We study the electronic structure of iron-based superconductors FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_x$ within the density functional theory. We pay particular attention to the pressure effects on the Fermi surface (FS) topology, which seem to be correlated with a critical superconducting temperature TC of iron chalcogenides and pnictides. A reduction of the FS nesting between hole and electron cylinders with increasing pressure is observed, which can lead to higher values of TC . The tellurium substitution into selenium sites yields FS changes similar to the pressure effect.
Here we establish a combined electronic phase diagram of isoelectronic FeSe1-xSx (0.19 > x > 0.0) and FeSe1-yTey (0.04 < y < 1.0) single crystals. The FeSe1-yTey crystals with y = 0.04 - 0.30 are grown by a hydrothermal ion-deintercalation (HID) method. Based on combined experiments of the specific heat, electrical transport, and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, no signature of the tetragonal-symmetry-broken transition to orthorhombic (nematic) phase is observed in the HID FeSe1-yTey samples, as compared with the FeSe1-xSx samples showing this transition at Ts. A ubiquitous dip-like …
The high upper critical field characteristic of the recently discovered iron-based superconducting chalcogenides opens the possibility of developing a new type of non-oxide high-field superconducting wires. In this work, we utilize a buffered metal template on which we grow a textured FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$ layer, an approach developed originally for high temperature superconducting coated conductors. These tapes carry high critical current densities (>1$\times10^{4}$A/cm$^{2}$) at about 4.2K under magnetic field as high as 25 T, which are nearly isotropic to the field direction. This demonstr…
Fe K-edge and Se K-edge x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) measurements are used to study FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_{x}$ electronic structure of chalcogenides. An intense Fe K-edge pre-edge peak due to Fe 1s$\to$3d (and admixed Se/Te $p$ states) is observed, showing substantial change with the Te substitution and X-ray polarization. The main white line peak in the Se K-edge XANES due to Se 1s $\to$ 4p transition appear similar to the one expected for Se$^{2-}$ systems and changes with the Te substitution. Polarization dependence reveals that unoccupied Se orbitals near the Fermi level have pre…
We demonstrate that the differential conductance, $dI/dV$, measured via spectroscopic imaging scanning tunneling microscopy in the doped iron chalcogenide FeSe$_{0.45}$Te$_{0.55}$, possesses a series of characteristic features that allow one to extract the orbital structure of the superconducting gaps. This yields nearly isotropic superconducting gaps on the two hole-like Fermi surfaces, and a strongly anisotropic gap on the electron-like Fermi surface. Moreover, we show that the pinning of nematic fluctuations by defects can give rise to a dumbbell-like spatial structure of the induced impuri…
Over the past few years Fe chalcogenides (FeSe/Te) have advanced to the forefront of Fe-based superconductors (FeBS) research. The most intriguing results thus far are for intercalated and monolayer FeSe, however experimental studies are still inconclusive. Yet, bulk FeSe itself remains an unusual case when compared with pnictogen-based FeBS, and may hold clues to understanding the more exotic FeSe-derivatives. The FeSe phase diagram is unlike the pnictides: the orthorhombic distortion, which is likely to be of a "spin-nematic" nature in numerous pnictides, is not accompanied by magnetic order…
The successful fabrication of one monolayer FeSe on SrTiO$_{3}$ represented a real breakthrough in searching for high-T$_{c}$ Fe-based superconductors (Ref. 1). Motivated by this important discovery, we studied the effects of tensile strain on one monolayer and bulk iron-chalcogenide superconductors (FeSe and FeTe), showing that it produces important magnetic and electronic changes in the systems. We found that the magnetic ground state of bulk and monolayer FeSe is the block-checkerboard phase, which turns into the collinear stripe phase under in plane tensile strain. FeTe, in both bulk and m…
Thin film growth of iron chalcogenides by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) is still a delicate issue in terms of simultaneous control of stoichiometry, texture, substrate/film interface properties, and superconducting properties. The high volatility of the constituents sharply limits optimal deposition temperatures to a narrow window and mainly challenges reproducibility for vacuum based methods. In this work we demonstrate the beneficial introduction of a semiconducting FeSe$_{1\text{--}x}$Te$_x$ seed layer for subsequent homoepitaxial growth of superconducting FeSe$_{1\text{--}x}$Te$_x$ thin fi…
PbO-type Fe chalcogenide has been drawing much attention as the Fe-based superconductor with the most simple crystal structure. Whereas FeSe is an intrinsic superconductor, FeTe, while having a structure analogous to FeSe, exhibits antiferromagnetic ordering. The relationship between antiferromagnetism and superconductivity provides key information to understand better superconductivity in Fe chalcogenides. Furthermore the significant pressure effect on Tc in the Fe-chalcogenide superconductors, which is likely to be correlated with the crystal structure and/or magnetism, is important in eluci…
The iron chalcogenides FeSe and FeS are superconductors composed of two-dimensional sheets held together by van der Waals interactions, which makes them prime candidates for the intercalation of various guest species. We review the intercalation chemistry of FeSe and FeS superconductors and discuss their synthesis, structure, and physical properties. Before we review the latest work in this area, we provide a brief background on the intercalation chemistry of other inorganic materials that exhibit enhanced superconducting properties upon intercalation, which include the transition metal dichal…
Structural and physical properties of layered chalcogenide superconductors are summarized. In particular, we review the remarkable properties of the Fe-chalcogenide superconductors, FeSe and FeTe-based materials. Furthermore, we introduce the recently-discovered new BiS2-based layered superconductors and discuss its prospects.
