Nematicity in LaFeAsO single crystals studied by elastoresistance, high-resolution thermal expansion and shear-modulus measurements

TL;DR

This study investigates nematicity in LaFeAsO single crystals using elastoresistance, thermal expansion, and shear-modulus measurements, revealing an electronic origin and contrasting behavior with BaFe2As2.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the electronic nature of nematicity in LaFeAsO and compares its behavior to BaFe2As2, highlighting differences in nematic susceptibility.

Findings

Shear modulus $C_{66}$ softens near the structural transition.

Nematic susceptibilities $ ext{chi}^{sh}$ and $ ext{chi}^{er}$ diverge with Curie-Weiss-like behavior.

Contrasting temperature dependence of $ ext{chi}^{er}$ in LaFeAsO and BaFe$_2$As$_2$.

Abstract

Nematicity in LaFeAsO single crystals is studied by means of high-resolution thermal expansion, shear modulus, and elastoresistivity measurements. A softening of the shear modulus $C_{\rm 66}$ towards the structural phase transition at $T_{\rm S}$ is observed. In addition, a similar Curie-Weiss-like divergence of the nematic susceptibilities is found in the temperature dependence of both $\chi^{sh}$ and $\chi^{er}$, which are deduced from the shear modulus (sh) and the elastoresistivity (er) studies, respectively. These observations provide evidence for an electronic origin of nematicity in LaFeAsO. The characteristic energy of the coupling between the lattice and the electronic degrees of freedom is deduced to $\sim$30~K. The comparison to corresponding measurements on BaFe$_2$As$_2$ single crystals reveals a very similar temperature dependence of the shear modulus but yields contrasting results for $\chi^{er}$ : In BaFe$_2$As$_2$, $\chi^{er}$ diverges similarly as the uncoupled nematicity deduced from the shear modulus data as it is expected from the underlying Landau theory. In contrast, the Weiss temperatures of $\chi^{er}$ and $\chi^{sh}$ are significantly different in LaFeAsO. This difference is at odds with the commonly anticipated theories of resistivity anisotropy and electronic nematicity in iron pnictides.