Atomic-scale mapping of superconductivity in the incoherent CDW mosaic phase of a transition metal dichalcogenide

TL;DR

This study uses atomic-scale spectroscopy to explore how superconductivity emerges within the complex charge density wave mosaic phase of a transition metal dichalcogenide, revealing the localized nature of the superconducting states.

Contribution

It provides the first atomic-scale characterization of superconductivity in the CDW mosaic phase of 1T-TaSSe, linking electronic structure to superconducting behavior.

Findings

Superconductivity is mainly localized on CDW domains.

Domain walls are less involved in superconductivity.

Superconducting gap shows spatial inhomogeneity unrelated to domain walls.

Abstract

The emergence of superconductivity in the octahedrally coordinated (1T) phase of TaS2 is preceded by the intriguing loss of long-range order in the charge density wave (CDW). Such decoherence, attainable by different methods, results in the formation of nm-sized coherent CDW domains bound by a two-dimensional network of domain walls (DW) - mosaic phase -, which has been proposed as the spatial origin of the superconductivity. Here, we report the atomic-scale characterization of the superconducting state of 1T-TaSSe, a model 1T compound exhibiting the CDW mosaic phase. We use high-resolution scanning tunneling spectroscopy and Andreev spectroscopy to probe the microscopic nature of the superconducting state in unambiguous connection with the electronic structure of the mosaic phase. Spatially resolved conductance maps at the Fermi level at the onset of superconductivity reveal that the density of states is mostly localized on the CDW domains compared to the domain walls, which suggests their dominant role in the formation of superconductivity. This scenario is confirmed within the superconducting dome at 340 mK, where superconductivity is fully developed, and the subtle spatial inhomogeneity of the superconducting gap remains unlinked to the domain wall network. Our results provide key new insights into the fundamental interplay between superconductivity and CDW in these relevant strongly correlated systems.