Modulation of superconducting properties by the charge density wave at the surface of 2H-NbSe2

TL;DR

This study uses scanning tunneling microscopy to explore how charge density waves influence superconductivity in 2H-NbSe2, revealing complex gap structures and surface symmetry effects that impact quasiparticle behavior.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the surface-specific interplay between charge density waves and superconductivity, highlighting the role of broken inversion symmetry and spin-orbit coupling.

Findings

Superconducting gap exhibits anisotropic structures on multiple Fermi surfaces.

Spectral weight modulation aligns with CDW periodicity but not with its extrema.

Broken in-plane inversion symmetry influences quasiparticle distribution.

Abstract

To investigate the interplay between charge density wave (CDW) and superconductivity, we performed ultralow-temperature spectroscopic-imaging scanning tunneling microscopy on the cleaved surface of the layered superconductor 2H-NbSe2. We found that the superconducting-gap spectrum exhibits intricate structures reflecting the anisotropic gaps opening on multiple Fermi surfaces. Notably, none of the characteristic energy scales apparent in the spectral gap show appreciable spatial variations, suggesting that the finite-momentum pairing is negligible. Instead, the spectral weight near the coherence peak is modulated with the same periodicity as the CDW. The maximum position of the coherence-peak-weight modulation coincides with neither the peak nor the bottom of the CDW modulation; rather, it aligns with the center of one of the two inequivalent triangular plaquettes that comprise the CDW unit cell. This distribution pattern of Bogoliubov quasiparticles directly results from the broken in-plane inversion symmetry at the surface of 2H-NbSe2, which may activate Ising spin-orbit coupling.