Superconductivity enhancement in phase-engineered molybdenum carbide/disulfide vertical heterostructures
Abstract
Stacking layers of atomically thin transition-metal carbides and two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides, could lead to nontrivial superconductivity and other unprecedented phenomena yet to be studied. In this work, superconducting α-phase thin molybdenum carbide flakes were first synthesized, and a subsequent sulfurization treatment induced the formation of vertical heterolayer systems consisting of different phases of molybdenum carbide—ranging from α to γ' and γ phases—in conjunction with molybdenum sulfide layers. These transition-metal carbide/disulfide heterostructures exhibited critical superconducting temperatures as high as 6 K, higher than that of the starting single-phased α-Mo2C (4 K). We analyzed possible interface configurations to explain the observed moiré patterns resulting from the vertical heterostacks. Our density-functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that epitaxial strain and moiré patterns lead to a higher interfacial density of states, which favors superconductivity. Such engineered heterostructures might allow the coupling of superconductivity to the topologically nontrivial surface states featured by transition-metal carbide phases composing these heterostructures potentially leading to unconventional superconductivity. Moreover, we envisage that our approach could also be generalized to other metal carbide and nitride systems that could exhibit high-temperature superconductivity.
- Authors:
-
[1];
[3];
[1];
[1];
[1];
[1]
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
- Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab); Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States); Shinshu Univ., Wakasato, Nagano (Japan)
- Florida State Univ., Tallahassee, FL (United States). National High Magnetic Field Lab. (MagLab)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1657274
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0018025; 1807969
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 117; Journal Issue: 33; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-8424
- Publisher:
- National Academy of Sciences
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- superconductivity; heterostructure; molybdenum carbide; molybdenum disulfide
Citation Formats
Zhang, Fu, Zheng, Wenkai, Lu, Yanfu, Pabbi, Lavish, Fujisawa, Kazunori, Elías, Ana Laura, Binion, Anna R., Granzier-Nakajima, Tomotaroh, Zhang, Tianyi, Lei, Yu, Lin, Zhong, Hudson, Eric W., Sinnott, Susan B., Balicas, Luis, and Terrones, Mauricio. Superconductivity enhancement in phase-engineered molybdenum carbide/disulfide vertical heterostructures. United States: N. p., 2020.
Web. doi:10.1073/pnas.2003422117.
Zhang, Fu, Zheng, Wenkai, Lu, Yanfu, Pabbi, Lavish, Fujisawa, Kazunori, Elías, Ana Laura, Binion, Anna R., Granzier-Nakajima, Tomotaroh, Zhang, Tianyi, Lei, Yu, Lin, Zhong, Hudson, Eric W., Sinnott, Susan B., Balicas, Luis, & Terrones, Mauricio. Superconductivity enhancement in phase-engineered molybdenum carbide/disulfide vertical heterostructures. United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003422117
Zhang, Fu, Zheng, Wenkai, Lu, Yanfu, Pabbi, Lavish, Fujisawa, Kazunori, Elías, Ana Laura, Binion, Anna R., Granzier-Nakajima, Tomotaroh, Zhang, Tianyi, Lei, Yu, Lin, Zhong, Hudson, Eric W., Sinnott, Susan B., Balicas, Luis, and Terrones, Mauricio. Wed .
"Superconductivity enhancement in phase-engineered molybdenum carbide/disulfide vertical heterostructures". United States. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2003422117. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1657274.
@article{osti_1657274,
title = {Superconductivity enhancement in phase-engineered molybdenum carbide/disulfide vertical heterostructures},
author = {Zhang, Fu and Zheng, Wenkai and Lu, Yanfu and Pabbi, Lavish and Fujisawa, Kazunori and Elías, Ana Laura and Binion, Anna R. and Granzier-Nakajima, Tomotaroh and Zhang, Tianyi and Lei, Yu and Lin, Zhong and Hudson, Eric W. and Sinnott, Susan B. and Balicas, Luis and Terrones, Mauricio},
abstractNote = {Stacking layers of atomically thin transition-metal carbides and two-dimensional (2D) semiconducting transition-metal dichalcogenides, could lead to nontrivial superconductivity and other unprecedented phenomena yet to be studied. In this work, superconducting α-phase thin molybdenum carbide flakes were first synthesized, and a subsequent sulfurization treatment induced the formation of vertical heterolayer systems consisting of different phases of molybdenum carbide—ranging from α to γ' and γ phases—in conjunction with molybdenum sulfide layers. These transition-metal carbide/disulfide heterostructures exhibited critical superconducting temperatures as high as 6 K, higher than that of the starting single-phased α-Mo2C (4 K). We analyzed possible interface configurations to explain the observed moiré patterns resulting from the vertical heterostacks. Our density-functional theory (DFT) calculations indicate that epitaxial strain and moiré patterns lead to a higher interfacial density of states, which favors superconductivity. Such engineered heterostructures might allow the coupling of superconductivity to the topologically nontrivial surface states featured by transition-metal carbide phases composing these heterostructures potentially leading to unconventional superconductivity. Moreover, we envisage that our approach could also be generalized to other metal carbide and nitride systems that could exhibit high-temperature superconductivity.},
doi = {10.1073/pnas.2003422117},
journal = {Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America},
number = 33,
volume = 117,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Wed Jul 29 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}
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