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Complex phase diagram of Ba$_{1-x}$Na$_{x}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$: a multitude of phases striving for the electronic entropy

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  • Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik - Uni Heidelberg

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The low-temperature electronic phase diagram of Ba$_{1-x}$Na$_{x}$Fe$_{2}$As$_{2}$, obtained using high-resolution thermal-expansion and specific-heat measurements, is shown to be considerably more complex than previously reported, containing nine different phases. Besides the magnetic $C_{2}$ and reentrant $C_{4}$ phases, we find evidence for an additional, presumably magnetic, phase below the usual SDW transition, as well as a possible incommensurate magnetic phase. All these phases coexist and compete with superconductivity, which is particularily strongly suppressed by the $C_{4}$-magnetic phase due to a strong reduction of the electronic entropy available for pairing in this phase.
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Complex phase diagram of Ba1xNaxFe2As2: a multitude of phases striving for the
electronic entropy
L. Wang,F. Hardy, A. E. Böhmer,T. Wolf, P. Schweiss, and C. Meingast
Institut f¨ur Festk¨orperphysik, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, 76021 Karlsruhe, Germany
(Dated: 7/12/15)
The low-temperature electronic phase diagram of Ba1xNaxFe2As2, obtained using high-
resolution thermal-expansion and specific-heat measurements, is shown to be considerably more
complex than previously reported, containing nine different phases. Besides the magnetic C2and
reentrant C4phases, we find evidence for an additional, presumably magnetic, phase below the usual
SDW transition, as well as a possible incommensurate magnetic phase. All these phases coexist and
compete with superconductivity, which is particularly strongly suppressed by the C4-magnetic phase
due to a strong reduction of the electronic entropy available for pairing in this phase.
High-temperature superconductivity in Fe-based sys-
tems usually emerges when a stripe-type antiferromag-
netic spin-density-wave (SDW) is suppressed by either
doping or pressure [1–3]. The SDW transition is ac-
companied, or sometimes even slightly preceeded, by
a structural phase transition from a high-temperature
tetragonal (C4) to a low-temperature orthorhombic (C2)
state, which has sparked the lively debate about elec-
tronic nematicity and the respective role of spin and
orbital physics in these materials [4–8]. In the hole-
doped compounds, Ba1xNaxFe2As2, Ba1xKxFe2As2,
and Sr1xNaxFe2As2, recent studies have shown that the
C4symmetry is restored in a small pocket within the
magnetic C2phase region [9–12]. Mössbauer studies on
Sr0.63Na0.37 Fe2As2find that only half of the Fe sites carry
a magnetic moment in this phase [12], which is consistent
with the double-Q magnetic structure predicted within
the itinerant spin-nematic scenario [6, 9, 12, 13]. More-
over, neutron studies have shown that the spins flip from
in-plane in the C2phase to out of plane in the C4reen-
trant phase [14], indicating that spin-orbit interactions
cannot be neglected. In the Ba1xKxFe2As2system, the
reentrant C4phase reverts back to the C2phase near the
onset of superconductivity, due to a stronger competition
of the C4phase with superconductivity [10]. The pres-
ence of this phase in the hole-doped systems presents
strong evidence that the physics of these Fe-based sys-
tems can be treated in an itinerant picture, and recent
theoretical studies based upon the spin-nematic scenario
can reproduce phase diagrams very similar to the exper-
imental ones [15], as well as the spin-reorientation in the
C4phase if spin-orbit interactions are included [16].
Here, we reinvestigate in greater detail the
low-temperature electronic phase diagram of
Ba1xNaxFe2As2using high-resolution thermal-
expansion and specific- heat measurements and show
that it is considerably more complex than previously
liran.wang@kit.edu
present address: The Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of En-
ergy, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa 50011, USA
christoph.meingast@kit.edu
reported, containing nine different phases. Besides the
usual C2and reentrant C4magnetic phases, we find
evidence for an additional, presumably magnetic, C2
phase, in which the orthorhombic distortion is substan-
tially reduced but still finite. These phases coexist and
compete with superconductivity, which is particularly
strongly suppressed by the reentrant C4phase. Further,
we provide indications that the SDW transition becomes
incommensurate above x = 0.22, which appears linked to
the emergence of the C4phase at this composition. The
surprising occurence of this multitude of phases near the
onset of superconductivity suggests a highly degenerate
free-energy landscape near optimal doping, which may
be related to the occurence of superconductivity in the
Fe-based systems.
