Mesoscopic stripes in antiferromagnetic Fe chalcogenide probed by scanning photoelectron spectromicroscopy

We have performed scanning photoelectron spectromicroscopy measurements in the paramagnetic (PM) and the antiferromagnetic (AFM) phases of Fe1+δTe (δ = 0.09). The spectromicroscopy images reveal stripe modulation of the electronic structure in the AFM monoclinic phase at low temperature, that disappears at high temperature in the PM phase. The stripes, running along the monoclinic crystal axis, are characterized by different density of states around the Γ point and near the Fermi level (EF). Since the near EF electronic states around the Γ point have strong electron–lattice coupling in Fe1+δTe, the observed stripes are likely to be related to the strain modulation introduced by the monoclinic lattice distortion.