image: NRL scientists propose a highly unusual ground state. They suggest that the Fe ions are always magnetic in ferropnictides, but the observable magnetic moment is strongly reduced or entirely suppressed because of formation of antiferromagnetic domains whose boundaries are dynamic and strongly fluctuation. Observable long-range order appears when domains are large and their walls are pinned. Structural transition without observable long-range magnetism occurs when domain boundaries are predominantly antiphase ones. view more
Credit: Naval Research Laboratory