- Physical Review Journals
All JournalsPhysics Magazine

Physical Review B

Reuse & Permissions

It is not necessary to obtain permission to reuse this article or its components as it is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI are maintained. Please note that some figures may have been included with permission from other third parties. It is your responsibility to obtain the proper permission from the rights holder directly for these figures.

Export citation

Export citation

Choose format for download:

Download Citation
  • Open Access

Drastic field-induced resistivity upturns as signatures of unconventional magnetism in superconducting iron chalcogenides

Z. Zajicek1, I. Paulescu1, P. Reiss1,*, R. M. Abedin1, K. Sun1, S. J. Singh1,†, A. A. Haghighirad1,2, and A. I. Coldea1,‡

  • *Present address: Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research, Stuttgart, Germany.
  • †Present address: Institute of High-Pressure Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Sokolowska 29/37, 01-142 Warsaw, Poland.
  • ‡Contact author: amalia.coldea@physics.ox.ac.uk
PDF

Phys. Rev. B 113, 075135 – Published 17 February, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gbfx-x9w1

Abstract

Electronic scattering is a powerful tool to identify underlying changes in electronic behavior and incipient electronic and magnetic orders. The nematic and magnetic phases are strongly intertwined under applied pressure in FeSe, however, the additional isoelectronic substitution of sulfur offers an elegant way to separate them. Here we report the detailed evolution of the electronic and superconducting behavior of FeSe0.96S0.04 under applied pressure via longitudinal magnetoresistance studies up to 15 T. At intermediate pressures, inside the nematic phase, the resistivity displays an upturn in zero magnetic field, which is significantly enhanced in the magnetic field, suggesting the stabilization of a spin-density wave phase, which competes with superconductivity. At higher pressures, beyond the nematic phase boundaries, the resistivity no longer displays any clear anomalies in the zero magnetic field, but an external magnetic field induces significant upturns in resistivity reflecting a field-induced order, where superconductivity and magnetic anomalies are enhanced in tandem. This study highlights the essential role of high magnetic fields in stabilizing different electronic phases and revealing a complex interplay between magnetism and superconductivity tuned by applied pressure in FeSe1−xSx.

View figure in article

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Article Text

Supplemental Material

References (56)

