Cracking the Essential Coordination Structure of the Iron- based Superconductor
High-temperature superconductors often contain transition-metal lattice planes coordinated by anions, where novel quantum states of paired electrons emerge. In iron-based high-temperature superconductors, the Fe atoms in the square-lattice are tetrahedrally coordinated by pnictogen or chalcogen anions, forming strong Fe-anion tetrahedral structures that are hard to break. Therefore, usual cleaving techniques only expose the plane of complete anion coverage.
