Polarized Light Microscopy Study on the Reentrant Phase Transition in a (Ba1-xKx) Fe2As2 Single Crystal with x=0.24

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2016_Lograsso_PolarizedLight.pdf (3.72 MB)

Date

2016-01-01

Authors

Liu, Yong
Lograsso, Thomas
Tanatar, Makariy
Timmons, Erik
Lograsso, Thomas

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Authors

Lograsso, Thomas

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Organizational Units

Ames Laboratory

Organizational Unit

Physics and Astronomy

Organizational Unit

Materials Science and Engineering

Organizational Unit

Department

Ames LaboratoryPhysics and AstronomyMaterials Science and Engineering

Abstract

A sequence of structural/magnetic transitions on cooling is reported in the literature for hole-doped iron-based superconductor (Ba1 − xKx)Fe2As2 with x = 0.24. By using polarized light microscopy, we directly observe the formation of orthorhombic domains in (Ba1 − xKx)Fe2As2 (x = 0.24) single crystal below a temperature of simultaneous structural/magnetic transition TN ~ 80 K. The structural domains vanish below ~30 K, but reappear below T = 15 K. Our results are consistent with reentrance transformation sequence from high-temperature tetragonal (HTT) to low temperature orthorhombic (LTO1) structure at TN ~ 80 K, LTO1 to low temperature tetragonal (LTT) structure at Tc ~ 25 K, and LTT to low temperature orthorhombic (LTO2) structure at T ~ 15 K.

Comments

This article is published as Liu, Yong, Makariy A. Tanatar, Erik Timmons, and Thomas A. Lograsso. "Polarized light microscopy study on the reentrant phase transition in a (Ba1–xKx) Fe2As2 single crystal with x= 0.24." Crystals 6, no. 11 (2016): 142. DOI: 10.3390/cryst6110142. Posted with permission.