Doping-induced superconductivity in the van der Waals superatomic crystal Re${}_6$Se${}_8$Cl${}_2$

Abstract

Superatomic crystals are composed of discrete modular clusters that emulate the role of atoms in traditional atomic solids${}^{1-4}$. Owing to their unique hierarchical structures, these materials are promising candidates to host exotic phenomena, such as superconductivity and magnetism that can be revealed through doping${}^{5-10}$. Low-dimensional superatomic crystals hold great promise as electronic components${}^{11,12}$, enabling these properties to be applied to nanocircuits, but the impact of doping in such compounds remains unexplored. Here we report the electrical transport properties of Re${}_6$Se${}_8$Cl${}_2$, a two-dimensional superatomic semiconductor${}^{13,14}$. Using an in situ current annealing technique, we find that this compound can be n-doped through Cl dissociation, drastically altering the transport behaviour from semiconducting to metallic and giving rise to superconductivity below $\sim$ 9 K. This work is the first example of superconductivity in a van der Waals (vdW) superatomic crystal; more broadly, it establishes a new chemical strategy to manipulate the electronic properties of vdW materials with labile ligands.

References in corpus (8)

• Electric Field Effect in Atomically Thin Carbon Films
• Van der Waals heterostructures
• 2D materials and van der Waals heterostructures
• Tuning superconductivity in twisted bilayer graphene
• Superconductivity in Weyl Semimetal Candidate MoTe2
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Cited by in corpus (4)

• Layered Antiferromagnetism Induces Large Negative Magnetoresistance in the van der Waals Semiconductor CrSBr
• Room temperature wavelike exciton transport in a van der Waals superatomic semiconductor
• Two-dimensional non-van der Waals niobium nitride nanosheets with high-temperature two-gap superconductivity
• Sn${}_{0.06}$Cr${}_3$Te${}_4$: A Skyrmion Superconductor