Crystalline anisotropy induces a second antiferromagnetic phase in the absence of SDW in the heavily hydrogen-doped LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$H$_x$ $(x\sim0.5 )$

TL;DR

This study uses advanced computational methods to reveal how crystalline anisotropy induces a second antiferromagnetic phase in heavily hydrogen-doped LaFeAsO, independent of spin density wave phenomena.

Contribution

It demonstrates that crystalline anisotropy leads to a new magnetic phase and orbital anisotropy without SDW, highlighting the importance of crystal structure in iron-based superconductors.

Findings

Identification of a stripe-like hydrogen-oxygen ordering as the ground state.

Observation of significant orbital anisotropy between Fe 3d orbitals.

Correlation between magnetic behavior and As-Fe-As bond angle.

Abstract

Electronic and magnetic properties of the heavily H-doped LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$H$_x$ $(x\sim0.5 )$ were studied in the framework of the density functional theory combined with the dynamical mean field theory (DFT+DMFT). We found a stripe-like-ordered structure of hydrogen and oxygen atoms, as a ground state, with the same configuration as the antiferromagnetic (AF) order. The new configuration could explain the existing experimental results related to the heavily H-doped LaFeAsO$_{1-x}$H$_x$, such as an in-plane electronic anisotropy and a non-uniform magnetic behavior. A significant anisotropy was observed between Fe- 3d$_{xz}$ (xz) and Fe-3d$_{yz}$ (yz) orbitals in the ground state in the absence of the pseudogap resulting from the spin density wave phase, which was found to originate from the crystalline anisotropy. Magnetic moments were not spatially uniform and were sensitive to the crystal configuration. We found that a non-uniform magnetic behavior is associated with the As-Fe-As bond angle in the structure. Our findings would clarify the importance of crystal details and orbital degrees of freedom in iron-based superconductors.