Light induced non-volatile switching of superconductivity in single layer FeSe on SrTiO<sub>3</sub> substrate.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 30622274.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-018-08024-w and PMC identifier 6325130.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
The capability of controlling superconductivity by light is highly desirable for active quantum device applications. Since superconductors rarely exhibit strong photoresponses, and optically sensitive materials are often not superconducting, efficient coupling between these two characters can be very challenging in a single material. Here we show that, in FeSe/SrTiO<sub>3</sub> heterostructures, the superconducting transition temperature in FeSe monolayer can be effectively raised by the interband photoexcitations in the SrTiO<sub>3</sub> substrate. Attributed to a light induced metastable polar distortion uniquely enabled by the FeSe/SrTiO<sub>3</sub> interface, this effect only requires a less than 50 µW cm<sup>-2</sup> continuous-wave light field. The fast optical generation of superconducting zero resistance state is non-volatile but can be rapidly reversed by applying voltage pulses to the back of SrTiO<sub>3</sub> substrate. The capability of switching FeSe repeatedly and reliably between normal and superconducting states demonstrate the great potential of making energy-efficient quantum optoelectronics at designed correlated interfaces.