No Arabic abstract
Topological superconductors (TSCs) are unconventional superconductors with bulk superconducting gap and in-gap Majorana states on the boundary that may be used as topological qubits for quantum computation. Despite their importance in both fundamental research and applications, natural TSCs are very rare. Here, combining state of the art synchrotron and laser-based angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, we investigated a stoichiometric transition metal dichalcogenide (TMD), 2M-WS2 with a superconducting transition temperature of 8.8 K (the highest among all TMDs in the natural form up to date) and observed distinctive topological surface states (TSSs). Furthermore, in the superconducting state, we found that the TSSs acquired a nodeless superconducting gap with similar magnitude as that of the bulk states. These discoveries not only evidence 2M-WS2 as an intrinsic TSC without the need of sensitive composition tuning or sophisticated heterostructures fabrication, but also provide an ideal platform for device applications thanks to its van der Waals layered structure.
The rise of quantum science and technologies motivates photonics research to seek new platforms with strong light-matter interactions to facilitate quantum behaviors at moderate light intensities. One promising platform to reach such strong light-matter interacting regimes is offered by polaritonic metasurfaces, which represent ultrathin artificial media structured on nano-scale and designed to support polaritons - half-light half-matter quasiparticles. Topological polaritons, or topolaritons, offer an ideal platform in this context, with unique properties stemming from topological phases of light strongly coupled with matter. Here we explore polaritonic metasurfaces based on 2D transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) supporting in-plane polarized exciton resonances as a promising platform for topological polaritonics. We enable a spin-Hall topolaritonic phase by strongly coupling valley polarized in-plane excitons in a TMD monolayer with a suitably engineered all-dielectric topological photonic metasurface. We first show that the strong coupling between topological photonic bands supported by the metasurface and excitonic bands in MoSe2 yields an effective phase winding and transition to a topolaritonic spin-Hall state. We then experimentally realize this phenomenon and confirm the presence of one-way spin-polarized edge topolaritons. Combined with the valley polarization in a MoSe2 monolayer, the proposed system enables a new approach to engage the photonic angular momentum and valley degree of freedom in TMDs, offering a promising platform for photonic/solid-state interfaces for valleytronics and spintronics.
Charge density wave, or CDW, is usually associated with Fermi surfaces nesting. We here report a new CDW mechanism discovered in a 2H-structured transition metal dichalcogenide, where the two essential ingredients of CDW are realized in very anomalous ways due to the strong-coupling nature of the electronic structure. Namely, the CDW gap is only partially open, and charge density wavevector match is fulfilled through participation of states of the large Fermi patch, while the straight FS sections have secondary or negligible contributions.
This study examines the potential of superconductivity in transition metal (TM) intercalated bilayer graphene through a systematic study of the electronic and magnetic properties. We determine the electronic structure for all first row TM elements in the stable honeycomb configuration between two layers of graphene using density functional theory (DFT). Through an analysis of the electron density, we assess the induction of the magnetic moment in each case, where a comparison of the ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic configurations allow us to ascertain an estimated exchange coupling between the transition-metal elements. By analyzing the electronic properties, we find that the carbon $p$-bands are degenerate with the TM $d$-bands and form an electron pocket below the Fermi energy at the $Gamma-$point. These hybridized bands are analogous to the carbon $p$-band effect that produces superconductivity in intercalated graphite with alkali and alkaline-earth metals. Furthermore, since the bands are hybridized with the TM $d$-bands, their magnetic properties may provide bosonic modes from their spin-coupling to preserve the unique linear dispersion present in monolayer graphene. This study provides a designing route by using TMs for tuning magneto-electric Dirac materials and will encourage future experimental studies to further the fundamental knowledge of unconventional superconductivity.
We investigate proximity-induced superconductivity in monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) in the presence of an externally generated exchange field. A variety of superconducting order parameters is found to emerge from the interplay of magnetism and superconductivity, covering the entire spectrum of possibilities to be symmetric or antisymmetric with respect to the valley and spin degrees of freedom, as well as even or odd in frequency. More specifically, when a conventional emph{s}-wave superconductor with singlet Copper pairs is tunnel-coupled to the TMD layer, both spin-singlet and triplet pairings between electrons from the same and opposite valleys arise due to the combined effects of intrinsic spin-orbit coupling and a magnetic-substrate-induced exchange field. As a key finding, we reveal the existence of an exotic even-frequency triplet pairing between equal-spin electrons from different valleys, which arises whenever the spin orientations in the two valleys are noncollinear. All types of superconducting order turn out to be highly tunable via straightforward manipulation of the external exchange field.
We report a determination of the complex in-plane dielectric function of monolayers of four transition metal dichalcogenides: MoS2, MoSe2, WS2 and WSe2, for photon energies from 1.5 - 3 eV. The results were obtained from reflection spectra using a Kramers-Kronig constrained variational analysis. From the dielectric functions, we obtain the absolute absorbance of the monolayers. We also provide a comparison of the dielectric function for the monolayers with the corresponding bulk materials.