Striped-magnetic-order suppresses giant optical anisotropy and drives structural distortion in iron arsenide superconductors

To examine the role of magnetism in superconductivity of iron-based superconductors, we first present first-principles optical calculations on three representative parent compounds: LaFeAsO, BaFe2As2 and LiFeAs. Both nonmagnetic (NM) and spin-density wave (SDW) with striped antiferromagnetic order are considered. Due to their layer structure, these compounds in NM states show anomalously large optical anisotropy with a conductivity ratio $σ_{zz}/σ{xx}$ as large as 313% in LaFeAsO and 530% in LiFeAs. Interestingly the giant optical anisotropy is significantly suppressed by SDW. On the other hand, the variable-cell-shape optimizations confirm that SDW does drive an orthorhombic-distortion. The drive force is dependent on the local magnetic moment on Fe sublattice, which is tuned by its bonding environment. Based on these results, we discussed the delicate role of magnetism in superconductivity.

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