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Published on: March 24, 2019
Ultrafast structural dynamics of the orthorhombic distortion in the Fe-pnictide parent compound BaFe2As2
L Rettig1, S O Mariager1, A Ferrer
1Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institut , CH-5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
Abstract:
Using femtosecond time-resolved hard x-ray diffraction, we investigate the structural dynamics of the orthorhombic distortion in the Fe-pnictide parent compound BaFe2As2. The orthorhombic distortion analyzed by the transient splitting of the (1 0 3) Bragg reflection is suppressed on an initial timescale of 35 ps, which is much slower than the suppression of magnetic and nematic order. This observation demonstrates a transient state with persistent structural distortion and suppressed magnetic/nematic order which are strongly linked in thermal equilibrium. We suggest a way of quantifying the coupling between structural and nematic degrees of freedom based on the dynamics of the respective order parameters.
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