Giant enhancement of superconductivity in few layers MoTe2

Recently, the layered transition metal dichalcogenide 1 T MoTe2 has attracted considerable attention due to its non-saturating magnetoresistance, type-II Weyl semimetal properties, superconductivity, and potential candidate for twodimensional（2 D） topological insulator in the single-and few-layer limit. Here in this work, we perform systematic transport measurements on thin flakes of MoTe2 prepared by mechanical exfoliation. We find that MoTe2 flakes are superconducting and have an onset superconducting transition temperature Tc up to 5.3 K, which significantly exceeds that of its bulk counterpart. The in-plane upper critical field(Hc2||) is much higher than the Pauli paramagnetic limit, implying that the MoTe2 flakes have Zeeman-protected Ising superconductivity. Furthermore, the Tc and Hc2|| can be tuned by up to 320 mK and 400 mT by applying a gate voltage. Our result indicates that MoTe2 flake is a good candidate for studying exotic superconductivity with nontrivial topological properties.

Bandgap opening in MoTe2 thin flakes induced by surface oxidation

Recently,the layered transition metal dichalcogenide 1T′-MoTe2 has generated considerable interest due to their superconducting and non-trivial topological properties.Here,we present a systematic study on 1T′-MoTe2 single-crystal and exfoliated thin-flakes by means of electrical transport,scanning tunnelling microscope(STM)measurements and band structure calculations.For a bulk sample,it exhibits large magneto-resistance(MR)and Shubnikov–de Hass oscillations inρxx and a series of Hall plateaus inρxy at low temperatures.Meanwhile,the MoTe2 thin films were intensively investigated with thickness dependence.For samples,without encapsulation,an apparent transition from the intrinsic metallic to insulating state is observed by reducing thickness.In such thin films,we also observed a suppression of the MR and weak anti-localization(WAL)effects.We attributed these effects to disorders originated from the extrinsic surface chemical reaction,which is consistent with the density functional theory(DFT)calculations and in-situ STM results.In contrast to samples without encapsulated protection,we discovered an interesting superconducting transition for those samples with hexagonal Boron Nitride(h-BN)film protection.Our results indicate that the metallic or superconducting behavior is its intrinsic state,and the insulating behavior is likely caused by surface oxidation in few layer 1T’-MoTe2 flakes.