Single crystals of Ba1xNaxFe2As2were grown in alu-
mina crucibles using a self-flux method with (Ba,Na):
FeAs ratios 1:4 - 1:5. The crucibles were sealed in iron
cylinders filled with argon gas. After heating to 1150 -
1170 0Cthe furnace was cooled down slowly at rates
between 0.3 - 0.5 0C/h to minimize the amount of
flux inclusions. Near 940 - 1020 0Cthe furnace was
turned upside down to separate the remaining liquid
flux from the grown crystals and then cooled down to
room temperature with intermediate holds to in-situ an-
neal the crystals. Thermal expansion was measured us-
ing a high-resolution home-made capacitance dilatometer
[17], which is several orders of magnitude more sensitive
than traditional diffraction techniques. Heat capacity
was measured using a Physical Property Measurement
System from Quantum Design. The electronic specific
heat was obtained by subtracting an appropriate phonon
background [10, 18, 19]. Specifically, as demonstrated
for Ba1xKxFe2As2[10, 20], the phonon background can
be approximated as the weighted sum of the individual
lattice contributions of its ’constitutents’ [21], which are
BaFe2As2and NaFe2As2for the present case. Since there
are no crystals of NaFe2As2, we determined the hypothet-
ical NaFe2As2phonon background by assuming that the
electronic component at optimal doping of Na- and K-
doped [10] systems are identical. This is quite reasonable,
since both Tcand the heat capacity jumps at optimal
doping are very similar in both systems. The Na content
arXiv:1510.03685v2 [cond-mat.supr-con] 7 Dec 2015
2
FIG. 1. (a) Relative length change, L/L, versus temperature of the orthorhombic lattice parameters a and b of
Ba1xNaxFe2As2for Na doping levels of x = 0, 0.221, 0.265 obtained using high-resolution capacitance dilatometry (see
text for details). (b) Temperature dependence of the orthorhombic distortion δ= (ab)/(a+b)inferred from the data in
(a). The inset presents an expanded view of the data at higher doping levels. Vertical arrows indicate the location of the
superconducting transition at Tc, the C4-reentrant transition at T1, and the stripe-type SDW transition at Ts,N .
of seven single crystals (x = 0.093(4), 0.182(2), 0.221(2),
0.283(2), 0.320(2), 0.360(3), and 0.401(4)) used for the
thermal-expansion and specific-heat measurements was
accurately determined by 4-circle single crystal x-ray re-
finement of a small piece of the measured crystals. The
Na content of the other crystals were interpolated be-
tween these fixed points using the SDW transition tem-
perature as a reference. The values of the structural pa-
rameters from our x-ray refinement are in good agree-
ment with previous results [22].
Fig. 1a presents the relative thermal expansion, L/L,
measured along the a- and b-axes for three representative
Na doping levels. As we have demonstrated previously
[10, 23], the shorter b-axis in the low-temperature or-
thorhombic phase can be obtained directly by measuring
the expansion of the crystal along the [110]Tdirection of
the original tetragonal cell, because in this configuration
the small force from the dilatometer detwins the crystal.
The larger a-axis, on the other hand, is obtained by com-
bining a ’twinned’ measurement (along [100]T) with the
’detwinned’ data [10, 23]. The expected orthorhombic
splitting of the a- and b-lattice parameters at the SDW
transition at Ts,N is clearly observed for all three con-
centrations and reduces in magnitude with increasing Na
3
FIG. 2. (a)-(f) In-plane thermal expansion coefficients in ’twinned’ (solid lines) and ’detwinned’ (dashed lines) orientations
versus T for Na concentrations of x = 0.182, 0.265, 0.302, 0.318, 0.36, and 0.401. The location of the various phase transitions
is marked by vertical arrows. The breaking of the C4symmetry at Ts,N in (a)-(e) is clearly indicated by the anisotropy of the
’twinned’ and detwinned’ expansion coefficients below Ts,N. On the other hand, the reentrant C4phase is characterized by
equivalent expansion coefficients below T1in (b) and between T2and Tcin (c). The near optimally doped sample in f ) exhibits
only a well-defined jump at Tc.
content. For the x = 0.265 sample, this splitting suddenly
disappears, within the accuracy of the measurements, at
a first-order transition at T1= 45K, which we identify
with the C4magnetic phase [9, 10].
In order to study the doping evolution of these tran-
sitions in greater detail, we present in Fig. 1b the or-
thorhombic distortion, δ= (ab)/(a+b), inferred from
our thermal-expansion data for a number of compositions
between x = 0 and x = 0.36. We detect clear signatures of
the structural distortion associated with the SDW tran-
sition at Ts,N all the way to x = 0.36, which is consider-
ably higher than observed previously by neutron diffrac-
tion [9, 22]. We note, however, that the orthorhombic
splitting becomes extremely small in this high-doping re-
gion (see inset of Fig. 1b), which is probably why it
was missed previously. The presence of the reentrant C4
phase is signaled by a sudden disappearance of δat T1,
which we observe for 0.22 x0.29. The behavior
of the lattice parameters changes dramatically for x =
0.302, where we observe a more gradual reduction of δat
T1, indicative of a second-order transition, followed by
a previously unobserved transition at T2. Upon further
doping, the transition at T2disappears and the transi-
tions at Ts,N and T1appear to merge together. The well-
known reduction of δat the superconducting transition
in the C2SDW phase due to the competition between
superconductivity and magnetism [23–25] is clearly ob-
served for the crystal with x = 0.221, whereas the effect
of superconductivity on the in-plane lattice parameters
in the C4phase is too small to be seen in these curves.
The small anomalies associated with the onset of Tc,
as well as the other phase transitions, are more clearly
observed in the thermal-expansion coefficients, α(T) =
1/L ·dL(T)/dT , for the ’twinned’ and ’detwinned’ direc-
4
FIG. 3. Phase diagrams of Na- and K-doped systems. (a), (c) Extrapolated (to T = 0) maximum orthorhombic distortion versus
Na and K doping, respectively. (b) Electronic phase diagram of Ba1xNaxFe2As2obtained from thermal-expansion (squares)
and specific-heat (circles) data revealing nine different phases (see text for details). (d) Phase diagram of Ba1xKxFe2As2from
Ref. [10] for comparison. The kinks in (a) and (c), as well as the inflection points of Ts,N in (b) and (d), near x = 0.22 -
0.23 are interpreted as marking a possible transition from a commensurate (C2-C) phase to an incommensurate (C2-IC) phase.
