Concurrence of superconductivity and structure transition in Weyl semimetal TaP under pressure

Yufeng Li; Yonghui Zhou; Zhaopeng Guo; Fei Han; Xuliang Chen; Pengchao Lu; Xuefei Wang; Chao An; Ying Zhou; Jie Xing; Guan Du; Xiyu Zhu; Huan Yang; Jian Sun; Zhaorong Yang; Wenge Yang; Ho Kwang Mao; Yuheng Zhang; Hai Hu Wen

doi:10.1038/s41535-017-0066-z

Concurrence of superconductivity and structure transition in Weyl semimetal TaP under pressure

Yufeng Li, Yonghui Zhou, Zhaopeng Guo, Fei Han, Xuliang Chen, Pengchao Lu, Xuefei Wang, Chao An, Ying Zhou, Jie Xing, Guan Du, Xiyu Zhu, Huan Yang, Jian Sun, Zhaorong Yang, Wenge Yang, Ho Kwang Mao, Yuheng Zhang, Hai Hu Wen

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

49 Scopus citations

Abstract

Weyl semimetal defines a material with three-dimensional Dirac cones, which appear in pair due to the breaking of spatial inversion or time reversal symmetry. Superconductivity is the state of quantum condensation of paired electrons. Turning a Weyl semimetal into superconducting state is very important in having some unprecedented discoveries. In this work, by doing resistive measurements on a recently recognized Weyl semimetal TaP under pressures up to about 100 GPa, we show the concurrence of superconductivity and a structure transition at about 70 GPa. It is found that the superconductivity becomes more pronounced when decreasing pressure and retains when the pressure is completely released. High-pressure x-ray diffraction measurements also confirm the structure phase transition from I4₁ md to P-6m2 at about 70 GPa. More importantly, ab-initial calculations reveal that the P-6m2 phase is a new Weyl semimetal phase and has only one set of Weyl points at the same energy level. Our discovery of superconductivity in TaP by high pressure will stimulate investigations on superconductivity and Majorana fermions in Weyl semimetals.

Original language	English
Article number	66
Journal	npj Quantum Materials
Volume	2
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0066-z
State	Published - Dec 1 2017
Externally published	Yes

Funding

We appreciate useful discussions with Yong Chen at Purdue University and Liang Fu at MIT. This work was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (Grant Nos. 2016YFA0300400, 2015CB921202, and 2016YFA0401804), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) with the projects: 11534005, 11190023, 11374143, U1530402, U1532267, 51372112, 11574133, 11574323, U1632275, NSF Jiangsu province (No. BK20150012), the Special Program for Applied Research on Super Computation of the NSFC–Guangdong Joint Fund (the second phase), HPCC of Nanjing University and “Tianhe-2” at NSCC-Guangzhou. The HP-XRD experiments were conducted at HPCAT, which is supported by DOE-NNSA under Award No. DE-NA0001974 and DOE-BES under Award No. DE-FG02-99ER45775, with partial instrumentation funding by NSF. APS is supported by DOE-BES, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357.

Funders	Funder number
DOE-BES	DE-FG02-99ER45775
DOE-NNSA	DE-NA0001974
NSCC-Guangzhou
National Science Foundation	DE-AC02-06CH11357
National Natural Science Foundation of China	11374143, 11574133, 51372112, U1632275, U1532267, 11574323, 11190023, U1530402, 11534005
Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China	2016YFA0401804, 2016YFA0300400, 2015CB921202
Nanjing University
Major Project of Philosophy and Social Science Research in Colleges and Universities of Jiangsu Province	BK20150012

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Li, Y., Zhou, Y., Guo, Z., Han, F., Chen, X., Lu, P., Wang, X., An, C., Zhou, Y., Xing, J., Du, G., Zhu, X., Yang, H., Sun, J., Yang, Z., Yang, W., Mao, H. K., Zhang, Y., & Wen, H. H. (2017). Concurrence of superconductivity and structure transition in Weyl semimetal TaP under pressure. npj Quantum Materials, 2(1), Article 66. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41535-017-0066-z

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abstract = "Weyl semimetal defines a material with three-dimensional Dirac cones, which appear in pair due to the breaking of spatial inversion or time reversal symmetry. Superconductivity is the state of quantum condensation of paired electrons. Turning a Weyl semimetal into superconducting state is very important in having some unprecedented discoveries. In this work, by doing resistive measurements on a recently recognized Weyl semimetal TaP under pressures up to about 100 GPa, we show the concurrence of superconductivity and a structure transition at about 70 GPa. It is found that the superconductivity becomes more pronounced when decreasing pressure and retains when the pressure is completely released. High-pressure x-ray diffraction measurements also confirm the structure phase transition from I41 md to P-6m2 at about 70 GPa. More importantly, ab-initial calculations reveal that the P-6m2 phase is a new Weyl semimetal phase and has only one set of Weyl points at the same energy level. Our discovery of superconductivity in TaP by high pressure will stimulate investigations on superconductivity and Majorana fermions in Weyl semimetals.",

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AU - Du, Guan

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AU - Yang, Huan

AU - Sun, Jian

AU - Yang, Zhaorong

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N2 - Weyl semimetal defines a material with three-dimensional Dirac cones, which appear in pair due to the breaking of spatial inversion or time reversal symmetry. Superconductivity is the state of quantum condensation of paired electrons. Turning a Weyl semimetal into superconducting state is very important in having some unprecedented discoveries. In this work, by doing resistive measurements on a recently recognized Weyl semimetal TaP under pressures up to about 100 GPa, we show the concurrence of superconductivity and a structure transition at about 70 GPa. It is found that the superconductivity becomes more pronounced when decreasing pressure and retains when the pressure is completely released. High-pressure x-ray diffraction measurements also confirm the structure phase transition from I41 md to P-6m2 at about 70 GPa. More importantly, ab-initial calculations reveal that the P-6m2 phase is a new Weyl semimetal phase and has only one set of Weyl points at the same energy level. Our discovery of superconductivity in TaP by high pressure will stimulate investigations on superconductivity and Majorana fermions in Weyl semimetals.

AB - Weyl semimetal defines a material with three-dimensional Dirac cones, which appear in pair due to the breaking of spatial inversion or time reversal symmetry. Superconductivity is the state of quantum condensation of paired electrons. Turning a Weyl semimetal into superconducting state is very important in having some unprecedented discoveries. In this work, by doing resistive measurements on a recently recognized Weyl semimetal TaP under pressures up to about 100 GPa, we show the concurrence of superconductivity and a structure transition at about 70 GPa. It is found that the superconductivity becomes more pronounced when decreasing pressure and retains when the pressure is completely released. High-pressure x-ray diffraction measurements also confirm the structure phase transition from I41 md to P-6m2 at about 70 GPa. More importantly, ab-initial calculations reveal that the P-6m2 phase is a new Weyl semimetal phase and has only one set of Weyl points at the same energy level. Our discovery of superconductivity in TaP by high pressure will stimulate investigations on superconductivity and Majorana fermions in Weyl semimetals.

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Concurrence of superconductivity and structure transition in Weyl semimetal TaP under pressure

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