  1. R. M. Fernandes, A. I. Coldea, H. Ding, I. R. Fisher, P. Hirschfeld, and G. Kotliar, Iron pnictides and chalcogenides: A new paradigm for superconductivity, Nature (London) 601, 35 (2022).
  2. Z. Zajicek, P. Reiss, D. Graf, J. C. A. Prentice, Y. Sadki, A. A. Haghighirad, and A. I. Coldea, Unveiling the quasiparticle behavior in the pressure-induced high-Tc phase of an iron-chalcogenide superconductor, npj Quantum Mater. 9, 52 (2024).
  3. W. Chen, B. M. Andersen, and P. J. Hirschfeld, Theory of resistivity upturns in metallic cuprates, Phys. Rev. B 80, 134518 (2009).
  4. G. Bergmann, Weak localization in thin films: A time-of-flight experiment with conduction electrons, Phys. Rep. 107, 1 (1984).
  5. J. Kondo, Resistance minimum in dilute magnetic alloys, Prog. Theor. Phys. 32, 37 (1964).
  6. G. Grüner, The dynamics of charge-density waves, Rev. Mod. Phys. 60, 1129 (1988).
  7. E. Zhang, D. Peng, Y. Zhu, L. Chen, B. Cui, X. Wang, W. Wang, Q. Zeng, and J. Zhao, Bulk superconductivity in pressurized trilayer nickelate Pr4Ni3O10 single crystals, Phys. Rev. X 15, 021008 (2025).
  8. T. Terashima, N. Kikugawa, A. Kiswandhi, E.-S. Choi, J. S. Brooks, S. Kasahara, T. Watashige, H. Ikeda, T. Shibauchi, Y. Matsuda, T. Wolf, A. E. Böhmer, F. Hardy, C. Meingast, H. v. Löhneysen, M.-T. Suzuki, R. Arita, and S. Uji, Anomalous Fermi surface in FeSe seen by Shubnikov-de Haas oscillation measurements, Phys. Rev. B 90, 144517 (2014).
  9. J. A. Mydosh, Spin Glasses: An Experimental Introduction (CRC Press, London, 1993).
  10. E. Dagotto, T. Hotta, and A. Moreo, Nanoscale phase separation and colossal magnetoresistance: The physics of manganites and related compounds, Phys. Rep. 344, 1 (2001).
  11. P. Bourgeois-Hope, S. Y. Li, F. Laliberté, S. Badoux, S. M. Hayden, N. Momono, T. Kurosawa, K. Yamada, H. Takagi, N. Doiron-Leyraud, and L. Taillefer, Link between magnetism and resistivity upturn in cuprates: A thermal conductivity study of La2−xSrxCuO4, arXiv:1910.08126.
  12. G. S. Boebinger, Y. Ando, A. Passner, T. Kimura, M. Okuya, J. Shimoyama, K. Kishio, K. Tamasaku, N. Ichikawa, and S. Uchida, Insulator-to-metal crossover in the normal state of La2−xSrxCuO4 near optimum doping, Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 5417 (1996).
  13. Y. Mizuguchi, F. Tomioka, S. Tsuda, T. Yamaguchi, and Y. Takano, Superconductivity at 27 K in tetragonal FeSe under high pressure, Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 152505 (2008).
  14. S. Medvedev, T. M. McQueen, I. A. Troyan, T. Palasyuk, M. I. Eremets, R. J. Cava, S. Naghavi, F. Casper, V. Ksenofontov, G. Wortmann, and C. Felser, Electronic and magnetic phase diagram of β−Fe1.01Se with superconductivity at 36.7 K under pressure, Nat. Mater. 8, 630 (2009).
  15. J. P. Sun, K. Matsuura, G. Z. Ye, Y. Mizukami, M. Shimozawa, K. Matsubayashi, M. Yamashita, T. Watashige, S. Kasahara, Y. Matsuda, J.-Q. Yan, B. C. Sales, Y. Uwatoko, J.-G. Cheng, and T. Shibauchi, Dome-shaped magnetic order competing with high-temperature superconductivity at high pressures in FeSe, Nat. Commun. 7, 12146 (2016).
  16. F.-C. Hsu, J.-Y. Luo, K.-W. Yeh, T.-K. Chen, T.-W. Huang, P. M. Wu, Y.-C. Lee, Y.-L. Huang, Y.-Y. Chu, D.-C. Yan, and M.-K. Wu, Superconductivity in the PbO-type structure α-FeSe, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 105, 14262 (2008).
