Magneto-elastic Coupling in Single-crystal CeFeAsO

Single-crystal synchrotron X-ray diffraction studies of CeFeAsO reveal strong anisotropy in the charge correlation lengths along or perpendicular to the in-plane antiferromagnetic (AFM) wave-vector at low temperatures. The high-resolution setup allows to distinctly monitor each of the twin domains by virtue of a finite misfit angle between them that follows the order parameter. We find that the in-plane correlations, above the orthorhombic (O)-to-tetragonal (T) transition, are shorter than those in each of the domains in the AFM phase, indicating a distribution of the in-plane lattice constants. This strongly suggests that the phase above the structural transition is virtually T with strong O-T fluctuations that are induced by magnetic fluctuations.