Room-Temperature Ba(Fe1-x Cox)2 As2 is not Tetragonal: Direct Observation of Magnetoelastic Interactions in Pnictide Superconductors.

Lattice distortions corresponding to Ba displacements with respect to the FeAs sublattice are revealed to break the room-temperature tetragonal symmetry in Ba(Fe1-x Cox)2 As2. The displacements yield twin domains of the size of ≈10 nm. The domain size correlates with the magnitude of the local Fe magnetic moment and its non-monotonic dependence on Co concentration.