Coexistence of Quasi-two-dimensional Superconductivity and Tunable Kondo Lattice in a van der Waals Superconductor

Abstract

Realization of Kondo lattice in superconducting van der Waals materials not only provides a unique opportunity for tuning the Kondo lattice behavior by electrical gating or intercalation, but also is helpful for further understanding the heavy fermion superconductivity. Here we report a low-temperature and vector-magnetic-field scanning tunneling microscopy and spectroscopy study on a superconducting compound (4Hb-TaS2) with alternate stacking of 1T-TaS2 and 1H-TaS2 layers. We observe the quasi-two-dimensional superconductivity in the 1H-TaS2 layer with anisotropic response to the in-plane and out-of-plane magnetic fields. In the 1T-TaS2 layer, we detect the Kondo resonance peak that results from the Kondo screening of the unpaired electrons in the Star-of-David clusters. We also find the intensity of the Kondo resonance peak is sensitive to its relative position with the Fermi level, and it can be significantly enhanced when it's further shifted towards the Fermi level by evaporating Pb atoms onto the 1T-TaS2 surface. Our results are not only important for fully understanding the electronic properties of 4Hb-TaS2, but also pave the way for creating tunable Kondo lattice in the superconducting van der Waals materials.

10 pages, 4 figures + Supplementary Materials

References in corpus (8)

• Heavy Fermions and Quantum Phase Transitions
• Observation of broken time-reversal symmetry in the heavy fermion superconductor UPt${}_3$
• Visualization of Topological Boundary Modes Manifesting Topological Nodal-Point Superconductivity
• Monolayer 1T-NbSe2 as a 2D correlated magnetic insulator
• Additional energy scale in SmB${}_6$ at low temperature
• Roles of the Narrow Electronic Band near the Fermi Level in 1T-TaS${}_2$-Related Layered Materials
• Inducing and tuning Kondo screening in a narrow-electronic-band system
• Robust Gapless Superconductivity in 4Hb-TaS${}_2$

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Pressure induced nonmonotonic evolution of superconductivity in 6R-TaS2 with a natural bulk van der Waals heterostructure
• Fermi Surface Nesting with Heavy Quasiparticles in the Locally Noncentrosymmetric Superconductor CeRh${}_2$As${}_2$
• Nematic Ising superconductivity with hidden magnetism in few-layer 6R-TaS2
• High-Tc superconducting dome in artificial heterostructures made of nanoscale quantum building blocks
• A mechanism for $\pi$ phase shifts in Little-Parks experiments: application to 4Hb-TaS${}_2$ and to 2H-TaS${}_2$ intercalated with chiral molecules
• A revisit of superconductivity in 4$H_b$-TaS${}_{2-2x}$Se${}_{2x}$ single crystals
• Is spontaneous vortex generation in superconducting 4Hb-TaS${}_2$ from vison-vortex nucleation with ${\mathbb{Z}}_2$ topological order?
• Charge Density Waves in the 2.5-Dimensional Quantum Heterostructure
• Nanoscale Modulation of Flat Bands via Controllable Charge-Density-Waves Defects in 4Hb-TaS2