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    Twinning of domains and spin anisotropy in K5Fe4Ag6Te10

    Jiayu Guo1, Hengyang Zhong2, Dongsheng Yuan3,4, Xuejuan Gui5,6, Youzhe Chen3,7, Nathan Giles-Donovan3,7, Naomi Kawamura8, Masaaki Matsuda9, Yaohua Liu9,10 et al.

    Feng Ye9, Rongyan Chen2, Robert J. Birgeneau3,7, Xingye Lu2, Jincheng Wang5,6,11,12,*, and Yu Song1,†

    • *Contact author: jcwang_phys@ruc.edu.cn
    • †Contact author: yusong_phys@zju.edu.cn

    Phys. Rev. B 114, 175116 – Published 11 September, 2026

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/y7tn-ptpw

    Abstract

    Fe-based superconductors are derived from metallic parent compounds with nematic and stripe magnetic orders, which lead to two types of magnetic domains. Recently, it was found that K5Fe4Ag6Te10 (KFAT), an Fe-based semiconductor, exhibits similar nematic and stripe magnetic orders, and is thus an analog to the Fe-based superconductors in the limit of localized electrons. In this work, the superstructure and magnetic domains of KFAT are elucidated by fully mapping the reciprocal space using time-of-flight single crystal neutron diffraction. In KFAT, Fe and Ag atoms order to form a 5×5 superstructure containing 2×2 Fe blocks, which leads to two superstructure domains with identical main Bragg peaks but distinct superstructure peaks. Below TN≈35K, magnetic and nematic orders break in-plane rotational symmetry of the tetragonal 5×5 superstructure, and further give rise to two magnetic domains. These four equally populated domains account for the complex scattering pattern observed in our time-of-flight elastic neutron scattering measurements. Using polarized neutron scattering, we demonstrate a prominent spin anisotropy with an easy-plane spanned by the c axis and the intrablock antiferromagnetic Fe-Fe bond direction. Such an anisotropy at q≠0 persists well above TN, accounts for the in-plane q=0 magnetic anisotropy observed in uniaxial-strained KFAT, and offers an indicator for discovering similar piezomagnetic effects in other materials.

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