Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators

B. Freelon; R. Sarkar; S. Kamusella; F. Brückner; V. Grinenko; Swagata Acharya; Mukul Laad; Luis Craco; Zahra Yamani; Roxana Flacau; Ian Swainson; Benjamin Frandsen; Robert Birgeneau; Yuhao Liu; Bhupendra Karki; Alaa Alfailakawi; Joerg C. Neuefeind; Michelle Everett; Hangdong Wang; Binjie Xu; Minghu Fang; H. H. Klauss

doi:10.1038/s41535-020-00302-5

Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators

B. Freelon, R. Sarkar, S. Kamusella, F. Brückner, V. Grinenko, Swagata Acharya, Mukul Laad, Luis Craco, Zahra Yamani, Roxana Flacau, Ian Swainson, Benjamin Frandsen, Robert Birgeneau, Yuhao Liu, Bhupendra Karki, Alaa Alfailakawi, Joerg C. Neuefeind, Michelle Everett, Hangdong Wang, Binjie XuMinghu Fang, H. H. Klauss

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Abstract

Nematic fluctuations occur in a wide range physical systems from biological molecules to cuprates and iron pnictide high-T_c superconductors. It is unclear whether nematicity in pnictides arises from electronic spin or orbital degrees of freedom. We studied the iron-based Mott insulators La₂O₂Fe₂OM₂M = (S, Se), which are structurally similar to pnictides. Nuclear magnetic resonance revealed a critical slowing down of nematic fluctuations and complementary Mössbauerr spectroscopy data showed a change of electrical field gradient. The neutron pair distribution function technique detected local C₂ fluctuations while neutron diffraction indicates that global C₄ symmetry is preserved. A geometrically frustrated Heisenberg model with biquadratic and single-ion anisotropic terms provides the interpretation of the low temperature magnetic fluctuations. The nematicity is not due to spontaneous orbital order, instead it is linked to geometrically frustrated magnetism based on orbital selectivity. This study highlights the interplay between orbital order and spin fluctuations in nematicity.

Original language	English
Article number	4
Journal	npj Quantum Materials
Volume	6
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-00302-5
State	Published - Dec 2021

Funding

R.S. and H.-H.K. are partially supported by the DFG through SFB 1143 for the project C02. V.G. was partially supported by the DFG through GR 4667. L.C.’s work is supported by CNPq (Grant No. 304035/2017-3). Acknowledgment (L.C.) is also made to CAPES. Zhejiang University research is supported by the National Key R&D Program of China under Grant No. 2016YFA0300402, and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No. NSFC-12074335 and 11974095) and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. Work at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division under Contract No. DE-AC02-05-CH11231 within the Quantum Materials Program (KC2202). This work used resources of the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This manuscript has been authored by UT-Battelle, LLC, under contract DE-AC05-00OR22725 with the US Department of Energy (DOE). The US government retains and the publisher, by accepting the article for publication, acknowledges that the US government retains a nonexclusive, paid-up, irrevocable, worldwide license to publish or reproduce the published form of this manuscript, or allow others to do so, for US government purposes. DOE will provide public access to these results of federally sponsored research in accordance with the DOE Public Access Plan (http://energy.gov/ downloads/doe-public-access-plan).

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Freelon, B., Sarkar, R., Kamusella, S., Brückner, F., Grinenko, V., Acharya, S., Laad, M., Craco, L., Yamani, Z., Flacau, R., Swainson, I., Frandsen, B., Birgeneau, R., Liu, Y., Karki, B., Alfailakawi, A., Neuefeind, J. C., Everett, M., Wang, H., ... Klauss, H. H. (2021). Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators. npj Quantum Materials, 6(1), Article 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-00302-5

