Hyperfine magnetic interactions of 57Fe nuclei in NaFeAs arsenide

The results of the Mössbauer effect studies of layered NaFeAs arsenide in a wide temperature range are presented. The measurements at T > T _N demonstrate that the main part (～90%) of iron atoms are in the low-spin state Fe²⁺. The other atoms can be attributed to the impurity NaFe₂As₂ phase or to the extended defects in NaFeAs. The structural phase transition (at T _S ≈ 55 K) does not produce any effect on hyperfine parameters (δ, Δ) of iron atoms. At T < T _N, the spectra exhibit the existence of a certain distribution of the hyperfine magnetic field (H _Fe) at ⁵⁷Fe nuclei, indicating the inhomogeneity of the magnetic environment around iron cations. The analysis of the temperature behavior of the distribution function p(H _Fe) allows us to determine the temperature of the magnetic phase transition (T _N = 46 ± 2 K). It has been found that the magnetic ordering in the iron sublattice has a two-dimensional type. The analysis of the H _Fe(T) dependence in the framework of the Bean-Rodbell model reveals a first-order magnetic phase transition accompanied by a drastic change in the electron contributions to the main component (V _ZZ ) and the asymmetry parameter (η) of the tensor describing the electric field gradient at ⁵⁷Fe nuclei.