Exploration for superconductivity is one of the research frontiers in condensed matter physics. In strongly correlated electron systems, the emergence of superconductivity is often inhibited by the formation of a thermodynamically more stable magnetic/charge order. Thus, to develop the superconductivity as the thermodynamically most stable state, the free-energy balance between the superconductivity and the competing order has been controlled mainly by changing thermodynamic parameters, such as the physical/chemical pressure and carrier density. However, such a thermodynamic approach may not be the only way to materialize the superconductivity. Here, we present a new kinetic approach to avoiding the competing order and thereby inducing persistent superconductivity. In the transition-metal dichalcogenide IrTe2 as an example, by utilizing current-pulse-based rapid cooling up to 10^7 K/s, we successfully kinetically avoid a first-order phase transition to a competing charge order and uncover metastable superconductivity hidden behind. Because the electronic states at low temperatures depend on the history of thermal quenching, electric pulse applications enable non-volatile and reversible switching of the metastable superconductivity, a unique advantage of the kinetic approach. Thus, our findings provide a new approach to developing and manipulating superconductivity beyond the framework of thermodynamics.
@article{arxiv.1810.04950,
title = {Kinetic approach to superconductivity hidden behind a competing order},
author = {H. Oike and M. Kamitani and Y. Tokura and F. Kagawa},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1810.04950},
year = {2018}
}