Pressure-induced superconductivity and structure phase transition in Pt2HgSe3

• Published in: npj quantum materials Vol. 6; no. 1; pp. 1 - 8
• Main Authors: Pei, Cuiying, Jin, Suhua, Huang, Peihao, Vymazalova, Anna, Gao, Lingling, Zhao, Yi, Cao, Weizheng, Li, Changhua, Nemes-Incze, Peter, Chen, Yulin, Liu, Hanyu, Li, Gang, Qi, Yanpeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 06-12-2021; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 639/301/119/2792/4128; 639/766/119/1003; Condensed Matter Physics; Electron states; High pressure; Phase transitions; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Quantum Physics; Structural Materials; Superconductivity; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films; Topological insulators; Topology; Transition temperature
• ISSN: 2397-4648; 2397-4648
• DOI: 10.1038/s41535-021-00402-w

Recently monolayer jacutingaite (Pt
2
HgSe
3
), a naturally occurring exfoliable mineral, discovered in Brazil in 2008, has been theoretically predicted as a candidate quantum spin Hall system with a 0.5 eV band gap, while the bulk form is one of only a few known dual-topological insulators that may host different surface states protected by symmetries. In this work, we systematically investigate both structure and electronic evolution of bulk Pt
2
HgSe
3
under high pressure up to 96 GPa. The nontrivial topology is theoretically stable, and persists up to the structural phase transition observed in the high-pressure regime. Interestingly, we found that this phase transition is accompanied by the appearance of superconductivity at around 55 GPa and the critical transition temperature
T
c
increases with applied pressure. Our results demonstrate that Pt
2
HgSe
3
with nontrivial topology of electronic states displays a ground state upon compression and raises potentials in application to the next-generation spintronic devices.