Two bands Ising superconductivity from Coulomb interactions in monolayer NbSe$_2$

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the two-band nature of superconductivity in monolayer NbSe2, driven by Coulomb interactions and Ising spin-orbit coupling, resulting in distinct mixed s-wave and f-wave gaps consistent with experiments.

Contribution

It reveals the microscopic origin of two-band superconductivity in NbSe2 from Coulomb interactions and spin-orbit effects using a multiband BCS model.

Findings

Identification of two distinct superconducting gaps with mixed s- and f-wave symmetry.

Universal temperature dependence of gaps and critical in-plane field.

Consistency of theoretical results with experimental data.

Abstract

The nature of superconductivity in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides is still an object of debate. It has already been argued that repulsive Coulomb interactions, combined with the disjoint Fermi surfaces around the $K$, $K'$ valleys and at the $\Gamma$ point, can lead to superconducting instabilities in monolayer NbSe$_2$. Here, we demonstrate the two bands nature of superconductivity in NbSe$_2$. It arises from the competition of repulsive long range intravalley and short range intervalley interactions together with Ising spin-orbit coupling. The two distinct superconducting gaps, one for each spin-orbit split band, consist of a mixture of s-wave and f-wave components. Their different amplitudes are due to different normal densities of states of the two bands at the Fermi level. Using a microscopic multiband BCS approach, we derive and self-consistently solve the gap equation, demonstrating the stability of nontrivial solutions in a realistic parameter range. We find a universal behavior of the temperature dependence of the gaps and of the critical in-plane field which is consistent with various sets of existing experimental data.