Broken mirror symmetry, incommensurate spin correlations, and B 2 g nematic order in iron pnictides
Motivated by recent experiments in the extremely hole doped iron pnictide compounds AFe 2 As 2 (A = K, Rb, Cs), we consider spin-driven nematic order for incommensurate magnetic fluctuations. We classify the nematic order parameters by broken mirror symmetries of the tetragonal D 4h point group, and use this scheme to construct a general Ginzburg-Landau theory that links the nematic order to spatial pattern of magnetic fluctuations. Our analysis points to incommensurate (q,q) magnetic fluctuations as underlying a B 2 g nematic order in AFe 2 As 2 . We substantiate this idea by microscopic calculations based on three-sublattice (2π/3,2π/3) spin correlations in an extended bilinear-biquadratic Heisenberg model. Our classification scheme provides symmetry-based understanding for quasidegeneracy of several nematic channels. The proposed mechanism resolves recently emerged experimental puzzles. Furthermore, we suggest ways to further test it in future experiments and discuss the implications of our results for iron-based high temperature superconductivity.