Ferro-orbital order induced by electron-lattice coupling in orthorhombic iron pnictides

In this paper we explore the magnetic and orbital properties in iron pnictides based on the two-orbital as well as the five-orbital Hubbard models. These properties are closely related to a tetragonal-orthorhombic structural phase transition. The electron-lattice coupling, interplaying with electron-electron interaction, is self-consistently treated. Our results reveal that the orbital polarization favors the spin-density wave (SDW) in the orthorhombic phase. The ferro-orbital (FO) order only occurs in the orthorhombic phase rather than in the tetragonal one. For the five-orbital model, magnetic moments of Fe are small in the intermediate Coulomb interaction region in the striped antiferromagnetic phase. We also calculate the Fermi surface, which is anisotropic in the SDW/FO orthorhombic phase and agrees well with the recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments. These results suggest that the magnetic phase transition is driven by the FO order arising from the electron-lattice coupling.