Abstract
Discoveries of copper and iron-based high-temperature superconductors (HTSC)1-2 have challenged our views of superconductivity and magnetism. Contrary to the pre-existing view that magnetism, which typically involves localized electrons, and superconductivity, which requires freely-propagating itinerant electrons, are mutually exclusive, antiferromagnetic phases were found in all HTSC parent materials3,4. Moreover, highly energetic magnetic fluctuations, discovered in HTSC by inelastic neutron scattering (INS) 5,6, are now widely believed to be vital for the superconductivity 7-10. In two competing scenarios, they either originate from local atomic spins11, or are a property of cooperative spin-density-wave (SDW) behavior of conduction electrons 12,13. Both assume clear partition into localized electrons, giving rise to local spins, and itinerant ones, occupying well-defined, rigid conduction bands. Here, by performing an INS study of spin dynamics in iron telluride, a parent material of one of the iron-based HTSC families, we have discovered that this very assumption fails, and that conduction and localized electrons are fundamentally entangled. In the temperature range relevant for the superconductivity we observe a remarkable redistribution of magnetism between the two groups of electrons. The effective spin per Fe at T ≈ 10 K, in the2 antiferromagnetic phase, corresponds to S ≈ 1, consistent with the recent analyses that emphasize importance of Hund’s intra-atomic exchange15-16. However, it grows to S ≈ 3/2 in the disordered phase, a result that profoundly challenges the picture of rigid bands, broadly accepted for HTSC.