  17. P. O. Sprau, A. Kostin, A. Kreisel, A. E. Böhmer, V. Taufour, P. C. Canfield, S. Mukherjee, P. J. Hirschfeld, B. M. Andersen, and J. C. S. Davis, Discovery of orbital-selective Cooper pairing in FeSe, Science 357, 75 (2017).
  18. Q. Wang, Y. Shen, B. Pan, X. Zhang, K. Ikeuchi, K. Iida, A. D. Christianson, H. C. Walker, D. T. Adroja, M. Abdel-Hafiez, X. Chen, D. A. Chareev, A. N. Vasiliev, and J. Zhao, Magnetic ground state of FeSe, Nat. Commun. 7, 12182 (2016).
  19. E. Gati, A. E. Böhmer, S. L. Bud'ko, and P. C. Canfield, Bulk superconductivity and role of fluctuations in the iron-based superconductor FeSe at high pressures, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 167002 (2019).
  20. A. I. Coldea, S. F. Blake, S. Kasahara, A. A. Haghighirad, M. D. Watson, W. Knafo, E. S. Choi, A. McCollam, P. Reiss, T. Yamashita, M. Bruma, S. Speller, Y. Matsuda, T. Wolf, T. Shibauchi, and A.  J. Schofield, Evolution of the low-temperature Fermi surface of superconducting FeSe1−xSx across a nematic phase transition, npj Quantum Mater. 4, 2 (2019).
  21. Y. Mizuguchi, F. Tomioka, S. Tsuda, T. Yamaguchi, and Y. Takano, Substitution effects on FeSe superconductor, J. Phys. Soc. Jpn. 78, 074712 (2009).
  22. K. Mukasa, K. Matsuura, M. Qiu, M. Saito, Y. Sugimura, K. Ishida, M. Otani, Y. Onishi, Y. Mizukami, K. Hashimoto, J. Gouchi, R. Kumai, Y. Uwatoko, and T. Shibauchi, High-pressure phase diagrams of FeSe1−xTex: Correlation between suppressed nematicity and enhanced superconductivity, Nat. Commun. 12, 381 (2021).
  23. Z. Zajicek, S. J. Singh, H. Jones, P. Reiss, M. Bristow, A. Martin, A. Gower, A. McCollam, and A. I. Coldea, Drastic effect of impurity scattering on the electronic and superconducting properties of Cu-doped FeSe, Phys. Rev. B 105, 115130 (2022).
  24. T. Hanaguri, V. Iwaya, Y. Kohsaka, T. Machida, T. Watashige, S. Kasahara, T. Shibauchi, and Y. Matsuda, Two distinct superconducting pairing states divided by the nematic end point in FeSe1−xSx, Sci. Adv. 4, eaar6419 (2018).
  25. K. Matsuura, Y. Mizukami, Y. Arai, Y. Sugimura, N. Maejima, A. Machida, T. Watanuki, T. Fukuda, T. Yajima, Z. Hiroi, K. Y. Yip, Y. C. Chan, Q. Niu, S. Hosoi, K. Ishida, K. Mukasa, S. Kasahara, J.-G. Cheng, S. K. Goh, Y. Matsuda, et al., Maximizing Tc by tuning nematicity and magnetism in FeSe1−xSx superconductors, Nat. Commun. 8, 1143 (2017).
  26. P. Reiss, A. McCollam, Z. Zajicek, A. A. Haghighirad, and A. I. Coldea, Collapse of metallicity and high-Tc superconductivity in the high-pressure phase of FeSe0.89S0.11, npj Quantum Mater. 9, 73 (2024).
  27. L. Xiang, U. S. Kaluarachchi, A. E. Böhmer, V. Taufour, M. A. Tanatar, R. Prozorov, S. L. Bud'ko, and P. C. Canfield, Dome of magnetic order inside the nematic phase of sulfur-substituted FeSe under pressure, Phys. Rev. B 96, 024511 (2017).
  28. See Supplemental Material at http://link.aps.org/supplemental/10.1103/gbfx-x9w1 for further details about the extraction of different parameters from resistivity data.
  29. D. Chareev, E. Osadchii, T. Kuzmicheva, J.-Y. Lin, S. Kuzmichev, O. Volkova, and A. Vasiliev, Single crystal growth and characterization of tetragonal FeSe1−x superconductors, CrystEngComm 15, 1989 (2013).
