Doping-driven structural phase transition and loss of superconductivity in MxFe1−xSeδ (M=Mn, Cu)

In this paper, we report the results of detailed studies on Mn and Cu substitution to Fe site of β-FeSe, namely, MnxFe1−xSe1−δ and CuxFe1−xSe1−δ (δ equals to 0.03–0.05 based on our neutron-diffraction refinements). The results show that with only 10 at. % Cu doping the compound becomes a Mott insulator. Detailed temperature-dependent structural analyses of these Mn- and Cu-substituted compounds show that the structural transition, which is associated with the changes in the building block FeSe4 tetrahedron, is essential to the occurrence of superconductivity in β-FeSe. © 2010, American Physical Society

Keywords

Phase transformations, Superconductivity, Neutron diffraction, Copper, Manganese, Iron

Citation

Huang, T., Chen, T., Yeh, K., Ke, C., Chen, C. L., Huang, Y., Hsu, Y., Wu, M., Wu, P. M., Avdeev, M., & Studer, A. J. (2010). Doping-driven structural phase transition and loss of superconductivity in MxFe1−xSeδ (M=Mn, Cu). Physical Review B, 82(10), 104502. doi:10.1103/PhysRevB.82.104502