Block Magnetic Excitations in the Orbitally Selective Mott Insulator BaFe 2 Se 3

Iron pnictides and selenides display a variety of unusual magnetic phases originating from the interplay between electronic, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom. Using powder inelastic neutron scattering on the two-leg ladder BaFe 2 Se 3, we fully characterize the static and dynamic spin correlations associated with the Fe 4 block state, an exotic magnetic ground state observed in this low-dimensional magnet and in Rb 0.89 Fe 1.58 Se 2. All the magnetic excitations of the Fe 4 block state predicted by an effective Heisenberg model with localized spins are observed below 300 meV and quantitatively reproduced. However, the data only account for 16 (3) μ B 2 per Fe 2 +, approximatively 2 / 3 of the total spectral weight expected for localized S = 2 moments. Our results highlight how orbital degrees of freedom in iron-based magnets can conspire to stabilize an exotic magnetic state.