Topological Quantum Phase Transition and Superconductivity Induced by Pressure in the Bismuth Tellurohalide BiTeI

Qi Y, Shi W, Naumov PG, Kumar N, Sankar R, Schnelle W, Shekhar C, Chou FC, Felser C, Yan B, Medvedev SA (2017)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Journal

Advanced Materials Wiley

Book Volume: 29

Article Number: 1605965

Journal Issue: 18

DOI: 10.1002/adma.201605965

Abstract

A pressure-induced topological quantum phase transition has been theoretically predicted for the semiconductor bismuth tellurohalide BiTeI with giant Rashba spin splitting. In this work, evolution of the electrical transport properties in BiTeI and BiTeBr is investigated under high pressure. The pressure-dependent resistivity in a wide temperature range passes through a minimum at around 3 GPa, indicating the predicted topological quantum phase transition in BiTeI. Superconductivity is observed in both BiTeI and BiTeBr, while resistivity at higher temperatures still exhibits semiconducting behavior. Theoretical calculations suggest that superconductivity may develop from the multivalley semiconductor phase. The superconducting transition temperature, Tc, increases with applied pressure and reaches a maximum value of 5.2 K at 23.5 GPa for BiTeI (4.8 K at 31.7 GPa for BiTeBr), followed by a slow decrease. The results demonstrate that BiTeX (X = I, Br) compounds with nontrivial topology of electronic states display new ground states upon compression.

Involved external institutions

Max-Planck-Institut für Chemische Physik fester Stoffe (MPI CPfS) / Max Planck Institute for Chemical Physics of Solids DE Germany (DE) National Taiwan University (NTU) TW Taiwan (TW) Academia Sinica / 中央研究院 TW Taiwan (TW)

How to cite

APA:

Qi, Y., Shi, W., Naumov, P.G., Kumar, N., Sankar, R., Schnelle, W.,... Medvedev, S.A. (2017). Topological Quantum Phase Transition and Superconductivity Induced by Pressure in the Bismuth Tellurohalide BiTeI. Advanced Materials, 29(18). https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.201605965

MLA:

Qi, Yanpeng, et al. "Topological Quantum Phase Transition and Superconductivity Induced by Pressure in the Bismuth Tellurohalide BiTeI." Advanced Materials 29.18 (2017).

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