journal article·2018-05-03Open access

Anisotropic band splitting in monolayer NbSe2: implications for superconductivity and charge density wave

Yuki Nakata, Katsuaki Sugawara, Satoru Ichinokura, Yoshinori Okada, Taro Hitosugi, Takashi Koretsune, Keiji Ueno, Shuji Hasegawa, Takashi Takahashi, Takafumi Sato

Abstract

Abstract Realization of unconventional physical properties in two-dimensional (2D) transition-metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) is currently one of the key challenges in condensed-matter systems. However, the electronic properties of 2D TMDs remain largely unexplored compared to those of their bulk counterparts. Here, we report the fabrication of a high-quality monolayer NbSe2 film with a trigonal prismatic structure by molecular beam epitaxy, and the study of its electronic properties by scanning tunneling microscopy, angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy, and electrical transport measurements, together with first-principles band-structure calculations. In addition to a charge density wave (CDW) with 3 × 3 periodicity and superconductivity below 1.5 K, we observed sizable (~0.1 eV) band splitting along the Γ-K cut in the Brillouin zone due to inversion symmetry breaking in the monolayer crystal. This splitting is highly anisotropic in k space, leading to a spin-split van-Hove singularity in the band structure. The present results suggest the importance of spin–orbit coupling and symmetry breaking for unconventional superconductivity and CDW properties in monolayer TMDs.
Source: crossref · Quality: baseline

Research context

OpenAlex topics: 2D Materials and Applications · Graphene research and applications · MXene and MAX Phase Materials

SciVX discovery tags are terminology-based. OpenAlex topics are source-provided classifications.

References (49)

