Observation of nearly identical superconducting transition temperatures in pressurized Weyl semimetal MIrTe4 (M=Nb and Ta)

TL;DR

This study reveals that under high pressure, the Weyl semimetal compounds NbIrTe4 and TaIrTe4 exhibit nearly identical superconducting transition temperatures and behaviors, indicating a universal link between their topological and superconducting states.

Contribution

It demonstrates that two different Weyl semimetals develop similar superconducting properties under pressure, highlighting a universal high-pressure behavior despite their different ambient topologies.

Findings

Superconductivity emerges around 27 GPa in both compounds.

Weyl semimetal and superconducting states coexist up to 40 GPa.

Both compounds show nearly identical Tc and normal state properties above 40 GPa.

Abstract

Here we report the observation of pressure-induced superconductivity in type-II Weyl semimetal (WSM) candidate NbIrTe4 and the evolution of its Hall coefficient (RH), magnetoresistance (MR), and lattice with increasing pressure to ~57 GPa. These results provide a significant opportunity to investigate the universal high-pressure behavior of ternary WSMs, including the sister compound TaIrTe4 that has been known through our previous studies. We find that the pressure-tuned evolution from the WSM to the superconducting (SC) state in these two compounds exhibit the same trend, i.e., a pressure-induced SC state emerges from the matrix of the non-superconducting WSM state at ~ 27 GPa, and then the WSM state and the SC state coexist up to 40 GPa. Above this pressure, an identical high-pressure behavior, characterized by almost the same value of RH and MR in its normal state and the same value of Tc in its SC state, appears in both compounds. Our results not only reveal a universal connection between the WSM state and SC state, but also demonstrate that NbIrTe4 and TaIrTe4 can make the same contribution to the normal and SC states that inhabit in the high-pressure phase, although these two compounds have dramatically different topological band structure at ambient pressure.