Transport evidence of asymmetric spin-orbit coupling in few-layer superconducting 1T<sub>d</sub>-MoTe<sub>2</sub>.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 31053717.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-09995-0 and PMC identifier 6499809.
- 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
Two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides MX<sub>2</sub> (M = W, Mo, Nb, and X = Te, Se, S) with strong spin-orbit coupling possess plenty of novel physics including superconductivity. Due to the Ising spin-orbit coupling, monolayer NbSe<sub>2</sub> and gated MoS<sub>2</sub> of 2H structure can realize the Ising superconductivity, which manifests itself with in-plane upper critical field far exceeding Pauli paramagnetic limit. Surprisingly, we find that a few-layer 1T<sub>d</sub> structure MoTe<sub>2</sub> also exhibits an in-plane upper critical field which goes beyond the Pauli paramagnetic limit. Importantly, the in-plane upper critical field shows an emergent two-fold symmetry which is different from the isotropic in-plane upper critical field in 2H transition metal dichalcogenides. We show that this is a result of an asymmetric spin-orbit coupling in 1T<sub>d</sub> transition metal dichalcogenides. Our work provides transport evidence of a new type of asymmetric spin-orbit coupling in transition metal dichalcogenides which may give rise to novel superconducting and spin transport properties.