Publication Date:
2012-12-19
Description:
Nature Materials 12, 15 (2013). doi:10.1038/nmat3464 Authors: Matthew Burrard-Lucas, David G. Free, Stefan J. Sedlmaier, Jack D. Wright, Simon J. Cassidy, Yoshiaki Hara, Alex J. Corkett, Tom Lancaster, Peter J. Baker, Stephen J. Blundell & Simon J. Clarke The discovery of high-temperature superconductivity in a layered iron arsenide has led to an intensive search to optimize the superconducting properties of iron-based superconductors by changing the chemical composition of the spacer layer between adjacent anionic iron arsenide layers. Superconductivity has been found in iron arsenides with cationic spacer layers consisting of metal ions (for example, Li+, Na+, K+, Ba2+) or PbO- or perovskite-type oxide layers, and also in Fe1.01Se (ref. ) with neutral layers similar in structure to those found in the iron arsenides and no spacer layer. Here we demonstrate the synthesis of Lix(NH2)y(NH3)1−yFe2Se2 (x~0.6; y~0.2), with lithium ions, lithium amide and ammonia acting as the spacer layer between FeSe layers, which exhibits superconductivity at 43(1) K, higher than in any FeSe-derived compound reported so far. We have determined the crystal structure using neutron powder diffraction and used magnetometry and muon-spin rotation data to determine the superconducting properties. This new synthetic route opens up the possibility of further exploitation of related molecular intercalations in this and other systems to greatly optimize the superconducting properties in this family.
Print ISSN:
1476-1122
Electronic ISSN:
1476-4660
Topics:
Chemistry and Pharmacology
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Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Production Engineering, Mining and Metallurgy, Traffic Engineering, Precision Mechanics
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Natural Sciences in General
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Physics
