Properties of Spin-Waves in Iron Pnictides

ORAL

Abstract

The spectrum of spin density-wave (SDW) fluctuation at zero temperature is studied within a multiband Hubbard-like Model. It is assumed that the formation of the SDW is driven by a short range interaction in a particle-hole channel. The mean-field solution reveals that the ground state is an itinerant, antiferromagnetically ordered phase, with staggered magnetic moment modulated at a wave vector M and a partially gapped Fermi surface, consisting of several disconnected pockets. A familiar Hubbard-Stratonovich transformation is used to obtain the effective action for this SDW state and the quantum fluctuations around the mean-field SDW solution are analyzed for realistic band structure of iron pnictides. In particular, we find that the damping is greatly enhanced by the inter-pocket decay of a spin-wave when its momentum reaches a critical value. We compare our theoretical results with the neutron scattering experiments and discuss interplay of SDW and superconductivity.

*Research supported in part by the DOE under Grant No. DE-FG02-08ER46544.

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Authors

  • Jian Kang

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD 21218

  • Vladimir Cvetkovic

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521
    • University of California, Riverside

  • Zlatko Tesanovic

    • Department of Physics and Astronomy, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218
    • Johns Hopkins University