Twinning of domains and spin anisotropy in K5Fe4Ag6Te10
Abstract
The Fe-based superconductors are derived from metallic parent compounds with nematic and stripe magnetic orders, which lead to two types of magnetic domains. Recently it was found that K5Fe4Ag6Te10 (KFAT), an Fe-based semiconductor, exhibits similar nematic and stripe magnetic orders, and is thus an analogue to the Fe-based superconductors in the limit of localized electrons. In this work, the superstructure and magnetic domains of KFAT are elucidated by fully mapping the reciprocal space using time-of-flight single crystal neutron diffraction. In KFAT, Fe and Ag atoms order to form a √5×√5 superstructure containing 2×2 Fe blocks, which leads to two superstructure domains with identical main Bragg peaks but distinct superstructure peaks. Below TN≈35~K, magnetic and nematic orders break in-plane rotational symmetry of the tetragonal √5×√5 superstructure, and further give rise to two magnetic domains. These four equally populated domains account for the complex scattering pattern observed in our time-of-flight elastic neutron scattering measurements. Using polarized neutron scattering, we demonstrate a prominent spin anisotropy with an easy-plane spanned by the c-axis and the intra-block antiferromagnetic Fe-Fe bond direction. Such an anisotropy at bf q≠0 persists well above TN, accounts for the in-plane bf q=0 magnetic anisotropy observed in uniaxial-strained KFAT, and offers an indicator for discovering similar piezomagnetic effects in other materials.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{guo2026twinning,
title = {{Twinning of domains and spin anisotropy in K$_5$Fe$_4$Ag$_6$Te$_10$}},
author = {Jiayu Guo and Hengyang Zhong and Dongsheng Yuan and Xuejuan Gui and Youzhe Chen and Nathan Giles-Donovan and Naomi Kawamura and Masaaki Matsuda and Yaohua Liu and Feng Ye and Rongyan Chen and Robert J. Birgeneau and Xingye Lu and Jincheng Wang and Yu Song},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.15290},
eprint = {2609.15290},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15290},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Twinning of domains and spin anisotropy in K_5Fe_4Ag_6Te_10
AU - Jiayu Guo
AU - Hengyang Zhong
AU - Dongsheng Yuan
AU - Xuejuan Gui
AU - Youzhe Chen
AU - Nathan Giles-Donovan
AU - Naomi Kawamura
AU - Masaaki Matsuda
AU - Yaohua Liu
AU - Feng Ye
AU - Rongyan Chen
AU - Robert J. Birgeneau
AU - Xingye Lu
AU - Jincheng Wang
AU - Yu Song
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/14
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.15290
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.15290
AB - The Fe-based superconductors are derived from metallic parent compounds with nematic and stripe magnetic orders, which lead to two types of magnetic domains. Recently it was found that K_5Fe_4Ag_6Te_10 (KFAT), an Fe-based semiconductor, exhibits similar nematic and stripe magnetic orders, and is thus an analogue to the Fe-based superconductors in the limit of localized electrons. In this work, the superstructure and magnetic domains of KFAT are elucidated by fully mapping the reciprocal space using time-of-flight single crystal neutron diffraction. In KFAT, Fe and Ag atoms order to form a √5×√5 superstructure containing 2×2 Fe blocks, which leads to two superstructure domains with identical main Bragg peaks but distinct superstructure peaks. Below T_N≈35~K, magnetic and nematic orders break in-plane rotational symmetry of the tetragonal √5×√5 superstructure, and further give rise to two magnetic domains. These four equally populated domains account for the complex scattering pattern observed in our time-of-flight elastic neutron scattering measurements. Using polarized neutron scattering, we demonstrate a prominent spin anisotropy with an easy-plane spanned by the c-axis and the intra-block antiferromagnetic Fe-Fe bond direction. Such an anisotropy at bf q≠0 persists well above T_N, accounts for the in-plane bf q=0 magnetic anisotropy observed in uniaxial-strained KFAT, and offers an indicator for discovering similar piezomagnetic effects in other materials.
ER -