This transition is indicated by the vertical dashed lines and the color transition of the Ts,N line from blue to red. ’S’ stands
for superconductivity.
tions, which are presented as α/T versus T for repre-
sentative Na contents in Fig.2. Fig.2a displays data for
the crystal with x = 0.182, which becomes orthorhom-
bic below Ts,N = 112 K and superconducting below Tc
= 6.5 K. The clear anisotropy of the in-plane expansion
below Ts,N , as well as the anisotropic response at Tc,
are indicative of the expected orthorhombic state at this
doping level. We note that the small anisotropic tail
above Ts,N results from the small, but finite, uniaxial
pressure we apply in our dilatometer [10]. In contrast to
the behavior for x = 0.182, the anisotropy of the expan-
sivity vanishes nearly completely below the transition at
T1for the x = 0.265 sample (see Fig.2b), indicating the
reentrant tetragonal state below T1. As expected at the
onset of superconductivity, small jump-like anomalies at
Tcare observed for both directions. The behavior of the
x = 0.302 crystal is more complicated (see Fig.2c). Here
the crystal clearly becomes orthorhombic at Ts,N , then
δ(T)decreases gradually between T1and T2(see inset
of Fig.1b), but remains orthorhombic. The expansivi-
ties for both orientations are equal below T2, suggesting
that the system again enters a tetragonal state. The
curves below Tc, however, again exhibit an anisotropic
response, suggesting that the C4phase reverts back to
the C2’ phase below Tc, in analogy to what has been
observed in K-doped BaFe2As2[10]. There is an addi-
tional sharp anomaly at TL=10 K for both orientations,
which is however observed only upon heating, possibly
indicating another phase transition with a large thermal
hysteresis. Nearly identical behavior was observed in an-
other crystal with a similar composition. Our expansion
data thus clearly show that the reentrant C4phase exists
only in a limited temperature range between T2and Tc
for x = 0.302. The transitions at T2and TLboth disap-
pear for the next higher Na content (see Fig.2d), and this
sample also clearly displays strongly anisotropic thermal
expansivities below Ts,N , which is incompatible with a
C4symmetry. The x = 0.36 crystal (Fig. 2e) exhibits
only very small effects at Ts,N and T1. Finally, any sig-
nature of the anomaly at Ts,N has disappeared in the
crystal with x = 0.401, which only has a clear anomaly
at Tc= 35 K.
The transition temperatures Ts,N ,Tc,T1,T2and TL
obtained by the thermal -expansion data shown in Figs.
1 and 2 allow us to construct a detailed phase diagram
(see Fig.3b). Here, we have also included the transition
temperatures extracted from the heat-capacity data (see
Fig.4). The phase diagram exhibits a remarkable de-
gree of complexity, with a surprising number of additional
(other than the usual C2-magnetic and superconductiv-
ity) phases emerging as magnetism is suppressed by Na
doping. We note that these phases appear to emerge at
5
FIG. 4. (a)-(o) Temperature dependence of thermal expansion (αa/T) (a-e), electronic heat capacity Ce/T (f-j) and electronic
entropy (Se/T ) (k-o) for crystals with x = 0.182, 0.265, 0.296, 0.302 and 0.401. The different shades of gray represents the
step-wise reduction of Se/T from the high temperature paramagnetic phase to the low temperature superconducting state.
the point where Ts,N changes curvature from concave
to convex near x = 0.22. This change is indicated by
the changing color of the line from blue to red. The
doping dependence of the extrapolated zero-temperature
orthorhombic distortion of the C2phase (see Fig. 3a)
illustrates this change even more clearly, with a very
distinct kink near x = 0.22. We interpret the inflec-
tion point of Ts,N (x) as a sign for a commensurate-to-
incommensurate transition as expected in a simple mean-
field SDW picture [26–28]. Previously, clear evidence
for incommensurability has only been reported in elec-
tron doped BaFe2As2[29–31]. Since we do not observe
a splitting of the Ts,N line into two transitions above x
= 0.22, we postulate the vertical dashed line to indicate
the proposed commensurate-to-incommensurate transi-
tion. Such a vertical line implies a first-order transition,
evidence of which is provided by the jumps of both T1
and Tcat x = 0.22. In Fig. 3c and d we compare the
present results to those of K-doped BaFe2As2[10]. Sim-
ilar to the Na-doped system, we also find an inflection
point in its phase diagram (see Fig. 3 d), as well as a kink
in the T = 0 orthorhombic distortion (see Fig. 3c), at a K
content at which the C4phase emerges (see Fig. 3c and
d). This strongly suggests that these are both common
features in hole doped BaFe2As2. In Ba1xNaxFe2As2we
observe, in addition to the magnetic C4phase, a previ-
ously unobserved phase (labeled C2’ in Fig. 3 b), which
has a reduced, but finite, orthorhombic distortion. A
similar phase in not observed in the K-doped system. Al-
though we can not examine the microscopic order in this
phase using our macroscopic probes, the smooth doping
variations of both Ts,N and δ, suggest that this phase is
probably also of magnetic origin, although some kind of
charge [13] order cannot be excluded. Preliminary μSR
measurements on a crystal with x=0.33 provide evidence
for a magnetic C2’ phase [32]. Detailed investigations
of the magnetic structure using e.g. neutron scattering
are highly desirable once large enough crystals become
available.
