Abstract
The strong Ising spin–orbit coupling in certain two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides can profoundly affect the superconducting state in few-layer samples. For example, in NbSe2, this effect combines with the reduced dimensionality to stabilize the superconducting state against magnetic fields up to ~35 T, and could lead to topological superconductivity. Here we report a two-fold rotational symmetry of the superconducting state in few-layer NbSe2 under in-plane external magnetic fields, in contrast to the three-fold symmetry of the lattice. Both the magnetoresistance and critical field exhibit this two-fold symmetry, and it also manifests deep inside the superconducting state in NbSe2/CrBr3 superconductor-magnet tunnel junctions. In both cases, the anisotropy vanishes in the normal state, demonstrating that it is an intrinsic property of the superconducting phase. We attribute the behaviour to the mixing between two closely competing pairing instabilities, namely the conventional s-wave instability typical of bulk NbSe2 and an unconventional d- or p-wave channel that emerges in few-layer NbSe2. Our results demonstrate the unconventional character of the pairing interaction in few-layer transition metal dichalcogenides and highlight the exotic superconductivity in this family of two-dimensional materials.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 949-954 |
| Number of pages | 6 |
| Journal | Nature Physics |
| Volume | 17 |
| Issue number | 8 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Aug 2021 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We thank E.-A. Kim for useful discussions. B.H. and A.H. thank D. Graf and S. Maier for their discussions and support related to work done at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory. Special thanks also go to Z. Jiang for all of the support associated with the Physical Property Measurement System at UMN. The work at the University of Minnesota (UMN) was supported primarily by the National Science Foundation through the University of Minnesota MRSEC, under Awards DMR-2011401 and DMR-1420013 (iSuperSeed). Portions of the UMN work were conducted in the Minnesota Nano Center, which is supported by the National Science Foundation through the National Nano Coordinated Infrastructure Network (NNCI) under award no. ECCS-1542202. A portion of this work was performed at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, which is supported by National Science Foundation Cooperative agreement no. DMR-1644779 and the State of Florida. The research at Cornell was supported by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) under award no. N00014-18-1-2368 for the tunnelling measurements, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) under award no. DMR-1807810 for the fabrication of tunnel junctions. The work in Lausanne was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation. K.F.M. also acknowledges support from a David and Lucille Packard Fellowship.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.