Browsing by Author "Siewenie, Joan"

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    Structure and composition of the superconducting phase in alkali iron selenide KyFe1.6+xSe2
    (American Physical Society, 2014) Carr, Scott V.; Louca, Despina; Siewenie, Joan; Huang, Q.; Wang, Aifeng; Chen, Xianhui; Dai, Pengcheng
    We use neutron diffraction to study the temperature evolution of the average structure and local lattice distortions in insulating and superconducting potassium iron selenide KyFe1.6+xSe2. In the high temperature paramagnetic state, both materials have a single phase with a crystal structure similar to that of the BaFe2As2 family of iron pnictides. While the insulating KyFe1.6+xSe2 forms a √5×√5 iron vacancy ordered block antiferromagnetic (AF) structure at low temperature, the superconducting compounds spontaneously phase separate into an insulating part with √5×√5iron vacancy order and a superconducting phase with chemical composition of KzFe2Se2 and BaFe2As2 structure. Therefore, superconductivity in alkaline iron selenides arises from alkali deficient KzFe2Se2 in the matrix of the insulating block AF phase.