English

Electron-phonon coupling, critical temperatures and gaps in $\rm{NbSe_2}$/$\rm{MoS_2}$ Ising Superconductors

Superconductivity 2024-07-11 v2 Materials Science

Abstract

Utilizing Migdal-Eliashberg theory of superconductivity within the first-principles calculations, we work out the role of electron-phonon coupling (EPC) and anisotropic superconducting properties of a recently discovered [Appl. Phys. Lett. 120, 183101 (2022)] 2D van der Waals heterostructure comprising a single layer of MoS2_2 and few layers of NbSe2_2. We find strong EPC and a softening of phonon modes in the lowest acoustic branch. While the single MoS2_2 layer does not actively contribute to the EPC, it significantly elevates the superconducting critical temperature (TcT_c) compared to monolayer NbSe2_2. This is attributed to the degradation of the charge-density wave (CDW) by the MoS2_2 layer. Notably, we observe a two-gap superconductivity in NbSe2\rm{NbSe_2}/MoS2\rm{MoS_2} and extend our study to three layers of NbSe2_2. A reduction in TcT_c with increasing thickness of NbSe2_2 is observed. We confirm that this trend is consistent with recent experiments, if one goes beyond three layers of NbSe2_2. We incorporated spin-orbit coupling (SOC) and suggest a possible mechanism for Ising superconductivity. We find that SOC reduces EPC while TcT_c is suppressed concomitantly by about 5K, leading to a closer estimate of the experimental TcT_c.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2401.02310,
  title  = {Electron-phonon coupling, critical temperatures and gaps in $\rm{NbSe_2}$/$\rm{MoS_2}$ Ising Superconductors},
  author = {Shubham Patel and Soumyasree Jena and A Taraphder},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2401.02310},
  year   = {2024}
}

Comments

6 figures, Supplementary file attached