Surface superconductivity in the Weyl semimetal MoTe2 detected by point contact spectroscopy

TL;DR

This study reveals surface superconductivity in MoTe2 with a higher critical temperature than the bulk, characterized by point contact spectroscopy, suggesting potential topological superconductivity.

Contribution

Demonstrates the existence of surface superconductivity in MoTe2 at ambient pressure with a higher Tc, using point contact spectroscopy to analyze its properties.

Findings

Surface superconductivity with Tc up to 5 K detected.

Superconducting gap slightly exceeds BCS value, indicating strong coupling.

Possible topological superconducting state suggested by gap features.

Abstract

MoTe2 is a Weyl semimetal, which exhibits unique non-saturating magnetoresistance and strongly reinforced superconductivity under pressure. Here, we demonstrate that a novel mesoscopic superconductivity at ambient pressure arises on the surface of MoTe2 with a critical temperature up to 5 K significantly exceeding the bulk Tc=0.1K. We measured the derivatives of I-V curves for metallic hetero-contacts of MoTe2 with Ag or Cu, homo-contacts of MoTe2 as well as "soft" point contacts (PCs). Large number of these hetero-contacts exhibit a dV/dI dependence, which is characteristic for Andreev reflection. It allows to determine the superconducting gap \Delta. The average gap values are 2\Delta=1.30+/-0.15 meV with a 2\Delta/kBTc ratio of 3.7+/-0.4, which slightly exceeds the standard BCS value of 3.52. Furthermore, the temperature dependence of the gap follows a BCS-like behavior, which points to a nodeless superconducting order parameter with some strong-coupling renormalization. Remarkably, the observation of a "gapless-like" single minimum in the dV/dI of "soft" PCs may indicate a topological superconducting state of the MoTe2 surface as these contacts probe mainly the interface and avoid additional pressure effect. Therefore, MoTe2 might be a suitable material to study new forms of topological superconductivity.