In order to gain more insight into the different phases,
we present the electronic heat capacity for several Na
concentrations in Fig.4 together with thermal expansion
of the a-axis for comparison. As demonstrated in Fig. 3
and 4, the transition temperatures from the heat capacity
(solid gray circles in Fig.3) closely match those from the
thermal expansion. With increasing Na-doping the step-
like anomalies in Ce/T associated with superconductivity
generally increase in size, whereas the anomalies associ-
ated with the magnetic transitions weaken, indicating the
well-known competition between magnetism and super-
conductivity in the Fe-based systems [10, 23–25]. This
trend is made even more transparent in Fig.4 k-o, where
6
we plot Se/T = (´Ce/T dT )/T , i.e. the electronic en-
tropy divided by T, which for a Fermi liquid is expected
to be constant. Upon entering the C4phase at 45 K for
the x = 0.265 Na sample we observe a particularly large
additional reduction of Se/T at T1, which is more promi-
nent than the anomaly at Ts,N , and apparently results
in a large suppression of Tcand the condensation energy
(equal to the black shaded area in Fig. 4 k)-o)) in the C4
phase. This highlights the much stronger competition of
superconductivity with the double-Q C4magnetic phase
than with the usual magnetic C2phase, which was also
observed in Ba1xKxFe2As2[10]. However, in contrast
to Ba1xKxFe2As2[10], we find no evidence for a reemer-
gence of the usual stripe-type C2phase below Tc. For
the crystals with x = 0.296 and 0.302, the largest (non
superconducting) anomalies in Ce/T and Se/T occur not
at T1, but rather upon entering the C4phase at T2. In-
terestingly, the Se/T plot for both these samples (Fig. 4
m and n) provide evidence for a pseudogap-like behavior
above T2- i.e. a gradual loss of density-of-states as the
temperature is lowered. The competition of supercon-
ductivity with the C2’ phase appears to be much weaker
than with the C4-magnetic phase, as evidenced by the
increase of the superconducting condensation energy , as
well as the rise of Tcseen in Fig. 3 within the C2’ phase.
Finally, we note that the negligible residual Ce/T values
of all of our samples (except for x = 0.265) demonstrate
that our samples are of high quality and that doping away
from the FeAs layer does not introduce pair breaking, as
it does in Co-doped BaFe2As2[33].
In summary, our detailed thermodynamic studies of
Ba1xNaxFe2As2show that the phase diagram of this
system exhibits a surprising degree of complexity. As
stripe-type magnetism is suppressed by Na-doping, two
additional magnetic phases emerge, which coexist and
compete with superconductivity. The emergence of these
additional phases is shown to be possibly triggered by
a doping-induced commensurate-incommensurate tran-
sition near x = 0.22, which would provide further evi-
dence for electronic itinerancy in these systems. There
are many similarities between the phase diagrams of K-
and Na-doped BaFe2As2, and the differences are likely re-
lated to chemical pressure, since our previous studies on
the K-doped system have shown that the phase bound-
aries are extremely pressure dependent [10]. Importantly,
the presently observed complexity of these phase diagram
suggests a high degree of degeneracy of several energy
scales as the optimally-doped state is approached, which
may also be related to the superconducting pairing mech-
anism.
We acknowledge fruitful discussions with Christian
Bernhard, Markus Braden, Rafael Fernandes, Maria Gas-
tiasoro, Benjamin Mallett, Jörg Schmalian, and Florian
Waßer.
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... These exceptions typically suggest the importance of additional interactions such as spin-lattice coupling or cooperative Jahn-Teller interactions to the structural phase transition. The symmetry-ascending phenomena are also reported in the first-order-like transitions in iron-based and cuprate superconductors [6][7][8][9]. For example, the parent compound of iron pnictide superconductors order antiferromagnetically and ferromagnetically along two Fe-Fe directions of the nearly square lattice to form a stripe antiferromagnetic (AFM) structure [10]. ...
... Since the magnetic structure has the twofold rotational (C 2 ) symmetry, the crystalline lattice must also exhibit a tetragonal-to-orthorhombic (C 4 to C 2 ) lattice distortion at temperatures at or above the magnetic ordering temperature T N to accommodate the lowsymmetry magnetic structure [10]. However, when the low-temperature magnetic structure becomes C 4 symmetric, as seen in a narrow hole-doped regime of iron pnictides, the lattice symmetry can change from C 2 to C 4 in a first-orderlike fashion due to the formation of the C 4 symmetric out-ofplane collinear double-Q magnetic ordering [7,8,11,12]. This symmetry ascending upon cooling usually suggests that there are several competing interactions near the phasetransition boundary with similar energy scales [13,14]. ...
