Fast recovery of the stripe magnetic order by Mn/Fe substitution in F-doped LaFeAsO superconductors

As75 nuclear magnetic (NMR) and quadrupolar (NQR) resonance were used, together with Mössbauer spectroscopy, to investigate the magnetic state induced by Mn for Fe substitutions in F-doped LaFe1-xMnxAsO superconductors. The results show that 0.5% of Mn doping is enough to suppress the superconducting transition temperature Tc from 27 K to zero and to recover the magnetic structure observed in the parent undoped LaFeAsO. Also the tetragonal to orthorhombic transition of the parent compound is recovered by introducing Mn, as evidenced by a sharp drop of the NQR frequency. The NQR spectra also show that a charge localization process is at play in the system. Theoretical calculations using a realistic five-band model show that correlation-enhanced RKKY exchange interactions between nearby Mn ions stabilize the observed stripe magnetic order. These results give compelling evidence that F-doped LaFeAsO is a strongly correlated electron system at the verge of an electronic instability.