Pressure-driven dome-shaped superconductivity and electronic structural evolution in tungsten ditelluride

Xing-Chen Pan; Xuliang Chen; Huimei Liu; Yanqing Feng; Zhongxia Wei; Yonghui Zhou; Zhenhua Chi; Li Pi; Fei Yen; Fengqi Song; Xiangang Wan; Zhaorong Yang; Baigeng Wang; Guanghou Wang; Yuheng Zhang

doi:10.1038/ncomms8805

arXiv · 1501.07394

Pressure-driven dome-shaped superconductivity and electronic structural evolution in tungsten ditelluride

Xing-Chen Pan·Xuliang Chen·Huimei Liu·Yanqing Feng·Zhongxia Wei·Yonghui Zhou·Zhenhua Chi·Li Pi·Fei Yen·Fengqi Song·Xiangang Wan·Zhaorong Yang·Baigeng Wang·Guanghou Wang·Yuheng Zhang

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Abstract

Tungsten ditelluride has attracted intense research interest due to the recent discovery of its large unsaturated magnetoresistance up to 60 Tesla. Motivated by the presence of a small, sensitive Fermi surface of 5d electronic orbitals, we boost the electronic properties by applying a high pressure, and introduce superconductivity successfully. Superconductivity sharply appears at a pressure of 2.5 GPa, rapidly reaching a maximum critical temperature (Tc) of 7 K at around 16.8 GPa, followed by a monotonic decrease in Tc with increasing pressure, thereby exhibiting the typical dome-shaped superconducting phase. From theoretical calculations, we interpret the low-pressure region of the superconducting dome to an enrichment of the density of states at the Fermi level and attribute the high-pressure decrease in Tc to possible structural instability. Thus, Tungsten ditelluride may provide a new platform for our understanding of superconductivity phenomena in transition metal dichalcogenides.

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Xing-Chen Pan, Xuliang Chen, Huimei Liu, Yanqing Feng, Zhongxia Wei, Yonghui Zhou, Zhenhua Chi, Li Pi, Fei Yen, Fengqi Song, Xiangang Wan, Zhaorong Yang, Baigeng Wang, Guanghou Wang, Yuheng Zhang. 2015-01-29. Pressure-driven dome-shaped superconductivity and electronic structural evolution in tungsten ditelluride. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms8805

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