Persistent detwinning of iron pnictides by small magnetic fields

Abstract

Our comprehensive study on EuFe${}_2$As${}_2$ reveals a dramatic reduction of magnetic detwinning fields compared to other AFe${}_2$As${}_2$ (A = Ba, Sr, Ca) iron pnictides by indirect magneto-elastic coupling of the Eu${}^{2+}$ ions. We find that only 0.1T are sufficient for persistent detwinning below the local Eu${}^{2+}$ ordering; above $T_{\text{Eu}}$ = 19K, higher fields are necessary. Even after the field is switched off, a significant imbalance of twin domains remains constant up to the structural and electronic phase transition (190K). This persistent detwinning provides the unique possibility to study the low temperature electronic in-plane anisotropy of iron pnictides without applying any symmetrybreaking external force.

accepted by Physical Review Letters

References in corpus (8)

• Superconductivity at 41 K and its competition with spin-density-wave instability in layered CeO${}_{1-x}$F${}_x$FeAs
• Nematic and meta-nematic transitions in the iron pnictides
• Structural and magnetic phase transitions in the ternary iron arsenides SrFe2As2 and EuFe2As2
• Unprecedented anisotropic metallic state in BaFe2As2 revealed by optical spectroscopy
• Metamagnetic transition in EuFe${}_2$As${}_2$ single crystals
• Effects of the magnetic orderings on the dynamical conductivity: optical investigations of EuFe${}_2$As${}_2$ single crystals
• Thermopower as sensitive probe of electronic nematicity in iron pnictides
• Phonon splitting and anomalous enhancement of infrared-active modes in BaFe${}_2$As${}_2$

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• Strongly anisotropic antiferromagnetic coupling in EuFe2As2 revealed by stress detwinning
• Antiferromagnetic resonances in twinned EuFe2As2 single crystal
• Magnetic detwinning and biquadratic magnetic interaction in EuFe2As2 revealed by 153Eu NMR
• Effect of antifluorite layer on the magnetic order in Eu-based 1111 compounds, EuTAsF (T = Zn, Mn, and Fe)
• Linear scaling relation between two-dimensional massless Dirac fermion Fermi velocity and Fe-As bond length in iron arsenide superconductor systems
• Disorder-induced time effect in the antiferromagnetic domain state of Fe1+yTe