Investigation of superconductivity which emerge from Ru intercalation in a Dirac semimetal of ZrTe2 composition

• Grant number: 22/12392-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: December 01, 2022
• End date: May 31, 2024
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Materials and Metallurgical Engineering - Nonmetallic Materials
• Principal Investigator: Antonio Jefferson da Silva Machado
• Grantee: Larissa Miki Ishikura
• Host Institution: Escola de Engenharia de Lorena (EEL). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Lorena , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 23/03280-6 - Pressure effect on superconducting dichalcogenides ZrTe2 intercalated with ruthenium, BE.EP.IC

Abstract

This proposal is about superconductivity study that emerge from Ru intercalation in a dichalcogenide of ZrTe2 composition. The preliminary results presented in this proposal shows that intercalation between tellurium atoms in this compound, which is today considered a Dirac semimetal with non-trivial topology, have ability in induce superconductivity on the host material. The preliminary results obtained by student in Ru0.01ZrTe2 display a superconducting critical temperature close to 3.3 K. These results are promising which justifying a systematic study in order to verify a possibility of the dependence of superconducting critical temperature as a function of Ru concentration. The possibility of unconventional superconductivity it is a reasonable hypothesis and need to be study carefully. Besides of the scientific aspects reported here, this proposal has goal increasing the Knowledge of the student with respects to the synthesis and characterization of materials in this important scientific area.