High-pressure phase diagrams of FeSe1−xTex: correlation between suppressed nematicity and enhanced superconductivity

The interplay among magnetism, electronic nematicity, and superconductivity is the key issue in strongly correlated materials including iron-based, cuprate, and heavy-fermion superconductors. Magnetic fluctuations have been widely discussed as a pairing mechanism of unconventional superconductivity, but recent theory predicts that quantum fluctuations of nematic order may also promote high-temperature superconductivity. This has been studied in FeSe 1− x S x superconductors exhibiting nonmagnetic nematic and pressure-induced antiferromagnetic orders, but its abrupt suppression of superconductivity at the nematic end point leaves the nematic-fluctuation driven superconductivity unconfirmed. Here we report on systematic studies of high-pressure phase diagrams up to 8 GPa in high-quality single crystals of FeSe 1− x Te x . When Te composition x (Te) becomes larger than 0.1, the high-pressure magnetic order disappears, whereas the pressure-induced superconducting dome near the nematic end point is continuously found up to x (Te) ≈ 0.5. In contrast to FeSe 1− x S x , enhanced superconductivity in FeSe 1− x Te x does not correlate with magnetism but with the suppression of nematicity, highlighting the paramount role of nonmagnetic nematic fluctuations for high-temperature superconductivity in this system. Despite studies in FeSe 1− x S x , it is yet unconfirmed whether nematic fluctuation can induce superconductivity. Here, the authors study single crystals of FeSe 1− x Te x showing enhanced superconductivity upon suppression of nematicity.