Study of the electronic and magnetic properties as a function of isoelectronic substitution in SmFe1−xRuxAsO0.85F0.15

We have studied the electronic and magnetic properties of SmFe1−xRuxAsO0.85F0.15 (x = 0, 0.05, 0.25, 0.33, 0.5) by high-resolution x-ray absorption and x-ray emission spectroscopy. The local Fe magnetic moment (μ) tends to decrease for a small Ru substitution, but it shows a clear increase with further substitution. It appears that impurity scattering prevails in reducing the μ with small Ru substitution due to an extended Ru d-band. A nanoscale phase separation, that decouples the FeAs layers from the spacer layers, drives the increase of μ at higher Ru substitution. The results provide important information on nanoscale phase separation due to isoelectronic substitution in the active layers of iron-based 1111-superconductors and its effect on the local magnetic properties. (paper)