... The interplay between the A − 6 monoclinic lattice distortion, CDW, and magnetic order originates from the fact that they are competing orders with similar energy scales. This case is similar to the C 4 reentrance phase observed in the hole-doped iron pnictides, where the formation of an out-of-plane collinear double-Q magnetic ordering [7,8,11,12,65] leads to the restoration of lattice symmetry from orthorhombic to tetragonal upon cooling due to competing orders [13,14]. The difference is that the weakening of the A − 6 monoclinic lattice distortion is a gradual process in FeGe while it is more drastic in iron-based superconductors. ...
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Spontaneous symmetry breaking—the phenomenon in which an infinitesimal perturbation can cause the system to break the underlying symmetry—is a cornerstone concept in the understanding of interacting solid-state systems. In a typical series of temperature-driven phase transitions, higher-temperature phases are more symmetric due to the stabilizing effect of entropy that becomes dominant as the temperature is increased. However, the opposite is rare but possible when there are multiple degrees of freedom in the system. Here, we present such an example of a symmetry-ascending phenomenon upon cooling in a magnetic kagome metal FeGe by utilizing neutron Larmor diffraction and Raman spectroscopy. FeGe has a kagome lattice structure with simple A-type antiferromagnetic order below Néel temperature TN≈400 K and a charge density wave (CDW) transition at TCDW≈110 K, followed by a spin-canting transition at around 60 K. In the paramagnetic state at 460 K, we confirm that the crystal structure is indeed a hexagonal kagome lattice. On cooling to around TN, the crystal structure changes from hexagonal to monoclinic with in-plane lattice distortions on the order of 10−4 and the associated splitting of the double-degenerate phonon mode of the pristine kagome lattice. Upon further cooling to TCDW, the kagome lattice shows a small negative thermal expansion, and the crystal structure gradually becomes more symmetric upon further cooling. A tendency of increasing the crystalline symmetry upon cooling is unusual; it originates from an extremely weak structural instability that coexists and competes with the CDW and magnetic orders. These observations are against the expectations for a simple model with a single order parameter and hence can only be explained by a Landau free energy expansion that takes into account multiple lattice, charge, and spin degrees of freedom. Thus, the determination of the crystalline lattice symmetry as well as the unusual spin-lattice coupling is a first step towards understanding the rich electronic and magnetic properties of the system, and it sheds new light on intertwined orders where the lattice degree of freedom is no longer dominant.
... The electronic specific heat capacity and electronic entropy are known to play a significant role in the phase transitions of solid state materials, such as metal oxides, 1,2 pure metals, 3 and complex mixtures of metals and metalloids. 4 Furthermore, material properties, such as conductivity and superconductivity, are related to the electronic specific heat capacity 5 and electronic entropy 6 of the materials. Because of the impact that the electronic specific heat capacity and electronic entropy can have on a system's behavior, the need for electronic structure calculations that accurately model these quantities is important. ...
... The walker population for the DMQMC for the CH 4 and H 2 O calculations was increased to compensate for increased diagonal death rates in DMQMC. For CH 4 and H 2 O, DMQMC calculations were run from β = 0 to β = 1, and PIP-DMQMC simulations used a target β T of β T = 1 to obtain data for β T ≥ 1. This was done for consistency with the data from Ref. 74, which we are using here. ...
Article
We present a machine learning approach to calculating electronic specific heat capacities for a variety of benchmark molecular systems. Our models are based on data from density matrix quantum Monte Carlo, which is a stochastic method that can calculate the electronic energy at finite temperature. As these energies typically have noise, numerical derivatives of the energy can be challenging to find reliably. In order to circumvent this problem, we use Gaussian process regression to model the energy and use analytical derivatives to produce the specific heat capacity. From there, we also calculate the entropy by numerical integration. We compare our results to cubic splines and finite differences in a variety of molecules in which Hamiltonians can be diagonalized exactly with full configuration interaction. We finally apply this method to look at larger molecules where exact diagonalization is not possible and make comparisons with more approximate ways to calculate the specific heat capacity and entropy.
... The walker population for the DMQMC for the CH 4 and H 2 O calculations was increased to compensate for increased diagonal death rates in DMQMC. For CH 4 and H 2 O, DMQMC calculations were run from β = 0 to β = 1, and PIP-DMQMC simulations used a target β T of β T = 1 to obtain data for β T ≥ 1. This was done for consistency with the data from Ref. 74 which we are using here. ...
Preprint
We present a machine learning approach to calculating electronic specific heat capacities for a variety of benchmark molecular systems. Our models are based on data from density matrix quantum Monte Carlo, which is a stochastic method that can calculate the electronic energy at finite temperature. As these energies typically have noise, numerical derivatives of the energy can be challenging to find reliably. In order to circumvent this problem, we use Gaussian process regression to model the energy and use analytical derivatives to produce the specific heat capacity. From there, we also calculate the entropy by numerical integration. We compare our results to cubic splines and finite differences in a variety of molecules whose Hamiltonians can be diagonalized exactly with full configuration interaction. We finally apply this method to look at larger molecules where exact diagonalization is not possible and make comparisons with more approximate ways to calculate the specific heat capacity and entropy.
