2016/03/07 by John Harter, J. W. Harter, H. Chu +7 · 1 citation
Business, Management and Accounting · Materials Science · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #Anisotropy #Condensed matter physics #Corporate Taxation and Avoidance #Homogeneous space #Intellectual Capital and Performance Analysis #Iron-based superconductors research #Materials science #Mathematics #Nonlinear optical #Nonlinear system #Phase transition #Physics #Point reflection #Quantum mechanics #Singlet state #Superconductivity #Symmetry (geometry) #Type (biology) #cond-mat.str-el
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevb.93.104506
published as Phys. Rev. B 93, 104506 (2016); Editors' Suggestion
openalex publication_date 2016/03/07 · arxiv created 2016/03/11 · arxiv updated 2016/03/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
The authors measure the nonlinear optical response of Ca1-xLaxFeAs2 to investigate the detailed structural symmetries of the recently discovered 112-type family of iron-based superconductors. They find a strong and anisotropic optical second-harmonic response, identifying C2 and C1 as the high- and low-temperature crystallographic point groups, respectively. This makes the 112-type materials the first known high-temperature superconductors to break structural inversion symmetry, allowing for the possible mixing of singlet and triplet Cooper pairs in the superconducting state. In addition, the intrinsically low crystallographic symmetry of this family of materials can potentially stabilize large single domains of the electronic nematic state ubiquitous in the iron-based superconductors without application of strain.