Antiferromagnetic stripe ordering at the tetragonal-orthorhombic transition in LnOFeAs probed by X-ray absorption spectroscopy

Measurements of the Fe K-edge X-ray absorption near edge (XANES) spectra of LnOFeAs high T_c superconductors exhibit small but measurable changes across the tetragonal to orthorhombic phase structural phase transition. Calculations, based on the local structure centered at the Fe site obtained by crystallographic investigations, reproduce the observed changes in the spectra under the change of the crystal structure, indicating variations in the Fe local unoccupied electronic states. Calculated Fe density of states including stripe spin ordering in the orthorhombic phase show significant modifications with respect to Fe 3d density of states in the tetragonal phase or the density of states in the orthorhombic phase calculated ignoring spin ordering. This implies that the striped spin ordering in the orthorhombic phase is necessary to describe its electronic properties not only in the ground state but also for excited states above the Fermi energy.