Browsing by Author "Tian, Wei"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    A Mott insulator continuously connected to iron pnictide superconductors
    (Springer Nature, 2016) Song, Yu; Yamani, Zahra; Cao, Chongde; Li, Yu; Zhang, Chenglin; Chen, Justin S.; Huang, Qingzhen; Wu, Hui; Tao, Jing; Zhu, Yimei; Tian, Wei; Chi, Songxue; Cao, Huibo; Huang, Yao-Bo; Dantz, Marcus; Schmitt, Thorsten; Yu, Rong; Nevidomskyy, Andriy H.; Morosan, Emilia; Si, Qimiao; Dai, Pengcheng; Rice Center for Quantum Materials
    Iron-based superconductivity develops near an antiferromagnetic order and out of a bad-metal normal state, which has been interpreted as originating from a proximate Mott transition. Whether an actual Mott insulator can be realized in the phase diagram of the iron pnictides remains an open question. Here we use transport, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray absorption spectroscopy, resonant inelastic X-ray scattering and neutron scattering to demonstrate that NaFe1−xCuxAs near x≈0.5 exhibits real space Fe and Cu ordering, and are antiferromagnetic insulators with the insulating behaviour persisting above the Néel temperature, indicative of a Mott insulator. On decreasing x from 0.5, the antiferromagnetic-ordered moment continuously decreases, yielding to superconductivity ∼x=0.05. Our discovery of a Mott-insulating state in NaFe1−xCuxAs thus makes it the only known Fe-based material, in which superconductivity can be smoothly connected to the Mott-insulating state, highlighting the important role of electron correlations in the high-Tc superconductivity.
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    c-axis pressure-induced antiferromagnetic order in optimally P-doped BaFe2(As0.70P0.30)2 superconductor
    (Springer Nature, 2018) Hu, Ding; Wang, Weiyi; Zhang, Wenliang; Wei, Yuan; Gong, Dongliang; Tam, David W.; Zhou, Panpan; Li, Yu; Tan, Guotai; Song, Yu; Georgii, Robert; Pedersen, Björn; Cao, Huibo; Tian, Wei; Roessli, Bertrand; Yin, Zhiping; Dai, Pengcheng
    Superconductivity in BaFe2(As1−xPx)2 iron pnictides emerges when its in-plane two-dimensional (2D) orthorhombic lattice distortion associated with nematic phase at Ts and three-dimensional (3D) collinear antiferromagnetic order at TN (Ts = TN) are gradually suppressed with increasing x, reaching optimal superconductivity around x = 0.30 with Tc ≈ 30 K. Here we show that a moderate uniaxial pressure along the c-axis in BaFe2(As0.70P0.30)2 spontaneously induces a 3D collinear antiferromagnetic order with TN = Ts > 30 K, while only slightly suppresses Tc. Although a ~ 400 MPa pressure compresses the c-axis lattice while expanding the in-plane lattice and increasing the nearest-neighbor Fe–Fe distance, it barely changes the average iron-pnictogen height in BaFe2(As0.70P0.30)2. Therefore, the pressure-induced antiferromagnetic order must arise from a strong in-plane magnetoelastic coupling, suggesting that the 2D nematic phase is a competing state with superconductivity.
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    Effect of Pnictogen Height on Spin Waves in Iron Pnictides
    (American Physical Society, 2014) Zhang, Chenglin; Harriger, Leland W.; Yin, Zhiping; Lv, Weicheng; Wang, Miaoyin; Tan, Guotai; Song, Yu; Abernathy, D.L.; Tian, Wei; Egami, Takeshi; Haule, Kristjan; Kotliar, Gabriel; Dai, Pengcheng
    We use inelastic neutron scattering to study spin waves in the antiferromagnetic ordered phase of iron pnictide NaFeAs throughout the Brillouin zone. Comparing with the well-studied AFe2As2 (A=Ca, Sr, Ba) family, spin waves in NaFeAs have considerably lower zone boundary energies and more isotropic effective in-plane magnetic exchange couplings. These results are consistent with calculations from a combined density functional theory and dynamical mean field theory and provide strong evidence that pnictogen height controls the strength of electron-electron correlations and consequently the effective bandwidth of magnetic excitations.
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    Electron doping evolution of structural and antiferromagnetic phase transitions in NaFe1−xCoxAs iron pnictides
    (American Physical Society, 2016) Tan, Guotai; Song, Yu; Zhang, Chenglin; Lin, Lifang; Xu, Zhuang; Hou, Tingting; Tian, Wei; Cao, Huibo; Li, Shiliang; Feng, Shiping; Dai, Pengcheng
    We use transport and neutron diffraction to study the electronic phase diagram of NaFe1−xCoxAs. In the undoped state, NaFeAs exhibits a tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition below Tsfollowed by a collinear antiferromagnetic (AF) order below TN. Upon codoping to form NaFe1−xCoxAs,Ts and TN are gradually suppressed, leading to optimal superconductivity near Co-doping x=0.025. While transport experiments on these materials reveal an anomalous behavior suggesting the presence of a quantum critical point (QCP) near optimal superconductivity, our neutron diffraction results indicate that commensurate AF order becomes transversely incommensurate with TN>Tc before vanishing abruptly at optimal superconductivity. These results are remarkably similar to electron-doping and isovalent-doping evolution of the AF order in BaFe2−xNixAs2 and BaFe2(As1−xPx)2, thus suggesting a universal behavior in the suppression of the magnetic order in iron pnictides as superconductivity is induced.
