Coexistence of static magnetism and superconductivity in SmFeAsO1-xFx as revealed by muon spin rotation

Abstract

The recent observation of superconductivity with critical temperatures up to 55 K in the FeAs based pnictide compounds marks the first discovery of a non copper-oxide based layered high-Tc superconductor (HTSC) [1-3]. It has raised the suspicion that these new materials share a similar pairing mechanism to the cuprates, since both exhibit superconductivity following charge doping of a magnetic parent material. Here we present a muon spin rotation study on SmFeAsO1-xFx (x=0-0.30), which shows that static magnetism persists well into the superconducting regime. The analogy with the cuprates is quite surprising since the parent compounds appear to have different magnetic ground states: itinerant spin density wave for the pnictides contrasted with the Mott-Hubbard insulator in the cuprates. Our findings suggest that proximity to magnetic order and associated soft magnetic fluctuations, rather than the strong electronic correlations in the vicinity of a Mott-Hubbard-metal-to-insulator transition, may be the key ingredients of HTSC.

Accepted in Nature Materials

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• Structure, antiferromagnetism and superconductivity of the layered iron arsenide NaFeAs
• Iron pnictides as a new setting for quantum criticality
• A neutron scattering study of the interplay between structure and magnetism in Ba(Fe${}_{1-x}$Co${}_x$)${}_2$As${}_2$
• Superconductivity coexisting with phase-separated static magnetic order in (Ba,K)Fe${}_2$As${}_2$, (Sr,Na)Fe${}_2$As${}_2$ and CaFe${}_2$As${}_2$
• Interplay of Rare Earth and Iron magnetism in RFeAsO with R = La, Ce, Pr, and Sm: A muon spin relaxation study and symmetry analysis
• Homogeneous vs. inhomogeneous coexistence of magnetic order and superconductivity probed by NMR in Co and K doped iron pnictides
• Competition of magnetism and superconductivity in underdoped (Ba1-xKx)Fe2As2
• Magnetic-superconducting phase boundary of SmFeAsO${}_{1-x}$F${}_x$ studied via muon spin rotation: Unified behavior in a pnictide family
• Short-range incommensurate magnetic order near the superconducting phase boundary in Fe(1+d)Te(1-x)Se(x)
• Angular Dependence of X-ray Absorption Spectrum for Field-aligned Fe-based Superconductors
• WDX-Analysis of the New Superconductors RO(1-x)F(x)FeAs and Its Consequences on the Electronic Phase Diagram
• Intrinsic ferromagnetic impurity phases in SmFeAsO1-xFx detected by muSR