EFree partners at the University of Texas at Austin, along with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and HPCAT published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science reporting their new findings on the magnetic and structural transitions in iron-based BaFe₂As₂ superconductor at extreme environments.

 

Superconductivity and magnetism have been considered to be in competition with each other. The discovery of high-T_C superconductivity in iron-based compounds, however, drastically alters this concept, as the origin of its superconductivity is closely related to magnetism of iron. The researchers report the interplay of magnetic and structural transitions in a parent compound of iron-based superconductor BaFe₂As₂ at high pressures, in which magnetic ordering precedes the structural transition at high pressures. Their results can be understood in terms of spin fluctuations in the emerging nematic phase before long-range magnetic order. 

 

Their findings provide valuable insights into exploring the interplay between magnetism and structure, consequently,into a better understanding of the superconductivity in iron-based compounds [J. Wu., Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. 110, 17263 (2013)].