Direct evidence for the magnetic ordering of Nd ions in NdFeAsO by high-resolution inelastic neutron scattering

We investigated the low energy excitations in the parent compound NdFeAsO of the Fe-pnictide superconductor in the μeV range by a back scattering neutron spectrometer. The energy scans on a powder NdFeAsO sample revealed inelastic peaks at E = 1.600 ±0.003μeV at T = 0.055 K on both energy gain and energy loss sides. The inelastic peaks move gradually towards lower energy with increasing temperature and finally merge with the elastic peak at about 6 K. We interpret the inelastic peaks to be due to the transition between hyperfine-split nuclear level of the 143Nd and 145Nd isotopes with spin I=7/2. The hyperfine field is produced by the ordering of the electronic magnetic moment of Nd at low temperature and thus the present investigation gives direct evidence of the ordering of the Nd magnetic sublattice of NdFeAsO at low temperature.