Emergent electronic properties of FeTe by strain tuning

FeTe is an ‘11’ non-superconducting parent compound with properties significantly different from those of other iron-based high-temperature superconductors. Most discernible is the double stripe antiferromagnetic order with the (π,0) propagation vector contrary to the more typical (π, π) order. That these properties can be significantly tuned by tensile strain has for example been shown by thin film experiments in which superconductivity was stabilised at 13K.
In our research programme we explore the magnetic and superconducting phase diagram under uniaxial strain along [110]. We complement direct imaging of magnetic order by spectroscopic imaging STM with low-temperature magnetoresistivity measurements in force cell. We discuss the possibility of stabilising (π, π) order both on the surface and in bulk under experimentally accessible strains and the potential to stabilise superconductivity in Fe_1+xTe via this route.