Ferroelectric Hysteresis in Superconducting Bilayer Td-MoTe2

Abstract

Recently, the displacement-field-driven hysteretic switching of superconductivity was reported in ferroelectric bilayer T${}_{\text{d}}$-MoTe${}_2$. Such direct coupling between ferroelectricity and superconductivity offers promising pathways for low-power, non-volatile memory devices, but the underlying coupling mechanism remains poorly understood. Here, we demonstrate that the ferroelectric switching of superconductivity can naturally originate from an intralayer, $p$-$d$ orbital pairing. In bilayer T${}_{\text{d}}$-MoTe${}_2$, the ferroelectric polarization segregates the $p$ and $d$ orbital electrons into distinct layers, thereby suppressing the intralayer, $p$-$d$ orbital pairing. By developing a phenomenological Landau-Ginzburg model, we establish that the hysteretic switching of superconductivity requires $P_{\text{r}}<P_{\text{c}}<P_{\text{s}}$, where $P_{\text{c}}$ is the critical pair-breaking polarization and $P_{\text{r}}$ ($P_{\text{s}}$) is the remanent (saturated) polarization. Crucially, our scenario of intralayer, $p$-$d$ orbital pairing indicates that the bilayer T${}_{\text{d}}$-MoTe${}_2$ features an anisotropic momentum-dependent pairing gap and can transition into a pair density wave by tuning the chemical potential, which provides clear pathways for experimental verification.

arXiv comment7 pages, 4 figures. Comments are welcome