Superconductivity in tantalum self-intercalated 4Ha-Ta1.03Se2

J Phys Condens Matter. 2018 Mar 7;30(9):095703. doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/aaaa98.

Abstract

TaSe2 has several different polytypes and abundant physical properties, such as superconductivity and charge density waves (CDW), which have been investigated in the past few decades. However, there has been no report on the physical properties of the 4Ha polytype up to now. Here we report the crystal growth and discovery of superconductivity in the tantalum self-intercalated 4Ha-Ta1.03Se2 single crystal with a superconducting transition onset temperature of [Formula: see text] K, which is the first observation of superconductivity in the 4Ha polytype of TaSe2. A slightly suppressed CDW transition is found around 106 K. A large [Formula: see text] value of about 4.48 is found when a magnetic field is applied in the ab-plane, which probably results from the enhanced spin-orbit coupling. Special stacking faults are observed, which further enhance the anisotropy. Although the density of states at the Fermi level is lower than that of other polytypes, T c remains the same, indicating that the stack mode of the 4Ha polytype may be beneficial to superconductivity in TaSe2.