Bingxian Shi, Manyu Wang, Chenglin Shang, Yanyan Geng, Yangyang Fan, Xiaoxiao Pei, Li Huang, Daye Xu, Juanjuan Liu, Jinchen Wang, Hongxia Zhang, Hongliang Wang, Lijie Hao, Rui Xu, Zhongyi Lu, Zhihai Cheng, Peng Cheng
We report the identification and characterization of a new compound Fe0.68Pd0.80Te with an α-Fe1+xTe prototype structure. Different from the Fe-square net and minor occupancy of interstitial Fe-sites in Fe1+xTe, Fe0.68Pd0.80Te is featured by a Pd-square net and near 68% occupancy of the corresponding interstitial Fe-sites. Furthermore, noncontact atomic force microscopy and X-ray diffraction provide evidence for the existence of a 3 × 3 × 3 Pd-vacancy order in this layered material. A spin-glass ground state below Tg ∼40 K is identified via magnetic characterization. Electrical transport measurements show that Fe0.68Pd0.80Te is a semiconductor with a very small band gap below 10 meV. It has weak negative magnetoresistance and hole-like charge carriers below room temperature. Our results demonstrate its potentials for further exploring various quantum phenomena.