Study of new superconductors of NiTe2 intercalated with copper and titanium

• Grant number: 13/15238-2
• Support type: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): November 01, 2013
• Effective date (End): October 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal researcher: Antonio Jefferson da Silva Machado
• Grantee: Frederico Benedetto Santos
• Home Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The NiTe2 compound is a material which crystallizes in a CdI2 prototype structure with hexagonal symmetry in layers. The layers of Ni atoms are intercalated with layers of Chalcogen Te, obeying the sequence Ni-Te-Te-Ni. Between the layers there is van der Waals bond between Te atoms. The results show that the NiTe2 compound has three anomalies in the behavior of the resistivity with temperature, where a metal-insulator transition near 25 K is the most significant anomalies In this context, the intercalation of a another layer of atoms is possible between the van der Waal "gap" on the Te atoms. Thus, the preliminary results presented here show that the intercalation of copper completely changes the electronic properties of the matrix material and the intercalation of Ti can induce superconductivity with critical temperature close to 4.2 K. In this aspect is a new promising compound to study the competition between instabilities such as CDW and SDW against superconductivity.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MACHADO, A. J. S.; SANTOS, F. B.; DE LIMA, B. S.; RENOSTO, S. T.; CORREA, L. E.; CIGARROA, O. V.; DA LUZ, M. S.; FISK, Z. Superconductivity in the ternary ZrVGe compound. Physics Letters A, v. 379, n. 14-15, p. 1057-1061, JUN 12 2015. Web of Science Citations: 0.