Show source-provided references
1. Chhowalla, M. et al. The chemistry of two-dimensional layered transition metal dichalcogenide nanosheets. Nat. Chem. 5, 263–275 (2013).10.1038/nchem.1589 ↗
2. Cao, T. et al. Valley-selective circular dichroism of monolayer molybdenum disulphide. Nat. Commun. 3, 887 (2012).10.1038/ncomms1882 ↗
3. Mak, K. F., He, K., Shan, J. & Heinz, T. F. Control of valley polarization in monolayer MoS2 by optical helicity. Nat. Nanotech. 7, 494–498 (2012).10.1038/nnano.2012.96 ↗
4. Zeng, H., Dai, J., Yao, W., Xiao, D. & Cui, X. Valley polarization in MoS2 monolayers by optical pumping. Nat. Nanotech. 7, 490–493 (2012).10.1038/nnano.2012.95 ↗
5. Mak, K. F., McGill, K. L., Park, J. & McEuen, P. L. The valley Hall effect in MoS2 transistors. Science 344, 1489–1492 (2014).10.1126/science.1250140 ↗
6. Tahir, M. & Schwingenschlögl, U. Tunable thermoelectricity in monolayers of MoS2 and other group-VI dichalcogenides. New J. Phys. 16, 115003 (2014).10.1088/1367-2630/16/11/115003 ↗
7. Xi, X. et al. Strongly enhanced charge-density-wave order in monolayer NbSe2. Nat. Nanotech. 10, 765–769 (2015).10.1038/nnano.2015.143 ↗
8. Lu, J. M. et al. Evidence for two-dimensional Ising superconductivity in gated MoS2. Science 350, 1353–1357 (2015).10.1126/science.aab2277 ↗
9. Saito, Y. et al. Superconductivity protected by spin–valley locking in ion-gated MoS2. Nat. Phys. 12, 144–149 (2015).10.1038/nphys3580 ↗
10. Xi, X. et al. Ising pairing in superconducting NbSe2 atomic layers. Nat. Phys. 12, 139–143 (2016).10.1038/nphys3538 ↗
11. Wilson, J. A., Di Salvo, F. J. & Mahajan, S. Charge-density waves and superlattices in the metallic layered transition metal dichalcogenides. Adv. Phys. 24, 117–201 (1975).10.1080/00018737500101391 ↗
12. Ugeda, M. M. et al. Characterization of collective ground states in single-layer NbSe2. Nat. Phys. 12, 92–97 (2016).10.1038/nphys3527 ↗
13. Onishi, S. et al. Selenium capped monolayer NbSe2 for two-dimensional superconductivity studies. Phys. Status Solidi B 253, 2396–2399 (2016).10.1002/pssb.201600235 ↗
14. He, W.-Y., Zhou, B. T., He, J. J., Zhang, T. & Law, K. T. Nodal topological superconductivity in monolayer NbSe2. Preprint at https://arxiv.orh/abs/1604.02867 (2016).
15. Bauer, E. & Sigrist, M. Non-centrosymmetric Superconductors: Introduction and Overview. (Springer, Berlin, 2012).10.1007/978-3-642-24624-1 ↗
16. Sigrist, M. Introduction to unconventional superconductivity in non-centrosymmetric metals. AIP Conf. Proc. 1162, 55–96 (2009).10.1063/1.3225489 ↗
17. Gor’kov, L. P. & Rashba, E. I. Superconducting 2D system with lifted spin degeneracy: mixed singlet-triplet state. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 037004 (2001).10.1103/PhysRevLett.87.037004 ↗
18. Koma, A., Sunouchi, K. & Miyajima, T. Fabrication and characterization of heterostructures with subnanometer thickness. Microelectron. Eng. 2, 129–136 (1984).10.1016/0167-9317(84)90057-1 ↗
19. Nakata, Y. et al. Monolayer 1T-NbSe2 as a Mott insulator. NPG Asia Mater. 8, e321 (2016).10.1038/am.2016.157 ↗
20. Sugawara, K., Sato, T., Tanaka, Y., Souma, S. & Takahashi, T. Spin- and valley-coupled electronic states in monolayer WSe2 on bilayer graphene. Appl. Phys. Lett. 107, 071601 (2015).10.1063/1.4928658 ↗
21. Sugawara, K. et al. Unconventional charge-density-wave transition in monolayer 1T-TiSe2. ACS Nano 10, 1341–1345 (2016).10.1021/acsnano.5b06727 ↗
22. Giambattista, B., Johnson, A., Coleman, R. V., Drake, B. & Hansma, P. K. Charge-density waves observed at 4.2 K by scanning-tunneling microscopy. Phys. Rev. B 37, 2741–2744 (1988).10.1103/PhysRevB.37.2741 ↗
23. Soumyanarayanan, A. et al. Quantum phase transition from triangular to stripe charge order in NbSe2. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 110, 1623–1627 (2013).10.1073/pnas.1211387110 ↗
24. Arguello, C. J. et al. Visualizing the charge density wave transition in 2H-NbSe2 in real space. Phys. Rev. B 89, 235115 (2014).10.1103/PhysRevB.89.235115 ↗
25. Tinkham, M. Introduction to Superconductivity. (Courier Corporation, New York, 2012).
26. de Trey, P., Gygax, S. & Jan, J. P. J. Anisotropy of the Ginzburg-Landau parameter κ in NbSe2. Low. Temp. Phys. 11, 421–434 (1973).10.1007/BF00656561 ↗
27. Weller, T. E., Ellerby, M., Saxena, S. S., Smith, R. P. & Skipper, N. T. Superconductivity in the intercalated graphite compounds C6Yb and C6Ca. Nat. Phys. 1, 39–41 (2005).10.1038/nphys0010 ↗
28. Ichinokura, S., Sugawara, K., Takayama, A., Takahashi, T. & Hasegawa, S. Superconducting calcium-intercalated bilayer graphene. ACS Nano 10, 2761–2765 (2016).10.1021/acsnano.5b07848 ↗
29. Corcoran, R. et al. Quantum oscillations in the mixed state of the type II superconductor 2H-NbSe2. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 6, 4479–4492 (1994).10.1088/0953-8984/6/24/010 ↗
30. Yokoya, T. et al. Fermi surface sheet-dependent superconductivity in 2H-NbSe2. Science 294, 2518–2520 (2001).10.1126/science.1065068 ↗
31. Rahn, D. J. et al. Gaps and kinks in the electronic structure of the superconductor 2H-NbSe2 from angle-resolved photoemission at 1 K. Phys. Rev. B 85, 224532 (2012).10.1103/PhysRevB.85.224532 ↗
32. Valla, T. et al. Quasiparticle spectra, charge-density waves, superconductivity, and electron-phonon coupling in 2H-NbSe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 086401 (2004).10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.086401 ↗
33. Borisenko, S. V. et al. Two energy gaps and fermi-surface “Arcs” in NbSe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 166402 (2009).10.1103/PhysRevLett.102.166402 ↗
34. Zhu, Z. Y., Cheng, Y. C. & Schwingenschlögl, U. Giant spin-orbit-induced spin splitting in two-dimensional transition-metal dichalcogenide semiconductors. Phys. Rev. B 84, 153402 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevB.84.153402 ↗
35. Cheiwchanchamnangij, T. & Lambrecht, W. R. L. Quasiparticle band structure calculation of monolayer, bilayer, and bulk MoS2. Phys. Rev. B 85, 205302 (2012).10.1103/PhysRevB.85.205302 ↗
36. Kośmider, K., González, J. W. & Fernández-Rossier, J. Large spin splitting in the conduction band of transition metal dichalcogenide monolayers. Phys. Rev. B 88, 245436 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevB.88.245436 ↗
37. Sun, L. et al. Spin-orbit splitting in single-layer MoS2 revealed by triply resonant Raman scattering. Phys. Rev. Lett. 111, 126801 (2013).10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.126801 ↗
38. Zhang, Y. et al. Direct observation of the transition from indirect to direct bandgap in atomically thin epitaxial MoSe2. Nat. Nanotech. 9, 111–115 (2014).10.1038/nnano.2013.277 ↗
39. Bawden, L. et al. Spin–valley locking in the normal state of a transition-metal dichalcogenide superconductor. Nat. Commun. 7, 11711 (2016).10.1038/ncomms11711 ↗
40. Takayama, A., Sato, T., Souma, S., Oguchi, T. & Takahashi, T. Tunable spin polarization in bismuth ultrathin film on Si(111). Nano Lett. 12, 1776–1779 (2012).10.1021/nl2035018 ↗
41. Souma, S. et al. Spin polarization of gapped dirac surface states near the topological phase transition in TlBi(S1−xSex)2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 186804 (2012).10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.186804 ↗
42. Joohannes, M. D. & Mazin, I. I. Fermi surface nesting and the origin of charge density waves in metals. Phys. Rev. B 77, 165135 (2008).10.1103/PhysRevB.77.165135 ↗
43. Rice, T. M. & Scott, G. K. New mechanism for a charge-density-wave instability. Phys. Rev. Lett. 35, 120 (1975).10.1103/PhysRevLett.35.120 ↗
44. Kiss, T. et al. Charge-order-maximized momentum-dependent superconductivity. Nat. Phys. 3, 720–725 (2007).10.1038/nphys699 ↗
45. Weber, F. et al. Extended phonon collapse and the origin of the charge-density wave in 2H-NbSe2. Phys. Rev. Lett. 107, 107403 (2011).10.1103/PhysRevLett.107.107403 ↗
46. Yamada, M. et al. Surface electrical conductivity measurement system with micro-four-point probes at sub-Kelvin temperature under high magnetic field in ultrahigh vacuum. e-J. Surf. Sci. Nanotechnol. 10, 400–405 (2012).10.1380/ejssnt.2012.400 ↗
47. Giannozzi, P. et al. Quantum espresso: a modular and open-source software project for quantum simulations of materials. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 21, 395502 (2009).10.1088/0953-8984/21/39/395502 ↗
48. Perdew, J. P., Burke, K. & Ernzerhof, M. Generalized gradient approximation made simple. Phys. Rev. Lett. 77, 3865 (1996).10.1103/PhysRevLett.77.3865 ↗
49. Vanderbilt, D. Soft self-consistent pseudopotentials in a generalized eigenvalue formalism. Phys. Rev. B 41, 7892 (1990).10.1103/PhysRevB.41.7892 ↗