Unconventional pairing in Ising superconductors: application to monolayer NbSe₂

Abstract The presence of a non-centrosymmetric crystal structure and in-plane mirror symmetry allows an Ising spin–orbit coupling to form in some two-dimensional materials. Examples include transition metal dichalcogenide superconductors like monolayer NbSe₂, MoS₂, TaS₂, and PbTe₂, where a nontrivial nature of the superconducting state is currently being explored. In this study, we develop a microscopic formalism for Ising superconductors that captures the superconducting instability arising from a momentum-dependent spin- and charge-fluctuation-mediated pairing interaction. We apply our pairing model to the electronic structure of monolayer NbSe₂, where first-principles calculations reveal the presence of strong paramagnetic fluctuations. Our calculations provide a quantitative measure of the mixing between the even- and odd-parity superconducting states and its variation with Coulomb interaction. Further, numerical analysis in the presence of an external Zeeman field reveals the role of Ising spin–orbit coupling and mixing of odd-parity superconducting state in influencing the low-temperature enhancement of the critical magnetic field.