Topological Dirac line nodes and superconductivity coexist in SnSe at high pressure

We report on the discovery of a pressure-induced topological and superconducting phase of SnSe, a material which attracts much attention recently due to its superior thermoelectric properties. In situ high-pressure electrical transport and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements show that the sup...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physical review. B 2017-10, Vol.96 (16), Article 165123
Main Authors: Chen, Xuliang, Lu, Pengchao, Wang, Xuefei, Zhou, Yonghui, An, Chao, Zhou, Ying, Xian, Cong, Gao, Hao, Guo, Zhaopeng, Park, Changyong, Hou, Binyang, Peng, Kunling, Zhou, Xiaoyuan, Sun, Jian, Xiong, Yimin, Yang, Zhaorong, Xing, Dingyu, Zhang, Yuheng
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Diffraction
Spin-orbit interactions
Superconductivity
Synchrotron radiation
X-ray diffraction
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Summary:We report on the discovery of a pressure-induced topological and superconducting phase of SnSe, a material which attracts much attention recently due to its superior thermoelectric properties. In situ high-pressure electrical transport and synchrotron x-ray diffraction measurements show that the superconductivity emerges along with the formation of a CsCl-type structural phase of SnSe above around 27 GPa, with a maximum critical temperature of 3.2 K at 39 GPa. Based on ab initio calculations, this CsCl-type SnSe is predicted to be a Dirac line-node (DLN) semimetal in the absence of spin-orbit coupling, whose DLN states are protected by the coexistence of time-reversal and inversion symmetries. These results make CsCl-type SnSe an interesting model platform with simple crystal symmetry to study the interplay of topological physics and superconductivity.
ISSN:2469-9950
2469-9969
DOI:10.1103/PhysRevB.96.165123