Superconductivity in Topological Insulator Sb2Te3 Induced by Pressure
J. Zhu, J. L. Zhang, P. P. Kong, S. J. Zhang, X. H. Yu, J. L. Zhu, Q. Q. Liu, X. Li, R. C. Yu, R. Ahuja, W. G. Yang, G. Y. Shen, H. K. Mao, H. M. Weng, X. Dai, … 展开作者
J. Zhu, J. L. Zhang, P. P. Kong, S. J. Zhang, X. H. Yu, J. L. Zhu, Q. Q. Liu, X. Li, R. C. Yu, R. Ahuja, W. G. Yang, G. Y. Shen, H. K. Mao, H. M. Weng, X. Dai, Z. Fang, Y. S. Zhao, C. Q. Jin
Topological superconductivity is one of most fascinating properties of topological quantum matters that was theoretically proposed and can support Majorana Fermions at the edge state. Superconductivity was previously realized in a Cu-intercalated Bi2Se3 topological compound or a Bi2Te3 topological compound at high pressure. Here we report the discovery of superconductivity in the topological compound Sb2Te3 when pressure was applied. The crystal structure analysis results reveal that superconductivity at a low-pressure range occurs at the ambient phase. The Hall coefficient measurements indicate the change of p-type carriers at a low-pressure range within the ambient phase, into n-type at higher pressures, showing intimate relation to superconducting transition temperature. The first principle calculations based on experimental measurements of the crystal lattice show that Sb2Te3 retains its Dirac surface states within the low-pressure ambient phase where superconductivity was observed, which indicates a strong relationship between superconductivity and topology nature.
When bilayer graphene is rotationally faulted to an angle $θ\approx 1.1^\circ$, theory predicts the formation of a flat electronic band and correlated insulating, superconducting, and ferromagnetic states have all been observed at partial band filling. The proximity of superconductivity to correlated insulators has suggested a close relationship between these states, reminiscent of the cuprates where superconductivity arises by doping a Mott insulator. Here, we show that superconductivity can appear without correlated insulating states. While both superconductivity and correlated insulating be…
Strontium intercalation between van der Waals bonded layers of topological insulator Bi2Se3 is found to induce superconductivity with a maximum Tc of 2.9 K. Transport measurement on single crystal of optimally doped sample Sr0.1Bi2Se3 shows weak anisotropy (1.5) and upper critical field Hc2(0) equals to 2.1 T for magnetic field applied per-pendicular to c -axis of the sample. The Ginzburg-Landau coherence lengths are Xi-ab = 15.3 Å and Xi_c = 10.2 Å. The lower critical field and zero temperature penetration depth Lambda(0) are estimated to be 0.35 mT and 1550 nm respectively. Hall and Seebeck …
Current theories of superfluidity are based on the idea of a coherent quantum state with topologically protected, quantized circulation. When this topological protection is absent, as in the case of $^3$He-A, the coherent quantum state no longer supports persistent superflow. Here we argue that the loss of topological protection in a superconductor gives rise to an insulating ground state. We specifically introduce the concept of a Skyrme insulator to describe the coherent dielectric state that results from the topological failure of superflow carried by a complex vector order parameter. We ap…
Binary ruthenium pnictides, RuP and RuAs, with an orthorhombic MnP structure, were found to show a metal to a non-magnetic insulator transition at TMI = 270 K and 200 K, respectively. In the metallic region above TMI, a structural phase transition, accompanied by a weak anomaly in the resistivity and the magnetic susceptibility, indicative of a pseudo-gap formation, was identified at Ts = 330 K and 280 K, respectively. These two transitions were suppressed by substituting Ru with Rh. We found superconductivity with a maximum Tc = 3.7 K and Tc =1.8 K in a narrow composition range around the cri…
Bi2Se3 is one of a handful of known topological insulators. Here we show that copper intercalation in the van der Waals gaps between the Bi2Se3 layers, yielding an electron concentration of ~ 2 x 10^20cm-3, results in superconductivity at 3.8 K in CuxBi2Se3 for x between 0.12 and 0.15. This demonstrates that Cooper pairing is possible in Bi2Se3 at accessible temperatures, with implications for study of the physics of topological insulators and potential devices.
