New tetragonal magnetic phase in (Ba,K)Fe$_2$As$_2$
ORAL
Abstract
The recently discovered C$_4$-symmetric magnetic phase in (Ba,Na)Fe$_2$As$_2$ \footnote{Avci et al., Nature Commun. 5, 3845 (2014)} is a rare exception among iron-based superconductors, which usually display a stripe-type spin-density wave (SDW) ground state at low doping. We re-examine the phase diagram of the closely related (Ba,K)Fe$_2$As$_2$ in great detail, using high-quality single crystals and thermodynamic (thermal-expansion and specific-heat) measurements. We find a small region of a, previously missed, C$_4$-symmetric phase in the ambient-pressure phase diagram, likely related to an unidentified phase transition observed under hydrostatic pressure\footnote{Hassinger et al., Phys. Rev. B 86 140502 (2012)}. We investigate the remarkable interplay of the new C$_4$ phase with superconductivity and with the SDW phase by studying the electronic entropy and the effect of uniaxial pressure on the phase diagram.
–