Pressure induced superconductivity bordering a charge-density-wave state in NbTe4 with strong spin-orbit coupling

Xiaojun Yang; Yonghui Zhou; Mengmeng Wang; Hua Bai; Xuliang Chen; Chao An; Ying Zhou; Qian Chen; Yupeng Li; Zhen Wang; Jian Chen; Chao Cao; Yuke Li; Yi Zhou; Zhaorong Yang; Zhu-An Xu

doi:10.1038/s41598-018-24572-z

Pressure induced superconductivity bordering a charge-density-wave state in NbTe₄ with strong spin-orbit coupling

Sci Rep. 2018 Apr 19;8(1):6298. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-24572-z.

Authors

Xiaojun Yang^{1

2}, Yonghui Zhou³, Mengmeng Wang¹, Hua Bai¹, Xuliang Chen³, Chao An³, Ying Zhou³, Qian Chen¹, Yupeng Li¹, Zhen Wang¹, Jian Chen¹, Chao Cao⁴, Yuke Li⁴, Yi Zhou^{1

5}, Zhaorong Yang^{6

7}, Zhu-An Xu^{8

9

10}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China.
² School of Physics and Optoelectronics, Xiangtan University, Xiangtan, 411105, China.
³ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Conditions, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, 230031, China.
⁴ Department of Physics, Hangzhou Normal University, Hangzhou, 310036, China.
⁵ Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing, 210093, P. R. China.
⁶ Anhui Province Key Laboratory of Condensed Matter Physics at Extreme Conditions, High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Chinese Academy of Science, Hefei, 230031, China. zryang@issp.ac.cn.
⁷ Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing, 210093, P. R. China. zryang@issp.ac.cn.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials and Department of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China. zhuan@zju.edu.cn.
⁹ Zhejiang California International NanoSystems Institute, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310058, China. zhuan@zju.edu.cn.
¹⁰ Collaborative Innovation Centre of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing, 210093, P. R. China. zhuan@zju.edu.cn.

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 T _c = 2.2 K and an upper critical field μ₀H_c2 = 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.