Exploring High Transition Temperature Superconductivity in a Freestanding or SrTiO3-Supported CoSb Monolayer

Abstract

As a two-dimensional entity, FeSe has been widely explored to harbor high transition temperature (high-Tc) superconductivity in diverse physical settings; yet to date, the underlying superconducting mechanisms are still under active debate. Here we use first-principles approaches to identify a chemically different yet structurally identical counterpart of FeSe, namely, monolayered CoSb, which is shown to be an attractive candidate to harbor high-Tc superconductivity as well. We first show that a freestanding CoSb monolayer can adopt the FeSe-like layered structure, even though its known bulk phase has no resemblance to layering. Next, we demonstrate that such a CoSb monolayer possesses superconducting properties comparable with or superior to FeSe, a striking finding that can be attributed to the isovalency nature of the two systems. More importantly, the layered CoSb structure can be stabilized on SrTiO3(001), offering appealing alternative platforms for realizing high-Tc superconductivity beyond the well-established Cu- and Fe-based superconducting families. CoSb/SrTiO3(001) also exhibits distinctly different magnetic properties from FeSe/SrTiO3(001), which should provide a crucial new angle to elucidate the microscopic mechanisms of superconductivity in these and related systems.

Source-reported materials — not catalogue approval

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