Fragile Pressure-Induced Magnetism in FeSe Superconductors with a Thickness Reduction.

Abstract

The emergence of high transition temperature (<i>T</i>_c) superconductivity in bulk FeSe under pressure is associated with the tuning of nematicity and magnetism. However, sorting out the relative contributions from magnetic and nematic fluctuations to the enhancement of <i>T</i>_c remains challenging. Here, we design and conduct a series of high-pressure experiments on FeSe thin flakes. We find that as the thickness decreases the nematic phase boundary on temperature-pressure phase diagrams remains robust while the magnetic order is significantly weakened. A local maximum of <i>T</i>_c is observed outside the nematic phase region, not far from the extrapolated nematic end point in all samples. However, the maximum <i>T</i>_c value is reduced associated with the weakening of magnetism. No high-<i>T</i>_c phase is observed in the thinnest sample. Our results strongly suggest that nematic fluctuations alone can only have a limited effect while magnetic fluctuations are pivotal on the enhancement of <i>T</i>_c in FeSe.