Influence of magnetism on phonons in CaFe2As2 as seen via inelastic x-ray scattering

In the iron pnictides, the strong sensitivity of the iron magnetic moment to the arsenic position suggests a significant relationship between phonons and magnetism. We measured the phonon dispersion of several branches in the high-temperature tetragonal phase of CaFe2As2 using inelastic x-ray scattering on single-crystal samples. These measurements were compared to ab initio calculations of the phonons. Spin-polarized calculations imposing the antiferromagnetic order present in the low-temperature orthorhombic phase dramatically improve agreement between theory and experiment. This is discussed in terms of the strong antiferromagnetic correlations that are known to persist in the tetragonal phase.