  30. A. E. Böhmer, V. Taufour, W. E. Straszheim, T. Wolf, and P. C. Canfield, Variation of transition temperatures and residual resistivity ratio in vapor-grown FeSe, Phys. Rev. B 94, 024526 (2016).
  31. K. Yokogawa, K. Murata, H. Yoshino, and S. Aoyama, Solidification of high-pressure medium Daphne 7373, Jpn. J. Appl. Phys. 46, 3636 (2007).
  32. J. Xie, X. Liu, W. Zhang, S. M. Wong, X. Zhou, Y. Zhao, S. Wang, K. T. Lai, and S. K. Goh, Fragile pressure-induced magnetism in FeSe superconductors with a thickness reduction, Nano Lett. 21, 9310 (2021).
  33. P. Reiss, D. Graf, A. A. Haghighirad, W. Knafo, L. Drigo, M. Bristow, A. Schofield, and A. I. Coldea, Quenched nematic criticality and two superconducting domes in an iron-based superconductor, Nat. Phys. 16, 89 (2020).
  34. Z. Zajicek, S. J. Singh, and A. I. Coldea, Robust superconductivity and fragile magnetism induced by the strong Cu impurity scattering in the high-pressure phase of FeSe, Phys. Rev. Res. 4, 043123 (2022).
  35. P. Reiss, D. Graf, A. A. Haghighirad, T. Vojta, and A. I. Coldea, Signatures of a quantum Griffiths phase close to an electronic nematic quantum phase transition, Phys. Rev. Lett. 127, 246402 (2021).
  36. T. Terashima, N. Kikugawa, S. Kasahara, T. Watashige, Y. Matsuda, T. Shibauchi, and S. Uji, Magnetotransport study of the pressure-induced antiferromagnetic phase in FeSe, Phys. Rev. B 93, 180503 (2016).
  37. A. V. Kornilov, V. M. Pudalov, Y. Kitaoka, K. Ishida, T. Mito, J. S. Brooks, J. S. Qualls, J. A. A. J. Perenboom, N. Tateiwa, and T. C. Kobayashi, Novel phases in the field-induced spin-density-wave state in (TMTSF)2PF6, Phys. Rev. B 65, 060404 (2002).
  38. B. Korin-Hamzić, M. Basletić, A. Hamzić, and K. Bechgaard, Change of the activation energy in the SDW state of (TMTSF)2PF6, Synth. Met. 103, 2125 (1999).
  39. K. Kothapalli, A. E. Böhmer, W. T. Jayasekara, B. G. Ueland, P. Das, A. Sapkota, V. Taufour, Y. Xiao, E. Alp, S. L. Bud'ko, P. C. Canfield, A. Kreyssig, and A. I. Goldman, Strong cooperative coupling of pressure-induced magnetic order and nematicity in FeSe, Nat. Commun. 7, 12728 (2016).
  40. B. Lake, H. M. Rønnow, N. B. Christensen, G. Aeppli, K. Lefmann, D. F. McMorrow, P. Vorderwisch, P. Smeibidl, N. Mangkorntong, T. Sasagawa, M. Nohara, H. Takagi, and T. E. Mason, Antiferromagnetic order induced by an applied magnetic field in a high-temperature superconductor, Nature (London) 415, 299 (2002).
  41. G.-Y. Chen, E. Wang, X. Zhu, and H.-H. Wen, Synergy and competition between superconductivity and antiferromagnetism in FeSe under pressure, Phys. Rev. B 99, 054517 (2019).
  42. A. E. Böhmer, K. Kothapalli, W. T. Jayasekara, J. M. Wilde, B. Li, A. Sapkota, B. G. Ueland, P. Das, Y. Xiao, W. Bi, J. Zhao, E. E. Alp, S. L. Bud'ko, P. C. Canfield, A. I. Goldman, and A. Kreyssig, Distinct pressure evolution of coupled nematic and magnetic orders in FeSe, Phys. Rev. B 100, 064515 (2019).
  43. P. S. Wang, S. S. Sun, Y. Cui, W. H. Song, T. R. Li, R. Yu, H. Lei, and W. Yu, Pressure induced stripe-order antiferromagnetism and first-order phase transition in FeSe, Phys. Rev. Lett. 117, 237001 (2016).
  44. U. S. Kaluarachchi, V. Taufour, A. E. Böhmer, M. A. Tanatar, S. L. Bud'ko, V. G. Kogan, R. Prozorov, and P. C. Canfield, Nonmonotonic pressure evolution of the upper critical field in superconducting FeSe, Phys. Rev. B 93, 064503 (2016).
