Transport and magnetic studies of PbTaSe2 under pressure suggest existence of two superconducting phases with the low temperature phase boundary at ∼0.25 GPa that is defined by a very sharp, first order, phase transition. The first order phase transition line can be followed via pressure dependent resistivity measurements, and is found to be near 0.12 GPa near room temperature. Transmission electron microscopy and x-ray diffraction at elevated temperatures confirm that this first order phase transition is structural and occurs at ambient pressure near ∼425 K. The new, high temperature / high pressure phase has a similar crystal structure and slightly lower unit cell volume relative to the ambient pressure, room temperature structure. Based on first-principles calculations this structure is suggested to be obtained by shifting the Pb atoms from the 1a to 1e Wyckoff position without changing the positions of Ta and Se atoms. PbTaSe2 has an exceptionally pressure sensitive, structural phase transition with ΔTs/ΔP≈−1700 K/GPa near 4 K, this first order transition causes an ∼1 K (∼25%) step - like decrease in Tc as pressure is increased through 0.25 GPa.
@article{arxiv.1702.00258,
title = {Highly responsive ground state of PbTaSe$_2$: structural phase transition and evolution of superconductivity under pressure},
author = {Udhara Kaluarachchi and Yuhang Deng and Matthew F. Besser and Kewei Sun and Lin Zhou and Manh Cuong Nguyen and Zhujun Yuan and Chenglong Zhang and James S. Schilling and Matthew J. Kramer and Shuang Jia and Cai-Zhuang Wang and Kai-Ming Ho and Paul C. Canfield and Sergey L. Bud'ko},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.00258},
year = {2017}
}