Phase transitions in a frustrated biquadratic Heisenberg model with coupled orbital degrees of freedom for iron-based superconductors

W. Z. Zhuo, M. H. Qin, S. Dong, X. G. Li, and J.-M. Liu

Phys. Rev. B 93, 094424 – Published 18 March 2016

Abstract

In this paper, we study a biquadratic Heisenberg model with coupled orbital degrees of freedom by using a Monte Carlo simulation to investigate the phase transitions in iron-based superconductors. The antiferroquadrupolar state, which may be related to the magnetism of FeSe [R. Yu and Q. Si, Phys. Rev. Lett. 115, 116401 (2015)], is stabilized by the anisotropic biquadratic interaction induced by a ferro-orbital-ordered state. It is revealed that the orbital and nematic transitions occur at the same temperature for all the cases, supporting the mechanism of the orbital-driven nematicity as revealed in most recent experiments [S. H. Baek, D. V. Efremov, J. M. Ok, J. S. Kim, J. van den Brink, and B. Büchner, Nat. Mater. 14, 210 (2015)]. In addition, it is suggested that the orbital interaction may lead to the separation of the structural and magnetic phase transitions, as observed in many families of iron pnictides.

Received 8 December 2015
Revised 26 February 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.93.094424

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Angular momentum of light Phase transitions

Superconductors

Heisenberg model

Condensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

Authors & Affiliations

W. Z. Zhuo¹, M. H. Qin^1,*, S. Dong², X. G. Li³, and J.-M. Liu^1,4,†

¹Institute for Advanced Materials and Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Quantum Engineering and Quantum Materials, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510006, China
²Department of Physics, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China
³Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, Department of Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, China
⁴Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210093, China

^*qinmh@scnu.edu.cn
^†liujm@nju.edu.cn

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Vol. 93, Iss. 9 — 1 March 2016

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