Pressure-induced phase transitions and superconductivity in a black phosphorus single crystal

We report a thorough study of the transport properties of the normal and superconducting states of black phosphorus (BP) under magnetic field and high pressure with a large-volume apparatus that provides hydrostatic pressure to induce transitions from the layered A17 phase to the layered A7 phase and to the cubic phase of BP. Quantum oscillations can be observed at P ≥ 1 GPa in both resistivity and Hall voltage, and their evolutions with pressure in the A17 phase imply a continuous enlargement of Fermi surface. A significantly large magnetoresistance (MR) at low temperatures is observed in the A7 phase that becomes superconducting below a superconducting transition temperature T_c ∼ 6-13 K. T_c increases continuously with pressure on crossing the A7 to the cubic phase boundary. The strong MR effect can be fit by a modified Kohler's rule. A correlation between T_c and fitting parameters suggests that phonon-mediated interactions play dominant roles in driving the Cooper pairing, which is further supported by our density functional theory (DFT) calculations. The change of effective carrier mobility in the A17 phase under pressure derived from the MR effect is consistent with that obtained from the temperature dependence of the quantum oscillations. In situ single-crystal diffraction under high pressure indicates a total structural reconstruction instead of simple stretching of the A17 phase layers in the A17-to-A7-phase transition. This finding helps us to interpret transport properties on crossing the phase transition under high pressure.