For the first time, a team comprised of two IRG-1 theorists (Birol and Fernandes) working with experimentalists from other institutions (including the Columbia MRSEC) showed the coexistence of ferroelectricity (i.e., electrostatically switchable macroscopic dipole moment) and superconductivity in a two-dimensional superconductor. The material is bilayer MoTe2, a member of the family of transition metal dichalcogenides, which are compounds of high interest in IRG-1. This important result opens a new avenue to the control of superconductivity by electrostatic means. The IRG-1 team’s theoretical approach combined first-principles and model calculations. Theoretical calculations were performed by IRG-1 student Amartyajyoti Saha. The theoretical analysis attributes the unique superconducting behavior of MoTe2 as a function of gating to an unconventional pairing state, thus shedding new light on the phenomenon of superconductivity in two-dimensional materials, of broad interest.
UMN Materials Research Science and Engineering Center
This multifaceted MRSEC enables important areas of future technology, ranging from applications of electrical control over materials to scale-invariant shape-filling amphiphile network self-assembly. It manages an extensive program in education and career development.