Origin of the spin density wave instability in AFe₂As₂ (A=Ba, Sr) as revealed by optical spectroscopy

We performed optical spectroscopy measurement on single crystals of BaFe$_2$As$_2$ and SrFe$_2$As$_2$, the parent compounds of FeAs based superconductors. Both are found to be quite metallic with fairly large plasma frequencies at high temperature. Upon entering the spin-density-wave (SDW) state, formation of partial energy gaps was clearly observed with the presence of surprisingly two different energy scales. A large part of the Drude component was removed by the gapping of Fermi surfaces (FS). Meanwhile, the carrier scattering rate was even more dramatically reduced. We elaborate that the SDW instability is more likely to be driven by the FS nesting of itinerant electrons rather than a local-exchange mechanism.