We discovered a novel annealing method for Fe-chalcogenide superconductors. It was found that sulfur annealing deintercalated excess Fe via formation of FeS2. Due to its specifics, sulfur annealing is applicable when preparing Fe-chalcogenide-based wires or cables.
Iron-chalcogenide compounds with FeSe(Te, S) layers did not attract much attention until the discovery of high-Tc superconductivity (SC) in the iron-pnictide compounds at the begining of 2008. Compared with FeAs-based superconductors, iron-chalcogenide superconductors have aroused enormous enthusiasm to study the relationship between SC and magnetisms with several distinct features, such as different antiferromagnetic ground states with relatively large moments in the parents, indicating possibly different superconducting mechanisms, the existence of the excess Fe atoms or Fe vacancies in the …
By applying density functional theory calculations to iron chalcogenides, we find that magnetic order in Fe$_{1+y}$Te and magnetic instability at $(π,π)$ in K$_y$Fe$_2$Se$_2$ are controlled by interstitial and interlayer cations, respectively. While in Fe$_{1+y}$Te, magnetic phase transitions occur among collinear, exotic bicollinear and plaquette-ordered antiferronmagnetic states when the height of interstitial irons measured from iron plane or the concentration of interstitial irons is varied, the magnetic instability at $(π,π)$ which is believed to be responsible for the Cooper pairing in i…
The iron-based superconductor FeSe offers a unique possibility to study the interplay of superconductivity with purely nematic as well magnetic-nematic order by pressure (p) tuning. By measuring specific heat under p up to 2.36GPa, we study the multiple phases in FeSe using a thermodynamic probe. We conclude that superconductivity is bulk across the entire p range and competes with magnetism. Our analysis suggests that superconducting and magnetic fluctuations exist over a wide temperature range above the respective bulk transition temperatures, whenever magnetism is present. These observation…
The superconducting FeSe films were successfully fabricated using the electrochemical synthesis. The composition ratio of Fe and Se can be controlled by the electric potential and pH value. We found that the FeSe films deposited at the electric potential -1.75 V and pH 2.3 show the superconducting transition at 3.5 K. The establishment of this electrochemical synthesis technique will provide many advantages for application.