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    Energy dependence of the spin excitation anisotropy in uniaxial-strained BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2
    (American Physical Society, 2015) Song, Yu; Lu, Xingye; Abernathy, D.L.; Tam, David W.; Niedziela, J.L.; Tian, Wei; Luo, Huiqian; Si, Qimiao; Dai, Pengcheng
    We use inelastic neutron scattering to study the temperature and energy dependence of the spin excitation anisotropy in uniaxial-strained electron-doped iron pnictide BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2 near optimal superconductivity (Tc=20K). Our work has been motivated by the observation of in-plane resistivity anisotropy in the paramagnetic tetragonal phase of electron-underdoped iron pnictides under uniaxial pressure, which has been attributed to a spin-driven Ising-nematic state or orbital ordering. Here we show that the spin excitation anisotropy, a signature of the spin-driven Ising-nematic phase, exists for energies below ∼60 meV in uniaxial-strained BaFe1.9Ni0.1As2. Since this energy scale is considerably larger than the energy splitting of the dxz and dyz bands of uniaxial-strained Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2 near optimal superconductivity, spin Ising-nematic correlations are likely the driving force for the resistivity anisotropy and associated electronic nematic correlations.
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    Local breaking of fourfold rotational symmetry by short-range magnetic order in heavily overdoped Ba(Fe1−xCux)2As2
    (American Physical Society, 2017) Wang, Weiyi; Song, Yu; Hu, Ding; Li, Yu; Zhang, Rui; Harriger, L.W.; Tian, Wei; Cao, Huibo; Dai, Pengcheng
    We investigate Cu-doped Ba(Fe1−xCux)2As2 with transport, magnetic susceptibility, and elastic neutron scattering measurements. In the heavily Cu-doped regime where long-range stripe-type antiferromagnetic order in BaFe2As2 is suppressed, Ba(Fe1−xCux)2As2 (0.145≤x≤0.553) samples exhibit spin-glass-like behavior in magnetic susceptibility and insulating-like temperature dependence in electrical transport. Using elastic neutron scattering, we find stripe-type short-range magnetic order in the spin-glass region identified by susceptibility measurements. The persistence of short-range magnetic order over a large doping range in Ba(Fe1−xCux)2As2 likely arises from local arrangements of Fe and Cu that favor magnetic order, with Cu acting as vacancies relieving magnetic frustration and degeneracy. These results indicate locally broken fourfold rotational symmetry, suggesting that stripe-type magnetism is ubiquitous in iron pnictides.
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    Local orthorhombic lattice distortions in the paramagnetic tetragonal phase of superconducting NaFe1−xNixAs
    (Springer Nature, 2018) Wang, Weiyi; Song, Yu; Cao, Chongde; Tseng, Kuo-Feng; Keller, Thomas; Li, Yu; Harriger, L.W.; Tian, Wei; Chi, Songxue; Yu, Rong; Nevidomskyy, Andriy H.; Dai, Pengcheng
    Understanding the interplay between nematicity, magnetism and superconductivity is pivotal for elucidating the physics of iron-based superconductors. Here we use neutron scattering to probe magnetic and nematic orders throughout the phase diagram of NaFe1-xNixAs, finding that while both static antiferromagnetic and nematic orders compete with superconductivity, the onset temperatures for these two orders remain well separated approaching the putative quantum critical points. We uncover local orthorhombic distortions that persist well above the tetragonal-to-orthorhombic structural transition temperature Ts in underdoped samples and extend well into the overdoped regime that exhibits neither magnetic nor structural phase transitions. These unexpected local orthorhombic distortions display Curie-Weiss temperature dependence and become suppressed below the superconducting transition temperature Tc, suggesting that they result from the large nematic susceptibility near optimal superconductivity. Our results account for observations of rotational symmetry breaking above Ts, and attest to the presence of significant nematic fluctuations near optimal superconductivity.
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    Two spatially separated phases in semiconducting Rb0.8Fe1.5S2
    (American Physical Society, 2014) Wang, Meng; Tian, Wei; Valdivia, P.; Chi, Songxue; Bourret-Courchesne, E.; Dai, Pengcheng; Birgeneau, R.J.
    We report neutron scattering and transport measurements on semiconducting Rb0.8Fe1.5S2, a compound isostructural and isoelectronic to the well-studied A0.8FeySe2(A=K,Rb,Cs,Tl/K) superconducting systems. Both resistivity and dc susceptibility measurements reveal a magnetic phase transition at T=275K. Neutron diffraction studies show that the 275 K transition originates from a phase with rhombic iron vacancy order which exhibits an in-plane stripe antiferromagnetic ordering below 275 K. In addition, the stripe antiferromagnetic phase interdigitates mesoscopically with an ubiquitous phase with 5√×5√ iron vacancy order. This phase has a magnetic transition at TN=425K and an iron vacancy order-disorder transition at TS=600K. These two different structural phases are closely similar to those observed in the isomorphous Se materials. Based on the close similarities of the in-plane antiferromagnetic structures, moments sizes, and ordering temperatures in semiconducting Rb0.8Fe1.5S2 and K0.81Fe1.58Se2, we argue that the in-plane antiferromagnetic order arises from strong coupling between local moments. Superconductivity, previously observed in the A0.8FeySe2−zSz system, is absent in Rb0.8Fe1.5S2, which has a semiconducting ground state. The implied relationship between stripe and block antiferromagnetism and superconductivity in these materials as well as a strategy for further investigation is discussed in this paper.