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Josephson coupled Ising pairing induced in suspended MoS2 bilayers by double-side ionic gating

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 16 December 2019

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Abstract

Superconductivity in monolayer transition metal dichalcogenides is characterized by Ising-type pairing induced via a strong Zeeman-type spin–orbit coupling. When two transition metal dichalcogenides layers are coupled, more exotic superconducting phases emerge, which depend on the ratio of Ising-type protection and interlayer coupling strength. Here, we induce superconductivity in suspended MoS2 bilayers and unveil a coupled superconducting state with strong Ising-type spin–orbit coupling. Gating the bilayer symmetrically from both sides by ionic liquid gating varies the interlayer interaction and accesses electronic states with broken local inversion symmetry while maintaining the global inversion symmetry. We observe a strong suppression of the Ising protection that evidences a coupled superconducting state. The symmetric gating scheme not only induces superconductivity in both atomic sheets but also controls the Josephson coupling between the layers, which gives rise to a dimensional crossover in the bilayer.

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Fig. 1: Crystal and device structure of suspended MoS2 bilayer.
Fig. 2: Superconducting phase diagram.
Fig. 3: Upper critical field measurements for single- and double-side gating on a bilayer MoS2.
Fig. 4: The IV mapping of the double-side gated bilayer MoS2.
Fig. 5: The interplay between SOC and interlayer interaction in superconductors with large in-plane Bc2.

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Data availability

The data that support the plots within this paper and other findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Change history

  • 16 December 2019

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

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Acknowledgements

J.T.Y. acknowledges funding from the European Research Council (consolidator grant no. 648855, Ig-QPD). We acknowledge D.-H. Xu for a fruitful discussion on the KLB model.

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O.Z., J.M.L. and J.T.Y. designed the experiment. O.Z. and J.M.L. fabricated the device and performed the measurements. O.Z., J.M.L., Q.H.C., A.A.E.Y., S.G. and J.T.Y analysed and discussed the data. O.Z. and J.T.Y. wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to J. T. Ye.

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Supplementary Figs. 1–6, Tables 1–4 and refs. 1–11.

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Zheliuk, O., Lu, J.M., Chen, Q.H. et al. Josephson coupled Ising pairing induced in suspended MoS2 bilayers by double-side ionic gating. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 1123–1128 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0564-1

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