School of Physics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Department of Applied Physics, Key Laboratory of Quantum Precision Measurement of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China.
Nature. 2024 Aug;632(8027):1032-1037. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07761-x. Epub 2024 Aug 28.
Superconductivity in a highly correlated kagome system has been theoretically proposed for years (refs. ), yet the experimental realization is hard to achieve. The recently discovered vanadium-based kagome materials, which exhibit both superconductivity and charge-density-wave orders, are nonmagnetic and weakly correlated. Thus these materials are unlikely to host the exotic superconductivity theoretically proposed. Here we report the discovery of a chromium-based kagome metal, CsCrSb, which is contrastingly featured with strong electron correlations, frustrated magnetism and characteristic flat bands close to the Fermi level. Under ambient pressure, this kagome metal undergoes a concurrent structural and magnetic phase transition at 55 K, with a stripe-like 4a structural modulation. At high pressure, the phase transition evolves into two transitions, possibly associated with charge-density-wave and antiferromagnetic spin-density-wave orderings. These density-wave-like orders are gradually suppressed with pressure and, remarkably, a superconducting dome emerges at 3.65-8.0 GPa. The maximum of the superconducting transition temperature, T = 6.4 K, appears when the density-wave-like orders are completely suppressed at 4.2 GPa, and the normal state exhibits a non-Fermi-liquid behaviour, reminiscent of unconventional superconductivity and quantum criticality in iron-based superconductors. Our work offers an unprecedented platform for investigating superconductivity in correlated kagome systems.
多年来,人们一直在理论上提出在高度关联的 kagome 体系中实现超导的可能性(参考文献),但实验上很难实现。最近发现的基于钒的 kagome 材料同时表现出超导性和电荷密度波有序性,但它们是非磁性的且关联较弱。因此,这些材料不太可能具有理论上提出的奇异超导性。在这里,我们报告了一种基于铬的 kagome 金属 CsCrSb 的发现,该金属具有强烈的电子关联、受挫的磁性和特征性的近费米能级平坦能带。在常压下,这种 kagome 金属在 55 K 时经历了结构和磁相变,伴随着条状的 4a 结构调制。在高压下,相变演变为两个相变,可能与电荷密度波和反铁磁自旋密度波有序有关。这些密度波状有序随着压力逐渐被抑制,令人惊讶的是,在 3.65-8.0 GPa 时出现了超导穹顶。当在 4.2 GPa 时完全抑制了密度波有序时,超导转变温度 T=6.4 K 的最大值出现,正常态表现出非费米液体行为,这让人联想到铁基超导体中的非常规超导和量子临界点。我们的工作为研究关联 kagome 系统中的超导性提供了一个前所未有的平台。