Abstract
Transition-metal chalcogenides host various phases of matter, such as charge-density wave (CDW), superconductors, and topological insulators or semimetals. Superconductivity and its competition with CDW in low-dimensional compounds have attracted much interest and stimulated considerable research. Here we report pressure induced superconductivity in a strong spin-orbit (SO) coupled quasi-one-dimensional (1D) transition-metal chalcogenide NbTe4, which is a CDW material under ambient pressure. With increasing pressure, the CDW transition temperature is gradually suppressed, and superconducting transition, which is fingerprinted by a steep resistivity drop, emerges at pressures above 12.4 GPa. Under pressure p = 69 GPa, zero resistance is detected with a transition temperature Tc = 2.2 K and an upper critical field μ0Hc2 = 2 T. We also find large magnetoresistance (MR) up to 102% at low temperatures, which is a distinct feature differentiating NbTe4 from other conventional CDW materials.
Highlights
The room temperature resistivity is 59.2 μΩ ⋅ cm and decreases to 9.4 μΩ ⋅ cm at T = 2 K, yielding a residual resistivity ratio (RRR) of 6.3
To understand the origin of the poor RRR, we performed the measurements of energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDXS)
The chemical composition determined by Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDXS) gives the atomic ratio Nb:Te = 0.8:4, with a measurement error of ±3.5% depending on the elements measured
Summary
Transition-metal chalcogenides host various phases of matter, such as charge-density wave (CDW), superconductors, and topological insulators or semimetals. We report pressure induced superconductivity in a strong spin-orbit (SO) coupled quasione-dimensional (1D) transition-metal chalcogenide NbTe4, which is a CDW material under ambient pressure. The CDW transition temperature is gradually suppressed, and superconducting transition, which is fingerprinted by a steep resistivity drop, emerges at pressures above 12.4 GPa. Under pressure p = 69 GPa, zero resistance is detected with a transition temperature Tc = 2.2 K and an upper critical field μ0Hc2 = 2 T.
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