Structural investigations in BaFe2-xRuxAs2 as a function of Ru and temperature

Abstract

We present Synchrotron XRD measurements on powdered single crystal samples of BaFe2-xRuxAs2 samples, as a function of Ru content at room temperature. The Rietveld refinements reveal that the a-axis increases with Ru substitution, while the c-axis decreases. The variation of positional co-ordinates of As (zAs), the Fe-As bond length and the As-Fe-As bond angles have been determined from the Rietveld refinements. In the sample with x=0.1, temperature dependent XRD measurements were carried out. The results indicate that while the orthorhombicity shows the characteristic increase with decrease in temperature, the As-Fe-As bond angles, Fe-As bond length and positional co-ordinate of the As show definite anomalies close to the structural transition. First principle ab-initio simulations are performed in order to understand the experimentally observed anomalies in structural parameters. The experimental observations are discussed in the context of the simulation results.