Tunable superconductivity and its origin at KTaO3 interfaces

Changjiang Liu (), Xianjing Zhou, Deshun Hong, Brandon Fisher, Hong Zheng, John Pearson, Jidong Samuel Jiang, Dafei Jin, Michael R. Norman () and Anand Bhattacharya ()
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Changjiang Liu: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
Xianjing Zhou: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
Deshun Hong: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
Brandon Fisher: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
Hong Zheng: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
John Pearson: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
Jidong Samuel Jiang: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
Dafei Jin: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory
Michael R. Norman: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory
Anand Bhattacharya: Materials Science Division, Argonne National Laboratory

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract What causes Cooper pairs to form in unconventional superconductors is often elusive because experimental signatures that connect to a specific pairing mechanism are rare. Here, we observe distinct dependences of the superconducting transition temperature Tc on carrier density n2D for electron gases formed at KTaO3 (111), (001) and (110) interfaces. For the (111) interface, a remarkable linear dependence of Tc on n2D is observed over a range of nearly one order of magnitude. Further, our study of the dependence of superconductivity on gate electric fields reveals the role of the interface in mediating superconductivity. We find that the extreme sensitivity of superconductivity to crystallographic orientation can be explained by pairing via inter-orbital interactions induced by an inversion-breaking transverse optical phonon and quantum confinement. This mechanism is also consistent with the dependence of Tc on n2D. Our study may shed light on the pairing mechanism in other superconducting quantum paraelectrics.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-36309-2

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