Competition between commensurate and incommensurate magnetic ordering in Fe1+yTe

Abstract

The Fe1+yTe1-xSexcompounds belong to the family of iron-based high-temperature superconductors, in which superconductivity often appears upon doping antiferromagnetic parent compounds. Unlike other Fe-based superconductors (in which the antiferromagnetic order is at the Fermi-surface nesting wave vector [12,12,1]), Fe1+yTe orders at a different wave vector, [12,0,12]. Furthermore, the ordering wave vector depends on y, the occupation of interstitial sites with excess iron; the origin of this behavior is controversial. Using inelastic neutron scattering on Fe1.08Te, we find incommensurate magnetic fluctuations above the Néel temperature, even though the ordered state is bicollinear and commensurate with gapped spin waves. This behavior can be understood in terms of a competition between commensurate and incommensurate order, which we explain as a lock-in transition caused by the magnetic anisotropy. © 2012 American Physical Society.