Coexistence of Ferromagnetic and Stripe Antiferromagnetic Spin Fluctuations in SrCo2As2

Abstract

We use inelastic neutron scattering to study energy and wave vector dependence of spin fluctuations in SrCo2As2, derived from SrFe2−xCoxAs2 iron pnictide superconductors. Our data reveal the coexistence of antiferromagnetic (AF) and ferromagnetic (FM) spin fluctuations at wave vectors QAF=(1,0) and QFM=(0,0)/(2,0), respectively. By comparing neutron scattering results with those of dynamic mean field theory calculation and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments, we conclude that both AF and FM spin fluctuations in SrCo2As2 are closely associated with a flatband of the eg orbitals near the Fermi level, different from the t2g orbitals in superconducting SrFe2−xCoxAs2. Therefore, Co substitution in SrFe2−xCoxAs2 induces a t2g to eg orbital switching, and is responsible for FM spin fluctuations detrimental to the singlet pairing superconductivity.