  45. K. Rana, L. Xiang, P. Wiecki, R. A. Ribeiro, G. G. Lesseux, A. E. Böhmer, S. L. Bud'ko, P. C. Canfield, and Y. Furukawa, Impact of nematicity on the relationship between antiferromagnetic fluctuations and superconductivity in FeSe0.91S0.09 under pressure, Phys. Rev. B 101, 180503 (2020).
  46. K. Rana, D. V. Ambika, S. L. Bud'ko, A. E. Böhmer, P. C. Canfield, and Y. Furukawa, Interrelationships between nematicity, antiferromagnetic spin fluctuations, and superconductivity: Role of hotspots in FeSe1−xSx revealed by high pressure Se77 NMR study, Phys. Rev. B 107, 134507 (2023).
  47. T. Chen, Y. Chen, A. Kreisel, X. Lu, A. Schneidewind, Y. Qiu, J. T. Park, T. G. Perring, J. R. Stewart, H. Cao, R. Zhang, Y. Li, Y. Rong, Y. Wei, B. M. Andersen, P. J. Hirschfeld, C. Broholm, and P. Dai, Anisotropic spin fluctuations in detwinned FeSe, Nat. Mater. 18, 709 (2019).
  48. Y. Yamakawa and H. Kontani, Nematicity, magnetism, and superconductivity in FeSe under pressure: Unified explanation based on the self-consistent vertex correction theory, Phys. Rev. B 96, 144509 (2017).
  49. A. B. Morfoot, T. K. Kim, M. D. Watson, A. A. Haghighirad, S. J. Singh, N. Bultinck, and A. I. Coldea, Resurgence of superconductivity and the role of dxy hole band in FeSe1−xTex, Commun. Phys. 6, 362 (2023).
  50. R. Khasanov, Z. Guguchia, A. Amato, E. Morenzoni, X. Dong, F. Zhou, and Z. Zhao, Pressure-induced magnetic order in FeSe: A muon spin rotation study, Phys. Rev. B 95, 180504 (2017).
  51. M. Bendele, A. Amato, K. Conder, M. Elender, H. Keller, H.-H. Klauss, H. Luetkens, E. Pomjakushina, A. Raselli, and R. Khasanov, Pressure induced static magnetic order in superconducting FeSe1−x, Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 087003 (2010).
  52. M. Bendele, A. Ichsanow, Y. Pashkevich, L. Keller, T. Strässle, A. Gusev, E. Pomjakushina, K. Conder, R. Khasanov, and H. Keller, Coexistence of superconductivity and magnetism in FeSe1−x under pressure, Phys. Rev. B 85, 064517 (2012).
  53. F. Rullier-Albenque, D. Colson, A. Forget, and H. Alloul, Hall effect and resistivity study of the magnetic transition, carrier content, and Fermi-liquid behavior in Ba(Fe1−xCox)2As2, Phys. Rev. Lett. 103, 057001 (2009).
  54. M. Nakajima, S. Ishida, T. Tanaka, K. Kihou, Y. Tomioka, T. Saito, C. H. Lee, H. Fukazawa, Y. Kohori, T. Kakeshita, A. Iyo, T. Ito, H. Eisaki, and S. Uchida, Normal-state charge dynamics in doped BaFe2As2: Roles of doping and necessary ingredients for superconductivity, Sci. Rep. 4, 5873 (2014).
  55. M. Rotter, M. Tegel, and D. Johrendt, Spin-density-wave anomaly at 140 K in the ternary iron arsenide BaFe2As2, Phys. Rev. B 78, 020503 (2008).
  56. Z. Zajicek, I. Paulescu, and A. I. Coldea, Dataset - Drastic field-induced resistivity upturns as signatures of unconventional magnetism in superconducting iron chalcogenides, (2026), https://dx.doi.org/10.5287/ora-dxkyaxjzy.

Outline

Information

Phys. Rev. B 113, 075135– Published 17 February, 2026
  • Received 4 August 2025
  • Revised 23 December 2025
  • Accepted 2 January 2026
Crossmark - Check for updates button
Creative Commons Logo

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Sign In to Your Journals Account

Filter

Filter

Article Lookup

Enter a citation