Appearance of superconductivity at the vacancy order-disorder boundary in KxFe2-ySe2

Duan, Chunruo; Yang, Junjie; Ren, Yang; Thomas, Sean Michael; Louca, Despina

doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.97.184502

Appearance of superconductivity at the vacancy order-disorder boundary in $K_{x} {Fe}_{2 - y} {Se}_{2}$

Journal Article · Mon May 14 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Physical Review B

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.97.184502· OSTI ID:1471306

Duan, Chunruo ^[1]; Yang, Junjie ^[1]; Ren, Yang ^[2]; ^[3]; Louca, Despina ^[1]

Univ. of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA (United States)
Argonne National Lab. (ANL), Argonne, IL (United States)
Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

In this work, the role of phase separation and the effect of Fe-vacancy ordering in the emergence of superconductivity in alkali metal doped iron selenides A_xFe_2-ySe₂ (A = K, Rb, Cs) is explored. High energy x-ray diffraction and Monte Carlo simulation were used to investigate the crystal structure of quenched superconducting (SC) and as-grown nonsuperconducting (NSC) K_xFe_2-ySe₂ single crystals. The coexistence of superlattice structures with the in-plane √2 × √2 K-vacancy ordering and the √5 × √5 Fe-vacancy ordering were observed in both the SC and NSC crystals alongside the I4/mmm Fe-vacancy-free phase. Moreover, in the SC crystals, an Fe-vacancy-disordered phase is additionally proposed to be present. Monte Carlo simulations suggest that it appears at the boundary between the I4/mmm vacancy-free phase and the I4/m vacancy-ordered phases (√5 × √5). Lastly, the vacancy-disordered phase is nonmagnetic and is most likely the host of superconductivity.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

Research Organization:: Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE Office of Science (SC). Basic Energy Sciences (BES) (SC-22)

Grant/Contract Number:: AC52-06NA25396; FG02-01ER45927

OSTI ID:: 1471306

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1437075
OSTI ID: 1473670

Report Number(s):: LA-UR--18-28713

Journal Information:: Physical Review B, Journal Name: Physical Review B Journal Issue: 18 Vol. 97; ISSN 2469-9950; ISSN PRBMDO

Publisher:: American Physical Society (APS)Copyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

References (27)

