Excess-iron driven spin glass phase in Fe1 + y Te1 – x Se x *

Abstract

The iron-chalcogenide superconductor FeTe1–x Se x displays a variety of exotic features distinct from iron pnictides. Although much effort has been devoted to understanding the interplay between magnetism and superconductivity near x = 0.5, the existence of a spin glass phase with short-range magnetic order in the doping range (x ∼ 0.1–0.3) has rarely been studied. Here, we use DC/AC magnetization and (quasi) elastic neutron scattering to confirm the spin-glass nature of the short-range magnetic order in a Fe1.07Te0.8Se0.2 sample. The AC-frequency dependent spin-freezing temperature T f generates a frequency sensitivity ΔT f(ω)/[T f(ω)Δlog10 ω] ≈ 0.028 and the description of the critical slowing down with τ = τ 0(T f/T SG – 1)−z v gives T SG ≈ 22 K and zv ≈ 10, comparable to that of a classical spin-glass system. We have also extended the frequency-dependent T f to the smaller time scale using energy-resolution-dependent neutron diffraction measurements, in which the T N of the short-range magnetic order increases systematically with increasing energy resolution. By removing the excess iron through annealing in oxygen, the spin-freezing behavior disappears, and bulk superconductivity is realized. Thus, the excess Fe is the driving force for the formation of the spin-glass phase detrimental to bulk superconductivity.