Superconductivity in cleavable, van der Waals layered crystals

ORAL

Abstract

I will present results of our recent studies of superconductivity in pseudo-2D cleavable compounds, specifically in PtTe and in the GeAs2Te4 family. PtTe is the only reported non-halide adopting the layered ZrCl structure type and contains double layers of Pt between Te layers with the Te-Pt-Pt-Te slabs separated by a van der Waals gap. Electronic structure calculations indicate PtTe is a topological semimetal. The platelike crystals grown from a Pt flux show type-II superconductivity with Tc = 0.57 K. The well-known GeAs2Te4 structure type is adopted by the intrinsic antiferromagnetic topological insulator MnBi2Te4 and many other candidate topological materials. In this family we induce superconductivity in SnBi2Te4 by alloying and find Tc up to 1.85 K. The presence of both superconductivity and topological surface states may present an opportunity to realize topological superconductivity through an intrinsic proximity effect in this material.



*This work was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, National Quantum Information Science Research Centers, Quantum Science Center and the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering Division, and used resources at the Spallation Neutron Source, a DOE Office of Science User Facility operated by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Compute and Data Environment for Science (CADES) at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy.

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Publication: "Electronic and topological properties of the van der Waals layered superconductor PtTe" PRB 105, 154514 (2022).
"Superconductivity by alloying the topological insulator SnBi2Te4" PRL submitted and under review (2022).

Presenters

  • Michael A McGuire

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

Authors

  • Michael A McGuire

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Jiaqiang Yan

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Materials Science and Technology Division, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN 37831, USA

  • Robert G Moore

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Satoshi Okamoto

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Andrew F May

    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Xiaoping Wang

    • ORNL
    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Matthew Brahlek

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory

  • Yun-Yi Pai

    • Oak Ridge National Laboratory
    • Oak Ridge National Lab
    • oak ridge national laboratory

  • Heda Zhang

    • Oak Ridge National Lab

  • Clement Girod

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Sean Thomas

    • Los Alamos National Laboratory

  • Filip Ronning

    • Los Alamos Natl Lab