Magnetic spin fluctuations is one candidate to produce the bosonic modes that
mediate the superconductivity in the ferrous superconductors. Up until now, all
of the LaOFeAs and BaFe2As2 structure types have simple commensurate magnetic
ground states, as result of nesting Fermi surfaces. This type of
spin-density-wave (SDW) magnetic order is known to be vulnerable to shifts in
the Fermi surface when electronic densities are altered at the superconducting
compositions. Superconductivity has more recently been discovered in
alpha-Fe(Te,Se), whose electronically active antifluorite planes are
isostructural to the FeAs layers found in the previous ferrous superconductors
and share with them the same quasi-two-dimensional electronic structure. Here
we report neutron scattering studies that reveal a unique complex
incommensurate antiferromagnetic order in the parent compound alpha-FeTe. When
the long-range magnetic order is suppressed by the isovalent substitution of Te
with Se, short-range correlations survive in the superconducting phase.Comment: 27 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl