Pressure-induced superconductivity in a three-dimensional topological material ZrTe sub( 5)

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 2016-03, Vol.113 (11), p.2904-2904
• Main Authors: Zhou, Yonghui, Wu, Juefei, Ning, Wei, Li, Nana, Du, Yongping, Chen, Xuliang, Zhang, Ranran, Chi, Zhenhua, Wang, Xuefei, Zhu, Xiangde, Lu, Pengchao, Ji, Cheng, Wan, Xiangang, Yang, Zhaorong, Sun, Jian, Yang, Wenge, Tian, Mingliang, Zhang, Yuheng, Mao, Ho-kwang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0027-8424

As a new type of topological materials, ZrTe... shows many exotic properties under extreme conditions. Using resistance and ac magnetic susceptibility measurements under high pressure, while the resistance anomaly near 128 K is completely suppressed at 6.2 GPa, a fully superconducting transition emerges. The superconducting transition temperature T... increases with applied pressure, and reaches a maximum of 4.0 K at 14.6 GPa, followed by a slight drop but remaining almost constant value up to 68.5 GPa. At pressures above 21.2 GPa, a second superconducting phase with the maximum T... of about 6.0 K appears and coexists with the original one to the maximum pressure studied in this work. In situ high-pressure synchrotron X-ray diffraction and Raman spectroscopy combined with theoretical calculations indicate the observed two-stage superconducting behavior is correlated to the structural phase transition from ambient Cmcm phase to high-pressure C2/m phase around 6 GPa, and to a mixture of two high-pressure phases of C2/m and P-1 above 20 GPa. The combination of structure, transport measurement, and theoretical calculations enable a complete understanding of the emerging exotic properties in 3D topological materials under extreme environments. (ProQuest: ... denotes formulae/symbols omitted.)