Properties and superconductivity in Ti-doped NiTe2 single crystals

TL;DR

This study explores the effects of titanium doping on NiTe2, revealing superconductivity near 4K and showing that Ti doping suppresses Dirac semimetal features, with pressure having minimal impact on superconductivity.

Contribution

It provides new insights into how Ti doping influences the superconducting and topological properties of NiTe2, a candidate for type-II Dirac semimetal.

Findings

NiTe2 exhibits superconductivity near 4K.

Ti doping suppresses Dirac cone features in NiTe2.

Applied pressure up to 1.3 GPa does not affect superconductivity.

Abstract

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) usually show simple structures, however, with interesting properties. Recently some TMDs have been pointed out as type-II Dirac semimetals. In the present work, we investigate the physical properties of a new candidate for type-II Dirac semimetal and investigate the effect of titanium doping on physical properties of Ti-doped single crystalline samples of NiTe2. It was found that this compound shows a superconducting properties with a critical temperature close to 4.0 K. Interestingly, applied pressures up to 1.3 GPa have no effect upon the superconducting state. Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculations demonstrate the presence of a Dirac cone in the band structure of NiTe2 literature when Spin-Orbit Coupling (SOC) is included, which is in agreement with a recent report for this compound. Also, our calculations demonstrate that Ti suppresses the formation of these non-trivial states.