We have performed electrical resistivity measurements of a polycrystalline sample of FeSe$_{0.25}$Te$_{0.75}$, which exhibits superconductivity at $T_{\rm c} \sim 14$ K, in magnetic fields up to 55 T to determine the upper critical field $μ_{0}H_{\rm c2}$. In this compound, very large slopes of $μ_{0}H_{\rm c2}$ at the onset, the mid-point, the zero-resistivity temperatures on superconductivity are determined to be -13.7, -10.1, and -6.9 T/K, respectively. The observed $μ_{0}H_{\rm c2}(T)$s of this compound are considerably smaller than those expected from the Werthamer-Helfand-Hohenberg model…
We use inelastic neutron scattering to show that the spin waves in the iron chalcogenide Fe$_{1.05}$Te display novel dispersion clearly different from those in the related iron pnictide systems. By fitting the spin waves to a Heisenberg Hamiltonian, we extract magnetic exchange couplings that are dramatically different from both predictions by density functional calculations and measurements on the iron pnictide CaFe$_2$As$_2$. While the nearest-neighbor exchange couplings in CaFe$_2$As$_2$ and Fe$_{1.05}$Te are quite different, their next-nearest-neighbor exchange couplings are similar. These…
The discovery of superconductivity in alkali-ammonia co-intercalated FeSe has generated intensive interest because of their highest Tc (~ 45 K) among iron-chalcogenide superconductors with bulk form. Here, we report the phase diagrams of two series of Li/Na-ammonia co-intercalated FeSe1-zTez. When superconductivity is suppressed by Te doping, the magnetic ordering states are emergent. Moreover, a novel phase Lix(NH3)yFe2-δTe2 with possible antiferromagnetism is discovered. This strongly indicates the intimate relation between superconductivity and magnetism in these materials, like in other ir…
An SDW antiferromagnetic (SDW-AF) low temperature phase transition is generally observe and the AF spin fluctuations are considered to play an important role for the superconductivity paring mechanism in FeAs superconductors. However, a similar magnetic phase transition is not observed in FeSe superconductors, which has caused considerable discussion. We report on the intrinsic electronic states of FeSe as elucidated by transport measurements under magnetic fields using a high quality single crystal. A mobility spectrum analysis, an ab initio method that does not make assumptions on the transp…
We present the results of paramagnetic LDA band structure calculations: band dispersions, densities of states and Fermi surfaces, for the new iron based high-temperature superconductor LiOHFeSe. Main structural motif providing bands in the vicinity of the Fermi level is FeSe layer which is isostructural to the bulk FeSe prototype superconductor. The bands crossing the Fermi level and Fermi surfaces of the new compound are typical for other iron based superconductors. Experimentally it was shown that introduction of Fe ions into LiOH layer gives rise to ferromagnetic ordering of the Fe ions at …
We demonstrate that the inclusion of van der Waals dispersive interaction sensibly improves the prediction of lattice constants by density functional theory in iron-chalcogenides (FeCh) superconductor compounds, namely FeSe and FeTe. We show how generalized gradient approximation (GGA) for the exchange correlation potential overestimates the out-of-plane lattice constants in both compounds when compared with experiments. In addition, GGA predicts a too weak bonding between the neutral FeCh layers, with a sensible underestimation of the bulk modulus. van der Waals corrected simulations complete…
Impurity scattering is found to lead to quasi-one dimensional nanoscale modulation of the local density of states in the iron pnictides and chalcogenides. This `quasiparticle interference' feature is remarkably similar across a wide variety of pnictide and chalcogenide phases, suggesting a common origin. We show that a unified understanding of the experiments can be obtained by simply invoking a four-fold symmetry breaking $d_{xz}-d_{yz}$ orbital splitting, of a magnitude already suggested by the experiments. This can explain the one-dimensional characteristics in the local density of states o…
We report the superconductivity at above 30 K in a new FeSe-layer compound K0.8Fe2Se2 (nominal composition) achieved by metal K intercalating in between FeSe layers. It is isostructural to BaFe2As2 and possesses the highest Tc for FeSe-layer materials so far under ambient pressure. Hall effect indicates the carriers are dominated by electron in this superconductor. We confirm that the observed superconductivity at above 30 K is due to this new FeSe-based 122 phase. Our results demonstrate that FeSe-layer materials are really remarkable superconductors via structure and carrier modulation.
Recent superconducting transition temperatures (Tc) over 100 K for monolayer FeSe on SrTiO3 have renewed interest in the bulk parent compound. In KCl:AlCl3 flux-transport-grown crystals of FeSe0.94Be0.06, FeSe0.97Be0.03 and, for comparison, FeSe, this work reports doping of FeSe using Be, among the smallest of possible dopants, corresponding to an effective chemical pressure. According to lattice parameter measurements, 6% Be doping shrank the tetragonal FeSe lattice equivalent to a physical pressure of 0.75 GPa. Using this flux-transport method of sample preparation, 6% of Be was the maximum …
We report investigation on Fe1+yTexSe1-x single crystals by using scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS). Both nonsuperconducting samples with excess iron and superconducting samples demonstrate nanoscale phase separation and chemical inhomogeneity of Te/Se content, which we attribute to a miscibility gap. The line scan EELS technique indicates ~20% or less fluctuation of Te concentration from the nominal compositions.
