Highly responsive ground state of PbTaSe2: Structural phase transition and evolution of superconductivity under pressure

• Published in: Physical review. B 2017-06, Vol.95 (22), p.224508
• Main Authors: Kaluarachchi, Udhara S, Deng, Yuhang, Besser, Matthew F, Sun, Kewei, Zhou, Lin, Nguyen, Manh Cuong, Yuan, Zhujun, Zhang, Chenglong, Schilling, James S, Kramer, Matthew J, Jia, Shuang, Wang, Cai-Zhuang, Ho, Kai-Ming, Canfield, Paul C, Bud'ko, Sergey L
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND SUPERFLUIDITY; Crystal structure; First principles; High temperature; Phase transitions; Pressure dependence; Superconductivity; Temperature; Transmission electron microscopy; Unit cell; X-ray diffraction
• ISSN: 2469-9950; 2469-9969
• DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevB.95.224508

Transport and magnetic studies of PbTaSe2 under pressure suggest the existence of two superconducting phases with the low temperature phase boundary at ∼0.25 GPa that is defined by a very sharp, first order, phase transition. The first order phase transition line can be followed via pressure dependent resistivity measurements, and is found to be near 0.12 GPa near room temperature. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction at elevated temperatures confirm that this first order phase transition is structural and occurs at ambient pressure near ~425 K. The new, high temperature/high pressure phase has a similar crystal structure and slightly lower unit cell volume relative to the ambient pressure, room temperature structure. Based on first-principles calculations this structure is suggested to be obtained by shifting the Pb atoms from the 1a to 1e Wyckoff position without changing the positions of Ta and Se atoms. PbTaSe2 has an exceptionally pressure sensitive, structural phase transition with ΔTs/ΔP≈−1400 K/GPa near room temperature, and ≈−1700 K/GPa near 4 K. This first order transition causes a ~1 K (~25%) steplike decrease in Tc as pressure is increased through 0.25 GPa.