Phonon-enhanced superconductivity at the FeSe/SrTiO3 interface

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that electron-phonon interactions at the FeSe/SrTiO3 interface significantly enhance superconductivity, revealing a key mechanism behind its high transition temperature and guiding future superconductor development.

Contribution

It provides experimental evidence that electron-phonon coupling with substrate oxygen phonons enhances Tc in FeSe/SrTiO3, clarifying the mechanism behind its high superconductivity.

Findings

Electrons in FeSe couple with substrate oxygen phonons.

Superconductivity increases linearly with electron-phonon coupling.

Electron-phonon forward scattering plays a critical role.

Abstract

The dream of room temperature superconductors has inspired intense research effort to find routes for enhancing the superconducting transition temperature (Tc). Therefore, single-layer FeSe on a SrTiO3 substrate, with its extraordinarily high Tc amongst all interfacial superconductors and iron based superconductors, is particularly interesting, but the mechanism underlying its high Tc has remained mysterious. Here we show through isotope effects that electrons in FeSe couple with the oxygen phonons in the substrate, and the superconductivity is enhanced linearly with the coupling strength atop the intrinsic superconductivity of heavily-electron-doped FeSe. Our observations solve the enigma of FeSe/SrTiO3, and experimentally establish the critical role and unique behavior of electron-phonon forward scattering in a correlated high-Tc superconductor. The effective cooperation between interlayer electron-phonon interactions and correlations suggests a path forward in developing more high-Tc interfacial superconductors, and may shed light on understanding the high Tc of bulk high temperature superconductors with layered structures.