  The recently discovered K-Fe-Se high temperature superconductor has caused
heated debate regarding the nature of its parent compound. Transport,
angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and STM measurements have suggested
that its parent compound could be insulating, semiconducting or even metallic
[M. H. Fang, H.-D. Wang, C.-H. Dong, Z.-J. Li, C.-M. Feng, J. Chen, and H. Q.
Yuan, Europhys. Lett. 94, 27009 (2011); F. Chen et al. Phys. Rev. X 1, 021020
(2011); and W. Li et al.,Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 057003 (2012)]. Because the
magnetic ground states associated with these different phases have not yet been
identified and the relationship between magnetism and superconductivity is not
fully understood, the real parent compound of this system remains elusive.
Here, we report neutron-diffraction experiments that reveal a semiconducting
antiferromagnetic (AFM) phase with rhombus iron vacancy order. The magnetic
order of the semiconducting phase is the same as the stripe AFM order of the
iron pnictide parent compounds. Moreover, while the root5*root5 block AFM phase
coexists with superconductivity, the stripe AFM order is suppressed by it. This
leads us to conjecture that the new semiconducting magnetic ordered phase is
the true parent phase of this superconductor.
