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All-electronic Nanosecond-resolved Scanning Tunneling Microscopy: Facilitating the Investigation of Single Dopant Charge Dynamics

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Superconductivity in a Hole-Doped Mott-Insulating Triangular Adatom Layer on a Silicon Surface.

Xuefeng Wu¹, Fangfei Ming², Tyler S Smith³

¹Department of Physics, Southern University of Science and Technology, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, China.

Physical Review Letters

|September 25, 2020

Summary

Superconductivity was discovered in a two-dimensional triangular lattice of tin (Sn) atoms on silicon (Si). This novel finding in a Mott insulator system opens new avenues for exploring unconventional superconductivity in low-dimensional materials.

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Area of Science:

Surface Science
Condensed Matter Physics
Materials Science

Background:

A two-dimensional triangular lattice of tin (Sn) adatoms on a silicon (Si) substrate forms a Mott insulator with unpaired electrons.
Modulation doping of this system with heavily doped p-type Si(111) substrates can induce metallicity.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the superconducting properties of hole-doped Sn adatom layers on degenerately doped p-type Si(111).
To explore the nature of superconductivity in this dilute, two-dimensional system.

Main Methods:

Fabrication of a two-dimensional triangular adatom lattice of Sn on Si(111).
Hole doping using degenerately doped p-type Si(111) substrates.
Measurement of superconducting critical temperature (Tc).

Main Results:

The hole-doped Sn adatom layer exhibits superconductivity with a critical temperature of 4.7±0.3 K.
The observed superconductivity occurs in a system with Mott correlations.

Conclusions:

The discovered superconductivity in the Sn/Si(111) system, a Mott insulator, suggests potentially unconventional pairing mechanisms.
While phonon-mediated coupling is plausible, Mott correlations may influence the s-wave pairing channel, indicating a departure from conventional BCS theory.