• DOI:10.1038/s41563-021-01082-4
• Corpus ID: 235239757

The transport–structural correspondence across the nematic phase transition probed by elasto X-ray diffraction

@article{Sanchez2020TheTC,
  title={The transport–structural correspondence across the nematic phase transition probed by elasto X-ray diffraction},
  author={Joshua J. Sanchez and Paul Malinowski and Joshua Mutch and Jian Liu and J.-W. Kim and Philip J. Ryan and Jiun Haw Chu},
  journal={Nature Materials},
  year={2020},
  volume={20},
  pages={1519 - 1524}
}

• Joshua J. Sanchez, P. Malinowski, +4 authors J. Chu
• Published 16 June 2020
• Physics, Materials Science
• Nature Materials

Electronic nematicity in iron pnictide materials is coupled to both the lattice and the conducting electrons, which allows both structural and transport observables to probe nematic fluctuations and the order parameter. Here we combine simultaneous transport and X-ray diffraction measurements with in-situ tunable strain (elasto X-ray diffraction) to measure the temperature dependence of the shear modulus and elastoresistivity above the nematic transition and the spontaneous orthorhombicity and resistivity anisotropy below the nematic transition, all within a single sample of Ba(Fe0.96Co0.04)2As2. The ratio of transport to structural quantities is nearly temperature independent over a 74 K range and agrees between the ordered and disordered phases. These results show that elasto X-ray diffraction is a powerful technique to probe the nemato-elastic and nemato-transport couplings, which have important implications to the nearby superconductivity. It also enables the measurement in the large strain limit, where the breakdown of the mean-field description reveals the intertwined nature of nematicity. The authors combine simultaneous transport and X-ray diffraction measurements with in-situ tunable strain to measure the temperature dependence of the shear modulus and elastoresistivity above the nematic transition and the spontaneous orthorhombicity and resistivity anisotropy below the nematic transition of Co-doped BaFe2As2.