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Doping-dependent Fe phonon dynamics in studied by nuclear resonant inelastic scattering
Phys. Rev. B 113, 024519 – Published 30 January, 2026
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/7zd9-5t9z
Abstract
To investigate the phonon dynamics of iron in the heavily hydride-ion-substituted region of (), nuclear resonant inelastic scattering measurements were performed over a wide temperature range from 5 to 300 K on two polycrystalline samples with and 0.51, which exhibit superconducting and antiferromagnetic ground states, respectively. The resulting inelastic scattering spectra revealed distinct differences between the two compositions. The Fe phonon density of states (PDOS) exhibits a pronounced peak at 15 meV for , whereas this peak is absent in . Density functional theory calculations support the interpretation that the PDOS peak at 15 meV is associated with the optical vibrational modes of Fe atoms along the nearest-neighbor direction, mediated by As atoms. The calculations further suggest that the suppression of the PDOS peak at 15 meV for originates from in-plane electronic inequivalence. These findings suggest that signatures of electronic nematicity may persist over a wide temperature range in the composition, which exhibits magnetic and structural order, whereas such signatures are almost absent in the superconducting composition.