Print Email Facebook Twitter On the origin of critical temperature enhancement in atomically thin superconductors Title On the origin of critical temperature enhancement in atomically thin superconductors Author Talantsev, E. F. (Victoria University of Wellington) Crump, W. P. (Victoria University of Wellington) Island, J.O. (TU Delft QN/van der Zant Lab; Kavli institute of nanoscience Delft; University of California) Xing, Ying (Peking University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter; China University of Petroleum - Beijing) Sun, Yi (Peking University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter) Wang, Jian (Peking University; Collaborative Innovation Center of Quantum Matter) Tallon, J. L. (Victoria University of Wellington; MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology) Date 2017 Abstract Recent experiments showed that thinning gallium, iron selenide and 2H tantalum disulfide to single/several monoatomic layer(s) enhances their superconducting critical temperatures. Here, we characterize these superconductors by extracting the absolute values of the London penetration depth, the superconducting energy gap, and the relative jump in specific heat at the transition temperature from their self-field critical currents. Our central finding is that the enhancement in transition temperature for these materials arises from the opening of an additional superconducting gap, while retaining a largely unchanged 'bulk' superconducting gap. Literature data reveals that ultrathin niobium films similarly develop a second superconducting gap. Based on the available data, it seems that, for type-II superconductors, a new superconducting band appears when the film thickness becomes smaller than the out-of-plane coherence length. The same mechanism may also be the cause of enhanced interface superconductivity. Subject Atomically-thin superconductorsCoherence lengthCritical currentsFeSeLondon penetration depthSuperconducting energy gapTransition metal dichalcogenides To reference this document use: http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:34658b9c-2a0f-410a-a9a7-6c373852164a DOI https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1583/aa6917 ISSN 2053-1583 Source 2D Materials, 4 (2) Part of collection Institutional Repository Document type journal article Rights © 2017 E. F. Talantsev, W. P. Crump, J.O. Island, Ying Xing, Yi Sun, Jian Wang, J. L. Tallon Files PDF Talantsev_2017_2D_Mater._ ... 025072.pdf 2.17 MB Close viewer /islandora/object/uuid:34658b9c-2a0f-410a-a9a7-6c373852164a/datastream/OBJ/view