... To determine the exact stoichiometry of the single crystal, the measured was mapped onto our published Ba1-xNaxFe2As2 phase diagram [3,4]. Given the large number of high-quality samples used for its construction, we use this phase diagram to fit its relevant superconducting data points with the following cubic function: superconductivity and magnetism coexist, because the slight suppression of TC [62] due to the tetragonal 4 phase in the Ba1-xNaxFe2As2 system is roughly of the same magnitude as the magnetization measurements uncertainties. That is to say that the variance within a top-quality crystal is greater than the disagreement between the predicted and measured/refined stoichiometry of a given crystal (via x-ray diffraction for example). ...
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A true understanding of the properties of pnictide superconductors require the development of high-quality materials and performing measurements designed to unravel their intrinsic properties and short-range nematic correlations which are often obscured by extrinsic effects such as poor crystallinity, inhomogeneity, domain formation and twinning. In this paper, we report the systematic growth of high-quality Na-substituted BaFe2As2 single crystals and their characterization using pulsed-magnetic fields x-ray diffraction and x-ray diffuse scattering. Analysis of the properties and compositions of the highest quality crystals show that their actual Na stoichiometry is about 50-60% of the nominal content and that the targeted production of crystals with specific compositions is accessible. We derived a reliable equation to estimate the Na stoichiometry based on the measured superconducting TC of these materials. Attempting to force spin reorientation and induce tetragonality, orthorhombic Ba1-xNaxFe2As2 single crystals subjected to out-of-plane magnetic fields up to 31.4T are found to exhibit strong in-plane magnetic anisotropy demonstrated by the insufficiency of such high fields in manipulating the relative population of their twinned domains or in suppressing the orthorhombic order. Broad x-ray diffuse intensity rods observed at temperatures between 30 K and 300 K uncover short-range structural correlations. Local structure modeling together with 3D-{\Delta}PDF mapping of real-space interatomic vectors show that the diffuse scattering arises from in-plane short-range chemical correlations of the Ba and Na atoms coupled with short-range atomic displacements within the same plane due to an effective size difference between the two atomic species.
... Concerning the experimental realization of MSC, we note that the SVC phase has been already found in CaKFe 4 As 4 [102], while the SWC 4 has been theoretically predicted [90] for hole-doped BaFe 2 As 2 . Hence, Fe-based systems with coexisting magnetism and superconductivity [103][104][105][106][107][108] appear promising to exhibit intrinsic chiral TSCs once flux emerges. Another category of potential intrinsic TSCs is the recently discovered family of Kagome superconductors [109][110][111][112]. ...
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We propose an alternative route to stabilize magnetic skyrmion textures which does not require Dzyaloshinkii-Moriya interactions, magnetic anisotropy, or an external Zeeman field. Instead, it solely relies on the emergence of flux in the system's ground state. We discuss scenarios that lead to a nonzero flux and identify the magnetic skyrmion ground states which become accessible in its presence. Moreover, we explore the chiral superconductors obtained for the surface states of a topological crystalline insulator when two types of magnetic skyrmion crystals coexist with a pairing gap. Our work opens perspectives for engineering topological superconductivity in a minimal fashion and promises to unearth functional topological materials and devices which may be more compatible with electrostatic control than the currently explored skyrmion-Majorana platforms.
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The kagome materials AV3Sb5 (A=K, Rb, Cs) host an intriguing interplay between unconventional superconductivity and charge-density waves. Here, we investigate CsV3Sb5 by combining high-resolution thermal-expansion, heat-capacity, and electrical resistance under strain measurements. We directly unveil that the superconducting and charge-ordered states strongly compete, and that this competition is dramatically influenced by tuning the crystallographic c axis. In addition, we report the absence of additional bulk phase transitions within the charge-ordered state, notably associated with rotational symmetry breaking within the kagome planes. This suggests that any breaking of the C6 invariance occurs via different stacking of C6-symmetric kagome patterns. Finally, we find that the charge-density-wave phase exhibits an enhanced A1g-symmetric elastoresistance coefficient, whose large increase at low temperature is driven by electronic degrees of freedom.
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A true understanding of the properties of pnictide superconductors requires the development of high-quality materials and performing measurements designed to unravel their intrinsic properties and short-range nematic correlations which are often obscured by extrinsic effects such as poor crystallinity, inhomogeneity, domain formation, and twinning. In this paper, we report the systematic growth of high-quality Na-substituted BaFe2As2 single crystals and their characterization using pulsed magnetic fields x-ray diffraction and x-ray diffuse scattering. Analysis of the properties and compositions of the highest-quality crystals shows that their actual Na stoichiometry is about 50–60% of the nominal content and that the targeted production of crystals with specific compositions is accessible. We derived a reliable equation to estimate the Na stoichiometry based on the measured superconducting Tc of these materials. Attempting to force spin reorientation and induce tetragonality, orthorhombic Ba1−xNaxFe2As2 single crystals subjected to out-of-plane magnetic fields up to 31.4T are found to exhibit strong in-plane magnetic anisotropy demonstrated by the insufficiency of such high fields in manipulating the relative population of their twinned domains or in suppressing the orthorhombic order. Broad x-ray diffuse-intensity rods observed at temperatures between 30 and 300 K uncover short-range structural correlations. Local structure modeling together with 3D–Δ pair-distribution function mapping of real-space interatomic vectors show that the diffuse scattering arises from in-plane short-range chemical correlations of the Ba and Na atoms coupled with short-range atomic displacements within the same plane due to an effective size difference between the two atomic species.