We employ a five-orbital tight-binding model to develop the mean field solution for various possible spin density wave states in the iron-chalcogenides. The quasiparticle interference (QPI) technique is applied to detect signatures of these states due to scatterings arising from non-magnetic impurities. Apart from the experimentally observed double striped structure with ordering vector $(π/2,π/2)$, the QPI method is investigated for the extended-stripe as well as the orthogonal double stripe phase. We discuss QPI as a possible tool to detect and classify various magnetic structures with diffe…
The electronic structure of the iron chalcogenide superconductor FeSe_{1-x} was investigated by high- resolution angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES). The results were compared to DFT calculations showing some significant differences between the experimental electronic structure of FeSe_{1-x}, DFT calculations and existing data on FeSe_{x}Te_{1-x}. The bands undergo a pronounced orbital dependent renormalization, different from what was observed for FeSe_{x}Te_{1-x} and any other pnictides.
We report on the synthesis of large single crystals of a new FeSe-layer superconductor Cs0.8(FeSe0.98)2. X-ray powder diffraction, neutron powder-diffraction and magnetization measurements have been used to compare the crystal structure and the magnetic properties of Cs0.8(FeSe0.98)2 with those of the recently discovered potassium intercalated system KxFe2Se2. The new compound Cs0.8(FeSe0.98)2 shows a slightly lower superconducting transition temperature (Tc=27.4 K) in comparison to 29.5 in K0.8(FeSe0.98)2). The volume of the crystal unit cell increases by replacing K by Cs - the c-parameter g…
The importance of electron-hole interband interactions is widely acknowledged for iron-pnictide superconductors with high transition temperatures (Tc). However, high-Tc superconductivity without hole carriers has been suggested in FeSe single-layer films and intercalated iron-selenides, raising a fundamental question whether iron pnictides and chalcogenides have different pairing mechanisms. Here, we study the properties of electronic structure in the high-Tc phase induced by pressure in bulk FeSe from magneto-transport measurements and first-principles calculations. With increasing pressure, …
The structural and electronic properties of hypothetical Ru$_x$Fe$_{1-x}$Se and Ru$_x$Fe$_{1-x}$Te systems have been investigated from first principles within the density functional theory (DFT). Reasonable values of lattice parameters and chalcogen atomic positions in the tetragonal unit cell of iron chalcogenides have been obtained with the use of norm-conserving pseudopotentials. The well known discrepancies between experimental data and DFT-calculated results for structural parameters of iron chalcogenides are related to the semicore atomic states which were frozen in the used here approac…
The Fe isotope effect (Fe-IE) on the transition temperature T_c and the crystal structure was studied in the Fe chalcogenide superconductor FeSe_1-x by means of magnetization and neutron powder diffraction (NPD). The substitution of natural Fe (containing \simeq 92% of ^{56}Fe) by its lighter ^{54}Fe isotope leads to a shift of T_c of 0.22(5)K corresponding to an Fe-IE exponent of α_Fe=0.81(15). Simultaneously, a small structural change with isotope substitution is observed by NDP which may contribute to the total Fe isotope shift of T_c.
