Anisotropic magnetoelastic coupling in single-crystalline CeFeAsO as seen via high-resolution x-ray diffraction

Single-crystal synchrotron x-ray diffraction studies of CeFeAsO reveal strong anisotropy in the charge-correlation lengths along or perpendicular to the in-plane antiferromagnetic (AFM) wave vector at low temperatures, indicating an anisotropic two-dimensional magnetoelastic coupling. The high-resolution setup allows to distinctly monitor each of the twin domains by virtue of a finite misfit angle between them that follows the order parameter. In addition, we find that the in-plane correlations, above the orthorhombic (O)-to-tetragonal (T) transition, are shorter than those in each of the domains in the AFM phase, indicating a distribution of the in-plane lattice constants. This strongly suggests that the phase above the structural O-to-T transition is virtually T with strong O-T fluctuations that are probably induced by spin fluctuations.