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At x≈0.25Ba1−xKxFe2As2 undergoes a novel first-order transition from a fourfold symmetric double-Q magnetic phase to a twofold symmetric single-Q phase, which was argued to occur simultaneously with the onset of superconductivity [Böhmer et al., Nat. Commun. 6, 7911 (2015)]. Here, by applying magnetic fields up to 10 T, we investigate in more detail the interplay of superconductivity with this magnetostructural transition using a combination of high-resolution thermal-expansion and heat-capacity measurements. We find that a magnetic field suppresses the reentrance of the single-Q orthorhombic phase more strongly than the superconducting transition, resulting in a splitting of the zero-field first-order transition. The suppression rate of the orthorhombic reentrance transition is stronger for out-of-plane than for in-plane fields and scales with the anisotropy of the superconducting state. These effects are captured within a phenomenological Ginzburg-Landau model, strongly suggesting that the suppression of the reentrant orthorhombic single-Q phase is primarily linked to the field-induced weakening of the superconducting order. Not captured by this model is, however, a strong reduction in the orthorhombic distortion for out-of-plane fields, which deserves further theoretical attention.
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High-temperature superconducting paring is generally believed to be mediated by the magnetic fluctuations that mostly occur within the two-dimensional conducting layers (Cu-O, Fe-As, or Fe-Se) in copper oxides, iron pnictides, iron chalcogenides, etc. Here, on the basis of inelastic neutron scattering measurements on a superconducting iron pnictide Ca0.33Na0.67Fe2As2, we have discovered a highly three-dimensional spin resonance mode with upward V-shape dispersions both in the ab plane and along the c axis. The superconducting gaps exhibit strong kz modulations involved with significant changes on the size of one hole pocket and the density state of the dz2 orbital of Fe. The resonance dispersions don't always seem confined by the total gaps summed on those imperfectly nesting Fermi sheets. It is demonstrated that the c-axis dependence of both the resonance energy and its intensity in iron pnictides can be universally scaled with the distance between two adjacent Fe-As layers (d), and the kz modulation of the gap is also anticorrelated with d. These results highlight the role of interlayer coupling in iron-based superconductivity, suggesting that the interlayer pairing may also be driven by magnetic fluctuations under certain spin-orbit couplings.
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We perform a microscopic theoretical study of the generic properties of competing magnetic phases in iron pnictides. As a function of electron filling and temperature, the magnetic stripe (single-Q) order forms a dome, and we find that competing non-collinear and non-uniform double-Q phases exist at the foot of the dome in agreement with recent experiments. We compute and compare the electronic properties of the different magnetic phases, investigate the role of competing superconductivity, and show how disorder may stabilize double-Q order. Superconductivity competes more strongly with double-Q magnetic phases, which can lead to re-entrance of the C2 (single-Q) order in agreement with recent thermal expansion measurements on K-doped Ba-122 crystals.
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Detailed knowledge of the phase diagram and the nature of the competing magnetic and superconducting phases is imperative for an understanding of the physics of iron-based superconductivity. Here, we show using thermodynamic probes that the phase diagram of the first discovered, and highest Tc, 122-type material, Ba1-xKxFe2As2 is in fact much richer than previously reported. Inside the usual stripe-type magnetic order with C2-symmetry, we find a small pocket of a tetragonal, C4-symmetric phase, which surprisingly reverts back to the C2-phase at or slightly below the superconducting transition. This re-entrance to a low-temperature orthorhombic state induced by superconductivity is discussed in terms of competition of the two magnetic phases with superconductivity and is illustrated by the measured changes in the electronic entropy of the system. Using our thermodynamic data, we make predictions about how the phase diagram of these competing orders will change under pressure.
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A theory of superconductivity in the iron-based materials requires an understanding of the phase diagram of the normal state. In these compounds, superconductivity emerges when stripe spin density wave (SDW) order is suppressed by doping, pressure or atomic disorder. This magnetic order is often pre-empted by nematic order, whose origin is yet to be resolved. One scenario is that nematic order is driven by orbital ordering of the iron 3d electrons that triggers stripe SDW order. Another is that magnetic interactions produce a spin-nematic phase, which then induces orbital order. Here we report the observation by neutron powder diffraction of an additional fourfold-symmetric phase in Ba1-xNaxFe2As2 close to the suppression of SDW order, which is consistent with the predictions of magnetically driven models of nematic order.
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We review our recent experimental results on the electronic nematic phase in electron- and hole-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$ and FeSe. The nematic susceptibility is extracted from shear-modulus data (obtained using a three-point-bending method in a capacitance dilatometer) using Landau theory and is compared to the nematic susceptibility obtained from elastoresistivity and Raman data. FeSe is particularly interesting in this context, because of a large nematic, i.e., a structurally distorted but paramagnetic, region in its phase diagram. Scaling of the nematic susceptibility with the spin lattice relaxation rate from NMR, as predicted by the spin-nematic theory, is found in both electron- and hole-doped BaFe$_2$As$_2$, but not in FeSe. The intricate relationship of the nematic susceptibility to spin and orbital degrees of freedom is discussed.
