Alkali-fulleride superconductors with a maximum critical temperature Tc 40 K exhibit similar electronic phase diagram with unconventional high-Tc superconductors [1][2][3][4][5] where the superconductivity resides proximate to a magnetic Mott-insulating state 3-6 . However, distinct from cuprate compounds, which superconduct through two-dimensional (2D) CuO2 planes 7 , alkali fullerides are attributed to the three-dimensional (3D) members of high-Tc family 8,9 . Here, we employ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to show that trilayer K3C60 displays fully gapped strong coupling s-wave superconductivity that coexists spatially with a cuprate-like pseudogap state above Tc 22 K and within vortices. A precise control of electronic correlations and doping reveals that superconductivity occurs near a superconductor-Mott insulator transition (SMIT) and reaches maximum at half-filling. The s-wave symmetry retains over the entire phase diagram, which, in conjunction with an abrupt decline of superconductivity below half-filling, demonstrates that alkali fullerides are predominantly phonon-mediated superconductors, although the multiorbital electronic correlations also come into play.
Identifying the essence of doped Mott insulators is one of the major outstanding problems in condensed matter physics and the key to understanding the high-temperature superconductivity in cuprates. We report real space visualization of Mott transition in Sr1-xLaxCuO2+y cuprate films that cover the entire electron-and hole-doped regimes. Tunneling conductance measurements directly on the cooper-oxide (CuO2) planes reveal a systematic shift in the Fermi level, while the fundamental Mott-Hubbard band structure remains unchanged. This is further demonstrated by exploring atomic-scale electronic response of CuO2 to substitutional dopants and intrinsic defects in a sister compound Sr0.92Nd0.08CuO2.The results could be better explained in the framework of self-modulation doping, similar to that in semiconductor heterostructures, and form a basis for developing any microscopic theories for cuprate superconductivity.
We report on the direct observation of interface superconductivity in single-unit-cell SnSe2 films grown on graphitized SiC(0001) substrate by means of van der Waals epitaxy. Tunneling spectrum in the superconducting state reveals rather conventional character with a fully gapped order parameter. The occurrence of superconductivity is further confirmed by the presence of vortices under external magnetic field. Through interface engineering, we unravel the mechanism of superconductivity that originates from a two-dimensional electron gas formed at the interface of SnSe2 and graphene. Our finding opens up novel strategies to hunt for and understand interface superconductivity based on van der Waals heterostructures.
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