Momentum-resolved electronic structures and strong electronic correlations in graphene-like nitride superconductors

Abstract

Although transition-metal nitrides have been widely applied for several decades, experimental investigations of their high-resolution electronic band structures are rare due to the lack of high-quality single-crystalline samples. Here, we report on the first momentum-resolved electronic band structures of titanium nitride (TiN) films, a remarkable nitride superconductor. The measurements of crystal structures and electrical transport properties confirmed the high quality of these films. More importantly, with a combination of high-resolution angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy and the first-principles calculations, the extracted Coulomb interaction strength of TiN films can be as large as 8.5 eV, whereas resonant photoemission spectroscopy yields a value of 6.26 eV. These large values of Coulomb interaction strength indicate that superconducting TiN is a strongly correlated system. Our results uncover the unexpected electronic correlations in transition-metal nitrides, potentially providing a perspective not only to understand their emergent quantum states but also to develop their applications in quantum devices.

11 pages, 5 figures

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Cited by in corpus (3)

• High resistance of superconducting TiN thin films against environmental attacks
• Resilient Growth of Highly Crystalline Topological Insulator-Superconductor Heterostructure Enabled by Ex-situ Nitride Film
• Interface-Enhanced Superconductivity in Ultrathin TiN Proximitized by Topological Insulators