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With infrared spectroscopy we investigated the spin-reorientation transition from an orthorhombic antiferromagnetic (o-AF) to a tetragonal AF (t-AF) phase and the reentrance of the o-AF phase in the superconducting state of underdoped Ba$ _{1-x} $K$ _{x} $Fe$ _{2} $As$ _{2} $. In agreement with the predicted transition from a single-$\mathbf{Q}$ to a double-$\mathbf{Q}$ AF structure, we found that a distinct spin density wave (SDW) develops in the t-AF phase. The pair breaking peak of this SDW acquires much more low-energy spectral weight than the one in the o-AF state which indicates that it competes more strongly with superconductivity. We also observed additional phonon modes in the t-AF phase which likely arise from a Brillouin-zone folding that is induced by the double-$\mathbf{Q}$ magnetic structure with two Fe sublattices exhibiting different magnitudes of the magnetic moment.
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We have studied the magnetic ordering in ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{1$-${}x}{\mathrm{Na}}_{x}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ with $0.25$\le${}x$\le${}0.4$ by unpolarized and polarized neutron diffraction using single crystals. Unlike most FeAs-based compounds that magnetically order, Na-doped ${\mathrm{BaFe}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ exhibits two successive magnetic transitions: For $x=0.35$, upon cooling, magnetic order occurs at $$\sim${}70$ K with in-plane magnetic moments being arranged as in pure or Ni-, Co-, or K-doped ${\mathrm{BaFe}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ samples. At a temperature of $$\sim${}46$ K a second phase transition occurs, which the single-crystal neutron-diffraction experiments can unambiguously identify as a spin reorientation. At low temperatures, the ordered magnetic moments in ${\mathrm{Ba}}_{0.65}{\mathrm{Na}}_{0.35}{\mathrm{Fe}}_{2}{\mathrm{As}}_{2}$ point along the $c$ direction. The two nearly degenerate magnetic states document orbital degeneracy to persist in the superconducting phase.
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The nature of the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition at $T_s\approx90$ K in single crystalline FeSe is studied using shear-modulus, heat-capacity, magnetization and NMR measurements. The transition is shown to be accompanied by a large shear-modulus softening, which is practically identical to that of underdoped Ba(Fe,Co)$_2$As$_2$, suggesting very similar strength of the electron-lattice coupling. On the other hand, a spin-fluctuation contribution to the spin-lattice relaxation rate is only observed below $T_s$. This indicates that the structural, or "nematic", phase transition in FeSe is not driven by magnetic fluctuations.
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Although the existence of nematic order in iron-based superconductors is now a well-established experimental fact, its origin remains controversial. Nematic order breaks the discrete lattice rotational symmetry by making the $x$ and $y$ directions in the Fe plane non-equivalent. This can happen because of (i) a tetragonal to orthorhombic structural transition, (ii) a spontaneous breaking of an orbital symmetry, or (iii) a spontaneous development of an Ising-type spin-nematic order - a magnetic state that breaks rotational symmetry but preserves time-reversal symmetry. The Landau theory of phase transitions dictates that the development of one of these orders should immediately induce the other two, making the origin of nematicity a physics realization of a "chicken and egg problem". The three scenarios are, however, quite different from a microscopic perspective. While in the structural scenario lattice vibrations (phonons) play the dominant role, in the other two scenarios electronic correlations are responsible for the nematic order. In this review, we argue that experimental and theoretical evidence strongly points to the electronic rather than phononic mechanism, placing the nematic order in the class of correlation-driven electronic instabilities, like superconductivity and density-wave transitions. We discuss different microscopic models for nematicity in the iron pnictides, and link nematicity to other ordered states of the global phase diagram of these materials -- magnetism and superconductivity. In the magnetic model nematic order pre-empts stripe-type magnetic order, and the same interaction which favors nematicity also gives rise to an unconventional $s^{+-}$ superconductivity. In the charge/orbital model magnetism appears as a secondary effect of ferro-orbital order, and the interaction which favors nematicity gives rise to a conventional $s^{++}$ superconductivity.
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High-resolution thermal-expansion and specific-heat data of isovalently substituted single-crystalline BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 (0≤x≤0.33, x=1) are presented. We show that crystals can be detwinned in situ in the capacitance dilatometer, allowing a study of all three independent crystallographic directions. From the thermal-expansion data, we determine the phase diagram via a thermodynamic probe, study the coupling of the spin-density wave (SDW) and superconducting order parameters, and determine various pressure dependencies of the normal and superconducting states. Our results show that in the underdoped region, superconductivity and SDW order coexist and compete with each other. The resulting phase diagram, however, exhibits a smaller coexistence region of SDW and superconductivity with a steeper rise of Tc on the underdoped side than in, e.g., Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2. On the overdoped side, where there is no sign of SDW order, the lattice parameters respond to superconductivity in much the same way as to the SDW on the underdoped side, which demonstrates the intimate connection between both kinds of order. Using thermodynamic relations, the uniaxial pressure derivatives of the superconducting critical temperature and the electronic Sommerfeld coefficient are determined from our thermal-expansion data together with the specific-heat data. We find that uniaxial pressure is proportional to P substitution and that the electronic density of states has a maximum at optimal doping. Overall, the coupling of the SDW and superconducting order to the lattice parameters of BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 is found to be qualitatively very similar to that of the well-studied, supposedly electron-doped Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 system.