A material we thought was just a boring magnet turned out to be a superconductor once we gave its atomic structure a deep clean.
arXiv · March 18, 2026 · 2603.16115
The Takeaway
For decades, physicists were certain this specific iron compound could only be magnetic, a state that usually prevents superconductivity. By removing stray iron atoms acting as 'junk,' scientists found the material is actually a high-performance superconductor, forcing a total rethink of how these two competing states of matter interact.
From the abstract
Iron-based superconductors are a fascinating family of materials in which multiple electronic bands and strong antiferromagnetic (AFM) correlations are key ingredients for competing ground states, including antiferromagnetism, electronic nematicity, and unconventional superconductivity. FeTe, unlike its superconducting isostructural counterpart FeSe, has long been regarded as an AFM metal sans superconductivity. In this work, we employ molecular beam epitaxy to grow FeTe films and perform post-g