Tuning metal/superconductor to insulator/superconductor coupling via control of proximity enhancement between NbSe2monolayers

J Phys Condens Matter. 2023 Mar 23;35(21). doi: 10.1088/1361-648X/acbf92.

Abstract

The interplay between charge transfer and electronic disorder in transition-metal dichalcogenide multilayers gives rise to superconductive coupling driven by proximity enhancement, tunneling and superconducting fluctuations, of a yet unwieldy variety. Artificial spacer layers introduced with atomic precision change the density of states by charge transfer. Here, we tune the superconductive coupling betweenNbSe2monolayers from proximity-enhanced to tunneling-dominated. We correlate normal and superconducting properties inSnSe1+δmNbSe21tailored multilayers with varying SnSe layer thickness (m=1-15). From high-field magnetotransport the critical fields yield Ginzburg-Landau coherence lengths with an increase of140%cross-plane (m=1-9), trending towards two-dimensional superconductivity form>9. We show cross-overs between three regimes: metallic with proximity-enhanced coupling (m=1-4), disordered-metallic with intermediate coupling (m=5-9) and insulating with Josephson tunneling (m>9). Our results demonstrate that stacking metal mono- and dichalcogenides allows to convert a metal/superconductor into an insulator/superconductor system, prospecting the control of two-dimensional superconductivity in embedded layers.

Keywords: Ginzburg–Landau coherence length; dichalcogenides; ferecrystals; multilayers; superconductivity.