Antiferromagnetism enables electron-phonon coupling in iron-based superconductors

Abstract

It is shown that a generic form of an antiferromagnetic wave function opens strong electron-phonon coupling channels in the iron-based superconductors. In the nonmagnetic state these channels exist locally on a single iron atom, but are canceled out between the two iron atoms in the primitive unit cell. Our findings are based on symmetry and the presence of an xz/yz Fermi surface near the M point and thus should be relevant for the known iron-based pnictide or chalcogenide superconductors.