No Arabic abstract
We report the temperature dependent x-ray powder diffraction of the quaternary compound NdOFeAs (also called NdFeAsO) in the range between 300 K and 95 K. We have detected the structural phase transition from the tetragonal phase, with P4/nmm space group, to the orthorhombic or monoclinic phase, with Cmma or P112/a1 (or P2/c) space group, over a broad temperature range from 150 K to 120 K, centered at T0 ~137 K. Therefore the temperature of this structural phase transition is strongly reduced, by about ~30K, by increasing the internal chemical pressure going from LaOFeAs to NdOFeAs. In contrast the superconducting critical temperature increases from 27 K to 51 K going from LaOFeAs to NdOFeAs doped samples. This result shows that the normal striped orthorhombic Cmma phase competes with the superconducting tetragonal phase. Therefore by controlling the internal chemical pressure in new materials it should be possible to push toward zero the critical temperature T0 of the structural phase transition, giving the striped phase, in order to get superconductors with higher Tc.
We report the temperature dependent x-ray powder diffraction of the FeAs-based superconductors in the range between 300 K and 95 K. In the case of NdOFeAs we have detected the structural phase transition from the tetragonal phase, with P4/nmm space group, to the orthorhombic phase,with Cmma space group, over a broad temperature range from 150 K to 120 K, centered at T0 137K. This transition is reduced, by about 30K, by the internal chemical pressure going from LaOFeAs to NdOFeAs. On the contrary the superconducting critical temperature increases from 27K to 51 K going from LaOFeAs to NdOFeAs doped samples. The FeAs layers in all undoped 1111 and 122 systems suffer a tensile misfit strain. The tensile misfit strain is reduced in 1111 and in 122 samples and at optimum doping the misfit strain is close to zero. This result shows that the normal striped orthorhombic Cmma phase competes with the superconducting tetragonal phase. In the orthorhombic clusters the charges can move only along the stripes in the b direction and are localized by the magnetic interaction.
The structural properties of the SrFe2As2 and CaFe2As2 compounds have been extensively analyzed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) from room temperature down to 20K. The experimental results demonstrate that the SrFe2As2 crystal, in consistence with previous x-ray data, has a tetragonal structure at room temperature and undergoes a tetragonal (T)-orthorhombic (O) phase transition at about 210K. Moreover, twinning lamella arising from T-O transition evidently appears in the orthorhombic phase. On the other hand, TEM observations of CaFe2As2 reveal the presence of a pseudo-periodic structural modulation with the periodicity of around 40nm at room temperature. This modulation is likely in connection with the local structural distortions within the Ca layer. In-situ cooling TEM observations of CaFe2As2 reveal the presence of complex domain structures in the low-temperature orthorhombic phase.
The Nd-doped cuprate La_{2-y-x}Nd_ySr_xCuO_4 displays a first-order phase transition at T_d (= 74 K for x=0.10, y = 0.60) to a low-temperature tetragonal (LTT) phase. A magnetic field H applied || the a-axis leads to an increase in T_d, whereas T_d is decreased when H || c. These effects show that magnetic ordering involving both Nd and Cu spins plays a key role in driving the LTO-LTT transition. Related anisotropic effects are observed in the uniform susceptibility and the in-plane magnetoresistance.
We use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations to study the electronic structure of CaFe$_2$As$_2$ in previously unexplored collapsed tetragonal (CT) phase. This unusual phase of the iron arsenic high temperature superconductors was hard to measure as it exists only under pressure. By inducing internal strain, via the post growth, thermal treatment of the single crystals, we were able to stabilize the CT phase at ambient-pressure. We find significant differences in the Fermi surface topology and band dispersion data from the more common orthorhombic-antiferromagnetic or tetragonal-paramagnetic phases, consistent with electronic structure calculations. The top of the hole bands sinks below the Fermi level, which destroys the nesting present in parent phases. The absence of nesting in this phase along with apparent loss of Fe magnetic moment, are now clearly experimentally correlated with the lack of superconductivity in this phase.
SrFe2As2 is the end-member for a series of iron-pnictide superconductors and has a tetragonal-to-orthorhombic phase transition near 200 K. Previous macroscopic measurements to determine the nature of the transition gave seemingly inconsistent results so we use electron microscopy to monitor the local order parameter showing that the transformation is first order and that the orthorhombic phase grows as needle domains. This suggests the transition occurs via the passage of transformation dislocations, explaining the apparent inconsistencies. This mechanism may be common to similar transitions.