Pressure as a clean and efficient tool can bring about unexpected extraordinary physical and chemical properties of matters. The recent discoveries of superconductivity at nearly room temperature in hydrides highlight the power of pressure in this aspect. Capturing such Tc superconductivity at atmosphere pressure for the technological applications is highly desired. The large-scale growth of diamond through the chemical vapor deposition away from the usual high-pressure and high-temperature conditions fuels such a hope. Similar to hydrides, Cs-doped C$_{60}$ was also found to exhibit supercond…
Kagome lattice systems have been proposed to host rich physics, which provide an excellent platform to explore unusual quantum states. Here, we report on the discovery of superconductivity in van der Waals material Pd3P2S8 under pressure. The superconductivity is observed in Pd3P2S8 for those pressures where the temperature dependence of the resistivity changes from a semiconducting-like behavior to that of a normal metal. The superconducting transition temperature Tc increases with applied pressure and reaches ~ 6.83 K at 79.5 GPa. Combining high-pressure XRD, Raman spectroscopy and theoretic…
The capability to switch electrically between superconducting and insulating states of matter represents a novel paradigm in the state-of-the-art engineering of correlated electronic systems. An exciting possibility is to turn on superconductivity in a topologically non-trivial insulator, which provides a route to search for non-Abelian topological states. However, existing demonstrations of superconductor-insulator switches have involved only topologically trivial systems, and even those are rare due to the stringent requirement to tune the carrier density over a wide range. Here we report re…
We show that Floquet chiral topological superconductivity arises naturally in Josephson junctions made of magnetic topological insulator-superconductor sandwich structures. The Josephson phase modulation associated with an applied bias voltage across the junction drives the system into the anomalous Floquet chiral topological superconductor hosting chiral Majorana edge modes in the quasienergy spectrum, with the bulk Floquet bands carrying zero Chern numbers. The bias voltage acts as a tuning parameter enabling novel dynamical topological quantum phase transitions driving the system into a myr…
The pressure induced superconductivity and structural evolution for Bi2Se3 single crystal have been studied. The emergence of superconductivity with onset transition temperature (Tc) about 4.4K is observed around 12GPa. Tc increases rapidly to the highest 8.5K at 16GPa, decreases to 6.5K at 21GPa, then keep almost constant. It is found that Tc versus pressure is closely related to the carrier density which increases by more than two orders of magnitude from 2GPa to 23GPa. High pressure synchrotron radiation measurements reveal structure transitions occur around 12GPa, 20GPa, and above 29GPa, r…
Topological superconductivity is an exotic quantum phenomenon with coupled nontrivial topological order and superconductivity together. A direct idea for producing topological superconductors is to create superconductivity based on the well recognized topological insulators. The topological insulating states in highly efficient thermoelectric materials Bi$_2$Te$_3$ and Bi$_2$Se$_3$ and their alloy Bi$_{2}$Te$_{3-x}$Se$_{x}$ have been established from angle-resolved photoemission and transport experiments. Superconductivity was also observed based on these popular topological insulators by the …
Superconductivity Proximate to Non-Abelian Fractional Spin Hall Insulator in Twisted Bilayer MoTe$_2$
Pohang University of Science and Technology（浦项科技大学）；Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology（蔚山科学技术院）；Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST)（大邱庆北科学技术院）；Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）；Institute for Basic Science（基础科学研究院）
When a topological insulator is made into a nanowire, the interplay between topology and size quantization gives rise to peculiar one-dimensional states whose energy dispersion can be manipulated by external fields. In the presence of proximity-induced superconductivity, these 1D states offer a tunable platform for Majorana zero modes. While the existence of such peculiar 1D states has been experimentally confirmed, the realization of robust proximity-induced superconductivity in topological-insulator nanowires remains a challenge. Here, we report the realization of superconducting topological…