Uniform Patterns of Fe-Vacancy Ordering in the K _x (Fe,Co) _{2– y} Se ₂ Superconductors Kazakov, Sergey M.; Abakumov, Artem M.; González, Santiago Chemistry of Materials, Vol. 23, Issue 19 https://doi.org/10.1021/cm201203h	journal	October 2011
Electronic nematicity above the structural and superconducting transition in BaFe2(As1−xP x )2 Kasahara, S.; Shi, H. J.; Hashimoto, K. Nature, Vol. 486, Issue 7403 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature11178	journal	June 2012
Inhomogeneity of charge-density-wave order and quenched disorder in a high-Tc superconductor Campi, G.; Bianconi, A.; Poccia, N. Nature, Vol. 525, Issue 7569 https://doi.org/10.1038/nature14987	journal	September 2015
Influence of microstructure on superconductivity in KxFe2−ySe2 and evidence for a new parent phase K2Fe7Se8 Ding, Xiaxin; Fang, Delong; Wang, Zhenyu Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2913	journal	May 2013
Nodeless superconducting gap in AxFe2Se2 (A=K,Cs) revealed by angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy Zhang, Y.; Yang, L. X.; Xu, M. Nature Materials, Vol. 10, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat2981	journal	February 2011
Phase separation and magnetic order in K-doped iron selenide superconductor Li, Wei; Ding, Hao; Deng, Peng Nature Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2155	journal	November 2011
Magnetism and its microscopic origin in iron-based high-temperature superconductors Dai, Pengcheng; Hu, Jiangping; Dagotto, Elbio Nature Physics, Vol. 8, Issue 10 https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys2438	journal	October 2012
Electronic and magnetic phase diagram in KxFe2-ySe2 superconductors Yan, Y. J.; Zhang, M.; Wang, A. F. Scientific Reports, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00212	journal	January 2012
Nanoscale phase separation of antiferromagnetic order and superconductivity in K0.75Fe1.75Se2 Yuan, R. H.; Dong, T.; Song, Y. J. Scientific Reports, Vol. 2, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep00221	journal	January 2012
Spectromicroscopy of electronic phase separation in KxFe2−ySe2 superconductor Bendele, M.; Barinov, A.; Joseph, B. Scientific Reports, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1038/srep05592	journal	July 2014
Metastable superconducting state in quenched K _x Fe _{2− y} Se ₂ Han, Fei; Yang, Huan; Shen, Bing Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 92, Issue 19-21 https://doi.org/10.1080/14786435.2012.681711	journal	July 2012
A Novel Large Moment Antiferromagnetic Order in K _0.8 Fe _1.6 Se ₂ Superconductor Bao, Wei; Huang, Qing-Zhen; Chen, Gen-Fu Chinese Physics Letters, Vol. 28, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1088/0256-307X/28/8/086104	journal	August 2011
Superconductivity Tuned by the Iron Vacancy Order in K _x Fe _{2− y} Se ₂ Bao, Wei; Li, Guan-Nan; Huang, Qing-Zhen Chinese Physics Letters, Vol. 30, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1088/0256-307X/30/2/027402	journal	February 2013
Intrinsic phase separation in superconducting K _0.8 Fe _1.6 Se ₂ ( T _c = 31.8 K) single crystals Ricci, Alessandro; Poccia, Nicola; Joseph, Boby Superconductor Science and Technology, Vol. 24, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1088/0953-2048/24/8/082002	journal	July 2011
Superconductivity in the iron selenide K x Fe 2 Se 2 ( 0 ≤ x ≤ 1.0 ) Guo, Jiangang; Jin, Shifeng; Wang, Gang Physical Review B, Vol. 82, Issue 18 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.82.180520	journal	November 2010
Structure of vacancy-ordered single-crystalline superconducting potassium iron selenide Zavalij, P.; Bao, Wei; Wang, X. F. Physical Review B, Vol. 83, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.132509	journal	April 2011
Microstructure and ordering of iron vacancies in the superconductor system K y Fe x Se 2 as seen via transmission electron microscopy Wang, Z.; Song, Y. J.; Shi, H. L. Physical Review B, Vol. 83, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.83.140505	journal	April 2011
Nanoscale phase separation in the iron chalcogenide superconductor K 0 . 8 Fe 1 . 6 Se 2 as seen via scanning nanofocused x-ray diffraction Ricci, A.; Poccia, N.; Campi, G. Physical Review B, Vol. 84, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.84.060511	journal	August 2011
Local structural disorder and superconductivity in K x Fe 2 − y Se 2 Ryu, Hyejin; Lei, Hechang; Frenkel, A. I. Physical Review B, Vol. 85, Issue 22 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.85.224515	journal	June 2012
Phase coexistence in Cs 0.8 Fe 1.6 Se 2 as seen by x-ray mapping of reciprocal space Bosak, A.; Svitlyk, V.; Krzton-Maziopa, A. Physical Review B, Vol. 86, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.86.174107	journal	November 2012
Structure and composition of the superconducting phase in alkali iron selenide K y Fe 1.6 + x Se 2 Carr, Scott V.; Louca, Despina; Siewenie, Joan Physical Review B, Vol. 89, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.89.134509	journal	April 2014
Two-dimensional Cs-vacancy superstructure in iron-based superconductor Cs 0.8 Fe 1.6 Se 2 Porter, D. G.; Cemal, E.; Voneshen, D. J. Physical Review B, Vol. 91, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.91.144114	journal	April 2015
Cesium vacancy ordering in phase-separated C s x F e 2 − y S e 2 Taddei, K. M.; Sturza, M.; Chung, D. Y. Physical Review B, Vol. 92, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.92.094505	journal	September 2015
Strong correlations between vacancy and magnetic ordering in superconducting K 0.8 Fe 2 − y Se 2 Yang, J.; Duan, C.; Huang, Q. Physical Review B, Vol. 94, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevB.94.024503	journal	July 2016
Common Crystalline and Magnetic Structure of Superconducting A 2 Fe 4 Se 5 ( A = K , Rb , Cs , Tl ) Single Crystals Measured Using Neutron Diffraction Ye, F.; Chi, S.; Bao, Wei Physical Review Letters, Vol. 107, Issue 13 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.137003	journal	September 2011
KFe 2 Se 2 is the Parent Compound of K-Doped Iron Selenide Superconductors Li, Wei; Ding, Hao; Li, Zhi Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.057003	journal	July 2012
Effective Doping and Suppression of Fermi Surface Reconstruction via Fe Vacancy Disorder in K x Fe 2 − y Se 2 Berlijn, Tom; Hirschfeld, P. J.; Ku, Wei Physical Review Letters, Vol. 109, Issue 14 https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.147003	journal	October 2012

Cited By (3)

Correlated disorder-to-order crossover in the local structure of K x Fe 2 − y Se 2 − z S z Mangelis, P.; Koch, R. J.; Lei, H. Physical Review B, Vol. 100, Issue 9 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevb.100.094108	journal	September 2019
Multiple Electronic Components and Lifshitz Transitions by Oxygen Wires Formation in Layered Cuprates and Nickelates Jarlborg, Thomas; Bianconi, Antonio Condensed Matter, Vol. 4, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.3390/condmat4010015	journal	January 2019
Fermi-Bose Mixtures and BCS-BEC Crossover in High-Tc Superconductors Kagan, Maxim Yu.; Bianconi, Antonio Condensed Matter, Vol. 4, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.3390/condmat4020051	journal	June 2019