Magnetic orders, excitations, and phase transitions in Fe_1+yTe

TL;DR

This paper models the magnetic phases of Fe_1+yTe, explaining the transition from commensurate to incommensurate order with doping, and predicts spin-wave excitation behaviors based on exchange interactions and spin anisotropy.

Contribution

It introduces a spin-1 exchange model with anisotropy that accurately describes Fe_1+yTe's magnetic phase diagram and excitations, advancing understanding of its magnetic properties.

Findings

Low Fe doping yields a gapped, bicollinear magnetic order.

High Fe doping results in a gapless, incommensurate spin-spiral order.

The transition at y=0.12 is driven by competition between exchange and anisotropy.

Abstract

We study the magnetic properties of Fe_1+y Te, a parent compound of the iron-based high-temperature superconductors. Motivated by recent neutron scattering experiments, we show that a spin-1 exchange model, supplemented by a single-ion spin anisotropy, accounts well for the experimentally observed low temperature magnetic phase diagram, that exhibits a commensurate bicollinear order at low Fe dopings (y < 0.12) and an incommensurate spin-spiral order at high Fe dopings (y > 0.12). We suggest that the commensurate-incommensurate transition at y = 0.12 is due to the competition between the exchange interaction and the local spin anisotropy. At low Fe dopings, the single-ion spin anisotropy is strong and pins the spins along the easy axis, which, together with the spatially anisotropic exchanges, induces a unusual bicollinear commensurate magnetic order. The low-energy spin-wave excitation is gapped due to the explict breaking of spin-rotational symmetry by the local spin anisotropy. At high Fe dopings, the single-ion anisotropy is weak, and the exchange favors an incommensurate coplanar state. The incommensurate magnetic wavevector averages out the spin anisotropy so that a gapless low-energy spin-wave excitation is obtained. We also analyze the low-energy hydrodynamic model and use it to describe the magneto-structural transition and the static and dynamical spin structure factors across the magnetic ordering transitions.