Spin waves and magnetic exchange interactions in insulating Rb 0.89Fe1.58Se2

Miaoyin Wang, Chen Fang, Dao Xin Yao, Guotai Tan, Leland W. Harriger, Yu Song, Tucker Netherton, Chenglin Zhang, Meng Wang, Matthew B. Stone, Wei Tian, Jiangping Hu, Pengcheng Dai

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

The parent compounds of iron pnictide superconductors are bad metals with a collinear antiferromagnetic structure and Néel temperatures below 220 K. Although alkaline iron selenide AyFe1.6+xSe2 (A=K, Rb, Cs) superconductors are isostructural with iron pnictides, in the vicinity of the undoped limit they are insulators, forming a block antiferromagnetic order and having Néel temperatures of roughly 500 K. Here we show that the spin waves of the insulating antiferromagnet Rb 0.89Fe1.58Se2 can be accurately described by a local moment Heisenberg Hamiltonian. A fitting analysis of the spin wave spectra reveals that the next-nearest neighbour couplings in Rb0.89Fe 1.58Se2, (Ba,Ca,Sr)Fe2As2, and Fe1.05 Te are of similar magnitude. Our results suggest a common origin for the magnetism of all the Fe-based superconductors, despite having different ground states and antiferromagnetic orderings.

Original languageEnglish
Article number580
JournalNature Communications
Volume2
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 2011

Funding

FundersFunder number
National Science Foundation1063866

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