This review discusses and compares electronic spectra of new iron-based high-temperature superconductors (HTSC), as well as a number of chemically similar compounds. Particular attention is payed to iron chalcogenide K_{1-x}Fe_{2-y}Se_2, which is isostructural to BaFe_2As_2 (122) pnictide. It is shown, that Fermi surfaces of K_{1-x}Fe_{2-y}Se_2 are essentially different from those for pnictides. Using LDA+DMFT and LDA'+DMFT calculations we show, that electronic correlations in K_{1-x}Fe_{2-y}Se_2 influence the electronic structure much more significantly, than in the most studied 122 system. W…
First principles FLAPW-GGA method was used for the comparative study of the structural and electronic properties of three related tetragonal ThCr2Si2-type phases KFe2Ch2, where Ch are S, Se, and Te. The main trends in electronic bands, densities of states and Fermi surfaces for AFe2Ch2 are analyzed in relation to their structural parameters. We found that at the anion replacements (S<->Se<->Te) any critical changes in electronic structure of KFe2Ch2 phases are absent. On the other hand, our analysis of structural and electronic parameters for hypothetical KFe2Te2 allows to assume that this sys…
The improvement in the fabrication techniques of iron-based superconductors have made these materials real competitors of high temperature superconductors and MgB$_2$. In particular, iron-chalcogenides have proved to be the most promising for the realization of high current carrying tapes. But their use on a large scale cannot be achieved without the understanding of the current stability mechanisms in these compounds. Indeed, we have recently observed the presence of flux flow instabilities features in Fe(Se,Te) thin films grown on CaF$_2$. Here we present the results of current-voltage chara…
The complex interdigitated phases have greatly frustrated attempts to document the basic features of the superconductivity in the alkali metal intercalated iron chalcogenides. Here, using elastic neutron scattering, energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy, and resistivity measurements, we elucidate the relations of these phases in Rb$_{1-δ}$Fe$_y$Se$_{2-z}$S$_z$. We find: i) the iron content is crucial in stabilizing the stripe antiferromagnetic (AF) phase with rhombic iron vacancy order ($y\approx1.5$), the block AF phase with $\sqrt{5}\times \sqrt{5}$ iron vacancy order ($y\approx1.6$), and the…
The symmetries of superconducting gap functions remain an important question of iron-based superconductivity. Motivated by the recent angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopic measurements on iron-chalcogenide superconductors, we investigate the influence of pairing symmetries on the topological surface state. If the surface Dirac cone becomes gapped in the superconducting phase, it implies magnetization induced from time-reversal symmetry breaking pairing via spin-orbit coupling. Based on the crystalline symmetry constraints on the Ginzburg-Landau free energy, the gap function symmetries are…
The 122$^{*}$ series of iron-chalcogenide superconductors, for example K$_x$Fe$_{2-y}$Se$_{2}$, only possesses electron Fermi pockets. Their distinctive electronic structure challenges the picture built upon iron pnictide superconductors, where both electron and hole Fermi pockets coexist. However, partly due to the intrinsic phase separation in this family of compounds, many aspects of their behavior remain elusive. In particular, the evolution of the 122$^{*}$ series of iron-chalcogenides with chemical substitution still lacks a microscopic and unified interpretation. Using angle-resolved ph…
The latest discovery of a new iron-chalcogenide superconductor A$_x$Fe$_{2-y}$Se$_2$(A=K, Cs, Rb, Tl and etc.) has attracted much attention due to a number of its unique characteristics, such as the possible insulating state of the parent compound, the existence of Fe-vacancy and its ordering, a new form of magnetic structure and its interplay with superconductivity, and the peculiar electronic structures that are distinct from other Fe-based superconductors. In this paper, we present a brief review on the structural, magnetic and electronic properties of this new superconductor, with an empha…
We report on the local electronic structure of oxygen incorporated FeTe and FeSe films and how this relates to superconductivity observed in these films. In the case of FeTe, intially grown films are measured to be non-superconducting, but become superconducting following oxygen incorporation. In FeSe the opposite happens, initially grown films are measured to be superconducting, but experience a quenching of superconductivity following oxygen incorporation. Total Fluorescence Yield (TFY) X-ray absorption experiments show that oxygen incorporation changes the initial Fe valence state in both t…
Superconductivity develops in metals upon the formation of a coherent macroscopic quantum state of electron pairs. Iron pnictides and chalcogenides are materials that have high superconducting transition temperatures. In this Review, we describe the advances in the field that have led to higher superconducting transition temperatures in iron-based superconductors and the wide range of materials that form them. We summarize both the essential aspects of the normal state and the mechanism for superconductivity. We emphasize the degree of electron-electron correlations and their manifestation in …
