an abrupt structural distortion below 155 K, changing the symmetry from tetragonal (space group P4/nmm) to monoclinic (space group P112/n) at low temperatures, and then, at ∼137 K, develops long-range SDW-type antiferromagnetic order with a small moment but simple magnetic structure. Doping the system with fluorine suppresses both the magnetic order and the structural distortion in favour of superconductivity. Therefore, like high-Tc copper oxides, the superconducting regime in these iron-based materials occurs in close proximity to a long-range-ordered antiferromagnetic ground state.

Subfields: Accounting, Condensed Matter Physics, Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c9f8f7ebfa80ca8da902fc41e4cd191c22360858

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In Accounting

  1. E. Dagotto
  2. G. Stewart

In Condensed Matter Physics

  1. E. Dagotto
  2. P. Dai
  3. D. Feng
  4. Xianhui Chen
  5. Fu-Chun Zhang
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  7. Jiangping Hu
  8. G. Stewart

In Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials

  1. E. Dagotto
  2. P. Dai
  3. D. Feng
  4. Xianhui Chen
  5. Fu-Chun Zhang
  6. Tao Xiang
  7. Jiangping Hu
  8. G. Stewart

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