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title = "Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators",

abstract = "Nematic fluctuations occur in a wide range physical systems from biological molecules to cuprates and iron pnictide high-Tc superconductors. It is unclear whether nematicity in pnictides arises from electronic spin or orbital degrees of freedom. We studied the iron-based Mott insulators La2O2Fe2OM2M = (S, Se), which are structurally similar to pnictides. Nuclear magnetic resonance revealed a critical slowing down of nematic fluctuations and complementary M{\"o}ssbauerr spectroscopy data showed a change of electrical field gradient. The neutron pair distribution function technique detected local C2 fluctuations while neutron diffraction indicates that global C4 symmetry is preserved. A geometrically frustrated Heisenberg model with biquadratic and single-ion anisotropic terms provides the interpretation of the low temperature magnetic fluctuations. The nematicity is not due to spontaneous orbital order, instead it is linked to geometrically frustrated magnetism based on orbital selectivity. This study highlights the interplay between orbital order and spin fluctuations in nematicity.",

author = "B. Freelon and R. Sarkar and S. Kamusella and F. Br{\"u}ckner and V. Grinenko and Swagata Acharya and Mukul Laad and Luis Craco and Zahra Yamani and Roxana Flacau and Ian Swainson and Benjamin Frandsen and Robert Birgeneau and Yuhao Liu and Bhupendra Karki and Alaa Alfailakawi and Neuefeind, {Joerg C.} and Michelle Everett and Hangdong Wang and Binjie Xu and Minghu Fang and Klauss, {H. H.}",

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year = "2021",

month = dec,

doi = "10.1038/s41535-020-00302-5",

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Freelon, B, Sarkar, R, Kamusella, S, Brückner, F, Grinenko, V, Acharya, S, Laad, M, Craco, L, Yamani, Z, Flacau, R, Swainson, I, Frandsen, B, Birgeneau, R, Liu, Y, Karki, B, Alfailakawi, A, Neuefeind, JC, Everett, M, Wang, H, Xu, B, Fang, M & Klauss, HH 2021, 'Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators', npj Quantum Materials, vol. 6, no. 1, 4. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-020-00302-5

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T1 - Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators

AU - Freelon, B.

AU - Sarkar, R.

AU - Kamusella, S.

AU - Brückner, F.

AU - Grinenko, V.

AU - Acharya, Swagata

AU - Laad, Mukul

AU - Craco, Luis

AU - Yamani, Zahra

AU - Flacau, Roxana

AU - Swainson, Ian

AU - Frandsen, Benjamin

AU - Birgeneau, Robert

AU - Liu, Yuhao

AU - Karki, Bhupendra

AU - Alfailakawi, Alaa

AU - Neuefeind, Joerg C.

AU - Everett, Michelle

AU - Wang, Hangdong

AU - Xu, Binjie

AU - Fang, Minghu

AU - Klauss, H. H.

PY - 2021/12

Y1 - 2021/12

N2 - Nematic fluctuations occur in a wide range physical systems from biological molecules to cuprates and iron pnictide high-Tc superconductors. It is unclear whether nematicity in pnictides arises from electronic spin or orbital degrees of freedom. We studied the iron-based Mott insulators La2O2Fe2OM2M = (S, Se), which are structurally similar to pnictides. Nuclear magnetic resonance revealed a critical slowing down of nematic fluctuations and complementary Mössbauerr spectroscopy data showed a change of electrical field gradient. The neutron pair distribution function technique detected local C2 fluctuations while neutron diffraction indicates that global C4 symmetry is preserved. A geometrically frustrated Heisenberg model with biquadratic and single-ion anisotropic terms provides the interpretation of the low temperature magnetic fluctuations. The nematicity is not due to spontaneous orbital order, instead it is linked to geometrically frustrated magnetism based on orbital selectivity. This study highlights the interplay between orbital order and spin fluctuations in nematicity.

AB - Nematic fluctuations occur in a wide range physical systems from biological molecules to cuprates and iron pnictide high-Tc superconductors. It is unclear whether nematicity in pnictides arises from electronic spin or orbital degrees of freedom. We studied the iron-based Mott insulators La2O2Fe2OM2M = (S, Se), which are structurally similar to pnictides. Nuclear magnetic resonance revealed a critical slowing down of nematic fluctuations and complementary Mössbauerr spectroscopy data showed a change of electrical field gradient. The neutron pair distribution function technique detected local C2 fluctuations while neutron diffraction indicates that global C4 symmetry is preserved. A geometrically frustrated Heisenberg model with biquadratic and single-ion anisotropic terms provides the interpretation of the low temperature magnetic fluctuations. The nematicity is not due to spontaneous orbital order, instead it is linked to geometrically frustrated magnetism based on orbital selectivity. This study highlights the interplay between orbital order and spin fluctuations in nematicity.

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VL - 6

JO - npj Quantum Materials

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ER -

Nematic fluctuations in iron-oxychalcogenide Mott insulators

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