We report density functional calculations of electronic structure and magnetic properties of ternary iron chalcogenide TlFe$_{2}$Se$_{2}$, which occurs in the ThCr$_{2}$Si$_{2}$ structure and discuss the results in relation to the iron-based superconductors. The ground state is antiferromagnetic with checkerboard order and Fe moment $\sim$ 1.90 $μ$B. There is strong magnetoelastic coupling similar to the Fe-based superconductors, reflected in a sensitivity of the Se position to magnetism. Tl is monovalent in this compound, providing heavy electron-doping of 0.5 additional carriers per Fe relat…
Our study of FeSe$ _ {1-x}$Te$ _ {x}$ crystals with x $<$ 0.15 shows that the phase separation in these compositions occurs into phases with a different stoichiometry of iron. This phase separation may indicate structural instability of the iron plane in the studied range of compositions. To explain it, we discuss the bond polarity and the peculiarity of the direct $d$ exchange in the iron plane in the framework of the basic phenomenological description such as the Bethe-Slater curve. With this approach, when the distance between iron atoms is close to the value at which the sign of the magnet…
Motivated by the properties of the iron chalcogenides, we study the phase diagram of a generalized Heisenberg model with frustrated bilinear-biquadratic interactions on a square lattice. We identify zero-temperature phases with antiferroquadrupolar and Ising-nematic orders. The effects of quantum fluctuations and interlayer couplings are analyzed. We propose the Ising-nematic order as underlying the structural phase transition observed in the normal state of FeSe, and discuss the role of the Goldstone modes of the antiferroquadrupolar order for the dipolar magnetic fluctuations in this system.…
To study the microscopic electronic and magnetic interactions in the substoichiometric iron chalcogenide FeSe$_{1-x}$ which is observed to superconduct at x~1/8 up to $T_c$=27 K, we use first principles methods to study the Se vacancy in this nearly magnetic FeSe system. The vacancy forms a ferrimagnetic cluster of eight Fe atoms, which for the ordered x=1/8 alloy leads to half metallic conduction. Similar magnetic clusters are obtained for FeTe$_{1-x}$ and for BaFe$_2$As$_2$ with an As vacancy, although neither of these are half metallic. Based on fixed spin density results, we suggest the lo…
We report on muon-spin rotation/relaxation (\muSR), electrical resistivity, magnetization and differential scanning calorimetry measurements performed on a high-quality single crystal of Cs_0.8(FeSe_0.98)_2. Whereas our transport and magnetization data confirm the bulk character of the superconducting state below T_c = 28.5(2)K, the \muSR data indicate that the system is {\it magnetic} below T_N = 478.5(3)K, where a first-order transition occurs. The first-order character of the magnetic transition is confirmed by differential scanning calorimetry data. Taken all together, these data indicate …
Pressure plays an essential role in the induction1 and control2,3 of superconductivity in iron-based superconductors. Substitution of a smaller rare-earth ion for the bigger one to simulate the pressure effects has surprisingly raised the superconducting transition temperature Tc to the record high 55 K in these materials4,5. However, Tc always goes down after passing through a maximum at some pressure and the superconductivity eventually tends to disappear at sufficiently high pressures1-3. Here we show that the superconductivity can reemerge with a much higher Tc after its destruction upon c…
The electronic structure of the strained FeSe0.5Te0.5 superconductor has been investigated from first principles. Our calculation results indicate that the influence of hydrostatic, biaxial or uniaxial compressive stress on the density of states at the Fermi level is insignificant. The overall shape of the Fermi-surface (FS) nesting function for FeSe0.5Te0.5 at ambient pressure resembles that of its parent compound, FeSe, but under the ab-plane compressive strain. In these two systems, changes of their FSs under various stress conditions are qualitatively almost the same. However, in FeSe0.5Te…
Topological superconductivity has been sought for in a variety of heterostructure systems, the interest being that a material displaying such a phenomenon could prove to be the ideal platform to support Majorana fermions, which in turn could be the basis for advanced qubit technologies. Recently the high Tc family of superconductors, $FeSe_{x}Te_{1-x}$, have been shown to exhibit the property of topological superconductivity and further, evidence has been found for the presence of Majorana fermions. We have studied the interplay of topology, magnetism and superconductivity in the $FeSe_{x}Te_{…
