| Title: |
Coupled Ferroelectricity and Superconductivity in Bilayer $T_d$-MoTe$_2$ |
| Authors: |
Jindal, Apoorv, Saha, Amartyajyoti, Li, Zizhong, Taniguchi, Takashi, Watanabe, Kenji, Hone, James C., Birol, Turan, Fernandes, Rafael M., Dean, Cory R., Pasupathy, Abhay N., Rhodes, Daniel A. |
| Source: |
Nature 613, 48-52 (2023) |
| Publication Year: |
2023 |
| Collection: |
Condensed Matter |
| Subject Terms: |
Condensed Matter - Superconductivity, Condensed Matter - Mesoscale and Nanoscale Physics, Condensed Matter - Materials Science |
| More Details: |
Achieving electrostatic control of quantum phases is at the frontier of condensed matter research. Recent investigations have revealed superconductivity tunable by electrostatic doping in twisted graphene heterostructures and in two-dimensional (2D) semimetals such as WTe$_2$. Some of these systems have a polar crystal structure that gives rise to ferroelectricity, in which the interlayer polarization exhibits bistability driven by external electric fields. Here we show that bilayer $T_d$-MoTe$_2$ simultaneously exhibits ferroelectric switching and superconductivity. Remarkably, a field-driven, first-order superconductor-to-normal transition is observed at its ferroelectric transition. Bilayer $T_d$-MoTe$_2$ also has a maximum in its superconducting transition temperature ($T_\textrm{c}$) as a function of carrier density and temperature, allowing independent control of the superconducting state as a function of both doping and polarization. We find that the maximum $T_\textrm{c}$ is concomitant with compensated electron and hole carrier densities and vanishes when one of the Fermi pockets disappears with doping. We argue that this unusual polarization-sensitive 2D superconductor is driven by an interband pairing interaction associated with nearly nested electron and hole Fermi pockets. |
| Document Type: |
Working Paper |
| DOI: |
10.1038/s41586-022-05521-3 |
| Access URL: |
http://arxiv.org/abs/2304.05443 |
| Accession Number: |
edsarx.2304.05443 |
| Database: |
arXiv |
