Superconductivity emerging from a pressurized van der Waals kagome material Pd₃P₂S₈

Abstract

Kagome materials have been reported to possess abundant and peculiar physical properties, which provide an excellent platform to explore exotic quantum states. We present a discovery of superconductivity in van der Waals material Pd3P2S8 composed of Pd kagome lattice under pressure. Pd3P2S8 displays superconductivity for those pressures where the semiconducting-like temperature dependence of the resistivity turns into a metallic one. Moreover, it is found that the increased pressure results in a gradual enhancement of superconducting transition temperature, which finally reaches 6.83 K at 79.5 GPa. Combining high-pressure x-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and theoretical calculations, our results demonstrate that the observed superconductivity induced by high pressure in Pd3P2S8 is closely related to the formation of amorphous phase, which results from the structural instability due to the enhanced coupling between interlayer Pd and S atoms upon compression.

Superconductivity and phase transitions in Kagome compound Pd3P2S8 from first-principles calculation

“…The C2/m-1 structure is superconducting with T c increasing up to 5.30 K at 60 GPa. The T c results are consistent with the previous report (6.83 K at 79.5 GPa) [26]. Finally, the P3m1-2 structure is superconducting throughout the entire pressure range up to 80 GPa, with a T c of approximately 1.8 K at all pressures.…”

“…The maximum T c values reached are 9.13 K for P3m1-1 at 80 GPa and 5.30 K for C2/m-1 at 60 GPa. Meanwhile, the P3m1-2 phase remains superconducting with a relatively stable T c throughout the 0-80 GPa pressure range [26]. These findings provide a new pathway and platform for exploring superconductivity in materials with Kagome lattices, and offer additional options for studying this lattice structure.…”

“…Recently, the observation of superconductivity in a Kagome single-crystal Pd 3 P 2 S 8 was reported, with a semiconducting-to-metallic transition is driven by pressure [25]. And the increased pressure results in a gradual enhancement of superconducting transition temperature, which finally reaches 6.83 K at 79.5 GPa [26]. The current literature provides insufficient discussion and analysis of the symmetries of the investigated structures and their associated phase transitions, leaving an incomplete understanding of the relevant properties and their effects on superconductivity.…”

Superconductivity in kagome metal ThRu3Si2

“…Recently, compounds with kagome lattice have attracted lots of attentions for the unique electronic structure and magnetic frustration, [1,2] which provides an exciting platform to study rich quantum physics, such as quantum spin liquid, [3][4][5][6] nontrivial band topology [7][8][9] and superconductivity (SC). [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] One of the most exotic features in the electronic structure of the kagome lattice is the flat band with little dispersion in k space, which results from the destructive interference of electron wave functions. The localization of electrons near the Fermi level (E F ) on the flat band is expected to bring high density of electronic states and possible strong electronic correlation.…”

Crystal structure, properties and pressure-induced insulator-metal transition in layered kagome chalcogenides

“…With such rich and intriguing quantum phases, kagome material stands out as a fertile platform to study the interplay between lattice geometry, band topology, magnetism and correlation degrees of freedom. Over the past years, various materials with transition-metal kagome lattice have been extensively investigated, including copper-based kagome ZnCu 3 (OH)Cl 2 [11], manganese-based kagome REMn 6 Sn 6 (RE = rare-earth elements) [12,13], cobalt-based kagome Co 3 Sn 2 S 2 and CoSn [6,14,15], iron-based kagome Fe 3 Sn 2 , FeSn and FeGe [16][17][18][19][20][21], yet there still are less noticed palladium-based kagome Pd 3 P 2 S 8 [22,23] and chromium-based kagome YCr 6 Ge 6 [24]. Recently, the layered titanium/vanadium-based kagome metal AM 3 X 5 (A = K, Rb, Cs; M = Ti, V; X = Sb, Bi) has attracted lots of attention [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38].…”