Pressure- and temperature-induced structural phase transitions of CaFe2As2 and BaFe2As2 studied in the Hund's rule correlation picture
Abstract
With the proposed Hund's rule correlation picture, i.e. the fluctuating Fe local moments with the As-bridged antiferromagnetic superexchange interactions, the exceptional collapsed tetragonal phase and related phase transitions observed in CaFe2As2 are well understood. With the same framework, a pressure-temperature phase diagram is predicted for BaFe2As2 as well, in which a paramagnetic tetragonal and a collinear antiferromagnetic orthorhombic structures to nonmagnetic tetragonal structure transitions take place around 4-8 GPa and 10-15 GPa respectively, and a nonmagnetic tetragonal to a nonmagnetic collapsed tetragonal structure transition takes place over 26 GPa. Our study helps better understand the complex correlation among crystal structure, magnetism, and electronic structure in pnictides, a precondition to understand the superconductivity in pnictides.