Paramagnetic spin excitations in insulating Rb0.8Fe1.6Se2

Miaoyin Wang, Xingye Lu, R. A. Ewings, Leland W. Harriger, Yu Song, Scott V. Carr, Chunhong Li, Rui Zhang, and Pengcheng Dai
Phys. Rev. B 87, 064409 – Published 8 February 2013

Abstract

We use neutron scattering to study temperature-dependent spin excitations in insulating antiferromagnetic (AF) Rb0.8Fe1.6Se2. In the low-temperature AF state, spin waves can be accurately described by a local moment Heisenberg Hamiltonian. On warming to around the Néel temperature of TN=500 K, low-energy (E<30 meV) paramagnetic spin excitations form Lorentzian-like quasielastic peaks centered at the AF wave vectors associated with spin waves, while high-energy (E>50 meV) spin excitations become heavily damped. Upon further warming to above the structural distortion temperature of Ts=524 K, the entire paramagnetic excitations become overdamped. These results suggest that AF Rb0.8Fe1.6Se2 is not a copper-oxide–like Mott insulator and has less electron correlations compared with metallic iron pnictides and iron chalcogenides.

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  • Received 8 October 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.87.064409

©2013 American Physical Society

Authors & Affiliations

Miaoyin Wang1, Xingye Lu1,2, R. A. Ewings3, Leland W. Harriger1, Yu Song1, Scott V. Carr1, Chunhong Li2, Rui Zhang2, and Pengcheng Dai1,2,*

  • 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee 37996-1200, USA
  • 2Beijing National Laboratory for Condensed Matter Physics, Institute of Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, China
  • 3ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK

  • *pdai@utk.edu

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Vol. 87, Iss. 6 — 1 February 2013

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