The magnetic van der Waals crystals (MnX2Te4)m(X2Te3)n (X = Sb, Bi) have drawn significant attention due to their rich topological properties and the tenability by external magnetic field. In this work, we report on the discovery of superconductivity in magnetic topological insulator candidate MnSb4Te7 (m = 1, n = 1) via the application of high pressure. The antiferromagnetic ordering is robust to pressure until 8 GPa and then fully suppressed. The carrier type converts from hole- to electron-type accompanied with structural phase transition at around 15 GPa. Superconductivity emerges near the…
Disorder driven superconductor to insulator transition via intermediate metallic regime is reported in nano-crystalline thin films of molybdenum. The nano-structured thin films have been deposited at room temperature using DC magnetron sputtering at different argon pressures. The grain size has been tuned using deposition pressure as the sole control parameter. A variation of particle sizes, room temperature resistivity and superconducting transition has been studied as a function of deposition pressure. The nano-crystalline molybdenum thin films are found to have large carrier concentration b…
Topological crystalline insulators in IV-VI compounds host novel topological surface states consisting of multi-valley massless Dirac fermions at low energy. Here we show that strain generically acts as an effective gauge field on these Dirac fermions and creates pseudo-Landau orbitals without breaking time-reversal symmetry. We predict the realization of this phenomenon in IV-VI semiconductor heterostructures, due to a naturally occurring misfit dislocation array at the interface that produces a periodically varying strain field. Remarkably, the zero-energy Landau orbitals form a flat band in…
Superconducting topological crystalline insulators (TCI) are predicted to host new topological phases protected by crystalline symmetries, but available materials are insufficiently suitable for surface studies. To induce superconductivity at the surface of a prototypical TCI SnTe, we use molecular beam epitaxy to grow a heterostructure of SnTe and a high-Tc superconductor Fe(Te,Se), utilizing a 'buffer' layer to bridge the large lattice mismatch between SnTe and Fe(Te,Se). Using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy, we measure a prominent spectral gap on the surface …
Based on the Phase Hamiltonian, two types of solitons are found to exist in the crossover region between band insulator and Mott insulator in one-dimension. Both of these solitons have fractional charges but with different spins, zero and 1/2, respectively. The results are in accord with the experimental results by Kanoda et al. for TTF-Chloranil under pressure.
Recently, moiré superlattices have been found on the surface of topological insulators (TI) due to the rotational misalignment of topmost layers. In this work, we study the effects of moiré superlattices on the topological surface states using a continuum model of Dirac electrons moving in a periodic potential. Unlike twisted bilayer graphene, moiré surface states cannot host isolated bands due to their topological nature. Instead, we find (high-order) van Hove singularities (VHS) in the moiré band structure that give rise to divergent density of states (DOS) and enhance interaction effects. D…
Motivated from the experimental observation of metal induced gap states (MIGS) at insulator/metal interfaces by Kiguchi {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 90}, 196803 (2003)], we have theoretically investigated the electronic properties of MIGS at interfaces between various alkali halides and a metal represented by a jellium with the first-principles density functional method. We have found that, on top of the usual evanescent state, MIGS generally have a long tail on halogen sites with a $p_z$-like character, whose penetration depth ($λ$) is as large as half the lattice constant of bulk alka…
The recent discovery of superconductivity up to 32 K in the pressurized MoB2 revives the interests in exploring novel superconductors in transition-metal diborides isostructural to MgB2. Although the Mo 4d-electrons participate in Cooper pairing, the electron-phonon coupling remains the dominant mechanism for the emergence of superconductivity in MoB2. To explore possible superconductivity driven by unconventional pairing mechanism, we turn our attention to an itinerant antiferromagnet CrB2. Here we report on the discovery of superconductivity up to 7 K in CrB2 via the application of external …
