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Long‐Range Ordered Amorphous Atomic Chains as Building Blocks of a Superconducting Quasi‐One‐Dimensional Crystal
Author(s) -
An Chao,
Zhou Yonghui,
Chen Chunhua,
Fei Fucong,
Song Fengqi,
Park Changyong,
Zhou Jianhui,
Rubahn HorstGünter,
Moshchalkov Victor V.,
Chen Xuliang,
Zhang Gufei,
Yang Zhaorong
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.202002352
Subject(s) - amorphous solid , materials science , superconductivity , condensed matter physics , chemical physics , lattice (music) , monocrystalline silicon , diamond , crystallography , physics , chemistry , silicon , acoustics , composite material , metallurgy
Crystalline and amorphous structures are two of the most common solid‐state phases. Crystals having orientational and periodic translation symmetries are usually both short‐range and long‐range ordered, while amorphous materials have no long‐range order. Short‐range ordered but long‐range disordered materials are generally categorized into amorphous phases. In contrast to the extensively studied crystalline and amorphous phases, the combination of short‐range disordered and long‐range ordered structures at the atomic level is extremely rare and so far has only been reported for solvated fullerenes under compression. Here, a report on the creation and investigation of a superconducting quasi‐1D material with long‐range ordered amorphous building blocks is presented. Using a diamond anvil cell, monocrystalline (TaSe 4 ) 2 I is compressed and a system is created where the TaSe 4 atomic chains are in amorphous state without breaking the orientational and periodic translation symmetries of the chain lattice. Strikingly, along with the amorphization of the atomic chains, the insulating (TaSe 4 ) 2 I becomes a superconductor. The data provide critical insight into a new phase of solid‐state materials. The findings demonstrate a first ever case where superconductivity is hosted by a lattice with periodic but amorphous constituent atomic chains.