Possible coexistence of double-Q magnetic order and chequerboard charge order in the re-entrant tetragonal phase of Ba0.76K0.24Fe2As2

TL;DR

This study explores the coexistence of double-Q magnetic order and chequerboard charge order in the re-entrant tetragonal phase of Ba0.76K0.24Fe2As2, revealing complex magnetic and charge interactions in this iron-based superconductor.

Contribution

It provides evidence for out-of-plane double-Q magnetic order and suggests a secondary chequerboard charge order that preserves C4 symmetry in the re-entrant phase.

Findings

Reversible magnetization confirms out-of-plane double-Q magnetic order.

Nernst coefficient remains largely unchanged across the phase transition.

Possible formation of chequerboard charge order without C4 symmetry breaking.

Abstract

We investigate the re-entrant tetragonal phase in the iron-based superconductor Ba0 .76K0.24Fe2As2 by DC magnetization and thermoelectrical measurements. The reversible magnetization confirms by a thermodynamic method that the spin alignment in the re-entrant C4 phase is out-of-plane, in agreement with an itinerant double-Q magnetic order [Allred et al., Nat. Phys. 12, 493 (2016)]. The Nernst coefficient shows the typical unusually large negative value in the stripe-type spin density wave (SDW) state owing to the Fermi surface reconstruction associated with SDW and nematic order. At the transition into the re-entrant C4 tetragonal phase it hardly changes, which could indicate that instead of a complete vanishing of the associated charge order, the spin reorientation could trigger a redistribution of the charges to form a secondary charge order, e.g. in form of a chequerboard-like pattern that no longer breaks the rotational C4 symmetry.