Structural and magnetic phase transitions in triclinic Ca10(FeAs)10(Pt3As8).

We report the structural and magnetic phase transitions of triclinic Ca10(FeAs)10(Pt3As8), which is the parent compound of the 1038-type iron-arsenide superconductors. High-resolution x-ray diffraction reveals splitting of the in-plane (a,b) lattice parameters at T(s) ≈ 120 K. Platinum-doping weakens the distortion and shifts the transition temperature to 80 K in Ca10(Fe(1-x)Pt(x)As)10(Pt3As8) with x = 0.03. μSR experiments show the onset of magnetic order near T and a broad magnetic phase transition. The structural transition involves no reduction of the space group symmetry in contrast to the other parent compounds of iron-arsenide superconductors; nevertheless the local fourfold symmetry of the FeAs-layers in Ca10(FeAs)10(Pt3As8) is broken.