Temperature (12K $\le$ T $\le$ 300K) dependent extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) studies at the Fe K edge in FeSe$_{1-x}$Te$_x$ (x = 0, 0.5 and 1.0) compounds have been carried out to understand the reasons for increase in T$_C$ upon Te doping in FeSe. While local distortions are present near superconducting onset in FeSe and FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$, they seem to be absent in non superconducting FeTe. Of crucial importance is the variation of anion height. In FeSe$_{0.5}$Te$_{0.5}$, near superconducting onset, the two heights, $h_{Fe-Se}$ and $h_{Fe-Te}$ show a nearly opposite be…
The field and temperature dependencies of the longitudinal and Hall resistivity have been studied for high-quality FeSe${}_{1-x}$S${}_{x}$ (x up to 0.14) single crystals. Quasiclassical analysis of the obtained data indicates a strong variation of the electron and hole concentrations under the studied isovalent substitution and proximity of FeSe to the point of the majority carrier-type inversion. On this basis, we propose a `doped semimetal' scheme for the superconducting phase diagram of the FeSe family, which can be applied to other iron-based superconductors. In this scheme, the two local …
Iron chalcogenide superconductors are multi-band systems with strong electron correlations. Here we use angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy to study band dependent correlation effects in single-layer FeSe/Nb:BaTiO3/KTaO3, a new iron chalcogenide superconductor with non-degenerate electron pockets and interface-enhanced superconductivity. The non-degeneracy of the electron bands helps to resolve the temperature dependent evolution of different bands. With increasing temperature, the single layer FeSe undergoes a band-selective localization, in which the coherent spectral weight of one ele…
Tetragonal iron selenide, FeSe, the layered parent compound of the recently discovered superconducting arsenide family, has previously been shown to be non magnetic and superconducting with a critical temperature near 8 K. There has, however, been a lack of consensus as to whether selenium vacancies present due to large deviations from ideal stoichiometry are required to give rise to the superconductivity. Here we describe the results of experiments that demonstrate simply that superconducting iron selenide can only be synthesized as a pure material when near stoichiometric (i.e. FeSe). Signif…
We report on the first investigation of the quasiparticle local density of states and superconducting gap in the iron chalcogenide superconductor Fe$_{1+δ}$Se$_{1-x}$Te$_{x}$ ($T_{\mathrm{c}} \sim 14$ K). The surface of a cleaved crystal revealed an atomic square lattice, superimposed on the inhomogeneous background, with a lattice constant of $\sim 3.8$ Åwithout any reconstruction. Tunneling spectra measured at 4.2 K exhibit the superconducting gap, which completely disappears at 18 K, with a magnitude of $\sim 2.3$ meV, corresponding to $2Δ/ k_{\mathrm{B}}T_{\mathrm{c}}=3.8$.In stark contras…
Measurements of the local density of states near impurities can be useful for identifying the superconducting gap structure in alkali doped iron chalcogenide superconductors K_xFe_{2-y}Se_2. Here, we study the effects of nonmagnetic and magnetic impurities within a nearest neighbor d-wave and next-nearest neighbor s-wave superconducting state. For both repulsive and attractive nonmagnetic impurities, it is shown that sub-gap bound states exist only for d-wave superconductors with the positions of these bound states depending rather sensitively on the electron doping level. Further, for such di…
We investigated the magnetization and crystal structure of FeSe polycrystalline samples with various grain sizes. For the samples with large grains, a large magnetic critical current density Jc was observed. For the samples with small grains, superconductivity signals were not observed; instead, magnetization hysteresis, which is not a result of superconductivity, was observed. In the X-ray diffraction pattern for the samples with small grains, broad additional peaks were observed, corresponding to the formation of the non-superconducting (monoclinic) Fe-Se phase at the FeSe grain surface. The…
The field and temperature dependencies of the longitudinal and Hall resistivity have been measured for FeSe${}_{1-x}$S${}_{x}$ (x=0.04, 0.09 and 0.19) single crystals. The sample FeSe${}_{0.81}$S${}_{0.19}$ does not show a transition to an orthorhombic phase and exhibits at low temperatures the transport properties quite different from those of orthorhombic samples. The behavior of FeSe${}_{0.81}$S${}_{0.19}$ is well described by the simple two band model with comparable values of hole and electron mobility. In particular, at low temperatures the transverse resistance shows a linear field depe…
Iron selenide (FeSe) is an iron-based superconductor which shows unique properties, including strongly anisotropic superconducting gap, paramagnetism in undoped compound and extremely small Fermi pocket size. In this work, we demonstrate that the sizes of electron and hole pockets in FeSe monolayer become much smaller than those in bulk. The Fermi energy is in the order of a few meV and can be fine-tuned by the thickness of graphene layers underneath. Despite the low carrier density, the FeSe monolayers grown on trilayer or multi-layer graphene are superconducting. The superconducting gap size…
