Two-Dimensional Massless Dirac Fermions in Antiferromagnetic AFe_{2}As_{2} (A=Ba,Sr).

ABSTRACT

We report infrared studies of AFe_{2}As_{2} (A=Ba, Sr), two representative parent compounds of iron-arsenide superconductors, at magnetic fields (B) up to 17.5 T. Optical transitions between Landau levels (LLs) were observed in the antiferromagnetic states of these two parent compounds. Our observation of a sqrt[B] dependence of the LL transition energies, the zero-energy intercepts at B=0 T under the linear extrapolations of the transition energies and the energy ratio (∼2.4) between the observed LL transitions, combined with the linear band dispersions in two-dimensional (2D) momentum space obtained by theoretical calculations, demonstrates the existence of massless Dirac fermions in the antiferromagnet BaFe_{2}As_{2}. More importantly, the observed dominance of the zeroth-LL-related absorption features and the calculated bands with extremely weak dispersions along the momentum direction k_{z} indicate that massless Dirac fermions in BaFe_{2}As_{2} are 2D. Furthermore, we find that the total substitution of the barium atoms in BaFe_{2}As_{2} by strontium atoms not only maintains 2D massless Dirac fermions in this system, but also enhances their Fermi velocity, which supports that the Dirac points in iron-arsenide parent compounds are topologically protected.