Using a technique to snap unruly crystals of iron selenide into alignment, Rice University physicists (from left) Ming Yi, Qimiao Si, Tong Chen, Han Wu and colleagues have drawn an electronic road map that reveals the quantum mechanical ’rules of the road” that electrons must follow in the enigmatic superconductor. (Photo by Tommy LaVergne/Rice University)
Band structure map exposes iron selenide's enigmatic electronic signature. Using a clever technique that causes unruly crystals of iron selenide to snap into alignment, Rice University physicists have drawn a detailed map that reveals the "rules of the road” for electrons both in normal conditions and in the critical moments just before the material transforms into a superconductor. In a study online this week in the American Physical Society journal Physical Review X (PRX), physicist Ming Yi and colleagues offer up a band structure map for iron selenide, a material that has long puzzled physicists because of its structural simplicity and behavioral complexity. The map, which details the electronic states of the material, is a visual summary of data gathered from measurements of a single crystal of iron selenide as it was cooled to the point of superconductivity. Yi began the angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy experiments for the study during a postdoctoral stint at the University of California, Berkeley. The technically challenging experiments used powerful synchrotron light from the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource ( SSRL ) to coax the crystal to emit electrons. "In a sense, these measurements are like taking photographs of electrons that are flying out of the material,” she said.
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