Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition in the type-I Weyl semimetal PtBi${}_2$

Abstract

Symmetry breaking in topological matter has become in recent years a key concept in condensed matter physics to unveil novel electronic states. In this work, we predict that broken inversion symmetry and strong spin-orbit coupling in trigonal PtBi${}_2$ lead to a type-I Weyl semimetal band structure. Transport measurements show an unusually robust low dimensional superconductivity in thin exfoliated flakes up to 126 nm in thickness (with $T_c\sim 275-400$~mK), which constitutes the first report and study of unambiguous superconductivity in a type-I Weyl semimetal. Remarkably, a Berezinskii-Kosterlitz-Thouless transition with $T_{\text{BKT}}\sim 310$~mK is revealed in up to 60 nm thick flakes, which is nearly an order of magnitude thicker than the rare examples of two-dimensional superconductors exhibiting such a transition. This makes PtBi${}_2$ an ideal platform to study low dimensional and unconventional superconductivity in topological semimetals.

to be published in Nano Letters

References in corpus (4)

• Evidence of Andreev bound states as a hallmark of the FFLO phase in $\kappa$-(BEDT-TTF)${}_2$Cu(NCS)${}_2$
• Time-reversal invariant topological superconductivity in doped Weyl semimetals
• Rashba-like spin splitting along three momentum directions in trigonal layered PtBi2
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Cited by in corpus (23)

• Superconducting Arcs
• Two-dimensional Topological Ferroelectric Metal with Giant Shift Current
• Surface superconductivity in the topological Weyl semimetal t-PtBi${}_2$
• Electronic structure of the surface superconducting Weyl semimetal PtBi${}_2$
• Intrinsic surface superconducting instability in Type-I Weyl Semimetals
• Enhanced weak superconductivity in trigonal $\gamma$-PtBi${}_2$
• Chiral Meissner effect in time-reversal invariant Weyl superconductors
• Superconductivity in Two-Dimensional Systems with Unconventional Rashba Bands
• Superconductivity and a van Hove singularity confined to the surface of a topological semimetal
• Self-consistent surface superconductivity in time-reversal symmetric Weyl semimetals
• Phonon-mediated intrinsic topological superconductivity in Fermi arcs
• Topological nodal $i$-wave superconductivity in PtBi${}_2$
• Electron dynamics in a three-dimensional Brillouin zone analysed by machine learning
• Ultrafast carrier dynamics throughout the three-dimensional Brillouin zone of the Weyl semimetal PtBi${}_2$
• Ginzburg-Landau theory for unconventional surface superconductivity in PtBi${}_2$
• Investigation on high-order planar Hall effect in trigonal PtBi${}_2$
• Dissipationless transport signature of topological nodal lines
• Interplay between inversion and translation symmetries in trigonal PtBi${}_2$
• Atomic Visualization of Bulk and Surface Superconductivity in Weyl Semimetal γ-PtBi2
• Gapless Topological Peierls-like instabilities in more than one dimension
• Higher-order topological superconductivity in type-II time-reversal-symmetric Weyl semimetals with a hybrid pairing
• Beyond spin-1/2: Multipolar spin-orbit coupling in noncentrosymmetric crystals with time-reversal symmetry
• Mechanism for Nodal Topological Superconductivity on PtBi${}_2$ Surface