An extended study on PdS is carried out with the measurements of the resistivity, Hall coefficient, Raman scattering, and X-ray diffraction at high pressures up to 42.3 GPa. With increasing pressure, superconductivity is observed accompanying with a structural phase transition at around 19.5 GPa. The coexistence of semiconducting and metallic phases observed at normal state is examined by the Raman scattering and X-ray diffraction between 19.5 and 29.5 GPa. After that, only the metallic normal state maintains with an almost constant superconducting transition temperature. The similar evolution…
Bulk superconductivity has been discovered in Tl_{0.6}Bi_{2}Te_{3}, which is derived from the topological insulator Bi2Te3. The superconducting volume fraction of up to 95% (determined from specific heat) with Tc of 2.28 K was observed. The carriers are p-type with the density of ~1.8 x 10^{20} cm^{-3}. Resistive transitions under magnetic fields point to an unconventional temperature dependence of the upper critical field B_{c2}. The crystal structure appears to be unchanged from Bi2Te3 with a shorter c-lattice parameter, which, together with the Rietveld analysis, suggests that Tl ions are i…
The coexistence of superconductivity and topology holds the potential to realize exotic quantum states of matter. Here we report that superconductivity induced by high pressure in three thallium-based materials, covering the phase transition from a normal insulator (TlBiS2) to a topological insulator (TlBiSe2) through a Dirac semimetal (TlBiSeS). By increasing the pressure up to 60 GPa, we observe superconductivity phase diagrams with maximal Tc values at 6.0-8.1 K. Our density-functional theory calculations reveal topological surface states in superconductivity phases for all three compounds.…
Interface-Induced Superconductivity in Magnetic Topological Insulator-Iron Chalcogenide Heterostructures
The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学）；Rutgers University（罗格斯大学）；University of Washington（华盛顿大学）；Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院）；Materials Research Institute, The Pennsylvania State University（宾夕法尼亚州立大学材料研究所）；National High Magnetic Field Laboratory（国家高磁场实验室）；Paul Scherrer Institute（保罗谢尔研究所）；National Institute of Standards and Technology（美国国家标准与技术研究院）
High-pressure electrical resistance measurements have been performed on single crystal Ba0.5Sr0.5Fe2As2 platelets to pressures of 16 GPa and temperatures down to 10 K using designer diamond anvils under quasi-hydrostatic conditions with an insulating steatite pressure medium. The resistance measurements show evidence of pressure-induced superconductivity with an onset transition temperature at ~31 K and zero resistance at ~22 K for a pressure of 3.3 GPa. The transition temperature decreases gradually with increasing in pressure before completely disappearing for pressures above 12 GPa. The pre…
The introduction of superconductivity to the Dirac surface states of a topological insulator leads to a topological superconductor, which may support topological quantum computing through Majorana zero modes. The development of a scalable material platform is key to the realization of topological quantum computing. Here we report on the growth and properties of high-quality (Bi,Sb)2Te3/graphene/gallium heterostructures. Our synthetic approach enables atomically sharp layers at both hetero-interfaces, which in turn promotes proximity-induced superconductivity that originates in the gallium film…
Interface-Enhanced Superconductivity in Ultrathin TiN Proximitized by Topological Insulators
Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院宁波材料技术与工程研究所）；Eastern Institute for Advanced Study, Eastern Institute of Technology（宁波东方理工大学（暂名）先进研究院）；The Instruments Center for Physical Science, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学物理科学仪器中心）；Key Laboratory of Functional Crystals and Laser Technology, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry (TIPC), Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院理化技术研究所功能晶体与激光技术重点实验室）；Yongjiang Laboratory（甬江实验室）；Department of Physics & Astronomy, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey（新泽西州立罗格斯大学物理与天文系）
